Have you ever looked at your Facebook feed, read what your acquaintances have to say, and thought, “Wow, This Guy Sucks”?
Ugh.
Have you ever followed a spammer on Twitter who shares 1 thought in between blasts of affiliate links, despite Twitter’s efforts to stop it, and thought, “Wow, This Guy REALLY Sucks”?
Who knew spam could get worse?
This told me something interesting: the way we’re looking at people is changing. We’re able to judge character – how cool someone is, how valuable our time spent on them is – based on headlines. Erik Qualman of Socialnomics claims that social media is making us more efficient, because it lets us accomplish more things in less time. I would argue that the adverse side-effect is marginalization. Here’s what I mean: we now have less characters (and thus less time) to convey our messages. Why? Because Twitter’s forcing us. Why else? Because our Facebook friends have lost patience.
When we’re used to checking up on 10 friends in 60 seconds, we stop feeling the complacency that we love experiencing, when we only check up on 9 friends. We feel as if the one extra friend was “lost productivity.” So, we skim pages quicker, skim over important stuff, and the end result is brain farts.
Is this how getting your point across should be? Is this what social media’s become?
We get obsessive over our news feeds; some people even plan their days around being near a computer. We make checking Twitter a religious ritual. In the mean time, we’re missing out an important point of observation: when was the last time we really got to know our friends?
Corporate CEO? Hey, don’t judge.
In marketing, we want to avoid anything that would generate negativity. We’re avoiding the “This Guy Sucks” reaction by crafting messages slowly and carefully. Companies like us value social media, but they’re still asking their clients the most basic questions. Here at Kinetic Typography LLC, we’ve always believed in getting deeper. In understanding our clients a little bit better. Because each new layer of knowledge shows us something exciting. Knowing your clients well is like an extra 100 characters on Twitter, but better, because it’s more relevant to you right there and then. And we’ve translated this passion into our video work.
Can you blame people for using the social media to show their genuine side, even if it ain’t pretty?
That’s more like it. Ingenious, revolutionary, genuine…
“Judging the book by the cover” is now applicable to people, and I find that a bit scary. Maybe, that crazy guy is a visionary. Maybe, the smiling man is a lunatic. You really can’t trust appearances. But this is not a stranger-danger pep talk; this is how we’re changing the way we’re marketing. By anyone’s modern definition, marketing is a two-way street, and that mainly relates to communication.
In terms of dealing mainly with companies, Kinetic Typography LLC is still a bit old school: companies have often been judged by first impressions. This is what we do: we create awesome first impressions. We do it well. And it becomes really noticeable when others don’t.
Here’s your personal challenge: next time you’re on your iPad, skimming over tweets of statuses, stop and think, “does this guy REALLY suck, or am I taking these 140 characters out of context?”
Song Of The Day: Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye
