Yard sale of ideas

This has been one of those days that just won't end. Not that I want it to end. Most of the work has been pleasurable. But it. Just. Doesn't. End. And let's not forget there's still plenty of work to be done for tomorrow. I think the real solution to this situation is procrastination.

So I joined Utterz. We'll see if this coincides, fights with, or debunks Twitter.

I suspect I'll use Utterz mostly in the car. Or when, as all to frequently happens, Twitter is down. It seems very important that random, verbal musings be put down, by me, on a frequent basis. Agreed? Sounds woefully like the bulk of talk radio, served in bite size chunks.

I'm excited about our next event in the "Conversations About the Future of Advertising" series. Valeria Maltoni's coming to town. This program is beta, and to some extent, I hope it always will be. We need the flexibility to try different approaches. I'm always curious to see how one person, presenting their ideas and motivations and opinions, can have an impact on a community. That's the ultimate goal of "Conversations..." And I believe the program is having an effect. Seems like there's a groundswell of inventive thinking here in Minneapolis. I hear the rumors. See bright lights around a corner. Maybe I'm just not tuned into the right Utterz feed yet.

Meanwhile, Blogger Social is 35 days away. I've been fortunate enough to help aggregate and edit profiles for those attending. I've also been trying to visit every one of the 80+ blogs associated with each person. The level of brainpower, of creativity, of craft and insight across this community that's gathering in NYC in April is really phenomenal. Each profile is a deep well. I'm excited to meet these people as people, and get a sense of how their personalities translate from pixels to the real world.

My neighbor is shoveling the new snow off his sidewalk right now. Just a few inches today.

Back to work.

Oh yeah -- I thought Brian Morrissey's piece in Adweek today was really well said. "Agencies just don't get (social media)." That's part of the reason I don't work for an agency anymore, I guess.

"I think traditional ad agencies have very little contribution tomake," Bryan Simkins, a marketing specialist at FedEx, told TNS."They are mostly driven by their compensation models which are madefor closed media. Those models don't apply in open media."

Quite an astute point, Bryan. I chuckle, imagining the past three ad agency CFOs I've work with trying to 1) wrap their heads around any approach to social media compensation, and 2) having the desire, skill or fortitude to actually do anything about it. But being cursed with optimism, I also recommend reading Chris Anderson's latest opus in Wired, "Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business." I think there are a few solutions to the ad agency mess right there.

Really now, back to work.