Obsessed with Conformity

Name The Restaurant, Win $500

  

Ok, here's the deal, Boxman Studios is opening a mobile restaurant and if you live in Charlotte, we want you to name it. And we'll pay you $500 for your genius. Why Charlotte? Because we're not opening this restaurant in Milwaukee, Phoenix or Boston. Not yet, anyway. So for this contest, we're sticking local. For a little more background on what we're trying to do, click here. 

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The Brief

Brand - Visit the Boxman website and get to know the brand a little. Then, make sure the name fits the brand. Remember, you're not naming a software company. It's a mobile restaurant that's not on wheels. 

Audience - For now, the restaurant will cater to an urban, business, lunchtime crowd around Uptown Charlotte. 

Primary Offering - Casual, walk-up dining from an organic menu featuring gourmet paninis, wraps, salads and more. 

Secondary Offering - Mobile. It's a restaurant that comes to its customers (and it's not a truck).

Snapshot - It's a mobile restaurant that moves from place to place each day of the week and features a menu created by a Cordon Bleu (Paris) trained chef using locally grown organic produce. And while it will focus on lunchtime business crowds, the restaurant is not limited to lunches or business crowds (important to consider when naming). 

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The Rules

1) You may only enter one name at a time, but may submit up to three names.*

2) Include the restaurant name and one sentence as to why the name works, plus your name. And please, no manifestos. We understand this naming stuff already, if your name needs more than a sentence to explain, it's probably not going to work anyway.

3) Follow @boxmanstudios on Twitter and become a fan of the soon-to-be-named restaurant on Facebook. 

4) Email your submission to contest@boxmanstudios.com by midnight on Thursday, March 18, 2010. 

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The Really Important Stuff

The person who submits the selected name receives $500.**

Winning entry announced Wednesday, March 24, 2010. 

If you try to cheat, you'll be caught. If you don't live in Charlotte, don't bother. In fact, let's say if you live more than 30 miles away from Trade and Tryon, you don't qualify (though if you're really close to that, just email us and beg). 

Don't just blurt out your proposed (legit) name on Twitter or Facebook. You won't win that way even if it's great. Email only. 

Yes, we could have made a donation to a charity instead of paying someone, but if you win, and you want to donate to charity - you're more than welcome. The reason we're doing this is simple - we're launching a pretty cool restaurant concept, and are banking on the community we develop in social media to help us.Thank you so much for your help. Good luck, and may the best name win. 

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*All submissions will be read and judged by Boxman associates. Should the winning name be submitted more than once, we will  rely on date/time stamps on email to determine the winner.

**Payment to occur within 10 days of the name selection. Winner agrees to be featured in a post on the upcoming Boxman blog. 

Jim Mitchem is a father, husband, writer and founder of smashcommunications. He's currently manning @boxmanstudios and you can also find him on Twitter @smashadv

A (real) Social Experiment

This April, Boxman Studios is launching a mobile restaurant. Yes, the same cool concept of bringing the party to the people will now...bring food. The idea is for the restaurant to move each day to designated areas around Charlotte (which have been approved by the city) and offer fresh, organic fare to the hungry daytime business crowd. Organic makes sense for a brand that's built on 'green' technology, as well as how we'll grow the customer base. In fact, our entire marketing strategy is based exclusively on social media. Organic, word-of-mouth. It's a perfect fit for a mobile feast. 

So from Facebook to Twitter and the forthcoming Boxman Blog, we'll be leveraging the core foundations of social media to help get the word out, let people know where the restaurant will be and when, and to foster community around the brand.  

Our first social media initiative is to facilitate a contest to name the restaurant. Basically we're asking folks in Charlotte to take some ownership in the idea for the restaurant. Because just like with the stray dog you find, if you name it - you own it. Only, we're going to pay you. We'll post details about the naming contest later this week, but I can tell you it's pretty cool. And did I mention we're paying? 

I personally look forward to the challenge of helping David Campbell get this restaurant off the ground without the use of traditional advertising media. It's a brave new world. And in case you're wondering, no, we're not out to 'crowdsource' ideas. Rather, this is part of a new marketing strategy to generate buzz for the restaurant, and the brand as a whole. And we're not stopping at the name, either. 

