the hurricane inside my brain

A couple of things happened yesterday that got me thinking about life in this brave new world of social media. Each gave me an insight which was cool in its own way, but combined they gave me an “aha” so big I couldn’t wait to run out and tell the world.

1.) I saw some interesting blog comments. Surprising? Not a bit. But in several cases, I wanted to take ONE sentence, one insight, out of context and post it on Twitter. Obviously give credit to the person who said it, but without having to explain where the comment came from. It took me a while, but with help from @jakrose and @CoCreatr others I learned I could permalink to the blog comment itself (look for the link as a number near the comment, then shorten link with bit.ly). Obvious, once shown how. This led me to discuss with people that I wanted to be known as “Chief Bubbler” ~ someone who would bubble up the insights from comments on blog posts that might otherwise get hidden from view.

2.) I figured out the difference between Social Networking and Social Media. Okay, this is another thing that SEEMS like it should be obvious, right? But for the longest time, I couldn’t really articulate it clearly. Then, I got it. Social Networking is the connections between people, and the conversations you have with those people. Social Media is the sharing of content between people in those networks.

There’s some overlap, of course. Conversations become content, for one thing. But it helps me, strategically, to separate them in my own mind. Networking is something I do with individuals, focusing on the relationships I have with people and their interconnections. Social media is finding, creating and exchanging content that has value to like-minded groups of people.

3.). Media We is born. So I’m thinking about all this yesterday. The definition of media, and the creation of content. And the fact that I want to find new and unusual content that people don’t usually see. Content of value. But in order to do that, I have to research, and I have to edit, and I have to attribute properly, and make sure I’m sharing content *responsibly*.

As I’m thinking, I’m messaging people who have blogs, and I’m asking those people if I can set guidelines with them about how I can best use their content. And I think to myself: “I feel like all of a sudden I’m head of  *media relations* somewhere.”

“In fact, I feel like I’ve just been named CEO of my own personal media company. Media We.”

How the heck did that happen?

What do you think? Anyone else feel like they started their own personal media business without even knowing it?

photo: digitalART2

I was reading this blog post recently, and in the comment section was a something that caught my eye from Dash Chang. His comments are about technology and the Internet and future predictions, and are thought-provoking enough that I posted them all (with permission) below. But there’s one bit in particular I’d like to expand upon and talk about as it relates to social media for business.

Dash wrote: “Think blind men and the elephant.”

Have you ever gotten a group of clients in a room who are a bit naive about Social Media? Everyone there has a little bit of personal social  media experience. Five of the people are on Facebook, and three are on Twitter. One or two have a blog, and some use Flckr, and maybe they’ve heard about Ning, or StumbleUpon, or Tumblr. They are hanging out where their friends hang out, and they know enough to be excited about the one little corner of social media that works for them.

But none of them can see the elephant.

I believe it’s my job as a creative strategist in social media to help clients see the elephant. How?

Start by solving a problem. Start with clear-cut business objectives, not tactics. Before starting any social media program, I always ask: “What are your most pressing business problems? Do you want to expand your target audience? Get more conversions at that deep, dark end of the sales cycle? Do your customers make one purchase but then forget about you?  Is your largest competitor making a lot of noise, drowning you out? Do customers not understand your USP?  Let’s see if we can solve those problems using social media.”

Understand brand strategy. A brand is the story about your company that you want the world to remember. Branding should be based on a company’s values. The values should impact 1.) the way the company acts. 2.) what they say about themselves. And what better way than Social Media to show people your values, day in and day out, in real time, in the real world? What better place than social media to develop your story, understand what’s important and relevant, discover how people see you? Do consumers see your bigger brand story? Do they remember you in the way you want to be remembered?

Think big picture. Branding works best when you have a cohesive brand story tied together in surprising ways across a variety of different platforms and media. Social media works best when you have a cohesive brand story tied together in surprising ways across a variety of different platforms and…oh, hey, is that an *elephant* I see!?

How do you look at brands and social media from a big-picture, strategic level? Can you see the elephant?

photo: CoreBurn

I’m on the phone with someone in Social Media this morning. And he’s talking a mile a minute, jumping from one thing to another, when suddenly he pauses, says “you know the title of your blog? The hurricane inside my brain? That’s EXACTLY the way I feel all the time now!”

Welcome to my world. There’s a lot going on.

