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It's not what you SAY. It's what you DO that counts

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It's not what you SAY. It's what you DO that counts

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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.

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Ideas are easy. Realizing one isn't.

Looks like someone shares our philosophy. Honored that its Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame.) :D

“You’d be hard pressed to come up with an idea so bad that it couldn’t succeed with the right execution. And it would be even harder to imagine a great idea that couldn’t fail if the execution were left to morons.


Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything.”

— Scott Adams

Amen Scott. Amen.

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how to stay on top of the nerdiest trends...

Great post from mr micropersuasion on how to stay on top of all new thats fit to geek. Of course, you’ll have to be a slave to your RSS feed like we are - so why not just follow me on Twitter and get the daily digest? (Ahem).  Either way, this list should get you started.  Rock on…

from the site
Want to know what’s cool and emerging? Me too. That’s why I subscribe to dozens of blog feeds from cool companies large and small. They include all the Google blogs, the Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebbook blog and many more.

I have decided to share these with you by rolling them up into single feed, which you can browse or subscribe or even download here… 

 

 

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The Art Of Creating Simple, Smaller And Smarter.

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

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new stuff and things

Hey gang. Today marks they day I’m kicking off three new flavors of MWC. I’ve added to the archive Stuff that made me go hmm, suff that made me smile, and stuff that made me go ZOMFG! Enjoi. :)

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an open letter

Dear Brands,


The digital world has created expectations that you’re not living up to.

It is human nature to expect access. (Just ask your mom how many times you pulled on the cabinet door under the kitchen sink when you were a rugrat). See? We want it. All of it, (dammit). It’s true, always been true and it’s never going away.

And now _sheesh_ we want more.

More information, services, ideas, more of each other and more value from you, the brand we grace with our attention. We also want to manage our relationships with your company, and to have_among other things_ instantaneous transactional capabilities. These expectations are increasing, not going away. To matters worse…

We also want less.

Less emails, less hold times, less crap snail mail and really - less interaction with you. That is of course, unless we want more interaction with you. Then, you know, give us that too.

What is interesting to us however, is how big the divide is between companies/brands that understand us and those of you that still seem to cower or struggle in the digital dark. Even more oddly, some of YOU have been fighting this movement. You’re hiding. You’re desperately holding on to an analog world. You’re running the risk of alienating and becoming irrelevant to the very person that some day you’ll have to sell burgers, health care, computers, baby clothes, and a new car to.

What you seem to be missing is the fact that this digital movement is putting more power at not just the consumer’s but ALL OF OUR collective fingertips. Even BRANDS LIKE YOU in this “Always-On” age are empowered. So why so fearful, Mr. Brand?

If you’d find it difficult to live with out Google, Netflix, Twitter, you see our point. If you get the point, how are you going to change your behavior?

Love,

People

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