Jim Mitchem is a father, husband, writer and started smashcommunications, llc. He's currently manning @boxmanstudios and you can also find him on Twitter @smashadv 

Thanks for the RT

This post is dedicated to everyone who has ever thanked anyone for an RT (retweet.) I used to do it, but don't anymore. Here's why - 

1) Clutter. I talk enough here for most streams. 

2) I don't understand why people thank others for passing along information. 

I'm a fairly nice guy. So part of me wants to follow the general rules of etiquette and do the polite thing. After all, I'm a writer. It's my nature to reciprocate (see #1 above.) 

I recently saw someone tweet about www.retweetrank.com. Curious, I went to the site and queried my own twitter handle (no password needed, by the way). Turns out I'm like in the top few percent in retweets (yes, I was as shocked as you are.) Anyway, knowing this, how could I possibly thank everyone who has ever retweeted me? If If you think I look like a jerk for not thanking people, imagine thanking only *some* people. Please know that I do really appreciate that people think some of the things I share here are worth sharing with others. I'm totally grateful for that. Who wouldn't be? 

But I still don't get the public thanking thing. If anything, the person RTing you is thanking YOU for passing the information along to them so they can share it with others, right? In which case, the appropriate response to someone who RTs you *should* be, 'You're welcome.' 

Anyway, if you've ever RTd me, thanks. And you're welcome. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.  

Scott Monty works for Ford? Right....

Ladies and gentleman, New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman (L) and Ford Motor Company's head of Social Media Scott Monty (R). So what do you think, has @scottmonty been pulling the strings for four Yankees championships since 1998? Have you ever seen Monty and Cashman in the same room together? Just sayin'. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.  

 

The Hybrid

I've noticed a lot of chatter here recently around how companies should categorize social media. After all, the more that businesses get involved in social, they'll need to allocate budgets from somewhere. And when something draws from a departmental budget, the purpose of that thing is usually aligned with the goals of the mother ship. 

For example, most people here consider social media as marketing and it should therefore be funded through marketing and then, like traditional marketing, prove a return on the investment.

But if you've spent any time in this space, you know damn well that marketing is only part of it. A small part. In fact, your sales are only likely to increase as a direct result of engaging here if A) you have a great product and B) you develop trust with people. If you come into social media thinking you can drive sales through Twitter like you do in the Sunday circular, you're going to fail. 

Yes, it's more than marketing. Social media also part public relations. From customer support to crisis management and everything in between, true public relations (not promo heavy stuff) is not marketing either.  

Social media is also content sharing, but that doesn't mean it's journalism. 

The fact is, social media is nearly unbucketable. Let's call it a hybrid. A range of communications disciplines that exist in a wide-open digital platform that's as individual in its commercial applications as the people you're trying to sell. Because when you get right down to it, aren't we all just human hybrids anyway? 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.  

Bending Time and Space in the Toilet

Guest post by Ben Kunz

A curious trend in social media is how most of its tools start out as perceived toys, worthy of laughter, and then gradually migrate to the mainstream. When Facebook and Twitter launched, early adopters in the business world were often kidded by colleagues. "That's great," an old friend emailed me in 2008 upon hearing I was on Facebook, "now you can stay in touch with teenage girls." Yet soon Twitter is tied in to CNN feeds and chief marketing officers are networking with their ad agencies inside Facebook. In 2010, if you are not using these tools you risk looking stupid.

So here we go again, with geolocation-social media tools. Relatively new services such as Foursquare and Gowalla update your friends when you reach certain physical spots -- in essence, broadcasting your location on a map into your online network. Like early social networks, the premise makes sense yet combines a whiff of immaturity that gives grownups pause. Sure, in a busy world it could be useful to get pinged by a colleague when she reaches a certain point. But the services include stupid-sounding updates. "Hein V. in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, became mayor of Vespuccimarket." "Patrick unlocked the 'Adventurer' badge." The only mature response is: "WTF?" And this month, the latest silliness Foursquare update, Jan. 28, 2010 has been decreed "International Day of the Toilet," wherein you can let your friends know exactly when you hit the can.

