I like to think of myself as a bit of an amateur sociologist because a) it’s the most interesting part of my job, but b) its actually the most helpful way of thinking about and approaching marketing. Particularly with all this new social media stuff pissing on everyone’s fireworks.

So the point of this post and inspired by Everyday Sociologist, is about not thinking like a marketer, or even a social media expert for that matter, but a sociologist. Here’s their 5 steps for thinking like a sociologist

1# never assume anything
Easier said than done I know, but it’s arguably one of our worst traits. Assumptions about media, assumptions about our audience and assumptions about how our audience uses media are the main culprits. Oh and assuming people actually care about your thingummyjig that does doodah.

2# Get ready to be wrong
Nobody likes being wrong, but it’s often a good thing. It means someone has potentially seen something you haven’t and dare I say it, perhaps an innovation? Obviously challenge people and don’t always take an opposing hypothesis on face value, but don’t be afraid to accept that there might be a better way.

3# Ask even more questions
It’s not good enough having a nice pithy way of describing a target audience or an excel spreadsheet telling you how many times you are *potentially* going to bash someone over the head. Roll up your sleeves and ask the questions that tell you what your audience are really doing and thinking. Whlist you might not like the answer, it makes life more interesting trying to understand the why as well as the who and where.

4# Make the everyday strange
Who likes stuff these days that isn’t strange or different? What happens if I create a TV ad that will have more success on the web? What happens if I create a website that is more like a TV channel? What happens if I create a banner ad that’s a booking engine? What happens if I create a campaign that is really an involving story? All of these have been done of course, but don’t let other people be the first to do something that seems strange. Today’s strange is tomorrows normal.

5# Embrace life’s complexities
Oscar Wilde once said: “Life is not complex, we are complex. Life is simple and the simple thing is the right thing”. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for simplicity, but only up to a point. After all he did say this in 18 something and something and he also said: “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative”.

We understand a lot more about people these days, how they behave, how irrational they can be and more importantly the context of various media and how they are intertwined with each other and networks of people. Technology enables us to collect vast amounts of data and see things that we would never have seen before. Yes it can be difficult to get your head around but it’s not an excuse to say something is too difficult and opt for the ‘let’s just keep things simple’ or the ‘big eyeball buy’ routes.