We live in a culture where ideas, trends and other assorted memes often spread out from niches and become pervasive across larger segments of society. This phenomena ties back to the rise of Geek culture — what we sometimes refer to as being “geeked-out”. Today, one can be deemed a ‘Geek’ across any number of areas, from music, to street fashion, to role playing games. It’s all about really being into that one thing.

Where graphic novels, fantasy role playing games and anime were once quietly shared amongst like-minded souls, these interests today thrive across digital and analog communities in an influence-driven meritocracy almost always accessible to anyone. Over the last decade or so, perceptions of geekdom have evolved from a fringe element to a dynamic source of influential ideas, memes and inspiration.

Why?

The answer lies in the shift from predominantly mass media led to digitally led flows of information.

Back in the day, the most powerful sources of information were centralized, deriving power from access to capital and their sheer ubiquity. The local newspaper. TV networks. General news magazines. Because mass media had disproportionate control over the flow of information, they had an interest in playing to the most common denominator and cultivating broad appeal. There was little interest from these powerful entities in promoting niche cultural interests such as Swedish sci-fi thrillers or a Yakuza serial dramas to ‘the masses’.

The digital flow of information certainly played a big role in the rise of Geek culture. And today, rather than information flowing from a centralized source to the masses, information flows between and amongst like-minded groups. Classmates. Co-workers. Neighbors. And fellow Geeks.

And Geeks are the ones often brokering in the most interesting, authentic content. And with the enhanced ability to share this digitally, this content now can take on a life of its own. That mash up video of Gears of War footage set to Cypress Hill- check it out! Mountain biking through a Brazilian bario – etc, etc. All of a sudden, some of the most interesting engaging ideas were originating from the deepest recesses of geeked-out niche interests.

So welcome to the age of Geek culture. I believe we are smarter, better informed and more well-rounded because of it.

Sometimes old can seem new. This is profoundly true in fashion and music, where ideas from the past get remixed, repurposed and reconstituted into something refreshingly different for a new generation.

And sometimes what’s old can transport us back to a time when we felt newer, fresher younger and invigorated. Taking us back to the familiar or what we believe we knew and allowing us to experience it “again for the first time” is a powerful cultural driver.

The Culture of Retro is alive and well within the digital age too. From videos imagining a Web 1.0 iteration of Facebook to the resurgence of Reddit, digital/social media culture is not immune from our very human desire to pine and pull from the past.

When applied appropriately, the Culture of Retro can be a powerful force for Social Instigation.

New. The need for difference. Something fresh, fun, never  before encountered, unexplored. ‘New’ is sometimes all it takes to grab our attention, stop us in our tracks or take a deeper look at a product. What is it about New that is so invigorating to us?

Is it because we get bored easily? Despite all the tools, toys and entertainment outlets designed to keep us interested and engaged. Or perhaps we are wired on a more primal level to seek, discover and explore uncharted paths? Whatever drives us, the quest for New certainly plays a key role in what we read, watch, listen to, purchase, share etc.

That’s not a knock on the culture of New’s polar opposite arch-rival- the culture of the Familiar. But New is a powerful force that when used with creativity and strategic intent can add velocity to ideas.

Just when we were feeling good again about the changes to Facebook, the soon to be billionaires club dropped Timeline in our laps. And like it or not,  your profile page and fan pages will never be the same. And you know what? It’s all good (well, mostly).

Here are some highlights and observations from the team here at Budding Culture:

COVER PHOTO the new eye-catching, 851 X 315 pixel descriptive visual of your brand. Much better suited to let the tone and message of your brand.

PROFILE IMAGE still represents your brand’s identity, but the placement of the profile image over the cover photo allows for some creative interactions between the brand ID and the Cover Photo.

ABOUT SECTION in now  prime, above-the-fold real estate to feature a succinct “reason to believe” for your page’s visitors before they dive further into your brand’s story.

MILESTONES are major events that is particularly relevant to your brand, such as a product launch, personnel announcement, store opening, or other moment that is significant to your brand’s growth and development.

PIN POSTS is a post that a brand may “pin” to the top of its Timeline to highlight the content for a time.

STARS highlight an important post on your brand’s Timeline and can expand the post to a  wide-screen format.

Gone is the concept of landing pages. Timeline is the now the only option– but we can easily highlight our promotions, applications, offers and contests within Timeline’s feature set.  Also, the page tabs are now limited to 3 custom views that appear above the fold. However, these are very prominent 110 X 74 pixel custom icons located just below the Cover Photo– much better than the old microscopic 9 X 9 icons.

There are changes in how the page are administered,  and how brands and consumers/fans can engage in a dialog (fanning a page is no longer required to comment).  And there are significant changes and expansion of  Facebook’s ad platform and enhanced options for sponsored content that are very intriguing,  but all of this will be subjects for another time.

Timeline lets your tell your brand story by constructing a better brand narrative to make better first, and lasting impressions. Is your brand fully taking advantage of timeline?

I’ve always been fascinated with how some ads try to present their products as part of a bigger lifestyle choice. Sure I’ve spent a good part of my adult life helping craft those very messages on behalf of clients. But even when I’m nesting in my den, playing the part of the American everyman watching Sunday football, with my marketing work a distant note on my Monday to-do list, I still find myself mulling over commercials in my mind while anticipating the next kick-off.

I write this because recently I’ve noticed a couple car ads lately that position themselves as alternatives to the perennial time suck that the internet and its partner in crime, social media can occasionally be. The Dodge Journey touts itself as a search engine for the real world. While just about any car could stake a claim to such a title, I find it interesting that Dodge decided to devote their campaign to making the case for their car.

Similarly, the Toyota Venza juxtaposes the leisure pursuits of “lame” social media newb parents who use their roomy crossover to ferry themselves through a day of activities like mountain biking and antiquing, against the activities of their soc med savvy adult kids who clearly spend too much of their waking hours transfixed on screens, regularly posting commoditized Facebook banality.

As a former advertising planner, I can tell you that ads like these don’t just get made based on the passing whims of a creative director or a slick huckster sell to a client. Typically they come from the chatter agencies and their marketing clients hear when speaking to people about the choices they make around how they spend their time and and the role of their car in those choices. Advertising themes are often born out of the insights gleaned from this sort of research. And here we have two separate cases offering the same POV — people feel forced to choose between actively going out and about and “living” life (while driving to some aspirational destination) vs being catatonically chained to the inter-webs.

Hmm…. does that mean we are seeing a significant part of society reject the idea of spending so much time cycber-shopping, Facebooking and tweeting? Are people beginning to rebel against how far social media has encroached into our leisure time and are beginning to push back? Is this a real issue issue? Or just a convenient conversation opener around cookie cutter vehicles that offer no other unique way to present themselves to the American public?

A meme is an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. While genes transmit biological information, memes are said to transmit ideas and belief information. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena (via Wikipedia).

Memes are the backbone of marketing communications. That said, there is little discussion of them in most typical client/agency workflows In marketing textbooks. In media kits. Even in our brainstorming sessions. We speak much about targeting, awareness, image building etc. Yet til recently, the notion of tapping into, harnessing and creating memes is rarely discussed amongst marketers or creative folks.

Social media platforms and smart phones are making the notion of memes much more relevant to creativity and communication strategy. Main reason is that these tools and platforms allow us to track the development, evolution and spread of memes as they act as conduits of communications. In addition, these tools allow memes to spread and develop at a pace never before experienced in human history, with little regard for geographic borders or socio-economic divides.

Memes can be trite and amusing- think Planking, or historically ground breaking- like the Arab Spring demonstrations for democracy. Memes can mutate and assume new purposes and identities- the conservative movement in this country is comprised of several evolving memes, from the Anti-abortion to the Anti-tax/spend, Neo-Cons etc. Whether serious or amusing, the important thing is for us to be cognizant of their specific roles in our communication plans and tactics.

At Budding Culture, we’re fond of the social model-

Tribes + Passion + Memes = Culture Movement

Because when communities are fired up to share ideas, culture evolves.

Along that line of reasoning, the challenge for us as marketers is to creatively and effectively leverage memes as part of our brands’ communication strategy. A challenge we’ll be writing more about in this space.

How do you leverage memes in marketing communications?

Pizzicato 5 were one of my favorite bands back in the 90s. Like a lot of my favorite bands they managed to evoke retro-cool (and I love the mod 60s) while feeling very much of the moment. Twiggy was just a silly song that sounded great loud with a tacky cocktail in a room filled with orange naugahyde.
/enjoy

Brands are often an unwelcome presence on social media platforms. They tend to interrupt conversations with blatant sales pitches. They then often ask for information we don’t deem them entitled to receive. Our email addresses. Answers to incessantly dry, pedantic surveys. Urgent commands to pimp their promotions to our friends. You get the idea. When it comes to social media, many brands and the companies that run them could use an etiquette primer.

But where to start? Recently at the BC mother-ship, we started talking about an unlikely but intriguing point of reference for brands in social media- personalities that are charming, get their point across and know how to disarm and ultimately win over a hostile crowd. I’m talking about none other than the brothers of Delta Tau Chi. Those slacking losers that ultimately win our hearts in the movie Animal House.

What can brands learn from a bunch of frat boys? Well think about this. On the surface, the Delta Brothers were seen as pariahs. Slobs. Flunkies. Rude. Outsiders on the campus of Faber College. Kind of like brands trying to fit in on Facebook. But each of the Deltas had certain personality traits that won us over, and if we are to believe the film’s prologue, allowed them to ultimately achieve success in life.

Still not buying? Well let’s look at a few of the characters and see what implications exist for brands-

Let’s start with Larry ‘Pinto’ Kroger. On the surface, a timid, socially awkward freshman. But as the film progresses, his timidness is what makes him appealing and in fact works in his favor to him over fans. Can being a little shy and reserved be a positive trait for a brand? Maybe. It just might encourage your fans to speak up and drive the discussion. And that’s never a bad thing.

Kent Dorfman or Flounder, has a geeky enthusiasm that on the one hand is naive, yet on the other hand, charms people and ultimately make us want to root for him. What is your brand doing in social media that will encourage people to root for you?

Eric “Otter” Stratton had the gumption to say and do big things. Whether it was telling off the Dean, or lusting after the girl no one thought he could get, Otter intended to do things that no one thought he could achieve. Big, out of this world ambitions- a great blueprint for brands to win over fans in social media too!

Robert Hoover was the affable, clean-cut fraternity president who always struggled to maintain a facade of normalcy. But he ultimately understood and went along with the Delta lifestyle and the desires of his frat brothers. In many ways, Hoover was the ultimate brand that stays accountable to the desires of their key community while looking out for their community’s best interests. A true leader.

Finally there was John Blutarsky or Bluto. In his seventh year of college, Bluto lived most of his days as a drunken degenerate. But he also had a passionate irreverence that motivated him to do big things, from legendary toga parties to ambushing the homecoming parade. Bluto’s cheeky antics motivated his peers and won over fans. How can injecting some passionate irreverence into your social media activities help your brand motivate people?

The brothers of Delta House may not be appearing in marketing textbooks anytime soon. But we at BC believe they have a lot to teach us when it comes to brands successfully using social media.

A little musical Social Instigation — Love some of the mash-ups being created from individual musician’s YouTube videos.

The individual parts are cool, but the sum JAMS!

Thx to @brianwaka for sharing.

As Facebook and Twitter have ascended to the top of the marketing lexicon, it is utterly amazing to me that brands still don’t understand the (well documented) fundamentals of social media.  So many marketers are treating social media as an extension of their direct response efforts, or just another media outlet for press releases. Not to say that social platforms do not play a role in the transaction or dissimulating company news to a broad audience, but these tactics acting in a vacuum are sure fire momentum killers and roads to social media irrelevancy. That’s because they are based on top down, one way communication that do not encourage dialog or add real value. At its core, social media is a conversation between like minded peers, and brands are often viewed skeptically as outsiders and party crashers (even on their own fan pages!). Brands that are constantly telling you how great they are or how you can help them are likely to be shunned and ignored.

It’s not about you, it’s about them.

Much better to use a true people centered approach to social media communications that encourages engagement on deeper levels. This means knowing your communities by listening and taking the time to find out who they are, what they care about and what gets them fired up. Then find common ground and share your brand’s point of view in a way that adds value to the relationship. Bring something to the party:  A great story. Something surprising.  Something  fun. Something unexpected. Some knowledge or insight that will inspire or help.  This will lead to something infinitely more sharable and will grow your fans and followers in a much healthier and richer social media environment,  building customer loyalty, brand advocates and awareness.