There was an article in the New York Times a few days ago.  It profiles these kids (mostly out of LA) who came up with a new style of dance called jerking.

Goofy, gentle, nimbly amateurish, jerking was little known outside certain precincts of this sprawling city until a year ago. But in the last nine months or so, jerking began an unexpected run as an Internet phenomenon.

Reading through this article made me think all too much about WHY this became such a phenomenon.  These kids, and I mean kids (the leaders of one of the dance crews is 15) took passion and turned it into lifestyle.  Along with their dance, they have their own music and style.

Teenagers there had apparently gotten jerking’s fashion memo, the one that calls for skinny jeans, fat gold chains and T-shirts featuring characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and Oscar the Grouch. Jerking, said Mr. Hasan, the film director, is “like this huge communal collage, all these teenagers coming together to collaborate.”

Did these kids have over night success?  Perhaps.  But really, they just did what most of us are scared to do and what our companies fail to do: showcase our passions and let the world feel it too.

The internet is getting old enough that it’s coming back into style.  Jerkers use the web not only to get their message out, but to in essence reincarnate certain aspects of dead culture.

Perhaps the most compelling thing about jerking, suggested Randall Roberts, the music editor of the L.A. Weekly, is how handily its practitioners manipulate the Web, scouring culture of historical context, freely deploying any tool that comes to hand.

What was probably once a small group hanging out goofing off evolved into a massive subculture movement.  Much like Straight edge, these subcultures and movements sprout up common interests.

What is riveting though, is how the innovation takes place and how their lifestyle is completely applicable to how social business works.  Your business can learn from these kids.  Their innovation pipeline translated to success because of a few factors:

• Consistency – they show up and dance.  They do it over and over again.  You want to watch them.  You know they’ll be there.
• Ubiquity – it’s widespread enough that these kids got picked up by the New York freaking Times.  Can your company do that?  Probably hasn’t yet….
• Improv masters – though small and seemingly trivial, take a look at 3:37 of the video where one kid loses his shoe.  When your company gets the hiccups what do you do?  Wait them out or make them work?
• Branding and infiltration – they didn’t leave it at creating and popularizing a dance.  They have their own music, blog, and style of dress.  They didn’t create just a product – they created a lifestyle.  Does your company provide a solution to a problem or do you go beyond that to infiltrate your customers lives?
• Capitalize on the moment – is this a fad?  Who knows.  Who cares.  They capitalize on the hype and will ride it until it fades.  Your company should do the same.  Who cares what’s going to happen?  No one knows so as long as you can capitalize on the now, you’re okay.  Later, when it’s not working, you shift.
• Innovation gets noticed – the Pink Dollaz got picked up to record with M.I.A.  Normal school kids hanging out with one of the biggest female rappers?  That’s hott.

Bottom line?  Be passionate at present.

If you and your company love what you do enough, chances are other people will too.  Just be ready to change when it’s ready.