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Tag Archive: Generation Y

The Power and the Significance of Your Name

Written on February 27, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

The one defining characteristic we all share, the one unique and profound element of each and everyone of us is the name we are given. From the reason to why we were given such a name to the historical lineage and significance of what a name has come to represent, our name, beyond it’s objective purpose, encompasses what and who each of us is. It’s essence is at the very heart of our existence.

It signified what tribe you came from. It represented the language and dialect you spoke. It made others aware of the region you came from. And grew into characterizing the nationality you came from. It effectively describes us in a manner more than we truly understand or choose to realize. It was the mark you put down when coming to the New World, the signature that made your home and the last thing that is ever read in a letter by the one you love. Your name is utterly more powerful and significant than simply the characters that represent it.

It represents every transaction you make. From bank notes to ownership, business relations to pay checks, marriage, authorship and beyond. And in a growing world based in text, online search and social profiles, the purpose of your name has expanded and become more imperative than it ever has before. It simply doesn’t represent who you are. It is who you are.

With the unprecedented growth of social networks, social media and mobile technology, the context of the name has evolved into something that is truly beyond the physical individual. It is the title in your friend’s BlackBerry contacts. It is the quintessential component which makes the social world possible. Our name is the underlying signifier of everything that is the composition of our social profiles and everything that lives in an interconnected world.

The implications here are fascinating. Our names are the titles of our virtual self and they are becoming the key-indicators to our real self. Our social media behaviour attributes our name to the ambassadoring of the smart phones we use, the Facebook “likes”, the brands, causes and marketing we support, the tweet links we share and the statements we make. It glorifies, humanizes and broadens human tendencies into the unnatural ultimately culminating the unnatural to become natural everyday components and necessities of life.

Rather than focusing on the negatives and many supposed downturns the impact of our name has had in instances of the online world, we should embrace and represent who we are. We’re all utterly enthralled and mystified by the negative simplicities that our name attributes to us in a growing world of online search and social profiles. The negatives clearly exist as we participate in the emerging dynamics of our new world but the positives are undeniable beneficial and life-altering.

Our name, both in the physical and virtual worlds, is immortal and will outlast each and every one of us. It’s up to us to decide how you will make the greatest impact through one of the most significant and powerful characteristics we all have. Will you rise above yourself for the happiness of others? Will you influence the world with positive actions? Will you empower yourself to somehow change the world? Even on the smallest of scales. Your name is and will always be the everlasting testament of who you are.

Do Millennial Brand Wants Equal Facebook “Likes”?

Written on February 21, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Millennials are incredibly brand-centric. For them, brands have become a lifestyle. They represent more than simple names and products. They represent the essence and expressions and attitudes of this generation. It is a growing paradigm that is further catalyzing and characterizing the very human nature that brands are taking on as they humanize themselves.

Social media, and especially Facebook, is propelling the brand into a dynamic that is truly unprecedented. From their own Facebook pages, along with the vastly emerging page abilities, and on-going attempt at the brandification of your social presence, Facebook has brought the brand to the epicentre of our lives. Something of which has been realized and taken on by many brands from the earliest days of Facebook.

Facebook itself from its earliest days has been a Millennial thing. Even now it’s something that is still dominated by the youth segment of society with 61% of U.S. and 67% of Canadian users falling under the age of 34. Now, once you step back and take a look at the overall picture, you have Millennial demographic, in the midst of taking over the lucrative 18-34 year-olds market segment, combined with the concoction of brands on Facebook and you have yourself something that appears to be awe-inspiring. Or so it seems.

A recent report conducted by L2, know as the “Gen-Y Affluents: Media Survey”, further emphasized the increasing importance the digital and social media worlds will have on your brand and further brand success. And though I won’t dive into the complete vastness of the report itself, I want to look at something quite specific. Particularly, the brand wants Millennials have and how they equate and reciprocate to Facebook “likes”, which have become an element of rising significance.

The graph above and below clearly represent a series of “last prestige brand purchased” and “prestige brands aspired to own” by Millennials. They will represent the brands. Further, we’ll make a series of assumptive points for this context. Based on the numbers above, we’ll say that those 1-34 year-olds represent 60% of the Facebook user-base, something which is particularly low in any context. And lastly, the L2 report represents the U.S. Millennial, something we’ll simply come to represent Millennials themselves.

