6 words.

I was inspired recently again by the spirit of Hemmingway’s 6 word novels.  One of them was “For sale baby shoes never worn.”

Okay, maybe a little heavy.  But yesterday an email came across my desk from a co-consultant of mine on a project, asking me to “ban any language regarding social media” during a marketing meeting for a big project.  Those are 6 interesting words indeed.

We had completed our due diligence on the web site, blog, social media links and email strategy for a client in the previous months and indeed, it was time to move onto the media buy and earned media progress.   But nonetheless, I was concerned about his stated prohibition.

When I told my millenials about his comment, one of them replied in the true spirit of Hemmingway:

“He’ll care when he becomes irrelevant.”

It’s not that we believe online strategies are the centerpiece to the marketing and pr universe, because they aren’t. But the channels in which the 20-somethings are living does not include broadcast tv or traditional newspapers.   Our target market today may watch the 6 o’clock news and get a daily doorstep drop of the paper, but those who will be in our target market in a few short years don’t.