There’s been a lot of discussion lately about what the future’s creative department should look like and who it should be headed by. Do traditional shops need to get rid of their old guard and make way for leaders and practitioners steeped in the traditions of the digital shops?

Surely they need to get rid of dated thinking. Kick out folks who can’t code, tag, and develop an app. And there’s no one who understands how to make use of the new tools available than someone with a digital background. Right?

But what about all that brand stuff? Is a techno creative really better equipped to communicate the client’s brand story than someone who’s been focused on it their entire career? Aren’t the truly great communicators capable of doing their job in more than old-school traditional media?

Digital creatives are getting dinged for lack of branding and planning experience. While traditional creatives apparently can’t grasp the internet. But are either of these characterizations fair?

I think people are getting too caught up on resumes and not focused enough on real skills. For example, I work at a traditional agency yet the majority of the work I do lives online. Some of the work I do is even social media marketing — imagine that. Does this make me a traditional creative or a digital creative. I suspect in the eyes of many recruiters who can’t get past a resume it makes me a traditionalist. But I just see myself as being current.

Marketers need professionals that can tell their story and engage their customers in all media. Be it on Twitter or on a billboard. And that is best done by a media neutral creative, working off a media neutral brief, for a media neutral media buy.

I don’t think the best creative comes from a digital or a traditional background. What is important is their grasp of  today’s tool, the future, and the client’s business.

Quick, how many copy points can you fit into a 60 second radio spot? The answer should be one.

But many ads that really suck the big one are about two or three things – maybe even more. This is real easy to observe in a print ad. Just open your local newspaper (if you still have one). You’re bound to find on the first couple pages an ad with something nebulous resembling a headline and, beneath that, five to fifteen bullet points describing everything the company does under the sun. These “ads” are more like a business plan than effective marketing communication.

News flash business plan publishers – your potential customers don’t care about your plans to make a mint from them. They don’t care how you make money. And frankly, they don’t even care if you do make money.

They’ll only care about you if you can make their life better. And confusing them with a bunch of pointless information won’t do that. It will just annoy them and make them want to buy something from your competitor instead.

Besides being strategically wrong, these ads are supremely flawed in execution. Now imagine you are at the hardware store and you need to buy something to cut steel. Would you buy something that also sawed wood, picked your teeth, had a magnifying glass on it and also promised to file your finger nails? A Swiss Army knife is good for a lot of things but it’s not a great knife (especially for cutting steel).

Now picture of single reinforced blade without any tricky gizoms. Just a long narrow piece of forged steel attached to an elegantly designed handle. It does just one thing and does it brilliantly: it cuts through the bullshit.

To keep from sucking, that’s what your advertising must do. Cut through all the clutter and bullshit while making a single minded case for purchasing your product.

There’s been a lot of hand wringing lately about what an advertising is and what it should be in the digital age. That conversation should not muddy this water. Because when you strip away all the discussion about technology, advertising needs to engage a customer and inform them about a product or a service. Simple, uncomplicated, well-executed messages in whatever medium will do that. Ugly, complicated, poorly-executed messages won’t. Period.

Watching my two and four-year-old daughters learn about life can be a little disconcerting at times. They fall down trying to do something new, cry because they’re frustrated with a difficult task, or they try to get mommy to do it because it’s hard.

As adults, we forget how painful real learning can be. (A two hour professional development seminar ain’t real learning folks, no matter how painful it feels at the time.) And we also forget how valuable falling down can be. Painful situations are usually avoided by adults simply because of the hurt and embarrassment they can cause.

Learning can feel especially dangerous in professional situations. But it’s really more dangerous not to try something new. Because while you may look like an ass trying to figure something new out, you’ll be made more valuable by the knowledge you’ve acquired.

A community is a place where people come to gather, do things for each other and organize around common ideals and goals. In communities, people build trust and create relationships that hopefully last lifetimes and maybe even generations. Does this sound like your business? Maybe or maybe not. But it can and probably should.

My grandparents drove GM cars and passed that on to my parents. Well, until the 70s gas crisis but that’s another story. They also shopped at Sears for Kenmore appliances and craftsman tools. Now my whole family uses Apple products (although it took my wife awhile to warm up to Office for Mac.) We often discuss how we feel about the products we use with each other and our friends – I’m sure your family is similar.

In the old days these discussion only happened in homes, stores, barbershops and the break room. Now they extend to the internet onto corporate websites and to social networks.

This extension provides the opportunity for a national brand to create the kind of community that used to only happen in barbershops and bar rooms. This community won’t always discusses personal things but it can have  honest and open discussions about people’s lives and the products they use.

You’ll find these online communities like this on the Ford websites, Ebay and organic communities like Lugnet, a Lego users group.

