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Decoding what I want to work in "Digital" means

The digital ecosystem is HUGE.

We keep hearing or reading terms right from social media, email marketing, mobile marketing, display ads, videos, content marketing, search, online reputation management, seo, ppc and online brand building to name a few.

Everyone wants to be in digital, but a lot of newbies don't know or understand what do they want to do.

So here is a quick summary of what getting into digital means.

There are a lot of images, charts and notes on digital marketing ecosystem.
The simplest one being POE - Paid, Owned and Earned.

Paid covers advertising, Owned covers assets built by the brand / person to showcase skills, services, achievements, information, etc. Earned covers what people, critics, customers or any other entity writes or discusses about the brand or person.
Now, to ensure these three work, there are a million tools, technologies, agencies, apps, ad networks, publishing houses, thought leaders and people who work tirelessly trying to put them all together.

The major opportunities are in Media Agencies (client servicing, planners, buyers, operational and strategy), Creative Agencies (Art, copy, design, development, tech), Social Media Agencies (client servicing, writing, proofing, social pages management, insights and analysis, gamification, strategy), Website development, SEO/SEM Agencies, App developers, Mobile Marketing - online and offline like SMS, IVR, Software Testing, Tools development - management, Publishers (ad houses, news, websites), Ad networks (From Google, Yahoo, to small time websites) 3rd party tools, e-commerce companies (setup, selling, tracking, loyalty, ads)  and other major IT companies offering high end services like monitoring, consulting, business process management, outsourcing, insights, back-end setup etc and most importantly selling all the services listed above.

Few examples of Internet Landscapes:


Courtesy: Luma Partners http://www.lumapartners.com/ and http://www.slideshare.net/kbspvc/intent-marketing-landscape-kbs-ventures/1

If you ask me which one is the easiest? I'd say nothing is easy in digital. Even after few decades of The Digital Marketing evolution, we don't have an Expert in the true sense.
Where do you start? Depends.
You could be a blogger and hence get into social media. You could be good with numbers and be a media planner. a sound tech background means you have an ocean of opportunities across web, apps, tools, back end, business process management, etc a very creative mind can be a valuable asset to any creative agency. good negotiating skills can help you be a media buyer. excellent event organizing skills can lead to events management, better interpersonal skills can try at online reputation management / PR or sales. If you wish to be a jack of all trades, then joining a small setup and learning more than one skill will help. If you think there is a gap in the industry after a few years of experience, then building your own product is the BEST way forward as the digital industry needs solutions and innovation.

So now, when you wish to say "I want to work in Digital", be prepared to explain and be a little more specific like... I want to work in the digital industry, preferably in social media marketing, adding great ideas and ways to interact with the brand's audience...

Hope this helps...

For any queries, suggestions, feel free to add comments below or reach out to me on twitter / G+  +Toshal Shenai  or Linkedin






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