 But pause. Reflect. Before you deride such silliness, realize the two real undercurrents. First, early creators of new technology must always push the boundaries of maturity, because none of us really needs anything new -- so first forays often come off as gimmicks. (Remember the first camera on your cell phone, and the jokes about who needed to take a picture of their ear? Now most people love them and real camera makers are watching their business slip away.) And second, in a world where everyone is now leaping into social media, creators of new social media networks must create game-like mechanics to try to boost adoption and break through the clutter. Gaming psychology is extremely powerful; the "follower" counts on Twitter have become high score rewards that help boost loyal usage. So it's no mistake that Foursquare updates users' networks of colleagues with the strange-sounding whimsy of "mayors" and "badges": It's a way to get attention, to wake you up, perhaps to get you to try the damn thing.

As such geolocation technology becomes prevalent, we expect the maturity levels to rise and the gimmickry to settle down. Soon, you'll be updating everyone about your whereabouts, too. Just be careful when you're in the can.

 Ben Kunz is the Director of Strategic Planning, and sometimes wishful thinking, at ad planning shop Mediassociates.

SM: Where the Hard Sell goes to Die

I’m Jim. I’m a copywriter. And I could be wrong, but I was always under the impression that whatever I wrote was supposed to create something like an internal dialogue in the mind of the person reading it so that they felt that the correspondence was created exclusively for them. Personal. Like a letter. Think of it this way - are you more likely to act because a stranger commands you to, or because a friend recommends that you do? 

Saturday morning Chris Brogan posted a link to a new post "How Relationships Improve Sales."  In it, Chris says he was in the shower thinking about how relationships lead to sales. Strange coincidence, as I was thinking about the same thing this morning - sort of. (I was also in the shower thinking about it, but the fact that 90% of the ideas I have for blog posts or taglines or ad concepts or pretty much anything occurs when I’m in the shower, isn’t important.) Rather, I was thinking about how the transition to Social Media away from traditional advertising communications isn’t that big a leap for copywriters. In fact, when you consider the whole thing about exclusivity and personalization above, it kind of makes sense that we thrive as communications agents in Social Media. One year ago, after I’d been involved with SM for about a month, I wrote a post called "Revenge of the Copywriter." In it, I proclaim how I believed that copywriters will thrive in SM by working for big brands. This idea was, again, based on the personalization thing. Only, my proclamation didn’t exactly pan out. Yes, I'm sure there are copywriters working for brands out there now, but not on the scale I’d imagined. Rather, most of the people Tweeting and blogging on behalf of the big brands are mostly PR and general marketing people (and in some cases, designers - gasp!) Granted, not all copywriters subscribe to the idea of exclusivity, and not every copywriter has the acumen to pull this off, but I sure thought a lot more of us would be out there engaging for pay. Still do. It just makes sense. Maybe there are agencies out there trying to pull clients into SM but don’t know how to utilize their stable of writers? Plus, it’s time consuming. And we’re usually not cheap. When you start adding up hours for professional copywriters and then placing that next to a sales schematic based on regular marketing efforts, people are likely to freak out a little. 

And I’m sure some of you will say, “Copywriters are liars and manipulators.” But I say you’re wrong. Sure, there are writers out there who SELL SELL SELL at any cost, but that’s usually because that's exactly what that brand wants. Besides, in Social Media, that stuff don’t fly. Writers who thrive in the hard sell are useless here and will probably go away with print. 

I’ve always written to engage people as personally as possible with the idea that relationships lead to sales. The point is to do more than just get in someone’s pocketbook - but get in their hearts. By respecting the audience, you gain their trust - and sales follow. Is this manipulation? I guess you could make an argument that by hiring a professional writer, you tilt the conversation in your favor. But really, it’s just articulating an idea to someone who cares. It’s not up to us to sell the products - but for the products to sell themselves. 

Too much pressure is put on the ROI of Social Media. The brands that can afford to engage their audience in a true personal relationship are going to kill here because the core concept of Social Media is built around relationships, personalization, exclusivity and openness. Products and services sell themselves. Put relationships in front of sales, and Brogan’s absolutely right.

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv. 