After you begin to look at the brands provided and start to search for the number of brands “likes” you begin to realize a few things. Firstly, Apple is clearly a favorite in all aspects of each graph and their iTunes page is the only one to break into over 10 million mark of all the brands presented. However, fascinatingly, there is no actual Apple Facebook page. Secondly, other than the iTunes page that makes it into the Top 100 Facebook pages, the rest of the brands don’t appear until a few hundred pages later in the rankings and only appear at page “likes” under 5 million with some of these prestige brands only have a few hundred thousand likes.

Now, any of these numbers would be more than flattering for anyone. Who wouldn’t want a few hundred thousands likes in the brand world? But with the Facebook savvy and brand-centric Millennials, who dominate one segment and will dominate the next, one has to wonder if Facebook “likes” at all represent the wants of customers, consumers and Millennials alike.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m clearly taking a very assumptive approach, as I stated above. Equally, we’re only dealing with “prestige” brands here, 0f which many Millennials believe they will actually have. But, it’s something that discounts the “every day” brands such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks who continue to exhibit great social success. Though, even then, the correlation between the brand and Facebook is lukewarm at best. And to answer the purpose of this article, it seems that in fact Millennial brand wants do not equate to Facebook likes. At least for the time being.

Much of this can be attributed to a variety of reasons. Most immediately, the fact that a vast majority of brand-relationships begin and end with the action of the “like”. Furthermore, there is no overall benefit to liking anything even if does let your friends know something about you as each “like” gets lost in a growing sea of likes. Equally, Facebook’s minimal platform has often resulted in the same haphazard minimal brand approach. And though pages are being liked they do not represent anything near in scale to the power of Facebook and the Millennials that base their life around it.

By no means is any of this easy to comprehend. Nor simple to implement. But it should provide some clarification into the world of the Millennials and their branded experience. However, if Millennial brands don’t equal Facebook “likes”, maybe the “likes” themselves are a view into Millennial wants. In any case, it’s a brand and social paradigm that will need and get more attention as time goes on. Most of which will ultimately refine itself through the evolution of our social graphs.

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Warning: Schedule Your Tweets At Your Own Risk

Written on February 13, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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As the vastness of the Twitterverse increases and it’s importance gains increasing traction, our wants for the optimization, and even monetization, further expand into Twitter’s API (application programming interface) 3^rd party world. Whether that be dashboard applications based in easier usage such as Tweetdeck or Hootsutie to a variety of programs that do anything from strategic following, quick unfollows, the delivering hated auto direct-messages and scheduled tweeting, the growing number of these applications and tools is endless.

Any piece of analytical information is and will be used to ones advantage. And depending on what you primarily use Twitter for, much of this can mean everything and nothing to you. But seemingly regardless of which bucket you fall into or what kind of user you classify yourself as there is unquestionably a set of social media characteristics that drive and intrigue everyone. And in the case of this blog post, it is the timeliness to the way you tweet and share social media updates.

Make no mistake, your status updates are some of the most strategically timed and placed actions we all take part in. Whether you’re willing to admit it or not. From our own beliefs of how we perceive the perception of someone else’s perception to how we are perceived, our scheduling – or lack there of – of our social media activities is undeniably meant to benefit us how we personally see fit.

Thus, scheduled and routine activity amongst the various social networks carries its own series of valuable meanings for each and everyone of us. Once you combine this with the ongoing social media osmosis that is occurring into all aspects of life, our ability to be active 24/7 is, well, impossible. Work, family, commitments and sleep all require necessary and significant attention over tweeting and facebooking and linkeding. And rightfully so. But the emergence of these obstacles, for the lack of a better word, are taking many of us to a more optimized scheduling future.

After all, Twitter and social media is not based in turn-media rhetoric. Say like TV or email or daily newspapers. With hundreds of millions of users, there is no universal schedule. This is the reason why many try to garner the attention of those through scheduling while you in fact are not there actively tweeting but the program you command is. Of course, we all have our own reasons for scheduling. However, attempting to schedule your big or small or personal social media campaign can be hazardous.

The recent public launch of a social media tool called Timely brought me to thinking about this. Especially since Timely’s sole purpose is to “help you schedule tweets for maximum impact.” To keep it short and succinct, Timely analyzes that your last 199 tweets and categorizes them into a series of metrics that revolve largely around retweets and the timing of those retweets. Ultimately, providing you with the best possible times for you to tweet in hopes of “maximum impact.”

Now, let’s not get confused here. I’m in no way pointing out Timely is a bad product. Nor am I suggesting it is the best possible solution for your scheduling needs. Rather I aim to tackle the notion that tweet and social media scheduling is detrimental to your overall campaigns for a variety of reasons.