But community can also be built around something as simple as a pair of scissors.

Why would you want your brand to be a community?

People will share their experience with your brand.

People will give you direct feedback on your products and services.

People will solve each others user issues (important for complex product.)

People will build interest for your brand on their own.

Creating community online or offline won’t make or break a brand or company. Besides having a community strategy, you also have to have a business strategy that can live beyond an economic crisis. Just look at all those community banks that went under. And what about Saturn? Clearly somethings are bigger than a community strategy. But community can sure help a business weather the storm. And soon, building community may be required as a cost of doing business.

This series begins here.

I really love my Illy Coffee. Really,  I do. But I’m not a fan of it on Facebook and I don’t even know if I could follow it on Twitter – and I follow a lot of people. Heck, if I could get a coupon or something for the simple act of following Illy maybe I would.

Am I really saying this, a guy who’s job it is to advise brands on how to use social media?

Yeah, I am saying it and it’s something that needs to be said with all the Koolaide sipping going on.  Just because someone has an affinity for your brand it doesn’t mean they want to engage it during their spare time – if they actually have spare time. I haven’t had any of that since my first daughter was born.

People have priorities and it’s a good idea to think about where your brand fits into that list of priorities before expecting an entire demographic to be it’s friend. And then share this relationship with their friends and also generate content for you for free.

Sure, brands that illicit passion can have often have a core energized base of believers who want to interact and discuss the brand – like Harley owners or Mac users. And technical products often have user groups. But if you market a packaged good or a service, you probably shouldn’t expect social media to do the same job your push marketing has been doing. And maybe “friend” isn’t what you want your customers to be in the first place. (Think critic, member, or advocate.)

A few months ago a client asked for a cheat sheet on how to uses social media tools. Here’s more or less what I gave them on Twitter. See something important missing, let me know and I’ll add it. Note: This list isn’t a substitute for a strategy.

1. Follow some good tweeters to get a feel for it and find a voice you feel comfortable using. There is no one right voice.  @chrisbrogan, @postachio, @comcastcares, @delloutlet and @lancearmstrong are examples of popular tweeters using very different styles.
2. Understand frequent users will never visit your twitter.com page. Your brand/identity must be in your communication or where you send users.
3. Use Bit.ly or other tool to shorten links and collect data.
4. Use CoTweet or HootSuite to optimize your workflow and track analytics.
5. Engagement is earned with time and by providing value. You must be dedicate significant time to get any value from it.
6. Be helpful is the Golden Rule of social media.
7. Use Twitter lists to manage the information flow.
8. Add to conversations that are already happening instead of expecting them to come to you.
9. Re-tweet often – people like to be patted on the back. Add a comment/value to your re-tweet.
10. Try and reply to @ messages, but you don’t have to reply to everyone
11. Try and thank people for re-tweeting.
12. Ignore the “What are you doing?” question and answer more interesting questions like, “What interests you right now? What did you just discover? What are you passionate about? What is something positive you can share?”
13. Frequency is key. Don’t feel bad for tweeting the same message again if it’s valuable.
14. A message will be viewed on someone’s Twitter page or Twitter client only if they happen to be looking at it at the time when you Tweet. And you probably have a lot of competition for attention. Again, frequency is key.
15. Tweet about other people you respect – no one likes anyone who only talks about themselves.
16. Give followers somewhere to go, some news, or something to do or read. There’s no interaction without action.
17. People will follow your tweets if you provide them what they find valuable. Usually that’s news, inside information, entertainment or deals.
18. Use search engines or Twitter client to create searches on relevant topics and your brand.
19. Use Google Alerts.
20. Find other users with similar interests and follow them, get a feel for what they’re doing and engage them.
21. If possible, have more than one tweeter.
22. Obviously, be ethical and transparent.
23. Let people know you’re on Twitter by putting your username on e-mail signatures, web sites, blogs and offline communications.
24. Try and follow people back who seem legitimate; this gives them the opportunity to direct-message you…which could be important.
25. Don’t be boring. Don’t just Tweet PR language or links to press releases. This is not a push medium.
26. Don’t treat it like a broadcast mechanism for advertising.
27. Don’t read every tweet; you’ll go mad.

Update: If you found this list useful, check out my Facebook Fan Page tips for business users.

Not so long ago, back when Second Life was the next coming, the common belief was people didn’t want to be themselves online. They wanted to be someone better, someone a different sex, someone with a better job and more money or all of the above.

A lot has changed since then. Living online has become common place – it’s no longer just introverts living fantasy lives. Heck, my retired step mom is on Facebook everyday.

The interesting thing here is now that everyone is there, people online are starting to play by similar rules they use offline. Like when the wild west was finally settled and women moved out, people are finally starting to behave like a polite society on the Web. In fact, there’s a new study that says social network profiles are down right accurate to the offline personality.

