Archive for October, 2009

The Good, Bad & Ugly of Marketing Agency Life

It was a 6AM on a chilly fall morning years ago, when I sat outside of the old Young Isaac office on 4th St, waiting for Artie Isaac to arrive. The evening before, I had decided it was time to jump ship from my current gig doing business development in a retail marketing agency, and move in a different direction. Reading things like Wired Magazine, Ad Age Digital and chrisbrogan.com, had sparked a curiosity about making a career out of working with the web.  Couple that with a frenzied obsession with LinkedIn and a new concept called Facebook, and you could say I was in a time of Renaissance. As good mentors do, Artie was kind enough to offer me a cup of tea and his council on my situation. Our chat went something like this (now halfway through the cup of tea): Artie: So what do you think you want to do now? Me: I really want to make the jump into internet marketing for an agency. Artie: [chuckling] Why on earth would you want to do something like that? Me: [silent bewildered stare...] Artie: Agency life is tough, Nate.  There’s a lot of ups and downs, lots of long hours and trudging along in the trenches. Don’t be Scared If you’re a marketing or communications student, aspiring to make your way in the agency world, the story, and this post, isn’t meant to scare you away.  But take it to heart anyway. I have absolutely no regrets from agency life.  In fact, being in  multiple agencies – from small brand shops like Young Isaac, to fast paced and sales driven organizations like People To My Site – has given me the tools and experience to be able to make my own game.  I’ve learned a lot on this [...]

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How To Use the Answers Feature on LinkedIn to Connect with the Right Smart People

Okay friends.  Show of hands.  How many of you have the all coveted “Expert in…” badges on your LinkedIn profile?  I have a few.  You probably do as well.  It’s always nice to have the best answer and be seen as an expert in your arena.  We’re proud of our badges. If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, you can find a tab on your LinkedIn profile titled Answers.  Here you’ll find a massive database of user generated knowledge that lives inside the network. The database is completely searchable and attracts millions and millions of questions each year. Most people approach Answers just as the tab suggests.  They answer as many questions as they can, and on occasion, they may ask a question that is related to a specific business challenge they face.  Some users might try crowd sourcing for resources or partners through this feature. That works sometimes. I’ve even seen some people who try to ask prospecting questions like; “Are you looking for a web design firm?“.  If you’re one of the people doing that – here’s free consulting advice.  Please stop.  You’re wasting your time and it’s annoying the rest of us.  By taking this approach, you’re making yourself and your business look desperate.  It’s not going to work.  Cool? Dave Maskin’s Answer-Centric Strategy Having a fancy badge doesn’t make you an expert. Sorry.  Yes, they make you feel good, but this feature on LinkedIn is like everything else.  It’s a system with rules that can be manipulated.  It’s a game. But answering can still work if you play the game right.  For instance, let’s look at Dave Maskin: Week after week, Dave is always the top Expert on LinkedIn.  While I don’t know Dave personally, if you read his answers, he’s a pretty savvy [...]

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