Something you may not know about me is that I went to film school. In fact, I went to what is widely accepted as the #1 film school in the world… USC School of Cinema. I was a Film Production major. I say this not to brag (because it really hasn’t done me much good in my chosen career path) but to illustrate that it’s fair to assume i received the best education one could get on the topics of all things film. Well, i was recently introduced to a screenwriting book called Save The Cat by screenwriter Blake Snyder. I’m admittedly late on the uptake with this one, as the book was published in 2005. I hope you’ll accept my not having worked in the industry those past 6 years as my alibi here.

I feel like an old fogey saying these words, but…. “when i was your age…” we learned screenwriting from old men and old books, and we learned it as a seemingly scholastic exercise. Blake Snyder’s book turns the process on it’s ear and shows writers not how to write a script, but how to write a script THAT MIGHT HAVE A SNOWBALLS CHANCE IN HELL OF SELLING!!!

What a novel concept… teaching new or struggling writers how to take their hobby (that’s what it is if it doesn’t pay your bills yet) and give it a chance of becoming their career. Save the Cat tosses out the taboo term “high concept” but replaces it with vehicles and techniques that really get you to the same thing… simple and sellable. Snyder focuses on crafting a perfect logline because the elevator pitch is just as important (if not more important) as the script itself. In an industry and city where the writer may be a valet, and the producer might be the guy with the claim ticket, the 10 second pitch has unexpectedly changed more than a few lives.

Most importantly, Snyder kinda makes the process easy for you. If you’re committed, have a semblance of an idea, and have Save the Cat, i think you’ve got a shot.

I had about a 20 minute drive to make last night, so I decided to cue up a TED talk on my iPhone and see if I could multitask transportation and enlightenment. I succeeded. Or rather, David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times succeeded with his compelling talk about human nature and our conscious awareness.

There are several comedic and interesting sound bites worth sharing, but he delivers a summation in the middle of his talk that struck a chord with me.

“…. for centuries we’ve inherited a view of human nature based on the notion that we’re divided selves. That reason is separated from the emotions, and that society progresses to extent that reason can suppress the passions. And it’s lead to a view of human nature that we’re rational rational individuals who respond in straight-forward ways to incentives. and it’s lead to ways of seeing the world where people try to use the assumptions of physics to measure how human behavior is… and it’s produced a great amputation. a shallow view of human nature. we’re really good at talking about material things, but we’re really bad at talking about emotions. we’re really good at talking about skills and safety and health, but we’re really bad at talking about character.”

Though the talk and Mr. Brooks are politically focused, and though his party views are conservative (he’s been quoted as saying “I was a liberal before coming to my senses”), the meat of his TED Talk is a social and psychological commentary on our subconscious perception, interactions, and ultimately, how those things effect our views of others and of society and societal issues at large.

Important stuff to be aware of, think about, and develop a perspective on.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sent the (now monumental) first tweet on March 21st 2006…. which means that Twitter turns 5 years old today.  That may seem like a long time to many people who have just discovered the Twitterverse in the past year or two, but it’s pretty astonishing growth rate considering their current reach.

Today, there are just under 1 Billion tweets sent and about 500,000 new accounts created on Twitter each week.  This is impressive in and of itself, but more so when you know that it took the platform 3 years, 2 months, and 1 day to reach it’s 1 Billionth tweet…. and it was over 18 months before there were even 500,000 users on Twitter in total.  Most of the growth has obviously happened since that time.  Two years ago today Twitter had about 7 Million users, and now that number is nearly 200 Million.

Looking back at the journey of this social behemoth, analyzing public and critical perception is even more interesting than marveling at the growth.  For the first few years, and even until recently, both public and insider industry was concerned with comparing Twitter to Facebook and creating the social sequel to Myspace v. Facebook.  It feels like only recently have people begun to understand each platform for what it is, and allow them to peacefully exist independent of one another.  But if we were making comparisons, especially when looking into the future and inevitable continued monetization of social media, one thing to note is that Twitter does allow for much more passive participation than Facebook.  Sophisticated marketers will not be impressed with user numbers for much longer… they’ll begin asking primarily about ‘engaged’ users, and they’ll expect this number to be statistically quantifiable.  I’m herby predicting (or inventing) the creation of new social media acronyms: EUB (engaged user base) and/or VEUs (verified engaged users).  We’ll watch and see if it happens.

