Named one of 10 modern day Madmen by Fast Company, Advisory Board Member, Faris Yakob, shares his take on current state, and future, of social media.
1. What is your or your organization’s greatest success with social media to date?
My greatest success with social media to date has been, without doubt, the lovely people who I have met and become friends with. Professionally, probably a series of socially created and distributed documentaries I conceived of for BMW first electric vehicle.
2. What do you think is the most exciting thing happening in the emerging technology and/or new media space right now?
Robots. I truly believe the next big megamonopoly company, like MSFT and GOOG, will be built on robots.
3. What speaker or event are you most looking forward to at SMW NYC?
Anil Dash: We Are All Makers: Participating in the Design of Our Future: Dale Dougherty and Anil Dash
Alexis Ohanian: Open and Unfiltered: Defending the Internet, Featuring Alexis Ohanian and Eli Pariser
Cindy Gallup (because she never fails to include sex toys): Money, News & Sex: Stories of Challenging 3 Industries from Cindy Gallop, Jessica Jackley & Katie Orenstein
4. What prompted you to join Social Media Week’s Advisory Board?
I enjoy helping people when I can. I think a conference, a trade body, can function as a community hub, a way of giving people a voice and helping them help each.
5. What is the most creative way you’ve seen social media used?
What does most creative mean? I think we use the word that way we mean least obvious connection point. So, The Curators of Sweden, whilst brilliant, is so strategically relevant that it’s hard to push it as most creative, in this sense. Social, new media artists, I think help push the boundaries of the possible, beyond solutions: art can be R&D for humanity. The endless reviews on Amazon, Wikipedia itself, the composite creativity of the many, I find those things staggering.
And, um, something on Facebook.
Faris Yakob is a strategist, writer, public speaker, creative director and geek. Most recently he was Chief Innovation Officer of MDC and founding partner of Spies&Assassins, the creative technology boutique. Previously, he was Chief Digital Officer at McCann Erickson, and Digital Ninja at Naked Communications. He’s won and judged numerous awards, strategic and creative, served as chairman of the Content&Contact and Integrated juries for the Clios, created the NEW category for the London International Awards, and teaches at Miami Ad School. He was named one of the top 50 creatives in the world by the Clios, and one of 10 modern day Madmen by Fast Company. He writes and speaks on technology, media, brands and creativity, all over the world and was featured in Morgan Spurlock’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. If you want him to write, speak, think about things or have ideas for you, you can find him online @faris and farisyakob.com.