We've all been told that we're in a constant state of change. It's a mantra that loses meaning the more it's chanted in mainstream media, PowerPoint decks, business books and blogs alone.
Marketers and brands are finding themselves in new roles. Starbucks is a Digital Network (not to mention a music label). Razorfish is repping an Indie band. Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart are TV networks. Interpublic Group is acting as a venture capitalist for Pepsi.
Skill sets are changing too. We find in addition to our core focus on a left or right brain role in marketing, social media alone is requiring professionals to get comfortable with a broader set of skills. Social media is disrupting silos in companies, media and the workforce. The economy is simply increasing the urgency of change that digital technology creates when it breaks down these silos.
Brand Manager 2.0
Dave Knox, Brandery** Co-Founder and Rockfish Interactive CMO, details how this change is impacting brand managers. It's applicable to other roles in marketing today as well.
Full Disclosure: In addition to being a Brandery mentor, I'm also working with Dave Knox as a co-founder of Cincinnati Social Media, a non-profit group I founded with Daniel Lally, Dave Knox and Stacy Cole.
This kind of hits home for me because I am in the younger generation who is growing up and will be job hunting in the era of such a huge change of pace and introduction to the world of social media. We are learning more and more what skill sets can make us valuable to a company, and some that are expected, and much of them have to do with social media and being on top of the change that is happening in the public relations and marketing world. It is a part of my everyday life, and will undoubtedly be a part of my professional life as well. I feel like a lot of the things we are expected to have skill sets in and focus on coming out of college is quite different than the graduates who were going into the professional world 5 years ago due to the shift towards social media.
Posted by: Lacey | 10/28/2010 at 12:15 PM
Lacey - well put. I think as long as we acknowledge these shifts/changes, we can figure the rest out. Internships are one big way to mitigate this and turn it into an opportunity.
Posted by: Kevin Dugan | 10/29/2010 at 06:32 AM