internet cool?!

Otherwise titled:
If you’re going to a Cage Match, bring a Wrestler.

Otherwise titled:
King Kong Bundy + Social Media Week = #smwSMACKDOWN.

You may have heard a thing or to about The Social Media Week Cage Match I was involved in yesterday. In it, two teams of Social Strategy Experts (whatever that means) were asked to square off and compete on a panel by bringing strategic recommendations to 4 real-world brand-related Social PR problems in need of a good strategy and timeline for remediation..  (I’ll post a link to the case studies later today, sorry!).

Easy enough. But was baffling me was the amount of Buzz Word Bingo and Rhetoric flying around rather than practical, substantive, innovative thinking. If you follow my stream, you probably know by now I have little patience for this kind of—ahem—addouchery. It gets in the way of solving real problems, and frankly makes you sound pretty silly. So I asked my friend King Kong Bundy to come along to said Social Media Cage Match and put the #smwSMACKDOWN on anyone who got out of line. 

Dear brands, nerds, social strategy experts, agency types and people of the diginet:

Your next magical social strategy has little to do with what you execute IN social media, but rather what you do OUTSIDE of it (online or otherwise)!

The web is a mirror. A mirror that celebrates what you DO. Not what you SAY. 

It imitates what people are doing and saying because it’s made up of, well, PEOPLE. Do something interesting and relevant to your target and social channels instantly becomes the place people congregate discuss, promote, applaud, and despise what you ve done.

“Twitter solutions”, “Facebook ideas” and “Influencer Strategies” Oh my! 

Blech. Social media is all too often viewed and talked about with only hyper-focus on the tools we use within it. Yes you need a “social media plan” full of “influencer programs” and “tactics that engage your target” but for the love of God, those words are no better than the Buzzword Junkie you sound like if they’re not part of an integrated approach. Execute a “Twitter Strategy” in a vacuum and you’re likely to be sitting there staring at over zealous fellow Tweeters (not your target)—or worse—an empty stream.

You want to get social? Then you better bring a gun to a gunfight…err…Wrestler to a Wrestling match. And it might not hurt if you put a tshirt on him with #smwSMACKDOWN either.

Do something relevant for your target worth talking about. That is all.

The Art Of Creating Simple, Smaller And Smarter.
Or… Mommy, how I learned to stop making advertisements and start making things that advertise.

This is a little session description I wrote recently for POKE’s 2009 Cannes Workshop. I thought I’d share - mainly because I’m particularly angry today.

This session was designed to explore the value of execution over “big” ideas in a hands-on session. People broke into groups where, under a series of realistic constraints, they were forced to focus on being nimble, among other things…

U like? U hate?

The Art Of Creating Simple, Smaller And Smarter.
Or… Mommy, how I learned to stop making advertisements and start making things that advertise.

Blech! Recession. Advertising agencies and brands are running scared. “Digital” agencies are renouncing sight, sound and motion. They’re being forced to seek out alternative means of engaging consumers because their excessive marketing habits of the past have been rendered obsolete, both by technology and by lack of consumer interest. Face it, no one wants to be advertised to, online or otherwise.

Do you?

But for many, this movement isn’t just some new fad to control costs during troubled times. Hasn’t the best marketing has always come from creating something entertaining, valuable and useful? I believe people gravitate towards, and like talking about, simple and valuable interactions, and are willing to forgive (and even embrace) branded messages that come with them.

Forget thinking big.

It’s time to think small. It’s time to embrace the art of simple, smart and social. It’s time to stop creating advertisements and start creating useful things that advertise. Your communications can be executed more efficiently and with greater impact than the clutter that’s prevalent today. Let’s explore how.

In other words:

@CannesLions: The “Big Idea” is dead. Learn to embrace small: Simple. Smart and Social. Otherwise, don’t bother. When? Tuesday 23 June • 17:00-19:00 • Where? Debussy Theater

♥,POKE