When I was little I had a huge tin of Crayola Crayons that I would use almost everyday to draw houses or color in coloring books. Most of the crayons were made up of castoffs from the typical 8-, 24- or 48-pack and they were inherited, worn down or broken. The tin never included the desired 64-pack.

Every time I was drawing I found myself needing that one color that I didn’t have and was only in the 64-pack. Colors like raw sienna, burnt sienna, raw umber, lavender, copper, and plum were out of reach and, to me, my drawings never quite seemed complete. (added 9/29: see I am still scarred, I combined the two best crayons there were!)

Fast forward to when I first kicked off my career in marketing. I relied on the tactics of the day: public relations, events, collateral, advertising and direct mail. Consider them the available tin crayons, which included basic colors like black, blue, brown, green, orange, and red. 

Having only eight colors gets boring and redundant pretty fast.

Then along came integrated marketing communications, Web 1.0, SEM and SEO. Wow! More colors…and cooler colors like robin’s egg blue, shamrock and purple mountain’s majesty were now available to me.

Where am I going with this? Well, it occurred to me after attending great events like Social Media Camp NY, PodCamp and SearchCamp Philly, and most recently Small Business Marketing Unleashed that every interaction I have and every person I meet is like one more complimentary and unique crayon that I didn’t have in my tin. And it’s fresh and unbroken.   

As I look forward to attending the Marketing Prof’s Digital Marketing Mixer next month, I realize that the coveted 64-pack is no longer out of reach and there is no better time to be a marketer and communicator than now. As marketers, communicators and social media leaders we have new crayons at our fingertips—daily—and we can get them from anywhere in the world—there are no broken crayons limiting us.

I’ve recently added two new colors: wild blue yonder and outer space and I can’t wait to see where they take me.

How about you? What crayons are you looking for?

[Photo: iStock]

I went to my first UnConference last week (Social Media Camp NYC). Before April, I didn’t even know what an UnConference was and I suspect a lot other corporate marketers don’t either.

With my ‘Social Media Cap’ on my initial reactions were:

• This is great! A democratic approach to topic suggestions and conversations (Hooray!)
• Interesting! Lots of other smart social media folks here. (“I know him/her from Twitter!”)
• Freedom! I love being able to leave—and go to another session—if I don’t like the topic. (Although it felt a little rude the first time, the second time was much easier.)
• Love the community aspect! (It’s great to learn from others.)
• It’s free! (Awesome, my social media budget is zero.)

• What the hell? (Where is the structure and organization?)
• How do I know the presenter is experienced enough to be speaking on said topic? (“Who is this person speaking about fake personas?!”)
• Three tracks and all have great topics, what’s a marketer to do? (Admittedly, I have marketing ADD, but I couldn’t very well jump around all day…what would that accomplish?)
• This just feels wrong. How about they talk and then I ask questions. (After all, that’s what I am used to.)
• It’s free. (Hmmm, does that equate to cheap, non-professional and unknown speakers?)

I am not alone.

For now, I am walking the line between what’s new and what’s comfortable. Two great camps. One great location. Both caps are happy!

What do you think? As Social Media and Camps become more common and embraced, will corporate marketers throw off their caps and grab sleeping bags instead?

[Photo: iStock]