In such a me-manner, I began editing and paring down another entry from my UCC Social Media Case Study and I ended up with more text than I began with. The following, an address of "social media strategy/implementation" versus engineering, the importance of reading books, talking with people and fertilizing "mind gardens," and the relevance of organizers and intellectuals published before 2000, was a tangental thought that best stands alone.

All suggestions that I make with 2009 in mind are made in the wake of 2008, thanks to the richness of mass-experimentation that was made possible, as it was the year in which the social media community was able to – more than any year before – target why some tools (and the implementation of them) work, and others do not.

Often, the answer is pretty simple: Strategies and outlets substantiated by content and strategy work; those that exist for the sake of having them do not.

Barack Obama's social media strategy worked because the content (the campaign's ability to leverage its own brand) was there, as was a tangible game-plan (on-the-ground troops willing to go door-to-door thanks in large part to inspiration and motivation born out of the content).

John McCain's social media strategy, unsubstantiated by meaningful content, did not work and was largely disconnected from any comprehensive/tactical person-to-person strategy.

• (And, in retrospect, who can forget his deputy Internet director's sorta' cute, naive-yet-hopeful foot-in-mouth claim that McCain didn't need to use the Internet in order to understand its importance).
• (I personally feel that said staffer, Mark Soohoo, shouldn't be held accountable for McCain's botched Internet opportunity – only his willingness to say something absurd in order to minimize the severity of the aforementioned handicap. Rather than expanding a dialog of exploration, Soohoo, who received a degree in Political Communication from George Washington University, defended a wholly out-of-date, status quo mentality that is antithetical the movement he makes a living off of. As the king of slipping up and saying stupid things, though, I am cautiously willing to forgive and forget.)

Similarly, having a Ning, Facebook group/fan-page, Twitter account, or whatever is only helpful if there is some sort of plan in place behind their intended implementation. For example, regarding my examination of possible social media uses for the UCC, suggesting they maintain a combination of these services in order to comprise a "social media presence" in hopes of attracting more members - or engaging and maintaining current ones - is as useful as suggesting buying a level, a table-saw, and a hammer to someone looking to construct a house. The tools can lead to the end, but they need to be contextualized and substantiated by an integrative strategy that requires a series of skill-sets beyond a) knowing what the tools use and b) desiring a house.

I address this as pointedly as I have because I believe that in order to meaningfully push forward the work that we do – and this is something of an aside – [self-proclaimed] social media "experts" need to start simultaneously proving ourselves as competent social architects with a concentration on social media strategy. In 2009, when companies, nonprofits and individuals come to me in search of recommendations regarding contractors to hire (believe it or not, they do), my recommendations will favor strategists that possess skills beyond knowing how to log into social networking sites or design a Ning (a generalization, but you get the picture).

Success in 2009 - more than ever before - is contingent on marrying the techniques we fetishize with a deeper sense, knowledge of, and experience with community management approaches and wisdom. Again, as we learned from the Obama campaign's approach, Tom Hayden, Saul Alinsky, and Robert Putnam are as relevant in our success as Clay Shirky, Beth Kanter, Seth Godin, and Jay Rosen are.

[And, as an even-further aside, it's time to start reading again. I don't just mean how-to nonsense; I mean nonfiction and fiction. In a video I've shown nearly a hundred time to a hundred different people for a hundred different reasons, Penelope Trunk [of Brazen Careerist] suggests that "your generation" (presumably Boomers) read the Catcher in the Rye or [On The Road, or some other somewhat accurate generational cliche], while our generation (Millennials) read books on organizational techniques. What are we, the f**king Borg? That's the most depressing thing I have ever heard suggested about Millennials. And in my own anecdotal experience, at least in the early-adopter crowd (with some exceptions, of course), this is largely the case.

Q: What books have you read this year?
A: Here Comes Everybody, Groundswell, Tribes ... you know - the ushe.
Q: Anything else?
A: I've been meaning to, but not yet. Hopefully in 2009! [Nervous, embarrassed giggles]

"Hopefully in 2009" is right. Building a knowledge base off of how-to manuals is a terrific first-step, but it memorizing the techniques in The Naughty Book of Sex Positions that makes you a great lover. In the latter case, it takes a knowledge of self, of people, of what resonates and what does not (and, if you're going to read one of these "industry" books, David Sirota's The Uprising is actually a pretty great study, series of case-studies, and great reporting).

Fertilize your mind-garden.

Forward-moving successes and evolution require comprehensive knowledge of what makes people respond, not just on a logistical or strategic level, but on an intangible level. Similarly, as I noted in a previous post, if all of your networking, your connection, your interaction is facilitated by friend-invites, group-creation, and 140-character chatter, it might be handy to get off-line, shake a hand or two, grab a coffee and have a conversation, go on a date, and all of that happy stuff, before Skynet has its way with you.

All of these avenues for output, communication and organization create a dangerous temptation, one that tempts us to embrace producing ten times more than we consume. The holiday season (or reflection on it's end, at least) reminds us the importance of slowing down and adding some nutrients and water to the soil of our mind, thus creating fertile land for strong and robust cultivation.]