Twitter Saves the Decade

New Years Eve, Charlotte, NC. Plaza-Midwood neighborhood, to be exact. It was 10 minutes to midnight, and a dozen adults, and even more children, were in an unfurnished home that our friends had closed on that morning. There was no cable or Internet access. In a rare moment of sobriety, it dawns on the adults that we don't have a way to know when the exact countdown begins in Times Square. Everyone panics. I turned to Twitter. With only about 7 minutes to go before the ball dropped in NYC, I stepped onto the porch to grab a couple extra bars and sent a Tweet out: "Help. At a party in a house with no internet/tv. Is there a link to watch the ball drop on the phone? Thanks." I nearly ran out of API hitting refresh on Tweetdeck, but the links starting pouring in and iphone.livestream.com was the ticket. So I called for everyone to join me outside, and 20-30 something people gathered around me with cups of champaign and sparkling cider and counted down with the rest of the world from the front porch of an unfurnished home in Charlotte, NC - on an iPhone screen. 

Thanks to Twitter, livestream and AT&T - we were able to connect with the rest of the world, and feel connected as well. Happy 2010. Amazing. 

  

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv. 

A Jumping Off Point

Social media is so simple that some people can't wrap their minds around it. Blame it on the baggage of traditional thinking. However, we can use traditional thinking to help explain the relevance of social media - especially in business. 

If you believe that face-to-face meetings with a handshake is the best way to close a deal and that word of mouth advertising is better than anything you can buy - you're 100%, dead-on right. However, somewhere along the line we got sucked into thinking that dictating the message downstream to the minions was the best (and only) way to go about it. It was like a full court press of control.

This is new. Different. Unfamiliar. Social Media is face-to-face in a virtual environment where open dialogue is encouraged and you have the opportunity to make your customers your brand ambassadors. 

Simply stated, a properly executed Social Media strategy is like positive word of mouth advertising on Red Bull. Just be careful, word of mouth works both ways. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications  You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

The SM ROI Post

Any chimp with basic excel training can measure return on investment in Social Media.  It’s not brain surgery. In fact, if you’ve ever purchased or monitored advertising in the past, it’s the same formula. The problem with Social Media is that everyone wants to fragment things into micro-vessels that they forget the big picture – it’s all still part of a marketing bucket. 

If you sell anything, you (hopefully) have profit. But profit itself costs money. From inventory to rent to payroll to advertising, etc.  – these are the investments needed to turn a profit. Most people focus on marketing and advertising as the main drivers of ROI. Sometimes they’re proportionate, sometimes they’re not. It all depends on the tactics. And in Social Media, that’s what we’re really trying to figure out – which tactics turn the best profit. But really, that’s like asking whether TV, print, radio or direct marketing works for a specific industry. Every business is different. All audiences consume media differently. But advertising is part of the marketing bucket, which is part of the investment bucket that you remove from profit to determine ROI. 

Let’s say you sell radios. Last year you sold $15 million in radios. Your investment to generate those sales came to $10 million and $2 million of this was spent on your advertising. Traditionally you’d monitor each of your advertising tactics to measure their success as juxtaposed against the overall sales over a period of time. After you’ve developed a relevant sample, you begin to see which tactics work. Then, naturally, you allocate more of your investment to those tactics that yield the most return. 

The same thing applies in Social Media. Except, we don’t have decades of traditionalism to work from here. New vehicles to reach your constituency appear on the scene every month, as well as new mediums to engage them and new tools to track them. 

So what do you do? The best you can, that’s what. Let’s say your radio company hires an ad agency to run your SM project for six months. The agency can recommend tactics, implement those tactics, and then monitor them with a range of tracking analytics to see which generate the most traffic or buzz or impressions or whatever – but the bottom line is still the sales. Eventually the tactics must be overlaid onto the sales to see which ones have the most impact.  At some point the people who understand ROI will determine which tactics are most valuable to the company – and budgets (investments) are pushed into those areas for further development. 

Yes, Social Media is a whole new way to advertise, communicate, engage and in some cases gouge a market –but when bottom lines are concerned, it’s still just good ol’ fashioned math. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications and really isn't a dick.  You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

Them.

This is a post about those people. You know who they are. They're the people in Social Media who pretend to be your friend, but who really aren't. Rather, they hang around long enough to suck the sincerity out of you to feed their own desire to harbor spite and resentment. 

Sure, it could be said that because so many of us don't know each other IRL, that none of us are 'really' friends. And maybe that's what's wrong. You see, I believe that over the past year I've actually gotten to know people here. Despite it being just words and pictures and pixels and fairy dust. Just. 

