Is that a self promotion or what? Well, I think it’s more of an observation.

Part of what I do is to get a view of more than one angle of society and industry as well as demographic. So it affords me the opportunity of comparing (sometimes) one set of mores/attitudes from one group vs the other….

Some of my observations which I think point to more significant data:

1) The social media guys are happy, somewhat insulated & employed. Suddenly they are the new messiah of the world.

2) The mainstream media is having a very bad moment and they aren’t happy, their news is sad and they are sad, their empires are falling.

3) The fashion industry is in some pretty dire straits. Even with sales figures, at least at the lower end, showing some resilience for holiday, they still face an entirely uncertain future. Their industry too falls into the category of empires falling….print media for them doesn’t have the sway it used to; those in control are working fast and furiously to catch up with where they think the rest of the world is. Problem is those decisions are still being made by the same minds that got them to where they are right now, so their attempts while in some cases noteworthy (Showtime and Alexander McQueen’s live streaming Womens SS 2010 video), it’s still pretty tepid. Sending school aged bloggers to sit in the front row of fashion shows? Back in the Day (that would be yesterday), people would accuse such gimmicks as a ratings scheme. And I can tell they have a lot to learn about Social Media. The best of the best on Twitter and Facebook have a personal style and interact with their followers. Fashion is still shouting about how beautiful they are, still shoving celebrity down our throats. That’s still the old way whether using it on Twitter, Facebook or your own website.

4) If it’s true what they say, you are what you eat, then the same can be applied to you are what you read and I’m feeling the need for reading some Henry David Thoreau (a whole book and not a 140 character or less quote from it).

5) I tweeted that content isn’t king, but that context is king and I find that depending upon who is doing the definition several very important verbs and nouns take on some pretty different meanings: and that would be transparency, authenticity, and engagement. Meaning I guess definition is in the mind of the teller. The efforts though, in the first part of January have been
noteworthy though in trying to understand it. That’s a good thing.

6) Design is on hold (no significant developments, not in any industry), the information mill is full of drek and that includes the ivory halls of mainstream media who supposedly do an incredible job of sussing out the “hard news and real facts,” and my theory of this period being like the wild, wild, west is sadly on par. As consumers of anything, I hope we can soon start demanding quality and not quantity and while giddy (myself included) with excitement over some of the new tech directions and developments, lets hope it doesn’t color our standards for fill in the blank subject matter at hand.

There are several reasons for my writing what some may deem a stinging blog post. One is that there is an article being tweeted in large numbers right now that lists the qualities and skills required for the next generation of journalists. While I have my criticisms of Mainstream Media, I also know some of these people have worked incredibly hard and long at their professions and just because someone understands SEO, doesn’t and won’t ever make them a good journalist. Somebody’s drinking too much Social Media Koolaid.

The other reason is that we are in a vicious cycle of supply vs demand with no real leadership taking the reigns to set the ship aright. On the one hand, the banks seem to be coming out of their freefall but are coming back to repeat the sins of the not so distant past and reaping the rewards while Joe Schmoe is still trying to dig himself/herself out of the trenches….what’s that about? I’d like to start seeing news about entertainers, sports figures, celebrity journalists, talk show hosts or anyone that Joe Schmoe collectively has made very very very rich and what they are doing to help create jobs so that said collective can continue to make them rich. I want to see who is doing what by name and actual numbers to improve the current condition our condition is in. Because I posit that those who are still making money by and large are clueless to what a significant number of people in THIS country are going through right now.

Let’s get real here, the consumer is still the one who holds the key to making things right and while I see all the social media geniuses out there right now capitalizing on this new movement (while they are making money), I see them being focused on social media specifically. They don’t know enough about any one industry except tech to help industries outside the tech industry become successful with it…ergo the insulation. More people in general, marketers specific to their industry, need to have a voice that is not cluttered with SEO, analytics, and ROI and more on strategy per se to show how it does work and can work for small businesses, personal brands, corporations not there yet, and so on. (although honorable mention has to go to the CMO’s who are tweeting in a personal style but for their companies on Twitter right now….).

Let me be clear here, social media is part of the marketing matrix, not all of it. Designers still need to design good things and know what their customer wants, CEO’s still need to lead with vision, and bankers still need to help their customers make money.

While we are getting back to basics, lets get back to some of these.

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