Until this generation passes and a true generation of digital natives arrives, social media is truly an unnatural aspect of life to most of today’s users. However, in that same moment, many of us our rapidly humanizing it and it’s existence through our continual usage. Should you ask any of today’s youth, they would say it’s completely real and contextual to their current real life.

On the backing of that argument, the unnaturalness of social media has seemingly become natural. Equally, it’s natural element is not one based in social scheduling. Our social media activities and actions and sharing and connecting are now natural and everyday occurrences. They represent the emotional, mental, uncertain, random, human aspects of who we are. To attempt to optimize that is to return social media back to a state of unnaturalness. Scheduling has no place in human interaction nor can it exist in an openly following phenomena that we know as social media. Simply due to the fact that usage is not scheduled or structured like the 6 o’clock news or your kids soccer practice or your work schedule.

Scheduling will have it’s place, use and effect. But the very essence of social media can not exist in optimizing your efforts based on the supposed schedules of others. It ultimately takes away from our ability to rise and connect on a new level and returns us back to what very much appears to be based in traditional advertising and marketing metrics. Thus, not even making it a new idea at all. So, schedule if you must. Optimize if you dare. But taking the human essence of social media away from itself is questionable. A warning to not being yourself.

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The Super Bowl Effect

Written on February 7, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Football is awesome. In fact, any sports spectacle is something to be enjoyed. There really is nothing as powerful as human competitive nature and watching two sides compete. Especially, when it’s the Super Bowl. The match-up of match-ups. The gladiators in the arena. The winner to be crowned champion of them all. But then something changed. Something became different.

Football and sports and competition are more alive than ever. They are enormous billion dollar industries. And they without a doubt attract the mob. They are the devout supporters resided in the arena where we enjoy the battle and pick one winner over the other. However, it’s all seemingly gone beyond that. The Super Bowl itself is still as much about being the champion as the Super Bowl always was. Though it has undeniably become “super” in all other respects.

In the eyes of many, and growing on a yearly basis, Super Bowl Sunday is the culmination and defining point of a season. The celebrations are becoming rampant. “What are you doing for the Super Bowl?” is a commonly asked phrase by mid-January and just about everybody is celebrating this would-be holiday.

It is amongst the top days for food consumption all year, 2^nd only to the American Thanksgiving. Absenteeism the following Monday accounts for unprecedented levels of call-ins and sick days. All while the football faithful have slowly become surrounded and crowded by just about everyone from those interested to those putting money on the game and even including the unparalleled growth of female viewership over the last few years.

As the Cannes Film Festival is to the film industry, the Super Bowl wholeheartedly reciprocates with that to the marketing and advertising industry. There is no other point in the year where we so willing observe and wait to see the advertising. It has become as traditional as the Super Bowl itself. It’s no wonder why some of the most successful advertising campaigns to ever take shape can account and be thankful for their million-dollar 30 second timeslot that were viewed by tens-of-millions of people in years past. $3 million for 30 seconds for a possible audience of over a 100 million people. You would almost be foolish not to be a part of that, right? Especially after realizing that traditionally, half-time performers don’t get paid for performing. That’s the profoundness in all of this.

And instead of leaving everything to the event, we’ve begun to see a multitude of Super-Bowl-like ads. But they’re not viewed during or at the Super Bowl but released prior in hopes of receiving the same Super Bowl valuation and attention. For anyone paying attention last week, there were more than a series of supposed pre-released Super-Bowl-like ads though they actually weren’t Super Bowl ads per se. Though you were convinced they were. Weren’t you?

Do I dare bring social media into all of this? Of course I dare. Not only will all numbers show the internet was alive and well with Super Bowl buzz regarding everything from the pre-Super Bowl thoughts and comments and impending ads, to the peaks in activity following real time events, and now the blogosphere closing out the process. Who can forget the role social media played in many of the adverts themselves, something that will exponentially grow in the years to come. Maybe you didn’t even realize that. After all, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have become the everyday local.

If a viewing audience of 100 million wasn’t enough, social media most definitely compounded that to additional millions of secondary and tertiary touches. No one is left untouched by the Super Bowl. No one stands to not know what the Super Bowl is. We augment life towards it. It has a black swan-esque element to it. Nothing else comes close to mirroring it. This is the Super Bowl effect. There is no way in avoiding it. You cannot escape its vastness or reach. You will be effected by it whether you like it or not.

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Social Media and Your Career: Who Ultimately Controls It?

