The Social Cloud

Social media can brew quite a storm in the digital atmosphere, but I’ve never seen it strike like this.  Ad agency RPA in Santa Monica created a data-driven light sculpture called “The Listening Cloud” that visualizes social-media conversation about the agency’s clients in real time.  The cloud reacts to the conversations happening online and with each platform there is a corresponding coloured lightning bolt.  Red lightning is for Facebook likes; purple is for Instagram mentions; and blue is for Twitter.

I wanted to share this article on Adweek because the design shows immense creativity – what our industry is all about.  If you want to generate buzz and get the storm clouds a brewin’ you’ve got to think outside the box.

When it comes to creativity, one of our biggest concerns is usually how we can be more creative, or come up with better ideas.  Many people at one point or another suffer from “writers block” – myself included.  But let that be no excuse; here are a few tips to help get the creative juices flowing:

 1.       Don’t shut out any ideas when brainstorming.  The moment you say to yourself or your team…”dumb idea,” is the moment your mind or your team will stop producing these so-called dumb ideas. Wait to decide which ideas are worth pursuing until after you’ve generated a lot of ideas.

2.     Generate as many ideas as possible.  The more ideas you have, the better the odds that you’ll find something novel that works. Most of your ideas will end up on the cutting room floor but all it takes is one or two good ones.

3.       Go far out.  Let your ideas go so far out there, reaching at the smallest strings, and then slowly pull your idea back in and re-focus.

 4.       Try and try again.  If you are completely stuck, get up and go do something else.  Your work will still be there when you get back. 

Great creative ideas don’t just come to us (yes even us in the industry) overnight.  We build on ideas and re-work them over and over again.  Push yourself.  If you take a look at the bottom of the article there is a video describing what is needed to make your own Social Cloud.  Now all we need is one of these in the office!

Jaclyn Bickerton, Social Media, Raven5 Ltd, Oakville & Toronto Ontario, Sept 2013

---

View All