BB

Photography may be a better example than poetry. My friend pays $30k/month to maintain his studio (payments on financed gear, staff, rent) and an image can take all day and 12-15 shoots before it’s right. You think he wants to trade that image for “exposure”? Maybe he does.. but that should be his call not ours.

I couldn’t agree more about much of what you say about the breakdown of economics and law and I hope you’re right when you say it can’t get much worse. The corporations aren’t even in it to rewards shareholders anymore. That fascade has been ripped of, revealing that the corporate CEO and the politicians are essentially co-conspirators in a cleptocracy.

Advertising is an industry. Social Media is a label. Advertising is dying, but not because Social Media has eaten its lunch. Advertising (the industry) is dying for many reasons related to business performance. And business performance is tied to economics and society, which is (supposed to be) governed by the rule of law, which is (supposed to be) based on a concept of justice and the protection of inalienable human rights. If the law and the economic system fail to deliver the supports they were designed to deliver (such as the right to the pursuit of happiness), the business rules written to operate within those laws (such as advertising transactions and copyright rules ) will fail to perform. I don’t argue the “right or wrong” of our current laws and rules, but if we operate under a rule of law (as opposed to a dictatorship, for example) then we have to enforce the laws and protect the rules, or the system we call “civilization” will break down (in our local society). You’ll be out of work, or working hard but still poor, or unable to improve your situation due to oppression, etc.

If we view “social media” as a grass roots land grab, taking place while the law is disregarded or corrupted (justice being tossed aside, hard work deferred because celebrity and monopoly are easier to obtain and more profitable) then yes, it should be easy to “show” how social media is taking over. More accurately, though, anarchy is taking over (in niches like multimedia production for social media… e.g. fatBoySlim not getting paid) and the political-economic system is corrupt (lawmakers and the media being pawns of paying corporations, acting to alienate individual people to reward shareholders).

The saddest part: if I scoff this off as an attempt by a slick marketing video producer to get some attention, I can’t help but note the less-than-stellar-quality of the production (transitions too fast towards the end, some off-center positioning, and an over dependence on the music for rhythm, not really well synched to the viewer’s thought process). I can’t help but notice the failure of execution in a branding and reputation management sense. But I see it is meant to sell pop-psychology pulp fiction…. a book about social media… so okay, I guess it might be good for that.

I am also sad that so many people read the blogs and get their news from twitter and never read “real books” that the corrupt system doesn’t want them to read. Pawns, every one. Including, lately, perhaps out of desperation, the last institutions still trying to round out the truth (look how “seo” causes even these guys to produce spammy junk content http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/52769.. it ranks for searches for those authors ).

Prefer positive thought over reality? Okay… it can’t get much worse for very long, and then things will have to get better!

Adverts like this (I hope they paid to licence that music?) that draw out statistics without sources are not subject to be taken with a ‘pinch of salt’, but rather a quantity of salt so big it would make the residue left from boiling the Atlantic ocean look like ‘a pinch’.

Again your ability to time your posts with my own on the very subject of looking at Social Media beyond its fluff makes me thing that we’ve got some kind of spiritual link goin’ on.

Shout loudly yes, but shout about something and make sure it’s shouted with a degree of control otherwise, your Tweet might come back and haunt you and your competitor will have the last laugh.

Yawn.

I can definitely relate to the story of the other Allison (oh really, there must be something about people named Allison who are awesome!). I am a quite fresh college graduate (Class of 07). My freshman year was when Facebook hit, and the rumor of Facebook hit before my university actually got it. And WHEN we got it, it was a BIG DEAL, I’m talking HUGE.

I think what should be taken from this video is that even to some Generation Y or Z (I have no idea where I fall when it comes to those classifications) Social Media scares the shit out of you. The fact that it moves at lightning speed means that companies and persons have to be on the top of their game when it comes to responding to their customers needs, complaints, and wants.

It is even incredibly intimidating to me, and I’m of this generation. Literally, right smack dab in the middle of it. I graduated college with a sociology degree and it is so fascinating to see that back then, the subject was still being taught in terms of physical societies and very little was put forth into realizing that a dramatic shift has happened. I am more likely to receive an evite than an invitation in the mail (except for the 18 I got this summer for weddings). I am more likely to discuss dinner plans over IM than on the phone. I communicate with my co-workers through IM, and they are literally within a 15 foot radius of me and some are within yelling distance (ahem @RavenGeordie). Although the number of front porches in America is shrinking, millions or billions are connecting over the internet.

Social Media is totally shaken up the way marketing and businesses work (um… and life). And yes, its REALLY intimidating and scary. I struggle so much with just getting over the fear of, “What if someone thinks my tweet is stupid?” or “What if in one year, my daily blog readers are still under 10?”. But I think something that Outspoken Media (and others) have really encouraged is to get into it and get your hands dirty. You fail? Big deal you fail… Get over it and share a link that’s actually interesting.

Great post, I really enjoyed reading it.

So I watched this earlier and read the post, then nodded with approval and I was going to go on about my “busy” work day. But I’ve been thinking about you/social media ;) all day and so I’ve decided to come back and leave one of these comment things.

I thought the video was very interesting, although I have forgotten all the facts it threw out at me even though the twitter and facebook update part was very creative! The point I think I was supposed to take with me is that social media is sort of a big deal right?

My first thought is how does a business create human connections using social media? The messages can’t be automated, and must be monitored, which usually means one or two people manage the twitter, facebook updates, responses, etc. Does this run the risk that the online presence of a company will take on the personality of their social media guru? And is this the perception they want? For instance, any interest or connection I have to Outspoken Media is due to the blog, or your social media prowess / twitter hilarity! ( That and Kitty Cornelius’ Twitter Page! ) So I think maybe one of the reasons many companies are slow to adopt social media is because they don’t know the secret to your social skillz!

As far as social media being a fundamental shift or back to the way things used to be I really don’t know. A time before “communication became marketing” is before my time, and we are around the same age so I don’t know what that’s about :) I would say it’s probably both. Social media has changed the way we communicate, and in doing so created a new avenue for businesses to reach consumers, that may SEEM like it’s not marketing, but in reality probably is. I’m sure the first TV commercials felt the same way, and now we DVR the shit out of anything we can so who knows.