Written on February 3, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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As social media continues to expand, grow and evolve it will freely extend it’s peripheries into all aspects of life. No topic remains untouched by it. Every conversation leads to it. Our daily activities involve and revolve around it. And seemingly, anywhere we go we encounter it. It’s one of the most personal and powerful innovations we’ve ever come across but largely unfounded, unprecedented and absolutely unpredictable.

Yet, it’s allure strongly remains. From it’s roots in primal urges and education to it’s extension of the personal self and the unlimited pursuit of marketers and brands, anyone that has put any effort into social media has come to realize the significant and fascinating impact it has. As it osmotically moves through our societal membranes, it will naturally diffuse its presence everywhere and your career, work life and job are it’s next target.

Increasingly, social media is affecting you and the workplace. But not in the manner you’re probably thinking of. The first inclinations many of you will have is that it somehow has to do with the hiring process and your privacy settings. But you would be mistaken. Your next inclination might be the topic that deals with social media usage in the workplace. But that’s won’t be the topic at hand here either. What we’re going to explore here is the definitive and growingly profound topic of social influence in the workplace. And how your employer will be looking to take advantage of it.

Notions of social influence have caught fire as of late. It’s been the rant and the rave. It’s clout, pun intended, will become a very comprehensive issue of your social future. So much so that the emerging social paradigm will in some shape or form impact everything online whether you decide to participate in it or not. Even reaching into aspects of life where certain job requirements demand a level of Twitter followers. The workplace itself is naturally becoming more social. Something that is being ushered in extensively through grassroots movements by Millennial hyperconnectivity, amongst other sources of social media users.

Now, when you begin combining, mixing and experimenting with these different variations of the above mentioned notions, thoughts and insights you come across a progressively impacting predicament. Any relationship between the social world and the working world has been controversial and questionable, unless you’re actual job is, well, a social media job or inclined to working with varying aspects of social media. But there is an emerging dynamic that is pushing towards using your social presence and social influence at the behest of your employer.

We’ve added co-workers to our networks only to be scrutinized and experience the growing accounts of “we need to talk about your social media activity” – activities that even occur when you’re not at the office. As the lines begin to blur, an emerging trend is beginning to manifest. A manifestation that precludes you from being yourself but one that compels you to invoke actions based supporting and benefiting your employer and what they represent.

This quandary forces a series of significant issues and questions here. Who truly has final say on what you can and cannot put on your various profiles? Do you have to support your social media campaigns through shares, updates and tweets? And if you don’t, what does that imply? Does your social network and social influence and social presence give your employer access to the value you entrusted in your peers and created yourself? It’s an endless stream of serious concerns.

Understandably, particular jobs do require some or many of these aspects. And that’s acceptable. If you’re going to be the social media evangelist or guru or company representative, you have to be willingly to stake yourself in that position. But putting your name out-there unquestionably is more than problematic, it’s downright scary and career threatening. As strong as people are and more often than we choose to admit, we give into these weaknesses of our job willingly participating in something that could have overreaching effects years down the road.

Our jobs and our social media presence are becoming more entwined than we know or think to believe. So, what happens when we say “no” to showing your social media support? It hardly suggests we don’t have belief in our employer or what they do. But if definitely throws a kink into the framework. And if my job does entail that I must use my social influence as a part of my job, where do you draw the line?

Where do you establish the value? Where do you determine who has control of your social media and online life? How far are you willing to go with for career? Can your co-workers ever be your social media friends? We all must truly consider what this means for our jobs, careers and overall life, especially since there is no escaping work or the effects of social media.

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Story Building vs. Story Telling

Written on January 31, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Stories have given us some of the most powerfully multifaceted characteristics that have defined our beliefs, ideologies and the way we see the world. From the religious scriptures that our societies have been founded on, to the musings of poetic literature from the Far East, Europe and South America, to advertising campaigns we are exposed to and the gossip we share everyday. The “story” is undoubtedly one of the greatest compelling aspects we all share and are a part of.

For most of our existence, the story was in the hands of the few. Few knew how to write. Few knew how to read. More importantly, it was left in the hands of the few, the wise and elderly, to tell the story and pass it on from generation to generation. But as time moved on, and as writers and artists and poets began to grow in numbers as literacy began to shift to the masses, we became explorers, authors, directors and ultimately, journalists, columnists, bloggers and tweeters. The “story” has withstood the testament of time.

Until recently, stories have only been told. And rewritten or adapted or rephrased to be told again. We were told the story and we took it for what it was, a piece of news, a wives tale, some juicy gossip. We were passive aspects to what had happened and not what was happening. However, this is all slowly changing.