I've met people, talked to people on the phone and have shared my life with people here who I may never meet in person. And for the most part, the people I pay attention to here are genuine, compassionate and good. No, I don't go looking to follow or engage people who fit into neat buckets. Nor do I look to follow people who can only benefit me commercially. I look for one thing - sincerity. To me, this equals humanity. By engaging here in Social Media, I feel like I've opened up my own life by sharing it with others. And it's good. 

For the most part. 

You see, there are snakes in this Garden of Eden too. And both you know and they know who they are. And it's uncomfortable. The people I'm talking about don't want to know that good things happen to you. They relish in seeing you fail, because that makes them feel better about themselves. It's a self esteem thing, but it's also pretty normal. Take any 100 people on the planet, put them in a room and see if they get along together. Right. Then throw a little competition into the mix, like we do when we follow or surround ourselves with like minded people here, and you've got Survivor via Social Media. Turn 100 into 2000, and the insincerity quotient increases proportionately. 

It's a fact - people aren't always going to like you. Even when they follow you. Some only follow for political reasons (because it would be socially awkward not to.) Other people only follow you because you're just a number and it's not a 'real' relationship anyway. And still others only follow you to (gasp!) steal your ideas. So what do you do? Unfollow them? Block them? Accept that things aren't going to be perfect? What? 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications.  You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

Getting it Straight

I've been battling with the naming conventions here for almost a year. This post is my solution. Of course to get to the bottom of things, we have break things down to their simplest form, so here it goes...

 

Networking - This is the thing that you did at Chamber of Commerce meetings when you started your own business. You attended these events with hundreds of other people who were better dressed and who wore strong cologne. Basically, it sucked and nothing ever came from it. 

Internet - aka - the web, the interwebs and the place where the devil lives (if you listen to my mom). It's a digital medium that connects people around the world blah-blah-blah. Everyone knows what the Internet is, the important word here is Digital. 

Digital - It's not analog. Digital is electrical - computers, phones, etc. It's the only way to get on the Internet. Without digital, this blog goes away. 

Social - People communicating - that's all it is. Yes, it can also be people dancing, people working, people arguing, people interacting within in a community, etc. But social is still social - no matter what the experts say. 

Media - This is the car you drive. Yes, you're still the driver, and you control where you go, but your car is what delivers you from point A to point B. And there are different kinds of cars, as we all know. 

Now let's try to put it all together so that we're all on the same page, ok?  

Social Networking - This is really no different than normal networking (see above) except that you can jump around from conversation to conversation. Yes, being on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook is Social Networking - but so is going to a Chamber function.

Social Media - This is the term I use to describe what we do here. Just normal communicating via whatever kind of car you drive on the Internet and which garages you park in. 

There you have it. The correct term to describe what it is we're all doing here is probably Digital Networking via Social Media, but I'm thinking DNVSM is too cumbersome to really catch on. So let's just go with what I call it, Social Media (SM.) After all, this is my blog. I get to say what's right. You only get to comment. 

Sigh. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications and really isn't a dick.  You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

The Right Words

The next time someone says 'we need to take this offline because it needs more than 140' - remember that nothing is too complex to communicate if you use the right word(s). 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

How Social Media Healed A Little Girl's Broken Heart

Every summer we spend a couple of weeks on a beach near St. Augustine, Florida. And every summer our youngest daughter's birthday falls during vacation. Cozette, who turned 6 this year, is a fairly easy child to please (unless you count her growing penchant for apparel, in which case I can only guess that I'm screwed in a few years). We spent her day playing in the surf, and went out to dinner that night. Easy. The only thing she really wanted was to get a bit of fudge from Kilwin's. It was 8:55 when we left the restaurant, and the clock struck 9:00 precisely when we arrived at Kilwin's. Just as the manager bolted the front door. I looked in the store and there was a line 12 deep waiting to be served. Yes, they were hopping, but the manager was adamant about the store being closed by pointing to his watch (it was literally 9:00 p.m.) I explained that my daughter (who was holding my hand) only wanted a little piece of fudge and that we would be no trouble. The manager didn't budge. 

Granted, the guy was probably all of 25 and likely had his eye on a date after work, but that didn't stop me from sending out a Tweet about our experience. I dropped a #fail  on them for breaking the heart of a little girl. Within an hour, I received a Tweet from @KilwinsCLT (George Click) who apologized for the problem with Kilwin's St. Augustine, and offered to remedy the situation when we got back to Charlotte. 

