I couldn’t agree with you more, as you are spot on, but I want to point out the root cause of one of your bullets: “people that work in agencies don’t get it.”
As you point out, this is only true some of the time, but you need to bear in mind that those people who work in social media marketing (myself included) have had to fight an incredibly difficult uphill battle to convince the companies they work for that this form of marketing is a good idea (and in some cases an imperative). This ultimately leads to a sort of lashing out against traditional media, which feels old and ineffective. But as you point out, they are all just pieces of a much bigger puzzle.
what i hate is when companies (mine included) say you can create and take advantage of “viral” marketing with the use of social media. viral isn’t something you do; it’s something that happens. you can’t guarantee it. and as you stress in your post, it all boils down to being interesting.
What? You don’t like my suit? Crossing my fingers on seeing advertising that is both more interesting and surprisingly relevant to me. Not holding my breath at the moment.
Gavin, I love your suit. And I love your blog and your acts of tweetitude. You may be right to not be holding your breath at the moment, but I think over the long haul things will inevitably have to change.
[...] Le coup de gueule n’est pas de moi (pour une fois! . Il est de Kevin Rothermel, dans son article Social media isn’t the future. It’s a PART of the future. [...]
[...] few weeks back, Faris Yakob made a very similar point (also referenced in the comments from Kevin’s post), in his own post, The Natural Selection of Interesting: As Duncan Watts [...]
[...] trend surfing, launching the next neat thing that the industry talks about. The twitterati (and scary marketing types) will post and repost it. And that will generate better results than the conventional loop of [...]
[...] Social media isn’t the future, it’s a part of the future. Social Media’s ‘Gee-Whiz Factor’ Must Die: Time to Get Down to Business (MarketingProfs is a subscription site but well worth the $50/year.) [...]
Comments (15)
I love this post more than words can say – nice work.
Thanks! Actually meant to write something else and this is what came out.
damn straight brother…
sharing helps move attention around the network – it’s the natural selection of interesting
http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/the-natural-selection-of-interesting.html
No need to apologise; this is genuinely valuable, and needed.
Thanks!
Great post Faris. As always, I’m about 14 days behind you. Must be a time zone thing
Kevin, several excellent points. Particularly that interesting is what will rise to the top no matter where it’s placed.
You might want some quote marks around that Gossage saying, although he did say it slightly differently.
“People read what interests them, sometimes it’s an ad.”
classic line. “I mean, those guys all wear suits in their Twitter profile pics, so they must be doing something right.”
LOL
I couldn’t agree with you more, as you are spot on, but I want to point out the root cause of one of your bullets: “people that work in agencies don’t get it.”
As you point out, this is only true some of the time, but you need to bear in mind that those people who work in social media marketing (myself included) have had to fight an incredibly difficult uphill battle to convince the companies they work for that this form of marketing is a good idea (and in some cases an imperative). This ultimately leads to a sort of lashing out against traditional media, which feels old and ineffective. But as you point out, they are all just pieces of a much bigger puzzle.
Keep on ranting.
Great post, thank you. Indeed people have a choice, and given a choice, they will choose, and share, something interesting. Natural selection.
aaaahhhhh. That was the sound of a big breath of fresh air. Enough evangelising about social media saving the world people. Great post.
love you, love your show.
love this too.
what i hate is when companies (mine included) say you can create and take advantage of “viral” marketing with the use of social media. viral isn’t something you do; it’s something that happens. you can’t guarantee it. and as you stress in your post, it all boils down to being interesting.
What? You don’t like my suit? Crossing my fingers on seeing advertising that is both more interesting and surprisingly relevant to me. Not holding my breath at the moment.
Gavin, I love your suit. And I love your blog and your acts of tweetitude. You may be right to not be holding your breath at the moment, but I think over the long haul things will inevitably have to change.
Of course, I would love to see things change. Maybe the shifting economic sands will force a change upon us all
Trackbacks/Pingbacks (4)
[...] Le coup de gueule n’est pas de moi (pour une fois!
. Il est de Kevin Rothermel, dans son article Social media isn’t the future. It’s a PART of the future. [...]
[...] few weeks back, Faris Yakob made a very similar point (also referenced in the comments from Kevin’s post), in his own post, The Natural Selection of Interesting: As Duncan Watts [...]
[...] trend surfing, launching the next neat thing that the industry talks about. The twitterati (and scary marketing types) will post and repost it. And that will generate better results than the conventional loop of [...]
[...] Social media isn’t the future, it’s a part of the future. Social Media’s ‘Gee-Whiz Factor’ Must Die: Time to Get Down to Business (MarketingProfs is a subscription site but well worth the $50/year.) [...]