Since I’ve been in the interactive marketing industry, I have seen so many predictions, even from leading research firms, that proved completely wrong, that I don’t often write about them anymore.
When I worked for a publisher in the interactive marketing and ICT industry, we knew how much marketers loved data.
They needed forecasts and predictions to base their decisions upon and find a sense of security in a world of emerging media and fundamental changes.
In this digital and social media era, marketers are increasingly embracing digital technologies and try to stay up-to-date with emerging trends. This is a difficult exercise because as a marketer you tend to lose yourself in technologies, media and channels and tend to forget the bigger picture.
The real exercise is not to fully understand all digital channels (although I encourage you to do so) but to understand how you can use all these new social and other media for marketing purposes.
I am often asked, when writing for other blogs about social media marketing, to describe social media in simple terms or to tell people how to get started. I always try to answer, but it is a huge exercise.