Mass Mingling

Mass Mingling

Stacey Edmonds, AUG 2010

I’ve just read a great article on Trendwatching all about this “orgy of real world activities and happenings” known as MASS MINGLING. This is officially my new favourite term (knocked off Virtualosity) as it’s just so blummin’ phonetically pleasing.

“As predicted by digital gurus more than a decade ago, hundreds of millions of people are now living large parts of their lives online (and lovin’ it!). However, this has not turned entire generations into homebound, anti-social zombies (another popular forecast). Au contraire: social media and mobile communications are fueling a MASS MINGLING that defies every cliche about diminished human interaction in our online era”

So (for now), forget a future in which the majority of consumers lose themselves in virtual worlds, with cities dying and kids never seeing the light of day; expect people to mingle and meet up like there’s no tomorrow.

A definition:

MASS MINGLING | Thanks to the online revolution, hundreds of millions are now actively searching for, finding, connecting/signaling, and staying in touch with like-minded souls in the virtual world. Constant updates, GPS and mobile online access is now bringing this explosion of dating, networking, socialising and mingling to the real world domain.

What is extra fabulous about this article is the lovely rundowns of the services being used to facilitate this Mingling malarky… which is very useful to all of us trying to learn the platforms available across which to tell stories and engage our participants in a narrative.  Of course the key is FIT FOR PURPOSE… I keep saying that as each approach needs to be understood and implemented in it’s form for maximum usage and impact.  There’s no use trying to randomly fit story/content/message to a platform ‘cos it’s the latest thing… therefore we must use… it might not be the best fit for the tool, impact or message.

So at first glance at MASS MINGLING and how it may happen, how might the services be used as part of a Transmedia approach?

Off the top of my head… could be really off the mark, but you don’t know until you go…

In Learning

How about this for a corporate networking tool – with a subject matter such as Leadership…

“Dutch Open Coffee is a LinkedIn initiative, connecting business professionals in various Dutch cities for a weekly Friday morning coffee networking event”

In Marketing

Building brand awareness by creating an item/rewards treasure hunt…

Gowalla is a social networking game that encourages users to share their location using a range of applications designed for mobile devices. The network features in-game ‘items’ which can be collected as bonuses or dropped and swapped between users at check-in ‘Spots’.”

In Activism

This reminds me of attending the first ‘illegal’ rave in the UK (a story for another blog!), however in activism this type of gathering could be used to bring together like-minded people to make a statement…

“In France, the “massive aperitifs“, with Facebook acting as an organising tool, sees up to tens of thousands of strangers gather in an open space for a party. Some have been forbidden, as authorities are unable to hold individuals accountable for any accidents or to pay for the clean-up.”

In Entertainment

What are you thinking? The question I am mulling on is this – how might one or more of the listed services provide a platform across which to tell part of my latest story idea?