These are topics that I hope to be blogging about over the next few weeks. I’m asking a lot of questions. I see no easy answers, but I’d like to at least start the conversation. Please, please, please, jump in with comments if you have any thoughts about any of them.

Here are 7 things in Social Media I find fascinating:

1.) I’ve heard it said that in the future “employees will be judged on the strength of their social networks”. Do you believe this to be so? Should corporations be able to leverage the social networks of their employees? How?

2.) As more and more people jump into Social Media, “mistakes will be made”. Will the tolerance level for mistakes go up for companies, individuals, organizations? What are some worst-case scenarios?

3.) How exactly do ideas spread across networks?

4.) Think about a chorus. Would you have been able to come up with that concept of having different voices sing in unison if you had never seen one before? Do you think corporations will be able to have hundreds of different individual spokespeople – all blogging, twittering, having conversations — who will be in harmony with a brand message? Or will it become a messaging free for all?

5.) What is an implied endorsement these days? What happens when you associate with celebrities, influencers, the press – are they potentially seen as endorsing you? Where is the line in the sand?

6.) There’s a lot of content out there. Saturation point? Is there a fundamentally different way content could improve that we just haven’t thought of yet?

7.) The very nature of friendships is changing. Brands get mixed into people’s social networks. Could a brand ever be your “friend”? Or, if not the actual word, “friend”, at least someone you turned to for help, insight, entertainment, advice, interacted with, depended upon? Or is that the way you see some brands already?

Do any of these interest you? Start a conversation, or if you blog about any of these things, please let me know!

I’ve been following Mike Aruaz’s blog as he has discussed the fascinating topic of “spreadable media.” Mike got a lot of his initial thinking from the brilliant piece: “If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead”, by Henry Jenkins and his team at MIT’s Convergence Culture Consortium. Mike took what was said, “curated it”, added his own ideas and insights, and made a 100 word presentation that I can’t wait to share.

Why can’t I wait to share it?
1.) Because it feels new. I feel like I am the first to share these insights with my audience.
2.) Because it feels relevant. I know that the readers of my blog have at least a passing interest in Social Media. We have some shared values, and thus the information is valuable to them.
3.) Because I am hoping that by sharing this information I am both giving and receiving: giving Mike’s brilliance, giving my own insights and in return receiving attention, credibility, admiration for finding it, or perhaps just the chance not to be forgotten.

Viral vs. spreadable

The talk about viral vs. spreadable reminds me of creative meetings I’ve been in where people have shouted (SHOUTED!) at me: “BUT HOW CAN WE MAKE IT GO VIRAL?” The panic in their voices was because they themselves hadn’t a clue how to make it happen.

What Henry Jenkins’ suggests is that the whole term “go viral” has it’s flaws, because it suggest that you “let something loose”, and it then spreads of it’s own accord, without rhyme or reason or control on the part of the spreadee.

There are those of us who think otherwise.

You can’t control everything about how something spreads. And you can’t anticipate the ways that it will. But there are many, things you can do to ensure it happens in the first place.

I will be blogging about these ways in the coming days. But first,

An excerpt and a story.

In the Henry Jenkins article, he describes the phenomena of the “Crank Dat” song by Soulja Boy:

“Soulja Boy, originally an obscure amateur performer in Atlanta, produced a music video for his first song “Crank Dat”, which he uploaded to video sharing sites such as YouTube. Soulja Boy then encouraged his fans to appropriate, remix, and reperform the song, spreading it through social networks, YouTube, and the blogosphere, in the hopes of gaining greater visibility for himself and his music…People added their own steps, lyrics, themes, and images to the videos they made. As the song circulated, Soulja Boy’s reputation grew — he scored a record contract, and emerged as a top recording artist. — in part as a consequence of his understanding of the mechanisms by which cultural content circulates within a participatory culture.”

And my personal story? A few years ago, I was sitting in my car, with my daughter Allie, when Crank Dat came on the radio. And I said to Allie “I don’t much like this song.” And in a very sad voice, Allie said “You don’t like Solja boy, mom?” Pause. “But there’s a dance that goes along with it. Look.” And she taught me the dance, in a parking lot at dusk.

And you know what? Because that *shared experience* with my daughter was so wonderful my perspective of the song changed in an instant.

Mike Arauz suggests “Design your brand to be taken apart and put back together in unimagined ways by your consumers.”

I have said “social media is about the sharing of ideas that move people to action.”

Or perhaps, finding a way for them to dance.