I talk to a lot of people in my professional and personal life that do not understand why someone would want to send 140 character messages out to a bunch of people that I haven’t met, just to say I’m brushing my teeth. Well, while that might be an accurate description of some Twitter feeds, I have never once tweeted about brushing my teeth. Flossing maybe, but never brushing.

Twitter is a social community, like any other, but built on the principle that you should say what you need to in a small space. At first this was a technological limit since the service was originally developed to work with a cell phone’s texting ability, but even now that most people use Twitter from a smart phone app, they have kept the 140 character limit. I really like the brevity and the headline quality of Twitter. It really appeals to people like me, who are really impatient and have short attention spans.

I Tweet because I like the interaction and sharing with others. I like to share what I find online and like to see what others are sharing. I also like the quick, short conversations that can happen in the feed. I get the opportunity to trade comments with marketing thought leaders like @shivsingh and @markwschaefer that I wouldn’t have a way to contact and discuss something with otherwise. I like the entertainment value of people like @sockington and the informed fun and causes of people like @wilw. There really are tons of people for anyone to follow, comment, interact and share with. That’s what the Twitter community is about. I hope to add something to those who follow me (@MichaelACousin) and I gain things all the time from something that a person I follow shares, says or RT’s.

That is why I Tweet.

Lately there seems to be a rash of articles online talking about Millennials, or those born between about 1982 and 1996. I have read article after article that outlines how Millennials lack work ethic, need petty praise and feel entitled. These articles seems to portray Millennials as a very homogeneous group that feel like everything is owed to them. I think that it is bad practice to paint an entire generation based on a few individuals and some assumptions that have not been shown to be true. This isn’t really a new way of thinking, every generation has assumptions about them, which are almost always proven wrong in the end.

Millennials Aren’t Than Different From Previous Generations

Take Generation X, my parent’s generation. A recent article on CNN.com showed that researchers found that the myths about GenX were actually dead wrong. It was characterized as a generation of slackers who were disengaged and isolationist, depressed and neglectful parents. These myths were based on what made them different from previous generations and how that might negatively influence them. Why is it that no one ever seems to look at the positive ways that new experiences might impact a generation.

The same way that popular ideas about Generation X proved to be wrong, I would put money on Millennials turning out to be a positive influence on society. Look at the good things that Millennials have going for them. We are the first truly digitally fluent generation. We grew up as the Internet got huge and have been using computers from a young age. This generation has already given the world things like Facebook, YouTube, Runescape, Mozilla, WordPress, Threadless Tees, and Digg. What do all these have in common? They are all based online. Businesses that want to be on the cutting end of online communication, technology and innovation could learn a lot from hiring Millennials.

Earlier this year I was at a conference that was supposed to be all about online and emerging advertising. The conference had some really good moments, but overall I was astounded at the number of people who really aren’t taking advantage of the best parts of social media, online video and other new channels. So many of the older attendees and presenters at this conference kept saying things like, “online video is just like TV,” or “mobile is just like direct mail.” What they don’t get is … they aren’t just like anything, that’s why they’re NEW media.

Honestly, I think the Web has been around long enough that we can stop calling it new media, it’s just media now. There are some great industry veterans out there that have been working in advertising longer than I’ve been alive, but like anything, it is hard to change your ways and get into a new mindset. Both agency and client-side marketing people need to recognize that there are many differences between traditional media and some of these “online things” that kind of resemble them.

Take YouTube for just one example. Anyone who just takes their TV commercials and puts them on a YouTube channel and says they are doing online video is kidding themselves. To do it right, you should be producing content just for the Web. Things that aren’t constrained by that pesky 30 second time period or over-analyzed in some agency creative meeting. Online video should complement and enhance your television campaign, as well as offer stuff that wouldn’t work in a TV ad. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have your commercials on your YouTube channel, but it certainly shouldn’t be the only thing on there.

Bottom line, think about each medium and its capabilities and plan individually. Just tacking on digital stuff to your traditional marketing is not a good plan. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t mind so much as my agency gets a lot of work from companies who don’t have a good handle on online video, social media and digital in general.

This post originally appeared on the Star Moose Blog.

There are many new and exciting technological advancements made all the time. There are great programs, platforms and games available online. With all of these great computer advancements there is still something to be said for the human touch. I don’t worry about getting programmed out of a job because there is a lot that a human can do that you just can’t store in a database.