Are you and your company ready to get actively involved in social media? It’s not really an action item decided in the boardroom… it’s a conscious mindset shift about how you work, and even about what exactly ‘work’ is. Here’s a checklist to see if you’re ready:

• Are you prepared to make changes to your company’s culture and reinvent the use of office time?

• Are you ready to be open about two-way dialogue instead of the one-way dialogue we’re all used to?

• Are you willing to listen, understand, and possibly grant what your audience is seeking from you online?

• Are you willing to experiment and be patient when results don’t happen overnight?

• Are you committed to keeping your site, blog, and profiles updated with fresh content?

• Are you willing to be authentic about both the good and the bad in your organization?

• Do you have the “relationships first, business second” mentality?

If most of those are yes’s… you’re ready and able. What are you doing still on my blog page? Go update your own. And when you do, link to your Facebook and twitter accounts. Then field any positive or negative reactions with constructive dialogue and genuine engagement.

If you have issues with some of those questions on the checklist, that’s ok and probably “normal” at this time. Though pervasive, social media is still pretty new and only broadly understood. Maybe it’s Greek to you, or maybe you just don’t yet believe that SM can build recognition, trust, and revenue for your business. If thats the case, I’d strongly recommend checking out case studies on people and business similar to you who have found success or failure with social media efforts. You may be a person or a business culture that needs proof and a hard ROI before trying anything new. Look to others experience for that.

**Above checklist derived from snippets of Mirna Bard’s ‘The Start of a Great Shift’ chapter in Robert Fine’s ‘The Big Book of Social Media’

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! If you work a job in an office filled with people, no doubt you’ll hear that several times today. If you’re in grade school, you’ll hear it all day long… and you’d better be wearing green so as not to get pinched for lack of participation. But were you ever taught the history of St. Patrick? Me neither.

I’m not going to tell you the history because, honestly, it’s not that exciting (except for the bit where Pat gets kidnapped and sold into irish slavery. And then later he flees his master and travels back home to Britain on a PIRATE SHIP!). How did we not know about the pirate part? And why don’t we wear eye patches instead of green? Or green eye patches. Read more history here…

All scallywagging aside, the interesting things about this holiday are 1. that Patrick wasn’t Irish, he was British; 2. the official color of the day was originally blue, not green; and 3.(and most interesting) the fact that St. Patricks Day is kind of a big deal in America. Census shows there are about 156,000 irish people in the US. That’s roughly 0.05% of the population, or 1 out of every 2000 people. Yet you woke up and at least wore green underwear today… and I back it. I’m wearing green.

This says a lot about the homogeny of America. It says even more about the genius holiday marketing efforts of related industries in America. In it’s truest form, St Patty’s is a religious holiday of the Roman Catholic Church. When Americanized and Madison Avenued, St Patty’s means the Chicago river is turned green and so is the beer at your local bar. You’re buying “I’m not Irish, kiss me anyway” t-shirts, getting pissed drunk, talking like a leprechaun, and pinching people because you can. It’s America doing what we do best, packaging and selling it to the people. And thank God. We’ve made it a really fun holiday here… who wouldn’t want to join in?!

I just arrived back from four long days at the 2011 South by Southwest conference in Austin, TX. Aside from learning that late nights on 6th Street and Iron Works BBQ will put a damper on your exercise schedule, I can break down my takeaway into three fragmented nuggets of media gold:

1. Digital media and marketing can no longer be viewed as a segment of your brands marketing plan, it IS your marketing plan. “Traditional marketing” methods may still be required to insure your minimum daily impressions or to reach a specific target demo, but this is now the outlier. The classic mediums may have reach guarantee, but by the sheer existence of circulation numbers, they lack hope for scalability. When it comes to content mediums, the rule has become the exception.

2. klout.com is blowing up for a reason. How influential is your perspective, your persona, your social identity on the web? To be more clear, how important is your online mojo to you… and how important is it to marketers and brands? I cant answer for you but I can tell you the marketers reply is VERY IMPORTANT. Influence quotients make it possible to pointedly target the elusive and most desirable customer segment, influencers. And as social media monetizes, this will become all the more vital.

