the interwebs
OR How I learned to stop worrying about my job
by Clay Parker Jones

What are we going to cover?
Social Media (Community + Identity)
Design for the Web (Reimagining Sites)
Good Ideas (Content, Usefulness + Usability)

You already
understand social
media. Here’s why.

People Communicatin’
Online
“Social
Media”

People
1. We’re in advertising. That means we should
know (and understand) people, right?
2. Identities are formed online, too. People’s
choices in the real world help define their identity,
and the same thing goes on the web.
3. A voice on the other end. Don’t forget that
technology doesn’t drive the web. People do.

Communicating
1. Staying up. People are using the web primarily to
keep in contact with friends (78%, at least)
2. Ambient Connectivity. Stay in contact when you
want to be in contact, and never when you don’t
...sounds like a good context for brands, yes?
3. Sharing. It’s more than just talking to each other.
It’s about sharing, collaborating, and having fun.

Online
1. Searchable. Google indexes almost everything.
2. Permanent. Or at least damn near it.
3. Real. Especially for digital natives, there’s no
distinction between physical and digital lives.
4. Easy. Seriously, it’s easy. My mom is 62 and she
does it without much help.

What does a good
website look like?

- Eric Burke

Websites are
products.
We should treat them as such.
(Pretty isn’t everything, but it does help.)

Design for
connectivity.
Don’t rebuild. Reuse.
(Someone already built it better)

Okay, so what
should we do?

Flickr CNN
Which one gets more traffic?

We should probably look into the
whole community thing, yes?
Daily Reach, %
2.50
1.88
1.25
0.63
August 0
September
October
November
December
Flickr CNN.com

There may be a problem with
all this fun tech stuff, though.
“ Things don’t get
socially interesting
until they are
technologically
boring.”
- Clay Shirky

Great content wins
every time.
Heck, people even pay for it.
You know ... books, music, movies, etc.

great content:
Not that easy to make.
Something like 90% of blogs are dead, unused by
their creators. Keeping up with demand ain’t easy.
Think of it this way: could you write a best-seller? I
know I can’t. But the brands we work with have the
opportunity to at least come close.

great experiences:
A lot easier to create.
Build a great experience first and then allow people to
help you make great content. Youtube is a good
example. Wikipedia is an even better one.

community-building:
People want to have a
relationship with you.
This world is based on relationships. And wouldn’t
you believe it? People seem to be OK with online
relationships with brands. Why? Because on the
web, the user controls the relationship.

step 1:
Try it.
Yes, just go try it. It’s really simple.
You’ll get it after a few days, I guarantee it.

step 2:
Stop thinking about
this as a reach vehicle.
We’re working on the reach thing. For now, people
don’t look at banners, and we know they don’t click
on them. But we can do engagement really, really well.
So let’s stick to that.

step 3:
Get people to
do something.
When you write a brief, don’t think about messaging.
Think about activity. Think about excitement.
When you think about a web experience, don’t
think flashy and perfect. Think big, or think little.
Think about commitments instead of campaigns.

That’s it.
Hope you liked it.
Clay Parker Jones
exitcreative.net/blog
@exitcreative