And you know, it makes a lot of sense once you think about it. Can you imagine:

Finding a job a with a fake Linkedin Profile?

Keeping up with friends on Facebook using an avatar of the opposite sex?

Or sharing media with family online with a silly screen name?

It’s no longer a free for all online. And that makes it more exciting to me.

70% of your target audience uses the mobile web

%50 is on FB

%60 reads blogs

%50 watch online video regularly

30% is on Twitter

Only 12% watch American Idol

Ed. Note: This is not a far fetched

Are you really going to run another television campaign just like last years? Are you going to expect it to improve your client’s sales because the creative is fresh and a little less watered-down? And are you then going to rationalize it by throwing in a couple of after thought digital things like an iPhone app that somehow ties into your television spots?

If you are, you’re not alone. Is it possible you’re screwing yourself faster than you’re screwing your client? Well, good thing the client’s interactive shop can’t do branding. Oh wait, they’re starting to fight for that business now, aren’t they?

In a recent provocative post, Bud Cadell says many agencies and their models are broken for good. I certainly agree that some agencies may finally be ready for the waste bin of history but we must also recognize that agency Bill Bernbach thought was a dinosaur is still going and reaping in much, much larger billings than the agencies that are now professed to be the way of the future.

While these dino agencies may not be barometers of the future, they sure are a great example of what the clients are demanding. And as wants have changed over the years, so have the big, bloated account service driven shops. They adapted with TV and took baby steps with their clients to the internet. And now, many are in acquisition mode, acquiring the talent and bandwidth needed to service their large clients in the Web 2.0 world. Sure, they’re way behind now but they were also way behind Bernbach in the creative revolution.

Ten years ago, I was convinced the new breed of MBA advertising manager, and the rise of the CMO role on the client side, meant a more sophisticated client and less reliance on big agencies for heavy lifting. Silly me, I thought this would be a boon for smaller shops and boutique agencies. Instead the next decade was a feeding fest for holding companies – swallowing up the agencies they didn’t run out of business. And adverting managers and CMOs still relied heavily on agencies as their own jobs grew more complex with the rise of new media and more demands of productivity and ROI from within.

The next decade will probably be even more complicated than the last for marketers. And even more complicated for agencies as they struggle to provide value for their clients in a rapidly changing media landscape. There’s a good chance that I’ll be as wrong as I was 10 years ago but I think there is still a lot of “value” that good old ad agencies can provide their clients.

Clients in the future will need

Strategy: Clients struggle with this one internally, not because of a lack of brain power but because of a lack of objectivity and an abundance of politics.

Creativity and production: Sure they can crowd source ideas but agencies are good at sticking to a strategy, bringing talent together, managing creativity and producing something on time.

Development — Long the unwanted job of the interactive agency, traditional agencies that can integrate this effectively with a marketing communications plan will show value over siloed efforts.

Clients in the future won’t need but will still probably still buy

Account management: Clients these days are supposed to be managing the brand themselves but they love having someone to call for experienced advice. Agencies have been toying with eliminating this position or transitioning it to more of a project management job. But it still creates revenue. Account managers of the future will have to be great project managers, client managers and understand digital beyond “I’ll ask my interactive guy.” And great ones will also need some strategy chops.

Media planning and buying: This can easily be contracted to a specialist media agency but when you have your account management at the agency, there’s a good chance some shops will still continue to reap profits from media services.

What advertising clients don’t need and won’t buy

This is a trick heading. Advertisers will buy just about any business service from an agency that provides value. Agencies that are survivors, survive because they are good problem solvers for clients. The task of our business is to solve marketing problems and apply marketing solutions to business problems. Because client problems are constantly changing, marketers will need partners that can adapt and throw bandwidth at their current problem quickly. They don’t want to hire in-house for what may be perceived as a temporary problem — let the agency hire, adapt and fire staff – our business does that well.

What does this agency look like? It’s big but it runs on a lean mixture. It has strategists who are comfortable with the web and outdoor. Art directors who know what HTML5 is, copywriters who blog and can tweet about more than their breakfast, and developers who collaborate with the creatives. Producers who aren’t siloed between Web, broadcast and print. And account managers who can use tools like Bootcamp.

These agencies will create products that may be advertising, may be events or may even be more like online movements. They could be a dinosaur that has evolved into a lizard agency or they maybe been an interactive agency that picked up responsibility for the entire brand or a even great creative agency that merged with an interactive one. Whatever the case, there will be less room for traditional shops that don’t get digital or digital shops that don’t do branding but I don’t see the death of an entire industry.

