“No Summer Vaca for You!” Back to School Special

This morning, like millions of other parents, I watched my middle schooler and sixth grader hop on the bus to start another school year. The shock of educational stimulation will hit their summer-sogged brains like artillery fire. They’ll be exhausted tonight. (Date night, perhaps?)

Unlike them, marketing professionals don’t have the luxury of summer vacations. In fact, if you’re not feeling like you’re under fire every single day, then something’s gone madly wrong. Quite literally every Monday morning (or Tuesday, this week) I arrive at my desk at Ciceron wondering, “How do I have to reinvent this company this week?” Or, “What’s about to happen that I may or may not be prepared for?” As my colleagues here know, I operate every day with a healthy dose of paranoia that at any given time I may be behind the curve of innovation, the pace of my clients’ expectations, and, most important, the adoption of new media and practices of the consumer.

If you were hoping that marketing would be a good sunset career, I guarantee you’ve found the wrong professional trajectory. In fact, over the past 15 years or so, marketing has gone from being one of the more docile business units to the most daunting. Expectations of marketing executives have moved from the old John Wanamaker quote of not knowing which half of his advertising budget was working to expecting that marketing knows every minute detail of how the department is performing.

But wait. There’s more! Now marketing is expected to know how well the entire company is doing—from customer service to product design—simply because marketing has primary access to all that juicy Web data. Again, if you got into marketing because you thought it was 100 percent creative day in and day out, your head is probably spinning at the amount of wonky analysis that’s expected of you. I know plenty of marketing creative types who have very simply had enough of it and have moved on to other pursuits. This wasn’t what they signed up for, and they have the personal wherewithal to decide to find another passion in life.

So how does one stay on top of the changing world of marketing? Attending a conference or two per year is hardly enough. Below are a few recommended “daily reads,” as well as sites where I find a lot of value.

Center for Media Research/MediaPost—Great daily digests of emerging media and research

AdAge Digital—I might get a few chuckles for this one, but I enjoy watching the advertising agency world continue to morph. There’s much to learn about change. Hell, I might be a digital native, but eventually I too will face certain obsolescence. The agency world is in major rebirth right now. AdAge is also doing a great job of reinventing itself, especially with Minnesota native Abbey Klaussen at the helm.

iMediaConnection—Great overview of the daily developments in technology and trends

InsideFacebook—Let’s face it: Facebook to many is the Internet. And as a marketing leader, getting a leg up on the inner-workings of this nearly billion-person network is critical to your success. InsideFacebook gives you, well, the inside . . . of . . . Facebook.

Twitter—I list this last because if you’re like me, you’ve scanned this entire article and gotten to the bottom. I wanted to be sure you saw the most important content recommendation, Twitter. If you’re a marketing executive and not on Twitter, it’s time to stop fighting whatever personal battle is going on in your brain and get on board. You don’t need to post a damn thing, by the way. But get on and start following people. I get 90 percent of my industry news through Twitter updates from the best and the brightest people on Earth. When they tell me something’s important, I read it. And most of the time, the time I spent with their recommended content was well worth it. Twitter is not a time waster when used correctly. It’s a huge time saver. Get all up in Twitter’s grill and learn to love it.

OK. So while the kids are whoopin’ it up on their first day of school, here you are at your desk jamming on your savviness. Hopefully a couple of my recommendations today are a small contributor to your quest for awesomeness. And don’t forget to thank your lunch ladies.

Comments

[Carol]

Thanks Andrew. I sincerely appreciate the direction!

[kim garretson]

@MikeElgan
@R
@PatrickStrother
@pblackshaw
@simonmainwaring

[AEklund]

Carol - I'll forward this link onto my Twitter followers and hopefully they'll come in with some recommendations as well...

Several I trust: @thebrandbuilder, @EdelmanDigital, @fastcompany

Many "experts" spend an awful lot of time pimping their own stuff and/or egos so I tend to stay away. :)

[Carol]

Andrew I am one of those Marketing Professionals who has done nothing more than dip her proverbial toe into Twitter and created an account. This is due in part to my constant struggle just to manage my daily email (work and personal), juggle my daily workload and oversee home life for my husband and two children. Please enlighten me a bit on some of your recommended "best and brightest people on earth" in the marketing arena whom it would be worth my time to follow. I would love to join the Twitter world even if, as you say, I don't tweet myself but simply follow.

Thank you so much!