The introduction of the web, blogging, social media and tweeting forever changed the dynamics of the story. Stories are still very much told and created. But we are all becoming part of the story. The story itself is a live element of the now and not simply a representation of the past. We are no longer just story tellers. We are a growing number of story builders. A shift that has massively transitioned from the few hundred paged stories Charles Dickens wrote and transformed to the 140 character tweets many of us participate in today.

The shift has also made the story real-time and interactive. Newspapers, magazines, books and anything else that represented ink on paper was kept at the vantage point of the author, the story teller. Now, comments reign supreme. The story itself is as much a part of the actual contextual piece as it is in the comments that precede it. As we continually move away from the pillars that encompass the essence of our traditional understandings of stories, we move toward an interesting but strange world full of story builders.

Each and everyone of us who participate in any interactive and social media medium are actively building and shaping the story that is currently occurring. And Facebook offers a series of examples that are paramount to this. Our conversations, “likes”, shares and witty updates are all aspects to the story we are building. Not only have they culminated in the “wall-to-wall” element, the “see friendship” characteristic is an ongoing story from the very first interaction to the very last between two “friends”. And most recently, “sponsored stories” are the culmination of everyday stories occurring before our eyes through growing socially interactive lives.

Stories and story telling will always play a crucial role in our development. And that should never be forgotten. There is nothing more essential than reading your young child a great story book. But at the same time, we have to understand the changing direction of the winds. The story has evolved into a live and living organism and one that is only confined to the extent we choose to create and build it. The prevailing and profound nature of story remains the same. Now, you simply have to decide where you stand. Do you tell it or do you build it? Do you challenge it or do you conform to it? Do you sell it or do you enjoy it? The story is as much about the story as it is about everything else you decide to do with it.

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3 Laws of Social Media

Written on January 30, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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The more we use and participate in social media, the greater the effects social media will have on each and every one of us. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all other networks we use on an ongoing basis have massively altered and profoundly changed our behaviour. We see the world differently. We see everyone else differently. We see ourselves differently. And there really is no going back to how it once was.

The fact of the matter is social media has not only changed life, it has forever recalculated it to the vastness of all probability. The table of elements for human life has been greatly expanded. The laws that govern our very existence have been further compounded. Our continuing refinements to social profile perfection, our hardly random status updates, our strolls through the proverbial news feed landscape all account for an extreme level of behavioural adjustment. Behaviours that are more powerful that we can begin to truly realize.

Like anything else, social media is naturally inserting and creating a series of laws that define and govern its own existence. Unknowingly but fascinatingly, we are all the catalysts to these growing dynamics as we feed off social media and social media feeds off us. And through this self-perpetuating cycle we reinforce both one and the other. Here are 3 laws the govern social media.

1. The Law of Numbers

Social media is unquestionably biased towards the power of numbers. Equally, we are naturally drawn to them. The greater the number, the greater the impact, the greater the influence, the greater the significant, the greater the effect. We are inclined and attracted and deceived by the power that lies in the association of larger digits to a particular item.

Articles that are tweeted more reciprocate in a larger amount of tweets. Facebook pages that are “liked” more generate a larger amount of “likes”. Greater social media activity generates greater social influence. None of which are the result of true substance but rather caused by the support of the law of numbers.

An article that is tweeted 300 times will generate more interest and activity and broadcast than one tweeted 30 times. Not because of its natural impact and characteristics of 300 tweets but due to the fact the “300” will receive one level of behaviour and the “30” will receive a lesser level of behavioural response. Even if the latter article was superior in content to the first. Ultimately, this applies to all contexts of social media that are concerned with numbers.

2. The Law of Misperception

Social media not only creates a misperception of who we are, it creates a misperception of the world we see and observe. Our social profiles are hardly true representations of who we are. The social profiles of our friends, followers and connections are hardly true representations of who they are. In both the case of the former and latter, we all pursue a social existence that will place us in the best, coolest, positive, most beneficial light we can conceive and believe.

The law of misperception causes use to create our social existence not in the eyes of who we are but in the eyes of others that will be viewing who we are. Equally, the law of misperceptions glorifies those around us. We’ve always been envious and competitive and jealous of each other in one extent or another and as a result we believe that others actually had that great of a time, while we didn’t. And they live such an awesome life, and we don’t. And they’re so happy together, and we’re not.

We falsely, incorrectly, and misgivingly apply unsupported value to all contexts, stories, images, relationships, descriptions and status-updates. We deceive ourselves into a false reality. We hope to instil perfection in our social selves by chasing the misperceived perfection of others. And continually pushing cycle the more we become inclusionary to social media.

