this is violence

There is a karaoke bar in south east Portland called The Hutch. It is a dive.

Not like faux dive, this place is actually beat down. It’s in a basement, so the ceiling is maybe 7 feet high. The food is, objectively speaking, terrible. The furniture is ruined. The TV’s displaying the lyrics are all shot, and audio system, at least while I was there, was blown and would regularly cut out. A problem when your angle is karaoke. It’s hot, it’s cramped, it’s filthy.

“you can only eat this when singing”

And it’s wonderful.

It is, in my mind, literally the finest karaoke bar in the city, and as far as I know, the world. The reason is Sean the KJ.

“Sean, the KJ”

Sean runs the Hutch like it’s his personal party. Everything he does, he does to make sure that people are singing, and dancing and having fun. He will sing your backing vocals. If you get yourself in a tight spot on a song, he’ll grab a mic and get you through it. A couple times a night, he’ll get out there and do a song himself. When Im at the hutch I feel like I’m in Seans basement, and he’s made the party just for me and my friends, and I’m pretty sure everyone in there feels the same, from the 50-something guy who looks like life has been rough and sings the same song every time, to the Reed College kids.

The thing is, I think we all have somewhere like the Hutch, that place that by normal measure should be awful, but we love it because it’s a great experience. The Hutch isn’t great because it’s a dive, it’s great because it’s unabashedly what it is. It’s great because Sean is passionate about what he does and it comes through.

* * *

Thursday night was Nemos “Who Killed Social Media” event featuring our own Dave Allen (@pampelmoose), Tony Welch (@frostola) from HP (one of our clients), James Todd (@jwtodd), Lee Crane (@leecrane) and Matt Savarino (@ridertech) all talking about social media, the social web, and the difference between the two. Amber Case has a great account of the evening here, or you can listen to a recording of the event here.

What surprised me most though were the conversations and questions, both at the event and on Twitter, about specific tools. “What tools we’re going to be the next big thing?”, “Do all clients need all these tools?”, “Is Twitter just a fad?”, “What happens when the cool people leave Twitter?” and so on. I had a lengthy conversation with a couple people over Twitter over “what do I do if I know my clients customers aren’t using social media?”

I think some people left the evening a little disappointed by the lack of clear answers on these fronts, but I also think that was largely the point. While obviously provocative, there is a lot of truth to Dave’s title for the event.

While some people may have been hoping for more answers, I think the lack of any clear directive regarding tools could be taken accurately as being indicative that is no answer to give. When you ask “what’s going to be the next big thing?” you’re questioned is based on the assumption that being there early is somehow connected to success. I was talking about this with my friend Rob (@therob) and he put the problem with this line of thinking very well: “A rising tide doesn’t raise all boats, in fact the waves that follow may actually drown you.” Meaning, just because you’re there early doesn’t mean that your status is tied to the elevation of the technology, and in fact, as people flood the system it may be easy to over look the people already there. My point is this: by looking to specific technology as an answer, you’re focusing on possibly the LEAST important thing.

So when Dave talks about brands needing a community manager, I think a key take away from that is that it’s not a twitter manager, or a facebook manager, it’s a person to look out for the health of your community and their relationship with your brand. Yes, having an understanding of the current technology is important, but think about where we were just a couple years ago: Twitter was tiny, MySpace was still relevant. More important is having an understanding of how to engage with people, how create a conversation and be part of that conversation. The web is dynamic, and so is your audience and their relationship with technology. So rather than asking “what’s the next big thing?” to a panel, ask your customer. Good brand experiences aren’t built out of technology, they’re built out of intent. They’re built out of people like Sean. Before anything else, you need to be focused on creating and facilitating great experiences, and that isn’t about technology.