I just got the latest ChangeThis newsletter and immediately read Patricia Martin’s peice on what she’s calling the Renaissance Generation (or RenGen). She has a whole book on the subject but this quick read perfectly encapsulates a lot of the social media trends we’ve been seeing or feeling around us over the last couple of years. Of course it doesn’t hurt to have a catchy word like RenGen to add to the “cool” factor.

Some of the points that resonated with me dealt with the central character of the RenGen: the Cultural Consumer. The CultCon (sorry, I couldn’t resist) isn’t satisfied with the old guard uni-directional flow of information, entertainment or opinions. Rather they relish (and seek out) avenues of creative self-expression. Engaging in more of a dialogue with their media… a conversation, if you will…. sound familiar?

Part of the beauty of a collaborative-rich environment is that phonies are eventually found out. One of Martin’s lessons of the RenGen: “The RenGen prefers products that are imperfect but authentic, over perfect products that pollute.” You see this a lot at professional networking events. You can always tell when the person you’re talking to has checked out of the conversation, and all they’re doing is doing the obligatory nodding and smiling. They don’t care about what you’re saying but they know they need to look like it. Likewise, there’s a tendency now for marketing and PR types to use blogs and social networking sites to appear to be in conversation with their customers. Sure they might be able to pour money into Interruptive marketing campaigns to convincingly appear concerned, but in the RenGEn the currency isn’t dollars but genuine attention; yours in exchange for your customers. And they’ll know when you’re not really listening. Genuine trumps polished.

I definitely recommend investing the 10 minutes it takes to read it for yourself here as well as subscribing to the ChangeThis newsletter. You get to read things like Build Your Brand in Bits and Bites: Building Your Personal Brand Online

They know how to pull out the Welcome Wagon

We had the pleasure of going to the launch/ welcome-to-the-neighborhood party for one of the newest creative businesses moving to our area, Oddpodz. A social networking site for creative professionals.

Part of why I love it here is that you’re constantly reminded that you do business with people not corporate entities. So it was great not only to meet the lovely ladies behind Oddpodz but to have some face-time with other like-minded local business people. Thanks to the TCCi and Oddpodz for the great time and here’s to Oddpodz’ longevity.

Karen and Jocelyn, the original Oddpodz

It’s disappointing how many examples of corrupt corporate culture appear to be in the world. I know nothing can be perfect, and god knows I certainly don’t claim to be the perfect at what I do, but it means a lot to me that my 2 business partners are the same folks that I love to spend my time off with. Not because we talk about work (which we don’t…OK sometimes), but because we have such a good time working together and truly care for and respect each other. We’re family. Sappy I know…but it’s the truth. And I’ve discovered more and more that this is not as common as it should be.

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