3.The Law of Emotion

In hopes of not losing our human touch in the vastness of advancing social media and technology, we act at a heightened level of emotional polarity. We seemingly appear to be on the positive and negative extremes of the scale. And even then, our actions are meant to evoke a response. From the uttermost politeness we all share in front of the masses to our know-it-all opinions that further invigorate the mob, our care towards the online world can hardly be said to be represented in real life.

We growingly care about people, and things, and elements of social media life that were previously never of any consequence to our lives. We elicit behaviours that consume us. We don’t have 350 supposed “friends” because we actually care to be friends with them. Rather we are concerned with everything else that represents them. We all openly evoke online conversation but the majority of us can say we ever did the same before or even do now outside the confines of social media.

We stalk and creep profiles. We keep tabs an people we haven’t seen or talked to in years. We are polite not for the sake of simply being polite but to build rapport and establish an even greater personal network. Our social profiles are updated by emotional extremes. It’s not the update that generates a response but the extremity of it. There is no place for the neutral level of daily emotion that in fact encompasses the majority of our daily lives.

Laws of Social Media

These laws are hardly immutable. Nor are they single-handedly the only ones that govern social media. However, their impacts have to truly be understood. The culmination to the mounting value of numbers has generated a series of attributes that control Google search and your Facebook news feed. Both of which are not controlled by what you want to see but by what has a heavier social presence and a perceived disposition of what the numbers say about you.

The numbers create a misperception of what you see and ultimately create a misperception of what is important to us. As certain elements generate greater social presence or social authority or social capital, they create a falsehood of truthfulness. A truth that ultimately produces emotions that would otherwise not come to fruition.

Many of you will be affected by the words of this article by these laws. And so the cycle continues. Many of you will see the words here as presenting social media as a negative occurrence. But it shouldn’t be understood this way. Rather these laws are representation of what has social media is. Just like gravity dictates that what goes up must come down, the law of numbers, misperceptions and emotions dictate the essence of social media.

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The Brandification of Your Social Presence

Written on January 27, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Douglas Rushkoff was absolutely right when he stated brands have no natural place in peer-to-peer networks. The meagre successes they’ve been able to exhibit within social media are only but a testament to the abnormality of what is the “brand”. They aren’t fellow peers. Nor are they actual products. And they’re always trying to sell you and your friends and you on your friends. Rushkoff’s “ten commands for a digital age” could not ring more true.

The problem here is that brands were never inherent components of social media. In fact, most of anything if not everything online was naturally created to benefit the user, the “friends”, the “followers”, the individual. And as Rushkoff argues, the continual progression, evolution and revolution of the technological, online and social media worlds has in fact weakened who we are. But in the same reciprocating moment, they have provided us with some of the most significant advancements we’ve ever seen.

With our fixations on how these aspects of life have altered, changed and transformed who we are and our daily environments, we’ve undoubtedly cast a shadow on many other aspects we choose to resist. The essence of our existence has been redefined. To think that as we evolve, and business evolves, and work evolves, and life evolves and just about everything within in some kind of correlation to these events evolves while the “brand” and brands don’t evolve also, in one context or another, would be foolish.

As brands try to intercede social media by attempting to create brand-to-peer and even peer-to-brand-to-peer relationships, they will fail and continue to fail if they act like the brands we’ve always known. These relationships are unnatural within the context of social media. Even with Rushkoff’s brilliance, this is where I have to challenge his contentions here. Yes, brands have no place in social media. But what if the fundamental nature of the brand has changed.

Once social media became associated with the well known fact of hundreds of millions of users, brands have been ceaselessly and endlessly trying to stake their claim within the social graph. Luckily for them, multi-billion dollar valuations and investments have pushed social media to monetize and return some of that value back to eager investors. And though this is hardly a new issue, it’s taken somewhat of a very intriguing path recently.

Earlier this week, Facebook announced the introduction of “sponsored stories”. Now, “check-ins” and “likes” will give brands the opportunity to sponsor them with a related visible ad. And though, sponsoring anything online and through social media is hardly a new advertising medium, the context of sponsored stories changes the overall context of the brand but more profoundly, your social presence.

What is essentially occurring here is the brandification, yes brandification, of your social presence. Credence has already been given to the creation of these loyal brand ambassadors, as sponsored stories cannot be turned off by the user so their online branded activity in effect creates brand ambassadors willingly sharing brand information. Though that’s significant in itself, sponsored stories are incredibly innovative when you begin to understand and contextualize the importance of the Millennials within this cosmic mix.

