It was bound to happen.

A novelty becomes a fad, a fad becomes a phenomenon, a phenomenon becomes an industry.

At that point, it just gets more and more serious. Words and phrases like “business applications“, “return on investment“, “leveraging”, “strategy“, “optimization“, and “experts“, just to name a few, get tossed around with reckless abandon.

Eventually, the seriousness drains most of the life out of the beast, and then the “whatever happened to……?” questions start coming. Nostalgia abounds about the “good ol’ days“.

Finally,  there’s capitulation – the collective resignation that what once was fresh, new, and different is now stale, rote, and commonplace.

While our friend Social Media has not quite approached the capitulation stage yet, I fear it is getting closer and closer to it.

There is an antidote, however.

It’s the collective ability of the users to NOT take it so seriously, and keep the fun and social side of it alive and kicking.

To aid in this endeavour, I have taken the liberty of concocting 20 easy ways to  help me in my “SMOF” campaign (aka Social Media Ought to be Fun):

1.  Write a Blog post about “The Secret Life of Dust“.   Don’t forget all the different types, including Space Dust.  Quote liberally from the trusted source Wikipedia.

2.  Follow @BadBanana (aka Tim Siedell), and RT bon mots like- “I have the complete works of Shakespeare on my iPhone so I can ignore it wherever I go.”

3.  Each time an online troll goes at it (or at you), respond thusly- “Have you had your hug today? ”.

4.  Get about 70 characters into a very deep, meaningful Tweet about something  abruptly stop, and just add “and, Yada Yada Yada“.

5.  Talk in Yoda-speak when being declarative, to add a little Star Wars savoir-faire – like  “The best thing since sliced bread, Social Media is.  Hmmmmmm.” (here’s a handy little helper)

6.  Create a new SM alter-ego with an Ed McMahon-like avatar and answer everything with “Hye-Oh!  You are correct, sir!”.

7.  Reverently Tweet quotes from 80′s hair bands. For example:  “Ain’t lookin’ for nothin’ but a good time, and it don’t get better than this”- Deville, Dall, Michaels, Rockett.

8.  Post a list of your “10 Favorite, Rock Solid, Surefire Fabric Softeners”- Psst…don’t forget there are several different types of Bounce sheets!

9.  Retweet @britneyspears incessantly, and for added emphasis, put ‘MUST READ’ in front of it.

10.  Tweet in Klingon – try this:  batlhHa’ vanglu’taHvIS quv chavbe’lu’.  Trust me on that one.

11.  Engage in a spirited debate about the socioeconomic merits of “and” vs “&“.

12.  Declare it “Doris Day Day” and Blip her greatest hits  (extra credit for “Que Sera Sera”).

13.  Compile a Twitter list of “People who spell well”. If you are reading everything closely, it won’t be a long one.

14.  Pick a geologist you know and write about a (real)  “Rock Star”. Don’t know any? Once again, Wikipedia is a trusted source, and there are LOTS of them.

15.  Form a group on LinkedIn called “Hygene Think Tank”. Start the discussion on the merits of flat versus round dental floss.

16.  Start a Facebook fan club for “HR Pufnstuf”.  Groovy, baby.

17.  Challenge the decision-making of your new followers with this Auto-DM – “Welcome – it’s your lucky day. Be ready for my arsenal of awesomeness!”.

18.  Give some props to the late George Carlin- say someone, like @starbucker, Tweets something patently obvious (which he is so apt to do), like “Social Media is a very social medium” respond by saying “That’s Near-fetched, Terry!”.

19.  Write a Tweet that fills the 140 characters almost exclusively with Acronyms – something that actually makes sense would be a plus.

20.  Finally, shake up your next Social Media conference by first sitting quietly for hours, and then suddenly, without warning, standing up and doing this:

FOOD FIGHT!!!!!

The members of SMOF thank you in advance for your support and cooperation.