I started blogging, tweeting and using other social networking/sharing/media sites not too long ago. The experience changed my life, in amazingly powerful ways, a comment that is still met with a great deal of skepticism almost everywhere I go.
But “Social Media” (a phrase that doesn’t even do what it’s really about justice, as most people equate the words “social media” with “getting on Facebook”) has given me the chance to meet brilliant, thoughtful people from all over the world, and talk to them as equals about things that are important to both of us. It’s helped me get involved in projects I never could have dreamed of on my own: producing a book and a movie, getting a cameo role in a movie; having crazy, impassioned conversations about the future of publishing, sexism, war, pornography; gave me a chance to help start not just one but three online publications; taught me how to shoot, edit and produce a hundred small videos; gotten me over my last final fears of technology.But most of all, I discovered the power in helping other people.
So why wouldn’t I want to blog about social media, if it brought about such profound and wonderful changes?
Because that would be like having a blog about email.
What I’d like to do here is to give you insights into the way technology is colliding with human interactions and communication, insights that will cause you to say “wow, I never saw the world that way.” And, at its best, will let you see the actions you can take next to create the profound changes I think we all can make.
I’m sure that sometimes I’ll slip up and talk about social media, because it still is such a passion of mine. But, on the whole, this blog is not a social media blog.
What is it instead?
It’s a “how the way we interact with each other affects the places we go together” blog.
It’s a “let’s think about creative ways to solve problems and then go out and solve them” blog.
It’s a “what if you didn’t think about technology and communication and marketing and friendship and business and art and change as separate things, but ONE thing” blog.
It’s a “where the heck is this all going to lead us 5, 10, 20, 100 years from now?” blog.
It’s a “wow, this is cool and here’s how it might translate into a business model” blog.
It’s a “Think. Do.” blog.
As always, comments are adored, opposing views are welcome, feedback isthoughtfully considered, and spammers are not tolerated.
When cars were first invented, they didn’t have blinkers. It was only after the fact that people studying the effect that cars had on society said “hey, it looks like people keep crashing every time the person in front of them turns. Too bad we can’t figure out a way for the cars to signal their intention before they turn so that people can stop in time.”
And then they solved the problem.
What they didn’t say was: “what idiot invented the car and didn’t realize you’d crash every time you got out there and made a turn” or “the general public is too stupid to drive cars, they are never going to work” or “cars don’t work, it’s fine when there’s only a few people on the road but they are just not scalable.”
Yet that’s what I see people do when it comes to technology, or social media, or networking platforms. They blame the creators or they blame the people using them or they figure stuff will never be scalable.
Until someone else comes along and solves the problem.
Which just got me thinking that some day I would like to be the type of person that invents the blinker.
There’s been lots of talk about the “death of advertising” and the increasing ineffectiveness of the media. There’s a tremendously well-researched, insightful and informative Bob Garfield post in Ad Age, with lots and lots of numbers supporting his version of “Apocalypse Now” for the ad industry. There’s no doubt that there’s agency layoffs, and client cutbacks and fear and uncertainty. So who am I to be the bearer of even an ounce of good news for the ad industry?
Okay, I won’t tell you this is good news. But I will tell you what I think is fascinating.
Throughout history, for every version of media, there has been an ad unit that is a miniature version of that very media. Advertising usually- in some form- mirrors the content of the media that surrounds it.
Ads in newspapers, for example, are rectangular shaped boxes that includes a “headline” and “copy”. Even the terminology is straight out of newspaper jargon. Pretty obvious, right? Television? The medium is 30 minute stories involving actors on a set. What are most TV commercials? 30 second stories involving actors on a set. With a little music thrown in, just like in the big boy shows. Radio? Started with dramas. The term ’soap opera’ was coined because soap manufacturers sponsored radio dramas in return for product plugs. Radio commercials thus become mini-dramas”; still at their best when they are theater of the mind for a brand story.
And then along came the Internet. Ahh, the Internet. I actually remember the day I first heard the term used. My friend Martha called me into her office. Told me I’d better sit down. Shut the door. My palms grew sweaty. She said, “Lisa, have you seen this thing called the Internet?” She called up a paragraph of html text on a screen. It was filled with hyperlinks and Martha showed me how to “click through” to layers of information. It was years later before the term “click-through” became ubiquitous for banner advertising ROI. But at the time I was in her office, there wasn’t a banner ad in sight.
So now we have a brave new medium – Social Media. And we’re all scratching our head, wondering what the ad unit is.
Do we stick little banner ads on social sites? Oh, please. Have you ever seen a TV “commercial” that is nothing more than a static photo and a logo? Trust me, it doesn’t work. Stick banner ads on social sites and you ruin both the media and the ROI. Best case scenario, the ads become invisible. Worst case, people run screaming from the media.
But then, what does an ad look like in social media? Is it merely conversations? Does all advertising become word of mouth among friends as Jeff Jarvis and others suggest?