Not only are the Millennials hefty social media users, leading the usage and user categories, they are critical and highly noteworthy brand evangelists. Both Edelman’s “8095” and L2’s “Gen-Y Affluents” reports have verified that Millennials are considerably brand-centric. They love the brand. They love brands. They share brands. They talk brands. They live brands. They speak brands. And they have invested considerable ideological value into them. They have come to represent who they are.

When you make this correlation you begin to see the very beginnings of branded social profiles. Brands will no longer come to represent the products that encompass them but the user who empowers them. The user who humanizes them. For better or worse, we will experience a compelling paradigm shift to the branding of who we are and what our very presence online will come to represent. The advancements of our world have not only come to change who we are, they have changed the very essence of everything that surrounds us. And how we willingly interact with them. They have made the brand more synonymous to our existence than ever before.

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Attracting Millennials to Your Event and Why You’re Failing at It

Written on January 15, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Early this week, I was invited to present on a series of Millennial topics at the PCMA’s Convening Leaders Conference that was held in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The topic of my presentations ranged from “What Millennials Want” to “Attracting Millennials to Your Event” with some great discussion and comments in between. And it was nothing short of an extraordinary experience.

Having the opportunity to speak at a conference that easily had the number of participants ranging into the thousands was an absolute pleasure. Once you add meeting Chris Brogan, yes, I’m taller than Chris, and meeting Eric Ly, one of the co-founders of LinkedIn and current Founder and CEO of Presdo, to hearing the phenomenal key note speech given by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, on delivering happiness, amongst other things, you end up with one awesome experience.

Not to mention, finally having the opportunity to meet Jeff Hurt and Dave Lutz, which are two gentlemen you have to meet and follow and connect with, was great. A thousand thank you’s for everything you two have done to bring me to the PCMA’s event.

And as great as all this was, hearing the thoughts and notions and views many of the PCMA participants had towards Millennials was just as extraordinary and downright fascinating. From the lightheartded twentysomething jokes Chris was throwing around to the more serious misconceptions and erroneous understandings, I could not believe how misunderstood and elusive and impossible and delusional many believe today’s youth to be. It’s as if no one had an true grasp on who and what the Millennials are all about.

Shockingly, the answers to the pains and the problems everyone had was only seemingly apparent to, well, only myself. And no one else seemingly had any sort of plausible solution to attracting Millennials to just about anything. Admittedly, all the problems would not and could not be solved in the brief discussions that were taking place. But at no one point in the repetitive discussion did anyone even come close to some sort of meaningful insight. Even at the heed of my own personal Millennial insights, experience and expertise.

What I quickly began to realize was the deeply rooted systemic issues that lie within current organizations, associations and just about anything else currently looking to acquire and attract Millennials. Much of which is encapsulated in utter disregard, narcissism and brutish thinking towards this young immense segment of the population.

And one moment single-handedly defined all this negative sentiment. It culminated in a comment for the emcee of the particular presentation, who is a professor at UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), in the brief discussion we had after. The comment itself was as follows: (laughingly) “Like I tell all my students, before you think you’re going anywhere you’ll have to look up at our Baby Boomer butts. Because we’re not leaving anytime soon.” I could not help but be speechless, shocked and in absolute amazement to this type of rhetoric.

In no way am I attempting to villainize anyone here. And not to sound to brutish or harsh, this dinosaur thinking will leave a generation of Millennials scorned. And when they do attempt to understand Millennials, they fail to answer “what’s next?”. The dynamics of this issue are so profound that it is causing many Millennials to answer Millennial issues with Baby Boomer thoughts, as we’ve been lead to believe they have all the answers. As one Millennial, a president from a student organization, asked “we are on social media but we can’t get more students to join”. The Baby Boomer answer they received was “it’s all about repetition. You just have to be repetitive.” Though an element, that answer could not be more farther from the truth.

Attracting Millennials and being successful with Millennials and maintaining any sort of relationship with Millennials must go beyond the Baby-Boomer-only and narcissistic approach. Yes, aspects such as mentoring are imperative and there is no denying that. However, to bridge the gap, you cannot built this bridge from only one side. Reserve-mentoring is just as imperative to have within this current environment, as we are at a state in time where there are massive, differing and defining characteristics between today’s young and old.

What has manifested here is that many Millennials are beginning to say what Baby Boomers want to hear in hopes to being accepted by them but yet, they will act completely different and to the contrary of their words. It has to be said that though the Boomers do have great amounts of experience they do not have all the answers, which is very frightening to them but ultimately problematic to everyone. And no where is this more evident than when they attempt to attract Millennials to their organizations and associations and events.

