I confess: If I see one more social media expert advice headline I'm going to ...

A. Unsubscribe from whomever sent it to me.

B. Throw up a little bit in my mouth.

C. Re-tweet it because it seems like good information even though I only skimmed it.

D. Click the link only to realize that I've been "Rick Rolled."

E. Read it despite myself and get distracted from what I was doing, get most of the way through it and feel empty inside because it wasn't worth my time.

F.  Read it and actually learn something, click a link about the writer, like their Facebook page, and never notice their posts in my over-crowded stream ever again.

G. Click the link and WISH I'd been "Rick Rolled" once I see the boring page, get distracted by thinking about how "Rick Rolling" is actually one of the more brilliant viral-marketing-social-media-campaigns out there because it isn't marketing at all.

It's annoying to see so many experts dishing out fast-food advice as if you can follow a formula and *poof* your business will explode like a viral disease with no vaccine. The truth about it all is much more simple than all of the mountains of advice out there make it seem. 

Social media isn't really new. Yes, there's new equipment, new delivery methods, new technology and yes, it offers the potential of getting up close and personal with a few billion people. But the concept is as old as we are. Humans have been practicing social media since before the written word. We've always had a voice (just maybe not as strong as Rick Astley's).

Whether or not your message goes "viral" hinges on good old fashioned principals like communication skills, creativity and hard work. I would go into more details on that, but then this would be a social media advice blog post and I really don't want to read or write another one of those for at least a day or two. 

3 examples of excellence in social media + advertising

In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. ~Andy Warhol

Do you think social media is cutting-edge? Think it hasn't gone mainstream yet? Think again. Three brands that are making positively brilliant use of social media in their advertising strategies happen to be three of the most white-bread, mainstream, non-exciting brands ever. These brands might make you think of childhood in middle-class middle-America, but they wouldn't make you think of cutting-edge social media campaigns, would they? Think again, again.

The beauty of social media is the conversation. Twitter turned five last week. Five years ago, there was no way these middle-weight giants would be taking consumers' chatter and turning it into national commercials AND publicly mentioning these consumers by name. These middle-of-the-road brands are playing the game perfectly and running a great race. Most importantly, it's real. 

Take a look at some of these commercials, and then go tweet something about your favorite brands. You never know, you might get your 15 minutes of fame thanks to a Twitter mention via a television commercial that plays on YouTube and goes viral internationally. It could happen. 

Wheat Thins. Surprising tweeters in their real life, bringing the brand to them.

Agency: The Escape Pod

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Making a commercial out of a tweet, as artfully as possible with a lightning-fast turnaround.

Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Old Spice. Holding conversation with real tweeters with "The Old Spice Guy's" surreal machismo.

Agency: Weiden + Kennedy

Pants-down, the best top 10 list this year so far!

Listen Kanye, I'm real happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but "Pants on the Ground" is the best act to parody, EVER!

If you have some musical or comedic talent, you'd better get your pants on the ground because it's rocket-viral. Cover General Larry Platt's heartfelt, catchy ditty from American Idol, and you could get your 15 minutes. Don't worry you don't have to clean your room - in fact, I think laundry helps with the acoustics. You just can't buy this kind of coverage.

I'll save the long blog and get right to the meat. Here are ....

Little Black Mask's Top 10 "Pants on the Ground" Parodies (as of today):

Jimmy Fallon is a master at imitating rockers. This is beautiful.

WOW, this came as a surprise!

Dark, moody sensitive-rock and hip glasses.

He's sensitive and emotional, hey, it's a passionate song.

This guy has a downloadable version, in case you want to play it while you jog in the morning.

Malaysian Punkish Rock version, I dig it.

Sock monkey hat and a blue guitar, folk girl gets in the game.

Is he one of the Bens?

IF "Pants on the ground" was filipino remix.

Last but not least...

Drunk Lady Remix *hic.