For me, personally, this past month has been a social media roller coaster. With a ton of industry trials and revelations popping through the tightly wound sausage casings of the online world, I can’t help but point out some things that may not be so obvious to the general public. I’m seeing trends in all the recently launched ‘good stuff’ and I’ve classified them into 3 types of initiatives.

1. So-tional

Social-Traditional. This type of ‘campaign’ is revolved around a very traditional idea / method of advertising but may include an integration of a social platform. So-tional things are typically measured by virality (think video views) and are basically, a lot of times, slightly altered TV commercials. For example: Levis’ Guy Walks Across America

2. So-Comm

Social Communication? I know it’s like redundant right? I guess all communication is social, I just didn’t want to say “CRM” cause that would make me sound douchey… and formulating an acronym around the term “customer relationship management” just seems contradicting in terms of what is trying to be accomplished (making friends). Example use of so-comm would be what Best Buy’s  Twelpforce, Comcast & Die Antwoord do/does.

3. Show-Show Media

Last but definitely not the least. Initiatives that I segregate into the “Show-Show” category are ones that typically require an extreme amount money and effort and by effort, I mean development. More recently, these have been popping up quite frequently in the form of Facebook Applications,” _________ yourself” and Isaiah Mustafa.

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Undoubtedly some brands do things better than others. Some brands do one or another. Then there are those who do it all — cohesively, and to be honest, those are my favorites because they’ve got their bases covered. Just something to think about.