It took a few months, but we finally ventured out to Ballantyne to visit Kilwin's last weekend. We were met with smiles from Hunter and Chelsea who told us that Cozette was allowed to pick out any slice of fudge in the store - compliments of Kilwin's - and 10% off anything else in the store to boot. Cozette was thrilled. It took a good 10 minutes for her to pick out fudge (sampling here in the picture), and we actually got off light with our 'other purchases' considering how delicious everything is there. 

I just wanted to share this story - as yet another example of how Social Media is helping make the world a better place. Putting customers back in control - where we belong. Too many brands today have forgotten this golden rule. Not George Click though.  

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

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For the record, Cozette got over the incident in St. Augustine on her birthday pretty quick (like I said, she's easy to please). I just thought that the way this customer service problem was handled was worthy of mention. I highly encourage anyone who has similar experiences with brands (for good and bad) mention it on Twitter. This is our medium. We're advocates of one another here.

Social Media's Golden Ticket

Note to brands that have spent their entire lives in bed with traditional media: If you think of Social Media as something like a Golden Ticket - remember, five children went into the factory and only one came out. And none of them left unscathed.  

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

Rojo Toro

There was once a very strange boy who tweeted things like this:

Then one day he received an unmarked white box that weighed a few pounds. Inside of the box was a six pack of Red Bulls and this note:

Suspecting @mikepoz, the boy was thrown off by the heart from Natalie. So he tweeted this: 

And a few hours later, he received this: 

And everyone lived happily ever after. Except the dust bunnies. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications and is pretty amazed at the power of Social Media. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

Welcome to the 'Real' Human Network

Imagine for a moment that tomorrow everything blinked off. All sense of normalcy gone. No Internet. No phone. No electricity. Nothing. But darkness.

What would you do? Well, if you're not throwing yourself out of a window in panic or looting the local electronics store (duh), your next step would be to start doing whatever is necessary to survive. Things like hunting for food, finding water and gathering firewood. But then what? Well, you’d probably reach out to others. That’s right, you’d turn to your network. And in turning to your network, you open your line of communication up to other networks. Eventually you’d come to find out that a massive solar flare torched north Asia and fried all power on the planet. Then you’d pass this information back down through your networks to inform and enlighten people so that they can do what's necessary to survive.  

Don’t let the word ‘network’ throw you off. The idea of human connectivity has been around a lot longer than Twitter. Yet, we focus so much on the tips and tricks regarding the medium(s) of communication here in Social Media that we tend overlook the basic fundamentals that make this technology so amazing in the first place. Why? Because fundamentals are too basic. Too obvious. Too simple. Who needs them? 

We do. 

To me there’s only one rule of Social Media – be human. And sorry, there are no shortcuts. When you’re sincere and compassionate here you become less of an avatar attached to a string of characters and more like an actual person. And because human beings are your audience, the more human you are - the more likely you are to develop your network. Social Media is about dialogue. Between real people. Just like in real life. 

Admittedly, a massive solar flare taking down the planet’s power grids is probably a little far fetched. But not impossible. The idea is that something like being a compassionate human being to those around you is the same in Social Media as it is in everyday life. So whether it's oversimplified or not, if you really want to make the most of SM, stop thinking of it as a new and tricky medium that you have to manipulate for maximum gain and start looking at it for what it is - people talking with other people. And then talk. Because you never know when you're going to have to rely on the compassion of others to see you through a dark stretch. 

Be yourself and engage. Everything else will take care of itself. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

Nude in Public.

This morning I made a comment on a blog that resulted in some strange and beautiful private dialogue. First, here's the blog. 

For those who don't know them, Wray Ward owns 'advertising' in Charlotte. Sure, there are a couple of other agencies that bill MANY tens of millions annually, but WW is pretty much synonymous with advertising in Charlotte. That's all I know about them. I once interviewed there, but nothing ever came from it. Which is cool in retrospect. A good decision. 

Wray Ward was also a very important sponsor for Social Fresh here in Charlotte, and they did an outstanding job. My comment on the blog was made purely as a professional observation in a public forum - which is the essence of Social Media. I don't think you can bucket the breadth of Social Media (or Social Marketing as it's referred to in the video) into a two-minute video. And I definitely don't think that the same thinking that goes into traditional marketing (driving sales) is nearly as important today as driving trust between a brand and its audience. 

