Part of having an intern is trying to figure out what cool things she gets to do every day so we have Miss Liza Peiffer writing for Marketing Conversation.  Now we’re conspiring to fill her CV with lots of cool experience — my entire team is conspiring!  Tonight, though, I got a gift in the form of the interview that Liza did of me last week.  What I love about this post is that while it may be her interviewing me about social media, it is also a pretty awesome analysis in its own right — she really groks it!  I am very happy to have her on our team! Learn more about Liza here.

Social Media Marketing: The lovechild of work and play? With some thoughts from Chris Abraham

Where is social media going? Everyone has their opinions, but no one really knows. Still, it sure is fun to predict.  I took some time to talk to Chris Abraham, your favorite Marketing Conversation blogger,  about a little of what he sees in his crystal ball for social media.

But before you can reach the future, I suppose you begin with the past and present.

Chris was part of an online community back in 1984. We’re talkin’ when Ghostbusters premiered, Madonna was still “Like a Virgin” and when we were first introduced to the Macintosh computer.  He continued to work on online community development in the 1990s with The Meta Network (TMN), an offspring of the pioneering Caucus Systems, and basically watched online networking grow from a baby into what it is today.  As President and Founding Partner of Abraham Harrison, LLC that specializes in Digital PR and everything social media, I think it’s safe to say Chris Abraham has earned his expertise. (Find out more about Chris Abraham in his official bio).

Recently, Chris has been personally invited by Bob Garfield, co-host of NPR’s “On the Media”  and writer of “Ad Review” on Advertising Age, to blog about his third book: The Chaos Scenario, released this past spring.  Because of his innovative and creative approach to marketing, Chris is one of a select few that will have the chance to speak about the book.  Keep an eye out for his posts: http://thechaosscenario.net/blog/.

Ok. Now the future.

The strategy of product/service promotion through social media is becoming contagious among businesses everywhere.  However, with so many companies taking advantage of such marketing, the line between business and pleasure becomes blurred on the Internet. When I questioned if social media culture would eventually merge the two realms for good, Chris noted that the best business people wear both their “bowler hats and baseball caps”–so this fusion is somewhat probable.

In other words, it will become more difficult to maintain two distinct work-home personas if you want to utilize social media marketing to its full potential.

“We hit a point when you put on your suit of armor then have a private, personal life,” he said. “It’s harder to keep that separation for those who embrace social media.”  Chris stresses the importance of being a ‘person’ online as well as in the business world, and without putting yourself out there through means such as social media, “it’s hard to remain relevant” in the workplace.

Chris also says that “portable” sites like Twitter and Loopt (one of his new favorites) are both socially fulfilling and surprisingly good at forming business connections. “It’s strange. Twitter has encouraged more face to face meetings with me.”  He also says that there is “a constant urge to share your narrative,” and asks the question, “how is that going to become easier?” To answer this, Chris suggests it may not even be computers that revolutionize social media, but rather the mobile phone.

Well I completely agree.  We love to tell everyone else exactly what we’re doing at any given moment via Facebook statuses or Tweets or whatever– not to mention the heavy sharing of personal pictures.  Does anyone necessarily care if you just ate really good macaroni and cheese? Maybe if you’re Miley Cyrus they do? Hmm.  But regardless of who you are, real time sites satisfy people’s need to instantly connect to the world.  If this is what people crave more of, then this is what they’ll get.

Read one of Chris’ blogs comparing Twitter and SecondLife if you haven’t yet:

He sates in the blog: “The biggest mistake that social network services and online virtual communities make is being too invested in the outcome of how the community will grow and develop. To be successful in community development and community creation, one must be committed to the communit y and meeting their needs versus being committed to giving them what the community producer thinks the community wants and needs — often very different things.”  So considering this, I’d say that the future of social media is in the hands of those who use it.  If portability and simplicity are what works, then that will be what sticks.  If people find it beneficial to wear both their “bowler hats and baseball caps” from a business perspective, then that will become the growing trend.

And this is why marketing through social media flat out works—it targets people.

So when the dawn of technology fed the public with fear that humans would eventually become too impersonal, it seems it will cause just the opposite to happen. Or who knows, maybe in 100 years we will be marrying robots…but that’s a different story.

Whether it sets out to distort the distinction between what is professional and what is personal (the value of which is subjective) or continues to make people bigger and our world smaller, the online community is one hell of a place to live.

I have started writing for Advertising Age‘s blog, Digital Next, and have also become quite a fan myself. Yesterday, Ken Wheaton wrote an article entitled Twitter Is Not Responsible for Iranian Revolution wherein he posits that “If God came down from the heavens today, Twitterers would find a way to take credit for it.”  While I appreciate the humor, I felt compelled to share my opinion back in the comments and here’s what I said:

I don’t think Ken Wheaton or Jack Shafer truly grok Internet culture. If God herself came down from Heaven, the denizens of the Internet would want “first post” which is what is going on on Twitter about Iran.  We Twitterers don’t take credit for baiting God down from Mount Olympus, but we hunger to be the first person to report it to Twitter.  I did a talk yesterday to the ladies of the Woman’s National Democratic Club here in Washington and I made a similar comment: when the big quake finally gets around to hitting San Francisco, there will be a terrible toll for San Franciscans will, upon sensing the mad tremors, rush to report the earthquake and their guess as to the magnitude it’ll be reported to be on the Richter scale before they seek their own personal safety or the safety of their family.  The same thing is happening worldwide, especially more visibly in the form of #mumbai and #iranelection.

What do you think?  Do you think that we Twitterati fancy ourselves the source of these revolutions and revolts? Do we really fancy ourselves the catalysts or do we simply feel that insane rush when we’re the closest to the source of the news, the natural evolution, in the non geek world, of the competitiveness surrounding getting the first comment reply — the first post — on Slashdot.org.

Here’s some fresh news from AdAdge that Barack Obama has been awarded the AdAge Marketer of the Year award, edging out Apple and Zappos. 36.1% of all votes went to Obama, compared toApple’s 27.3% and Zappo’s 14.1%. (Via Marketing Conversation)

Just weeks before he demonstrates whether his campaign’s blend of grass-roots appeal and big media-budget know-how has converted the American electorate, Sen. Barack Obama has shown he’s already won over the nation’s brand builders. He’s been named Advertising Age’s marketer of the year for 2008.

Mr. Obama won the vote of hundreds of marketers, agency heads and marketing-services vendors gathered here at the Association of National Advertisers’ annual conference. He edged out runners-up Apple and Zappos.com. The rest of the shortlist, selected by Ad Age’s editorial staff, was rounded out by megabrand Nike, turnaround story Coors and Mr. Obama’s rival, Sen. John McCain.

I don’t know but this all sounds like “grassroots” campaigning and politics to me; that said, the Barack Obama campaign has a certain level of religiosity and passion that might just have welled into campaigning, using AdAge as a platform.

I wonder.  I might be wrong.

It’s just a little fishy. Sounds a little bit of memetic engineering mixed in with a high passion base rolled into a high probability that modern ad men and ad women are urban liberals and might use the awards to make a vocal statement.

Again, I might be wrong.

Mind you, if this is a conspiracy of Barack Obama campaigning and pro-Obama activation, then the success in fact proves and reinforces the award as rightfully — and with passion — belonging to the Obama/Biden ticket.

What do you think?