Saw this great video of Daniel Pink today and thought it was worth sharing. Absolutely worth watching the whole thing. The funny/sad thing is that we KNOW the way we motivate is wrong, but we keep hammering away at it anyway.

(Hat tip to Karl Long for his great post where I found this.)

Allow me to start this off by blowing your mind.

Just about all media is social media.

That being said (and minds being blown), not all media is as intrinsically social as one another. I’ve broken down most types into 4 categories. Let’s take a look!

Socially Passive Media
This is the traditional stuff. The mass media that everyone’s used to. Most TV shows, movies, books, newspapers, and magazines are one-way streets, but that doesn’t mean they exist in complete isolation. They have to pay attention to the way people “vote” with their money and time. If a magazine is poorly written or becomes irrelevant, people are going to stop buying and reading it. And magazines don’t last long if no one reads them. Same goes for TV shows, if that new over-hyped sitcom tanks, then it gets pulled off the air.

This type of media isn’t directly socially influenced. But at the very bottom line, if people aren’t watching,reading, listening, or (most importantly) buying, it’s not going to last long.

Socially Influenced Media
Now here is an interesting mix. Socially Influenced Media is usually a traditional media form that has been tweaked in some way to “give the power to the people”. Think letters to the editor, American Idol, Dancing With The Stars, or Jim Cramer’s Mad Money. At this level, the actual outcome is determined by the audience at large (as opposed to the above in which just the media being presented is determined)

This is a big step, because it represents the swing of control from “them” to “us”. We still don’t have any say as to what kind of competition it is, or whether we talk about stocks or bonds. What we do have, however, is the ability to make a noticeable difference.

Socially Highlighted Media
Ahhhh, Feels good to be back in the comfort zone, doesn’t it? Socially Highlighted Media is the beginning of what most of us think about when we think “social media”. What makes the distinction here, is that “we” decide what gets noticed, featured, or promoted. We put stories on the front page of Digg, Mixx, and reddit. We submit sites to StumbleUpon or delicious. If we decide stories about the government in Mozambique are important, then they are.

Socially Created Media
This is the rest of what encompasses the traditional view of “social media”. Blogs, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook profiles, Posterous, Tumblr, etc. all fit into this category. The focus here is that as the type of media is created, it’s intrinsically social. Blogs, pictures, and profiles all live on the web. They’re “born social”.

The Socially Created Media category is one that’s growing and changing incredibly fast. It’s creating new categories i.e. Microblogging (remember a time before Twitter?) and starting to absorb elements from other types of media. Webisodes, and even entire shows, now live on the web. This category has the most potential, and it’ll be interesting to see how this continues to evolve.

I know Tie-ins are nothing new, but even still I think this bears mentioning.

ABC’s Castle (which I really, really like) is now in it’s second season and has found a steady, growing following. If you’re not familiar with the show, the basic premise is that Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), a hugely successful crime novelist uses his connections with the Mayor to be assigned as a tag-along with detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) where he helps solve cases in the name of “research” for his books. It’s a pretty unique twist on the old cop show, and I think it bears watching a few full episodes on hulu if you haven’t seen it.

And after the first season, Castle has written a new book loosely based on Beckett. The book, titled Heat Wave features Nikki Heat and her adventures. The first few episodes of the second season have more than a few moments revolving around the release of Heat Wave, which itself is nothing exciting. But the hitch is the book actually exists. It’s “written” by Richard Case, and you can go buy it on Amazon.com right now. It’s even got Fillion’s picture on the back cover.

Now that’s all well and good, but what’s even better is that it seems to be a good book. Hopefully the show will keep doing well, and they’ll keep cranking out quality crime/mystery novels that go with it. It lets you follow along at home folks!

And, obviously, you can follow Richard Castle on Twitter.

Here’s something interesting that I’ve noticed lately.

There’s this continual push to have everything digital. Digital TV, mp3’s, e-books, movies on your iPod, etc. It seems as if the goal is to move from physical copies of things to only having them “exist” digitally. That being said, I don’t think actual books are going to disappear anytime soon… but still.

The interesting thing is that even as we’re digitizing everything, we still want to interact with it in the “traditional” sense. We want to be able to touch, pull, push, drag, and draw. Would the iPhone be as successful without the multi-touch functionality? Maybe, but it would certainly be very different. Look at Microsoft’s Courier. Purely digital content, but interacted with in the same way as a traditional journal.

Where are we heading with this? Minority Report anyone?

I don’t usually do things like this.

I just don’t like tooting my own horn for a few reasons: primarily because my mom taught me never to brag, but also because “tooting your own horn” sounds kind of wrong.

But there are always exceptions to the rules, especially when a great opportunity comes up. An opportunity like the Assistant Content Manager position at BFG Communications. For this opening, BFG has asked that to apply we use social media, and use it I will.

At the risk of flagrant horn-tooting, I believe I would be a great fit for this position. I eat, sleep, and breathe marketing (yes, I know I’m a nerd), I have a pretty rich history in social media (blogging since 4/07, on Facebook since 10/04, on Twitter since 10/07), and I have solid experience in the interactive space (I’ve worked with great companies/agencies as a freelance digital marketing consultant and account manger on everything from social strategy to SEO, and A New Marketing is listed in the Social Media section of Alltop.com). Also, I’m a snappy dresser, and that’s got to count for something.

