The key part of new media
It’s the new part.
“How am I supposed to use this?” is the common question. You’re supposed to have a certain tone in your tweets, a certain format to your Facebook posts. You’re supposed to have comments on your blog and your YouTube videos should have a certain look, feel and length.
When MTV was the hitmaker of the music industry, it quickly became clear what a music video was supposed to look like.
Nonsense.
Matching the vernacular is a fine starting point if you don’t want to spend time or energy questioning the form. But in fact, questioning the form, embracing the new part of the medium is precisely where forward motion happens.
Our new instagram account is pioneering minibooks and other non-traditional ways to use the medium. This blog hasn’t had comments in a long time. Trailblazers have run telethons, talk shows and other surprising formats on Facebook. I don’t use Twitter ‘properly’ but that’s okay. A podcast doesn’t have to have guests. In fact, it could be a minute long or eleven hours long.
The only right way is the way that helps you make the change you seek.
PS Here’s my favorite music video, done incorrectly of course. For inspiration, the best of Spike Jonze, breaking the rules of an older new media can be found here…