1. Common sense. I have yet to see a computer program or web platform that can look at something and then deduct that it is not quite right. Computers make decisions based on their programming, which in turns tells them what things to take into consideration and how to process that information. For example, I received a complimentary pen/flashlight from @MyronCorp, a great specialty advertising company. They have some awesome products that you can brand with your business, but unfortunately it was a computer that pulled my company name and phone number and had the pen printed and sent. That’s why I received a pen labeled Startmus instead of Star Moose. A human could have looked at that and said, “That’s a weird name,” and checked to make sure it was correct. I do not know where the computer got that name, but it’s now an office joke and Startmus is now our evil twin agency.

2. Replies that mean something. When you have a program that automatically tweets back to followers as soon as they follow you with a prepared statement, people can tell. When I get those notices that someone verifies their twitter followers using a program I quickly delete and move on to find someone else to follow. Automating your Twitter feed is kinda missing the point … okay really missing the point of the social interaction.

3. Silly computer, social is for people. The reason that social media has grown so much and taken over so much of the Internet is that it involves real people. You need to have someone managing your social media presence. Whether you hire an agency such as Star Moose, or you have an internal person managing it, it has to be a real person. Someone who knows your brand message and can think, react and reply. It is by having people talk to people that something becomes social.

This post originally appeared on the Star Moose Blog.

I’ve been working on social strategies and campaigns for a few different clients lately and I’ve noticed that a lot of people I talk to outside of the advertising/marketing business (and some inside it) do not know the terms ‘influencer’ and ‘earned media.’ This is something that I spend a lot of time teaching people about because in the world of social media these are two of the most important terms you will come across.

First, influencers. These are the people that cause action in other people. These are not necessarily those that have the most followers on twitter, or those that have the most page likes on Facebook (though that is a good start). These are those people who get people to click on links posted, reply to their posts, leave comments, share the tweets or posts with their circles so that it is distributed virally. If you can get something to organically catch the eye of an influencer in your field you are going to see awesome traffic growth and sales from it. You can also bring things to their attention. I’m not talking necessarily about paid posts here, but just bringing something to their attention and letting it go from there. It can be a gamble, but it can really help distribute your content to a much wider audience that can be very, very, very relevant.

Earned media is the second term, and it is related to the first. This is when your content is shared organically through social networks. You can place things like online video and promote it through paid media, but that shouldn’t be the end of it. In the days where TV and print were our only media you had to pay for all the views you got (with the exception of pass-along views for print media). Online though, you should place your paid media in places where it has the most potential to be passed along, thereby generating ‘earned media.’ You earn this pass along through creating relevant, compelling content that they want to share and by making it easy for them to share it.

Those two terms are the basis for any social or online campaign that Star Moose creates. Depending on your business you influencers are going to be different. You probably won’t see @ConanOBrien hawking hair care products (but then again you might…), the important thing is to find out where your target audience goes online for information and entertainment. Then, all you have to do is have us create some content (be it video, print, interactive, or a combination) that they will actually share. That seems simple, right? It is… kinda.

This post originally appeared on the Star Moose Blog.

Social Marketing isn’t something that will force you to completely change all your strategies or scrap your current campaigns and plans. This is something that should be added to whatever you have (that is working) to infuse it with a sense of community for your customers. You want people to be involved with your brand, so give them opportunities to be involved.

Tell them about your events, your Web site, your Twitter feed, your Facebook page and other promotions through your traditional advertising and personal contacts. Every email your customers get from sales, customer service, or as a confirmation should have a link to all your social media accounts and your blog. Use social media to get people having fun and engaging your brand in a memorable way. Build a mobile app that allows people to comment, post, add videos or pictures and share their experiences with your brand on your Web site. Have them sign up to receive a cardboard replica of one of your products that they can assemble and customize your label and post pictures online. Anything that gets them doing something out of the ordinary will stick in their mind. Then, you will have someone who will talk about your company or product and bring you sales. That is why we advertise things, right?

Use the comments section on this site to ask questions and offer examples of how you have gotten people involved with your brand and/or clients. Times have changed, the last thing you want is just a viewer/listener/reader of your ad. You really want a friend, or at least a ‘like.’

This post originally appeared on the now defunct blog, FryThoseEggs.com. It can also be found on the Star Moose Blog.