Comments on: Kay: Social Ideas not Social Media

By: Joel Johnson

Joel Johnson — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:57:08 +0000

I tend to agree with David…by generating “social ideas” Gareth has generated another label for a better idea. But I guess we need them. Gareth is right, all our concepts should be “socialized” going forward. I believe its because brands are tools and we want them to be social. Why? Because as human beings, we are social creatures (nod to Mark Earles work on this).

Marshall McCluhan once wrote “We become what we behold. Our tools shape us. And then we shape our tools.” So “socialized marketing” should generate “Brand Tools” (my label, tada!) to be useful to folks. Social + Useful = Being Human. Thus, social ideas should be useful.

By: David J Carr

David J Carr — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:36:15 +0000

I think the problem is that once again we have allowed a useful encapsulation term – social media. networking, UGC or earned media etc. – that we can use to explain a philosophy to clients to hijack the agenda. By giving it a label we have encouraged people to think of it as a channel.

Just like no-one thinks we are operating in a world of “new media” any more, we should stop thinking we are operating in a channel/sector called social media.

It is just the reality of interactive expereience. It is what real people are doing now.

http://davidjcarr.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/what-are-real-people-doing-in-the-digital-world-2009-trends/