the rut of sameness

We're heading towards a rut of sameness.

Typical Brief

Mothers love their children and wish they had more time to spend with them.  Mothers report that they trust other mothers more than they trust cereal commercials.  Therefore, we need Facebook.

Typical Activation

    Promotions

Join us and we'll give you something for free. Join us and you'll have the chance to win something.  Join us and we'll give money to charity on your behalf. Tell your story through us, and you can win something big.   

    Support

I'm so sorry to hear that, let me help.  Contact me offline or via private message and I can help/escalate you in our call tree.

    Utility

Here's a tool that does something interesting (ex edits your Facebook photo).

    Campaigns

Vote to see who wins.  Submit your photo.  Interact with the tv spot in social (oooOOOoooh).

However, Social media is not going to continue to be the darling shiny object forever.  Eventually, marketers are going to need to start apart, to strongly differentiate who they.  And this is going to happen in four primary places.

Four Differentiating Social Factors

1. Personality - I hope to G-d that Chester the Cheetah has a personality online.  So should Mr Met.  So should all of your brand personalities.  Aflac is doing a pretty good job of this on Facebook, and Mr Peanut (client) looks to be off to a good start.  These voices are entertaining.  They have depth and character they could never have in 30 second spots.
2. Conversation - How many agencies are focusing brand Facebook pages on applications instead of the wall?  How many brands are fostering real, meaningful and compelling conversations?  It's far harder to be a great mass conversationalist than it is a copywriter.  But those who do it well will see incredible results.
3. Flexibility - this about more than cross-platform syndication, it's about cross-platform experiences.  Facebook applications can easily port an experience across both Facebook, a brand site and a partner site.  We need to think about cross platform design beyond Facebook connect, and it's implications on user experience design and social/conversation design.  Don't even get me start on mobile.
4. Shiny Utility - Something remarkable happens when shiny objects gain real utility.  There is no shortage of exciting technologies and platforms.  But if you can design a reason for re-engaging beyond the WOW of engaging, you're on to something big.

Inspired by Chris Brogan. And the video below.  This one was too good not to share.