Part of my day job involves connecting with other agencies to explore potential partnerships, and as a result I see a lot of agency websites. While most, including our own, following a proven yet fairly standard structure and layout, every now and then I come across agencies who are deliberately throwing out the rulebook and trying something radically new.
Here are two that impress, and at the very least got me thinking. I may have quibbles with usability, but it’s hard to argue with their daring and originality.
A Charlotte, NC firm that build their entire site in a series of papercraft and sketch animation-style videos hosted on YouTube. They got a bunch of coverage back in June, but I stumbled across them again this weekend. Navigation can be a bit tough to get used to, but definitely unique, and why not just outright embed your whole site on the world’s most popular video sharing network?
I love the idea – showcase your agency largely by showcasing how the rest of the world sees you, through social links (Twitter, delicious, YouTube, etc), and then have your old site, minus the blog, essentially just be a navigation overlay on top of a SERP. Neat trick, though it broke at least a couple times when I tried to access it.
Both are a nice change from the Flash-bonanzas that still pass for most agency sites these days. Are there any other truly unique or inventive agency sites you’ve come across?
Has social media become so mainstream as a marketing/PR tool that it has lost the excitement of being shiny and new? Are the early adopters really starting to move on to newer and “shinier” things?
Perhaps – but I happen to think that now is the time when social media marketing will truly thrive and the really interesting stuff is just starting to appear.
So what do I mean by “shiny and new?”
There’s an interesting trend you’ll find in some slices of the marketing profession: Shiny New Thing Syndrome. It’s not something I’m going to bag on, because it can be fantastic, rewarding, even necessary. For all the many marketers and PR professionals that seem to be lagging adopters of new tools and concepts like social media, there’s a far more visible group that is laser-focused on being out in front, spotting the new trends, and leading change.
When that new stuff goes mainstream, their attention shifts to whatever’s next on the horizon while the rest of the industry settles down to developing best practices, refining tactics, and so on. In short, they are focused on whatever is shiny and new, and when the shine wears off, so does their interest.
I was inspired to write about this as Tac Anderson makes this point in a post discussing what happens “When Social Media Stops Being Shiny“:
Social media has made the big time. We’ve crossed the chasm, we’re mainstream, people are finally taking us seriously. We were right and they were wrong…
Every trend, even really big ones like social media, hit point where in order to be sustained the early adopters have to step out of the way and let people who don’t get easily distracted manage processes and create best practices. Things early adopters aren’t typically that good at.
I agree that for the most part, social media has crossed the chasm. It’s almost impossible to find a marketing, ad, or PR campaign that *doesn’t* include a social media element to it. User submitted content contests, “like” buttons, Facebook tab promos, etc are basically everywhere – many well planned and executed, many not.
From the early adopter standpoint, the point isn’t in if the medium has been perfected (far from it), but that it has simply gone mainstream. They are off to the next shiny, which in all likelihood sits somewhere between your smartphone and a cloud. It reminds me when blogging suddenly became passe, and Twitter all the rage.
Given all that, back to my opening point…
Personally, while I *love* the shiny and new, I also think that some of the most exciting stuff is yet to come in social media marketing.
Why?
Because there’s still a ton of experimentation happening that is well beyond the refinement of yesterday’s ideas. The discipline itself is professionalizing, and lots of incredibly smart people from diverse backgrounds are flooding into it. Big brands, having started to buy into social media as a viable marketing channel, are increasingly willing to bet bigger dollars on it. The tools and networks we use are continuing to grow and evolve at ever faster rates.
Also, the concept of social media marketing is itself extending outwards to embrace the shiny and new, as we can see with campaigns built around Foursquare, SCVNGR, and (soon) Facebook Places and those mixing mobile ads with social calls-to-action.
Throw it all together in one big, creative pot and all signs point to some pretty amazing things on the horizon for social media marketing. I love reading the thoughts of those who dive headlong into the shiny and new – as I myself do fairly constantly – but I’m also looking forward to seeing how social media marketing is going to mature now that some serious talent and resources are being focused on it. Good times ahead.
Photo by marfis75 on Flickr via CC License
Cross-posted from the Ignite Social Media blog, where I blog occasionally. You can read the full post there.
In case you hadn’t heard, Facebook launched yet another category-redefining feature last week. This time they shook up the still-emerging world of geo-location services, where buzz-worthy startups like Foursquare, Gowalla and Booyah (MyTown) had been steadily and somewhat quietly testing models, adding features, and building user bases.
Not anymore. While the jury is still out on the long-term impact of Facebook Places, one thing is clear: in one shot, Places took the idea of ”checking in” and made it both universal and effectively generic. With instant access to 500 million active users and near ubiquity on smartphones everywhere, Facebook Places has turned checking in from a cool and unique feature into a utility on par with sharing or liking.
Does that mean Foursquare and all the other pioneers who also offer geo-location check-ins are headed for Friendster status? Not necessarily, but it is clear that just offering a service to say “hey I’m here!” or even “I was here more than anybody else!” is no longer sufficient to make users stand up and care enough to keep using your service.
