Creativity in the age of social media, part 2

“The story isn’t the story you tell, it’s the one you inspire.” I love that line. It's not only so true, it's why a strong brand is more important than ever. In this new world millions of people are allowed to finish your brand's sentence - but you still get to start it. I really believe that if you have a strong brand, a good brand and a relative brand you will be able to trust the crowd to finish your sentence in a way that inspires you back. That said, thank you for this post. Darren Solomon's creation is blowing my mind. .-= Amy Flanagan´s last blog ..The only problem with an alarm clock that wakes you to the sounds of nature is that you get conditioned to wake to the sounds of nature. =-.

"The story isn’t the story you tell, it’s the one you inspire." Well, I would say sometimes yes and sometimes no. Perhaps writers like me are overly-sensitive about singular authorship, but I believe that a strong individual vision often creates the most compelling and enduring results in writing, art, music and other creative endeavors, from Bach's "Chaconne" to Hal Riney's "The Bear" spot to Armani's suits. I can't disagree in theory when you say "you can crowdsource anything", but I wonder if the resulting camel you may get (no matter how interesting) will do the job of the horse you might have had in mind. .-= Paul Zink´s last blog ..Lionfish invade Bahama reefs, gobble up everything. =-.

Lucas films 'make your own star wars' movie fits nicely into 'social creativity' . Although its not on the website now, you can read about it here. http://www.ifitsmovies.com/2007/05/24/create-your-own-star-wars-movie/ In India, we attempted something similar for a personal care brand where we allowed users to create their own movie using a library of clips & drag- drop feature into a timeline. users could add custom text and upload their pictures which featured on billboards inside the video. Surprisingly though, we realized that giving too many customization options to our consumer often resulted in many dropouts. maybe its a cultural thing? Or do people feel more comfortable creating in a group dynamic (say if the entire app was connected to facebook and people could offer suggestions to the creator - real time?) .-= meg ´s last blog ..trippyhippy: @jtwinsor bakedin blog asks for password and authorization. =-.

"Not about the story you tell but the one you inspire" is a nice maxim. It reminds me, like everything else, of teaching. As you've heard me say before, Edward, the goal of many great teachers is not to communicate their idea but to inspire the student to have their own idea. On a less inspiring but more practical note, I was just working through some social media ideas with creatives today and it struck me that the process was--to your point--less about the idea than what we imagined/hoped the consumer would do in response. Our strategic/creative efforts were focused on imagining a flow of behavior, feedback and conversations across multiple platforms that "worked." That is: they made cultural sense, they would motivate people to participate, they would spread on their own, they would ultimately be good for the consumer and the brand. .-= Scott Karambis´s last blog ..A call for new tools: starting with observations on successful Facebook applications =-.

I agree with the bit above about "The art, science and possibilities of sharing." But I think "sharing" or even "comparing" denies the baser instincts involved in social media. I don't think social media is about sharing. It's about taking. Social media is a game. There are winners and losers. It's played differently depending on the platform, but ultimately it's about grabbing the most cultural and social currency. If I retweet something, it's either to say "look who I follow" or "I saw this before you did" or maybe it's just to signal my ongoing social media participation. I share, but it's motivated selfishly. And I feel it when I'm retweeted myself – it's naked pride. On Facebook it's even simpler – it's all about whose kids are cuter, whose job is cooler (or who's working harder), who's funnier, whose travels are more interesting, whose happier, who posts the most current, cool link. Those who lose the social media game do so because they add nothing to it. I think brands need to find ways to feed those base instincts. I don't want to interact with a brand. I don't want to be friends with a brand. I want to take something from a brand that augments my online ego or image. Of course, depending on the brand, I may be able to take something simply by interacting, but I think that's a rare case.

Wow. This post is an epiphany. Now I feel like I'm no longer needed since I never really had to try very hard to tell the story, but this programming stuff is way over my head and I'm afraid it might be too much of an effort to justify. Oh well, I can still teach Dickinson to HS kids. .-= Jim Mitchem´s last blog ..The Power of Social Media Defined in :30 =-.