Or…is the “ad” really a social ecosystem itself that a company sets up? The conversations with consumers that are now public combined with a fan page on Facebook and the photos on Flckr and the idea-sharing on Twitter and the YouTube videos. And is a new ad, perhaps, the way that the target audience shares content about a brand or company across complex and interrelated networks? A “display” ad is now a conversation that gets displayed in a public forum. Remember, just because you’re not screaming “buy this” with a sledgehammer doesn’t mean you’re not selling something. You’re selling the brand by engaging consumers across multiple touchpoints, just like the social web itself. It’s the online experience that engages the consumer and captures their imagination much the same way that television captured our collective imaginations back in its glory days.
Is the newest ad unit staring us in the face but we just don’t see it? Is it just a miniature version of the social web, the same way that past ad units were miniature versions of their own mediums?
Are we just afraid to call Social Media itself “Advertising” because we hold it so precious?
And for those who would argue that advertising is paid messaging, remember this. Social Media, or this new order of Social Advertising, or however we describe it, may appear to be free, but there is a cost to it all. There’s the time spent to do it right, to have individuals who actually hold conversations with the consumers. There’s the challenge of understanding how the brand story should be told across all the hundreds of touchpoints scattered across the web. There’s learning the new rules of etiquette – heck, there’s helping to *create* the new rules of etiquette. There’s building the network, or leveraging existing ones, and getting the people engaged in a way that’s genuine and authentic, and that comes from the very core of a brands values or a products benefits. And there’s a cost to understanding the potential of this medium, the cost to experiment, to make mistakes.
But on the flip side, the ROI could very well be survival for those who do it well and do it now. Get it right, and I truly believe you can re-invent a dying industry.
The best advertising has always been that which has captured the imagination of the public and becomes a part of the collective consciousness. What better time than now, what better media to do it with. Maybe advertising isn’t really dead at all. Maybe we simply don’t know what to call it.
I was eating supper with my daughter, Allie. We were discussing the future of advertising. Believe me, everything else I might have been discussing with a seventeen-year-old was off limits.
Me: “I think you have to look to YouTube for the future of TV commercials.”
Allie: “But really mom, who would go to YouTube to watch a commercial. I can’t imagine anyone would go seek out, say, a Honda commercial voluntarily.”
Me: “Hah! How about a commercial for a $375 blender?”
Allie: (shakes her head)
Mom: “A guy blended an iphone – an iphone – and got 6 million people to watch it on YouTube. It turned into smoke. It was pretty cool.”
Allie: “I want to see that.”
Me: “Precisely.”
Anyone who has ever tried to get the last word with a 17-year-old knows how hard that is. About as hard as getting 6 million people to *want* to watch your commercial.
I’ve been giving quite a few talks at colleges, and the day after one of those a student named Kelly contacted me with a request which I think is a sign of the times:
“Hi….I am applying for a business program this summer and the application requires a LinkedIn account with a minimum of 40 contacts and three recommendations. It is proving to be quite a challenge. I asked a friend today why she wasn’t on LinkedIn and her response was, “What’s that?”
A few interesting things going on here.
My first thought was “Uh-Oh” for the friend who said “What’s LinkedIn”, although some trend-followers speculate that the younger generation is not embracing Social Networking as much as the – er – older generation. Should they be? I just passed judgment on someone for not having heard of LinkedIn. Am I being overly judgmental, or is it just common sense in this day and age?
Second, it’s interesting that Social Networking is starting to be seen as a “cost of entry.” How soon will it be before companies looking to hire you will be checking out how large your network is? How soon before they start asking you to use your network to promote them? (more on that debate here.)
Third, anyone who has been doing this for a while knows how easy it is to get 40 connections, once shown how. I quickly gave her a strategy: Find profiles of companies that she has worked for on LI and search for old colleagues; find professors at her school, connect with them; and then, after you have a dozen connections you can start searching their connections to see if you know anyone THEY are connected with. Heck, I even found several alumni at her school that were part of my network and made introductions – explaining that she needed to treat my connections well and suggesting ways she could add value to them. 24 hours later I got a reply back from her: “Thanks! 42 contacts and growing!”
While Kelly’s group of 40+ connections may help her get into business school, I wonder constantly about the implications of all this. My 14-year old daughter and I sometimes compare notes about how many friends we have on Facebook. A recent conversation began: “Mom, I’m proud to say that every single one of my 950 friends is a REAL friend. Unlike yours.” Ouch! This led to quite an interesting debate over the definition of “real friend,” a discussion I am bound to have many, many times before figuring it all out.
I believe that having a lot of connections is a cost of entry for me as a Creative Strategist who is immersed in the world of Social Media. How else can I advise my clients on how to interact with tens of thousands of connections unless I myself know what it’s like to interact with tens of thousands of connections? My view is that I need to see what it’s like, I need to make mistakes, I need to learn how difficult it is to always treat my network as the valuable asset it is. I value both the quality and the quantity of my network. But…will there ever be a point when it feels like it’s safe for it to stop growing? That is completely unclear to me.
Your thoughts? Do you wonder whether employers, schools, colleagues, will judge people on the size of their networks in the future? I can picture sitting in an interview across from someone who scribbles down “15,000 followers on Twitter.” Am I being realistic or paranoid?
Conversely, will friends judge each other if their network is not filled with “real friends”?
The title of the article is meant to invoke a sense of what is to come, not to just talk about companies but how they will relate to you in a more integrated way. In this article I’ll take a look at what I feel is coming down the pipeline for these areas. The future isn’t set in stone and neither are these predictions. Companies are already starting to track your habits. In the future it will just get more intuitive.
Extreme personalization
Companies will start utilizing your tracking data not only to target you at point of purchase but to craft full experiential life profiles for you. You will also offer up information that is more personal/emotional that can not be tracked, that exists inside you. Think of this as your Personal Purchasing Profile (3P), completely tailored to your every desire.
Imagine if you will a 3P that lists everything and anything you or anyone else would ever want to know about you. With the 3P there will not only be breadth but depth too. All nuances will be delved into as well as all areas you could ever want or know. Your 3P will be segmented into different areas with different permissions for them. Settings will be on a sliding scale of privacy with how much and what you want to share with who.
Hyper specific communications
Companies will be able to tell who, what, where, when and why you are. You heard me- WHY you are.
Geolocation technology is being popularized now, especially in mobile technoligies such as the iPhone. Mobile providers know where you are at all times even without this just by triangulating your position. All of these 5W’s will be cross checked with your 3P to accurately pinpoint what is going on with you at every single exact moment of your life. This integration of brands into your life will happen in a non-intrusive way that enhances your experiences.
Relevantly aggregated information
Information, regardless of sender, will be aggregated into relevant channels. Whatever criteria you preset as a favorite to watch out will be cross checked against infinite amounts of data. Priority will be given to companies who sponsor keywords to target you in the keyplaces and keytimes they’ve chosen.
Amount- speed and velocity
You will choose how much and how fast you receive sponsored results. This will be on a targeted grid that will form more of a web in 3-dimensional space rather than a sliding scale. Linear will be replaced with the multi-spacial for targeting and graphing, as the sheer amount of information will scoff in the face of two directions and two dimensions.
Easter eggs and planned obsolescence
Targeted ads will surprise you at specific locations as you pass them. They will also come seemingly out of nowhere when you must ‘act now’ because there is a limited amount of time to take advantage of the offer.
Multimedia convergence
Advertisements tend to be very linear depending on their channel of delivery. Print is print; video is video. Companies will begin to focus on the immersive experience where many different technologies and multimedia will come together to create a wholly enriched environment. Think all of your senses being as well as inner aspects of you being engaged fully.
Intuitive suggestion and prediction
Building on top of your wants, needs, desires and purchases will be a system for accurately predicting what you will want before you even know you want it. Suggesting of similar products will become more fine tuned to the nuances of categories so instead of someone offering you another type of thing from the category you will now be offered something exactly like the first thing PLUS something that builds on all the characteristics of what you covet. The prediction technology will take into account your patterns, trends occurring and the details of what you like to accurately tell you what you will like.
Choose your own adventure
There are so many companies out there now it can be confusing. You will see detailed lists of companies where you can opt-out of them or their specific service promotions for a set period of time. This will add to your 3P where you effectively choose certain products and companies over others. Companies will take advantage of this to purchase your favor.
Non-traditional synergies
Besides aligning with obvious partners, companies will start to partner with others who don’t normally fit their pattern of business interaction. Ranging from individuals and customer groups to completely out of the ballpark product categories, businesses will start to focus on values and emotions for a mutual engagement plan as opposed to focusing on benefits and features currently.
Automatic feed channels
You can already receive multimedia and news feeds by signing up for them. Multimedia and advertisements will come to a place where they will use your 3P to send things AUTOMATICALLY to you based on a variety of factors- time of day, location, who you are with, state of mind/emotions, weather, breaking news etc. Multimedia and companies will communicate with each other behind the scenes to make your automatic feed channel a smoother experience. Whatever synergies they can find in your life as well as between both of their content they will align them in your feed so you don’t have to.
Life sponsors
Mining information from your 3P, companies will hyper target situations in your life to more accurately serve you. They may even pay you to have the privilege to sponsor that moment of your life. It may range from an extremely important moment where you may want your favorite company involved to something fleeting where you may not care about companies being involved. It comes down to your outlook on certain companies and situations as well as what your 3P says about you. An Evangelist is more likely to have their favorite brand be a major part of a family function. A Casual Consumer is more likely to have a helpful brand around any random time that isn’t of any particular value to them.
These are just some of my thoughts where I see the future of how brands will fit into our lives. Information is coming harder and faster every day. Pretty soon the signal will turn to noise. Out of this noise you will see technologies emerge to turn the noise back to a highly focused clean signal. Things are getting better every day. Pay attention to the signs.
Good Feed. A new fast-acting, (almost) anything-goes blog about men. Brought to you by @goodmenproject magazine ~ http://bit.ly/GoodFeed http://www.twitter.com/lisahickey
