Curse Malcolm Gladwell

I don’t care where your Cheese is or was or where it’s been. I don’t care what your pretty word cloud looks like. I don’t want to see your micro-site or download your “cutting edge” podcast. I don’t care how many platitudes you’ve memorized or buzz words you regurgitate. Being able to successfully infuse a brand with creativity and substance requires more than just reading a book or taking a class or getting a certification.

I saw a reference to a social media certification on twitter recently. I usually manage to avoid such things but there it was, big as life in my stream. sigh. I guess I knew it was there somewhere, but knowing it’s out in the ether and actually seeing it in a tweet are two totally different things. Why does our industry do this? With the social media space still defining itself and evolving by the week, what kind of meaningful certification can there possibly be? With the gamut of social media sites, how can one be expert in them all? I’ll bet most of the “certified” social media experts can’t explain something as basic as the difference in social media and social networking. And we do this to ourselves over and over.

I was once StarTeam certified (which contrary to popular belief did NOT come with the Power of Grayskull). Know what that meant? I had to learn how to use new software that made my life a giant pain in the ass. But I was certified in that pain in the ass. It meant nothing to anyone except collectors of titles and industry geeks. If that had happened today instead of in 2000, I’d create a fan page for it as per emerging social media norms.

I wonder when our industry is going to realize that endless jargon kills ideas before they have a chance to be born. And that it renders perfectly good tools practically useless through overuse and misuse. Seriously, who hasn’t wanted to say to a person that if the words “Web2.0” “centric” or “guerrilla” come out of their mouth one more time that their lips may end up separated from their face?  Throwing out titles, certifications, cliches, etc. only works to put the task at hand in a box. Which stifles creativity. Which results in an off the shelf solution. Which doesn’t work. Which pisses off the client. Which gets you and your certification having buzz word slinging expert ass fired. And possibly maimed.

It’s time for the advertising/marketing paradigm to shift. Certify that.