If you’d like a better idea of my thinking/ideas, I’ve lined up some posts below. We’ll call it my Greatest Hits, just without the awkward album cover photo.
- A Definitive Explanation of Social Media
- Simple Social Media Truths
- We Are Our Own Worst Enemy
- A Brand Purpose Model
- Your Brands Checklist For Twitter
- Elements of Digital Trust
- The 4 C’s - The New Marketing Mix
- What Community Looks Like

And you can find my resume here.

So…

If you’re not with BFG… Help me out by tweeting the following “Hey @BFGCom I think @MattJMcD is the right man for your ACM position!” or leave some love in the comments below.

If you’re with BFG… I’d love to talk to you more about this position. Feel free to get in touch with me any time. Let’s do it!

Before I start, in reference to the title: Zing!

So, @ashlebo and I got one of these in the mail yesterday. And I’m sure it wasn’t just us. It was probably us and everyone else in our area.

Here’s the problem: We live in a condo. And so does everyone else in our neighborhood.

No one has lawns. For some people, that was probably a big reason FOR buying a condo. But TruGreen doesn’t know that, or they don’t care. I’m sure they got a list of homeowners in the Charleston area and then fired off thousands of these (pretty nicely done, otherwise) high-gloss tri-fold direct mail pieces, regardless of any other information. It doesn’t take a lot of research to look at all the names in your database and cancel out all the ones without LAWNS! and in this part of Charleston, that’s a lot.

Little things make the big differences, especially now.

After seeing a few really good posts in the past couple of days, one from Verdino, one from Marc Meyer, and one from Armano, I’ve come to a truth about Social Media Marketers:

We are, absolutely, our own worst enemy.

Yes, us. Not the measurement issue. Not the lack of client knowledge. Not the ever-shifting landscape or the fight to be taken seriously. Us.

It happens every time we agree to ghost write a blog and pretend that we’re someone who really cares about a business. Every time we blindly recommend the full development of a blog when we’re pretty sure the client won’t be able to follow through with it anyway. We promote Twitter and Facebook fan pages when we know (and yes we do really know) that follower and fan count don’t mean that much. But hey, they’re a number we can bring back to the client!

Maybe all of this is just a reaction to the fact that “social media” as a marketing practice is coming of age in an economic downturn, and people are going to do whatever they can just to get the business. I’m not trying to take the moral high ground here either, I completely understand that situation, but where does it end? We can we stand up to the client and tell them we won’t spam tweets, or when will we stop pitching borderline strategy just so clients can say they’re “doing the social media stuff”?

Needless to say, there are always going to be smart people out there, people who push the thinking, have the client’s best interests at heart, and generally just fight the good fight. In my opinion, it seems like we could use a few more of those kind of people.

Blogging (Wordpress, Blogger, etc.)

Good For: Long-form content. Deep, detailed, insightful writing. Extensive discussion.

Not So Good For: Spur of the moment and mobile posting.

Verdict: A blog is at it’s best when it can showcase a clear, well defined thought, however it’s also the most versatile of the tools and can be used for just about anything.

Tumblr/Posterus

Good For: Shorter posts. Photo blogging. Spontaneous and mobile content.

Not So Good For: Robust feature sets. Design possibilities (Posterus).

Verdict: Great for shorter, more spontaneous posting with good “on-the-go” options. Think of it as Blogging-Minor

Twitter

Good For: Real-time interaction. Quick thoughts. Content sharing (links, photos, videos, etc.). Making connections.

Not So Good For: Well thought out posts/content. Comprehensive arguments.

Verdict: Great for interaction, not so much for content.

Video Platforms (Youtube, Vimeo, etc.)

Good For: Dynamic content. Showcasing personality. Conveying energy and spreading a message.

Not So Good For: Discussion. Scannable content.

Verdict: The most dynamic of all mediums, but limited in that it’s not scannable or as easily digestible as others.

Social Networks (Facebook, Ning, etc.)

Good For: Making connections. Maintaining a community. Organizing an effort.

Not So Good For: Posting content. Thought leadership.

Verdict: The best at connecting and organizing, but limited in a content publishing dimension.

1) Determine if Social Media is the right idea.

This seems to be the tough one for a lot of people. I know there’s a push for marketers and business owners to jump into social, but it’s not always the best idea. Just because “everyone else is doing it” (which they really aren’t) doesn’t mean you should commit time or resources to a social effort. You need to not only understand where your customers are, but where they can/want to interact with you. Sure it makes sense for Mr. Monty and Ford to get going, but your local concrete stamping business? I’m not so sure.

2) Establish your goals.

I agree with the typical rallying cry of “Strategy before Tactics”, but more importantly I believe in Goals before Strategy. Right up front you have to decide what you are aiming for with your initiative. Are you just going for page views? Do you want customer interaction and response? Are you trying to build a viable online community? All these things require different approaches and this needs to be hashed out in advance of the next step.

3) Think strategy first.

“Let’s use Twitter!” is not strategy. This ends up being a hurdle because while many people are familiar with the tools, not many people are used to putting a plan together to use them in a cohesive way. You need to look at your goals and then determine the best way to use the tools available to reach those goals.

4) Determine your tactical approach.

This is the “boots on the ground” part of the effort. In this step you’re going to be determining the practical elements of executing your plan. Things you’ll tackle here are likely going to be similar to “Who is going to handle the Twitter account?”, “How many blog posts per month do we want?”, and “Who in our industry do we need to reach out to?”. Again, all the tactics are based on your overall strategy, which is based on your goals. While it’s easy to say that goals and strategy are the most important, great strategy without execution won’t get you very far.

I could have written a long review, but I think this gets the point across. Pick up Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel here.