Right or wrong, I left my comment. By virtue of my submitting a comment in public, I am more than happy to engage in public a public debate via the blog. This kind of transparent discourse is one of the things that makes Social Media such a revelation. The best ideas and arguments win. Big Brands no longer own the conversation. Which is also to say that a conservative/traditional approach to communications doesn't really apply as much today - as we scramble to figure out how to harness this awesome new forum. Only, it's unharnessable. It's give and take. Besides, is there some rule that I missed that states we all have to be agreeable in public forums? No, there's not - I looked. 

Getting back to the point of this post - I was warned by more than a few people that my comment on the SoFresh blog above could result in some kind of backlash from Wray Ward. No, really - backlash. Without getting into specifics (and for fear of incidental libel - which indeed could result in some serious backlash), let me just say to all the people who warned me - we're cool. I stand behind my comment and don't really fear much of anything. That being said, if something really weird happens to me soon - you guys know what to do. ;) 

And for the record, my shop is teensy. But we've been virtual since before virtual was cool. Google virtual ad agency and we show up on the first page (w/o paying for it). For now it does, anyway. 

To the benevolent folks at Wray Ward - keep up the good work. You set a standard by which the rest of us measure ourselves. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of a teensy virtual ad agency called smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

Being Social IRL - personal lessons from #sofresh

I didn't want to go. When I first heard about Charlotte's inaugural Social Media event, Social Fresh, I didn't want anything to do with it. I'm not exactly what you'd call a mingling guy. But I knew I had to attend because I truly believe in this medium of advanced communications, and there were people coming that I wanted to meet in real life. Plus, it was three miles from my house. 

Except, by the time I got around to buying a ticket - the event was sold out. So I Tweeted that I tried to attend, but wasn't going to be able to go. Secretly, I was pretty relieved. Especially since I saved face in public by saying that "I tried." Whew - I was off the hook. But then event organizer Jason Keath said that I could volunteer at the event and even save a few bucks in fees. 

Great. 

But no, more than volunteering to standing around being nice for 8 hours (i didn't expect to *really* stay the whole time), there were pre and post parties around the event. But I don't drink, so at some point most of these kinds of things just get too loud and silly for me. I showed up late to  the pre - and didn't stay very long. It was already loud - and flipping hot. But it was also kind of cool. I didn't hate it. I left early to kiss my kids goodnight, and because I knew the next day was going to be hell. 

I used to be in the USAF. Back then I got up around 6 a.m. every day. Sometimes 5:30. I got up at 5 to volunteer for SoFresh. I resented it all the way to the Holiday Inn parking deck. When I arrived, Nathan Richie was pulling in and we walked to the staging area together. Most people looked stunned to be awake and actually functioning. The coffee sucked. I had a banana and tried to mingle. I found that I mingle like I Twitter - by hovering around a conversation and then busting in with a remark or two. People in real life look at you funny when you do this, but oh my Lord - people in Social Media invite random, relevant and thoughtful dialogue. It's a beautiful thing and the foundation from which I built my day on at SoFresh. So I tweeted (and mingled) my ass off. And people smiled. No funny looks. There was a lot of geek talk. A lot of business talk. And a lot of laughs. 

I was going to follow up on SoFresh with an obligatory recap of how great the speakers were, how compelling the panels were and how valiantly the volunteers performed - but I already did all that from the event. Everyone was great. Everything was great. And of course I heartily approved of the sofresh icon (thanks for that Jason). A big shout out to Lyell Petersen for suggesting the shot above (of some of the volunteers.) And a big thanks to Armando Bellmas, who was a snapped off just a few amazing photographs. 

In the end, #sofresh was a blast and I'm glad I went. I met a lot of smart people, and connected with smart people I've admired from afar on Twitter. It's amazing to me how a couple of hundred kindred spirits can energize each other in a way that leaves a lasting impression on everyone.  

 

I had to rush home to my kids after the core event, so I missed out on the post-party. But yes, I stayed till the end. 

Pictured in the photo above: @sethjwyatt, @crystaldempsey, @tinkhanson, @93octane, @smashadv, @katiemarie, @loricollins, @underoak (kneeling) @tonyabishopnc, @brianbaute, @lizvinson

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

Is that an iPhone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Some guys drive Corvettes...other guys....

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv