How To Make Money Using Social Media

How many times do you see a title like that? How many times does that make your eyes roll?

There are both strategic and tactical ways you can grow any business using Digital Marketing and the many other Marketing, Communications, Advertising and Public Relations channels. But, there are two things that have to be a part of the main ingredients that will take you there long before the strategy and tactics get put into place: talent and creativity.

If you don’t have talent and creativity nothing is going to happen.

Whether you are looking at someone’s innocuous 140 character tweets, following a specific Blog or reading an in-depth profile in The New Yorker, it’s best to stop and reflect on why you are consuming that content, and what draws you to it. Last night, I watched a documentary film on the progressive rock trio, Rush, called, Beyond The Lighted Stage (I highly recommend it – even if you don’t like the band). As a former musician and fan of rock music, I (like many others who have walked this earth) went through a "Rush phase" in High School. It probably should have been a longer phase – considering the genres of music I prefer – but it was mostly a non-event. As of late, I am finding more and more inspiration from those that are both talented and highly creative – even if I can’t completely relate to their final creative output. Regardless of what you think about Rush (slappa-da-bass), you can’t argue that the band was not highly talented and highly creative. What they did so well is (and this really shines through in the documentary) not settle for anything less than celebrating and letting the world in on that creative force – even if it was detrimental to their professional careers.

Creativity is dying a slow death.

You may not think it is by looking around the online channels and seeing how many people are publishing interesting pieces of text, audio, video and images, but Newsweek recently ran a cover story written by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman titled, The Creativity Crisis, that shows signs of a dwindling future for creativity and nurturing talent.

"The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed. A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 ‘leadership competency’ of the future. Yet it’s not just about sustaining our nation’s economic growth. All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care. Such solutions emerge from a healthy marketplace of ideas, sustained by a populace constantly contributing original ideas and receptive to the ideas of others… It’s too early to determine conclusively why U.S. creativity scores are declining. One likely culprit is the number of hours kids now spend in front of the TV and playing videogames rather than engaging in creative activities. Another is the lack of creativity development in our schools. In effect, it’s left to the luck of the draw who becomes creative: there’s no concerted effort to nurture the creativity of all children."

We can all just go back to being factory workers.

We need to start getting serious about what the future holds for us (and our children). The days of training and schooling children so that they will eventually all sit in a nice row (or cubicle) and follow orders like drones are quickly coming to an end. The future (and the success of it) will be reliant on the most creative and talented people. Not everybody is going to be able to play a bass guitar like Geddy Lee, but let’s agree that creativity can happen in the legal profession and in the medical world as much as it can in the arts.

You can make a difference.

Get creative. Accept that you are an artist (in whatever it is that you’re doing). If you’re grappling with what that means, read Seth Godin‘s latest best-selling business book, Linchpin. But before you do anything else, please watch this TED Talk from Sir Ken Robinson on creativity, innovation and education:

Start thinking about your own talent and creativity today (right now). Nurture it and push those you are connected to do the same.