3. Social Media, specifically lbs and mobile web, really is the wild west right now. A handful of folks got in early enough and developed powerful brand partnerships that let their initiatives automatically scale, but even those guys are still usually throwing spaghetti at walls. Some of the digital world/real world convergence blows my mind, and some causes me to wonder about either my own sanity or that of the participating public. I mean, how long can people go on collecting imaginary badges and purchasing digital in-game items before they realize they could be exerting that energy and spending those dollars on their own REAL LIVES? I have to think, not long.

Nugget #4 about SXSW would be GO! I think everyone who’s even remotely interested in or actively consuming interactive media, film, or music should experience sxsw. It’s a flight and a few days for a ton of perspective on today and the foreseeable future.

Old Spice sells deodorant, after-shave, and body wash right?  Hogwash!  They sell ‘lady-getting’, and right now…. they sell comedy.

This new “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” ad campaign is a great mix of ridiculousness and genius.  A good looking, svelte, black man goes from being in a shower, to on a boat, to on a horse, in 30 seconds… offering theatre tickets and diamonds to your lady along the way.   All playing off the exaggerated, almost sarcastic idea that your man switching to Old Spice body wash will instantly turn him into the man of your dreams, yacht included.  Not a single person watching these commercial takes even a glimmer of truth about the product claims to heart, and that’s just fine by Old Spice.  The spots have been parodied all over television… the first one has been viewed 7.7 million times on youtube… and “I’m on a horse” is undoubtedly becoming part of daily conversation for guys in college and beyond.  Is this destined for the immortal ranks of “where’s the beef”, “hey mikey, he likes it”, or “got milk?”?

I think it’s hilarious and can’t get enough, but I wonder if it’s selling body wash.  Anyone know?

Just when you thought this little guy was all about the cover songs… he surprises you with a little lyrical magic of his own! Mainakumana is destined to top the pop charts.

We’ve heard this question asked and answer 1,000 times in different, equally trite, ways… with romanticized examples and all.  If I donate that $0.66 cents a day, I will make a difference in the life of a child.  If I turn the lights off when I leave a room, or ride my bike instead of drive, I will be cutting down on some energy use and pollution emissions and therefore playing a role.  So yes, it’s indisputable that one person can make some sort of difference; how much of a difference, or how influential that difference is… now that’s debatable.

I think about this kind of thing a lot -- but when I do, I’m usually thinking about the ‘difference’ that one person can make in the energy or perspective of people and things around them.  I think about how laughter is contagious.  How hearing, saying, or even reading the word yawn has the ability to actually make you yawn.  (sorry if you’re yawning right now)(damn. I just did).  Anyway, I came across this silly video that’s quickly become viral and is flying around the web because it’s of a guy in tight shorts dancing like a stooge by himself… and a couple other guys who quickly followed suit (probably in attempts to subtly mock the first guy).  Regardless of their reason for joining, the 1 dancer becoming 3 grabs 3 times the attention.  The 3 become 9… and the 9 becomes 81 (or hundreds. but you get the idea).  Point is, stuff like this is about energy.  There’s nothing more powerful than it, and nothing is more contagious.  That said, positive energy is the most influential and invasive kind… whether that’s a smile, a compliment, an unconscious whistling, or a guy in tight, short shorts having a solo dance party.

I just loved this.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA8z7f7a2Pk

I get the whole cleanliness and personal hygiene thing… but I should really shower daily, if for no other reason than because my shower is like an incubator for genius ideas.  I just took a little 5-minute rinse and came up with a couple zingers that just might change my life.  I don’t know if I have a magic shower, but I swear, if my little studio had a bathtub I probably would have cured cancer by now.  Someone get this post to Pfizer and the rest of the pharmies… it just might behoove them to install a tub in my place and get me on payroll.  Maybe even buy me a house with several tub/shower combos.  I know for some people it’s the can, or the car.  That would make things so much better for me, cuz: A. I spend way more time in those places than I do cleaning myself; and B. yall don’t have to go online right now and buy The Droodle – Waterproof Notepad for $14.95 plus $3 per replacement pad.