So much of what is discussed in social media revolves around engagement in terms of interacting with the brand as one would a friend. What we forget is there have been offline models for decades, and even centuries, of how business relationships should work — ironically they have nothing to do being a “friend.” Alan Wolk writes a nice series about not wanting to be a brand’s friend. It’s a great, thought provoking read.

The internet, and social media specifically, has caused many people to reevaluate not just how we interact with brands, but what that relationship should be. I think Wolk makes a great case that it doesn’t need to be a friendship. And in the real world, many of us don’t really like doing business with our “friends,” we’d rather just have a beer with them.

So let’s think about how we interact with brands in the real world.

For consumer goods it’s generally a retailer, customer care representative or a sales person.

For B2B interaction, it’s often a series of sales people before the purchase and, afterward, a service representatives.

None of these people are friends per se. But they can be friendly, and that’s a big difference.

On the flip side, what’s wrong with the models. From the service providers mindset, they can be expensive, and with the economy way down there’s certainly room for improvement on anything cost related. Obviously this is why marketers want to transfer as much of the customer relationship online as possible. Social media on the surface seems a great way to do this.

Web 1.0 was cheap. Put a widget up, let people find it, and then let them “interact” with it — not nearly as expensive as a real person answering a phone and possibly more efficient. And the customer is probably even willing fill out an online form to order a product or receive customer service at a later date. That’s awesomely cheep.

The real-time web is changing all of that. The public now expects real-time answers to questions. Marketers entering the social media space and using Web 2.0 tools are feeding this perception. What’s the problem with that? It’s not yet scalable. And that equals so expensive. So it better have value beyond “friends.”

As more and more customers begin to expect direct interaction the more expensive implementing this is going to be. Where am I going with this? I think not only do most people not really want to be your brand’s “friend,” the ones that do are going to be expensive to keep. And if you can’t manage all those relationships, you can expect some blow back.

So whats a brand to do? Decide what’s valuable and provide that instead of engagement for engagement’s sake. Like I said earlier, there are some tried and true relationship models that have existed in business for years that don’t involve being anyone’s friend. And they create value to boot.

Why shouldn’t a sales guy, who already exists be answering product questions on a blog. Then his answers become searchable and create scalability in a positive direction instead of a negative one.

Why can’t a CSR field support questions on Twitter? No extra person required, just some training. Again, a scalability plus.

And why marketers are online, they can and should ask for the sale. Wouldn’t they in the real world? Isn’t that what representatives of businesses do. Of course, they shouldn’t be a jerk about it and butt into other people’s conversations.

So what about marketing? Isn’t that what we were supposed to be replacing with this whole friendship thing? Stay tuned.

So you have already drunk the Twitter Koolaide. You’ve been tweeting awhile and now you have a few hundred followers and are following more people than you can keep track of using Twitter.com on your browser. And you’re beginning to feel that you’re probably not getting all that you could out of your Twitter experience because of an information nozzle that is blasting so hard you’ve lost control of what you’re reading.

Now you’re wondering, “do I need to unfollow a hundred people because I’m not too interested in everything they’re tweeting?” They all seemed so interesting at first but now — not so much. Will they unfollow me if I unfollow them? Probably. And that may be OK. But if you selfishly want to hang on to them and not hurt anyone’s feelings, there’s a solution.

Thankfully, twitter now has a built in tool to help this problem: Twitter Lists. Lists allow you to group your favorite Tweeters into a single browser window. You can even create groups for specific topics. So if you’re interested in learning about a particular news story, click the “news” list you created of pundits or journalists. Or if maketing is your bag, create one of marketing professionals you respect.

You can also look at other people’s lists and get a feel if your missing something.

If you use a tool like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or Seesmic these lists can be integrated into your desktop tool or iPhone app. (CoTweet is also an excellent tool but focused on enterprise users. If that’s you, I highly recommend it.)

If you use Seesmic of Tweetdeck (Hootsuite is phasing out groups and wants you to use Twitter’s lists) you can use groups to create columns to easily scan and not have them part of your actual Twitter account. I find Tweetdecks function to be easy to use. And since I manage three accounts, ease of use is extremely important to me.

These tools should help you make more sense out of Twitter stream with a bit of time spent getting caught up sorting. I’m constantly tweaking my Tweetdeck groups to try and make sure I have the best information stream possible.

One problem lists doesn’t solve is the DM conundrum. I find that I’m consistently auto DM’d so I tend not to pay much attention to what’s in my DM inbox. I could just unfollow anyone that does that but I’m conscious that some people don’t know they’re being annoying by sending automated messages, so I’m giving everyone the benefit of doubt.

The things that will get people unfollowed by me is spamming me with porn or otherwise offensive stuff and auto blasting me with 10 tweets at a time in attempt to capitalize my stream. I’d rather tweeters be interesting than annoying.

Hope these tips help. If anyone has any to add please add to comments.