Fascinatingly, the dynamics and paradigms that exist within the Millennial environment are more simple than anyone chooses to believe. I often get asked how to use social media for the purpose of attraction. And though I hate to answer a question with a question, my answer almost every time is “are you making it status-update worthy?”. Amazingly, many do not understand the significance that exists behind a Millennial’s social profile. We have defined ourselves with social media. You have to make whatever you are delivering something worthy of our self-defining. No updates are merely random occurrences. They are some of the most strategic actions we take and act on within social media and our everyday lives.

No one wants to draw attention or attraction to something that will be perceived as a damaging component to who they are. Millennials will often say that their Facebook profiles are often there personal spaces and they don’t want to be part of your fan page or intruded on and so on. The reason they don’t want to be part of your fan page is not due to the fact that they won’t “like” it, it’s due to the fact that them “liking” it is perceived by them to negatively affect and impact who they are. And how they are viewed by others.

The Millennials will unquestioningly join and become part of something should they deem it in a positive and beneficial light. But with the current excessive dinosaur modes of thought and narcissistic thinking on part of the Baby Boomers, do not be surprised or shocked to see the Millennials turn away en masse from joining these types of organizations and associations and events. Millennials believe in creating mutually beneficial and positive relationships. So make them a part of the process. Attracting Millennials does not have to be a difficult process. You are just making it a difficult process. And should you decide to disregard these words, just keep in mind that if you want to attract Millennials, you have to think like a Millennial. There is no other way around it.

Thank “YOU” for 2010

Written on January 3, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Every 365 days, we experience something of a significant change. To be more precise, a significance that takes place between December 31^st to January 1^st. The period leading up to this culminating point in the calendar year is full of stories and emotions and experiences and just about everything we have come by in everyday life. From the highs to the lows, it defines our year. And as so often happens, we forget to be thankful, truly thankful, for everything that lays behind us as our focus rests upon forward success.

So, THANK YOU 2010. Thank you for everything. Thank you for your defining characteristic. Thank you for everything that has and hasn’t taken place. As we enter the new year, as we enter 2011, we cannot and should not forget to be grateful and thankful and appreciative and show the utmost of gratitude to everyone and everything that has allowed to become who we are.

From my personal perspective, 2010 has launched me into something truly unbelievable. The life experiences I’ve been fortunate to encounter. The absolutely brilliant individuals I’ve been able to befriend, both online and offline. And the loved ones that stuck by my side through utter conviction and belief and friendship and love.

Thank you to all my blog readers and supporters, Twitter followers, Facebook friends and fans, LinkedIn connections and everyone that’s online and in between. I dare not mention any names, as it would be an utter disgrace to forget someone in a sea of brilliant people. Simply said, you know who you are. From the retweets and mentions, to the comments and conversations, to the many I’ve been able to meet in person, you are all truly amazing individuals that have impacted me in more ways than you can truly conceive. You are as much a real friend as reality allows.

Thank you to all my friends and family and to my beloved sweetheart of mine. Your support, patience, questions and concerns have defined who I am. I will never forget the conversations, laughs, comments, experiences and emotions we’ve shared. Your importance should never be misinterpreted or undermined. It is absolutely necessary and imperative. Thank you all, one thousand times, for everything.

We often forget that taking a few seconds to look over the past is truly an impacting and powerful moment of reflection. The seemingly smallest of characteristics and actions and causes can have some of the most profound consequences and effects. It took one blog post. It took one, “do it” (that’s you beba). It took one tweet. It took one, “hello” and “thank you”. And it has all vastly changed my life from one year ago. It’s absolutely fascinating to see what can transpire from all of this. What can happen from the simplest of words and actions.

So, be grateful for everything! Be thankful for everyday you wake up. Be thankful for every meal you eat. Be thankful for the friends around you and the friends you’ve made. Be thankful for your loved ones. Sometimes we forget to look back. To look back down the road we just came from and appreciate it. There’s plenty of time to look ahead. Never forget to be grateful, to be truly appreciative and greatly thankful for all that has passed to get us where we are today.

Thank you everyone for an amazing 2010. Your influence has touched and shaped me in ways that are unexplainable. A heartfelt thank you to everyone that has crossed my life from the slightest of instances to greatest of purposes. And I look forward to many more great experiences with you in all in 2011.

Happy 2011 everyone! Wishing you all the absolute best with my warmest and dearest regards in the year to come.

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