Level2wo

Don’t know if this is a good way to start a blog entry, but just noticed that I had 666 tags on this blog to date. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, don’t worry–it means something in terms of how many tags i’ve posted, but yes, I was thinking of that sinister number that you were. Hopefully the blog doesn’t explode.

I was thinking today about the industry I’m in, and while it’s not a shocking revelation, it did occur to me again how young the industry actually is. Many of the professionals in the industry (myself included), were not in this industry a decade ago. And why would they be, when the industry had really just begun–at least as we know it. But it gives light to the fact that it’s the skill sets that matter–not so much the industry, per se. Although yes, it does help if you come from a related industry. Marketing, advertising, programming, project management, copywriting–these are all areas within interactive media that are crucial to what we do–and if you’re in one of those areas in another industry, you’d probably be able to make the leap.

If you are, my suggestion is that you do a little messing around on your spare time. Figure out what you like to do, and practice it. Build a website. Run a PPC campaign. Write some copy on a blog somewhere, and see if you can use a little SEO magic to make it show up on the first page or second page of google. It’s not easy, but it’s not that difficult. In fact, I landed at the third spot on the first page of google a few weeks back for ‘Project Management Steps’ without even trying to. (No, it’s not there any more, but hey, I did it without trying). Good luck.

Without sounding too…something, I can’t stress the importance of teamwork. Not only in the sense of your coworkers helping you achieve the goals you need to achieve and vice versa, but in bringing together ideas and perspectives that, when combined (again, sorry to use this word, which I’m sure you’ve all heard plenty of times just in the past few weeks alone) create synergy. It’s what makes projects succesful, initiatives succesful, and, to go a little further, it’s what makes communities, country, and the world succesful.

But with teamwork comes personalities, egos, opinions, and every other factor you can imagine that has the potential to throw teamwork off track and away from the goals you’ve set for that team to begin with. Though not always the case, gathering groups of people, especially in business, means that you’ll often have to deal with adversity, often have to defer when you think your points may be valid, and, the true test of your understanding of situations and benefitting from teamwork–you’ll have to be able to open your eyes and be receptive to points other than yours, right or wrong.

It’s through that process that the best ideas will emerge–be it for a direct mail piece, a larger marketing strategy, creative, or even what type of venue to have for company outings. Let me stress that again: open your eyes and be receptive to points other than yours. You’re not going to be right all of the time, and I’m not going to be right all of the time. I learn from you, and you learn from me. It’s what makes the wheels turn, and what brings the good ideas to better ideas.

Rarely will you encounter that genius who’s ideas and insight and execution are perfection incarnate; rarely will you have anyone single-handedly, at least in a company of any size, be the end all be all for whatever product or service you’re hawking.

Knowing how to be a teamplayer doesn’t mean giving up your place in the food chain–it means securing it through smart decisions, an open mind, and the realization that we’re all consumers of good ideas and bad, and we’re all producers of them as well. It’s the end result we’re after by participating in a team of any size or structure–so don’t sabotage it, because you’re the beneficiary.

No, I’m not linking the two to go into any in-depth analysis today, only going to point out a truth you already know but one I thought I’d remind you about one more time: Visibility.

Blogs and social networks are great fun, great tools, and you don’t really have to be a computer geek to get into them and accomplish what your blog and social networking idols accomplish (ok, maybe you are a little geeky like me, because let’s face it, the cool kids…well, no, they probably blog and social network too, so scratch that.

Anyway, we’ve all heard how you’re not supposed to post pictures of certain things such as:

• You upside down drinking from a keg
• You streaking down main street
• You doing anything elicit
• You commiting a crime
• You…yea, you get it, YOU doing anything you’re not supposed to

The same applies to business blogs and social networks geared to business (think LinkedIn, etc). Sites like LinkedIn are used by professionals, and there’s a certain standard that has been created that LinkedIn users expect. It’s why they (and I) use the site, and anyone breaking away from those pretty strict standards gets either politely nudged (at best), or pushed aside in a business-violent manner (at worst). I probably created a term there, but you get the gist of what I’m trying to say.

Same applies in blogs. Business blogs can serve many purposes, but what you want to make sure you don’t do is anything you wouldn’t do at work, or with a client, or in front of anyone who you don’t want to insult (unless, of course, that’s the whole point of the blog, or of the entry). But even so, taking the high road is always a better bet than not. Remember, what you post today will likely still be showing up a decade from now in some form or fashion, and the negatives you throw up now could come back to haunt you.

One of the great things about software is that it opens up a world of ease to those who learn and use it to achieve, more often than not, completion of tasks that would otherwise take a much longer time to complete. That said, sorry if I am not making complete sense–I’ve been reading software manuals all day. Yes, this is where you laugh. Or chuckle. Or, at worse, give a silent nod of acknowledgement.

Actually, it’s not so bad. But it got me thinking. While we do use a variety of software programs to get done the things we need to get done, such as everything Microsoft ever puts out (excel, word, powerpoint, project, access, etc.) (no, I’m not going to mention Vista), we also ocassionally end up using new software that we’ve either never heard of, heard of and had no contact with, or heard of and tried to avoid. It’s times like these that I don’t look to the future to solve but the past. It’s sort of like financial planning–we know we need it but no one ever really teaches us it as we grow up (I know, I can hear you yelling either a) When we were growing up certain software didn’t exist, or b) Many of the software programs extant today ARE being taught to kids in school. Well, good. Good for those kids, I suppose. But in the land of Me, I want more of a quick fix than anything else. Maybe a quick IT doctor visit where I’m injected with the knowledge to not have to read printouts and dictionary-length software manuals that are standard issue in the brains of kids today. But I’m probably asking for too much. Well, at least I can blog about it. That’s something my folks probably think is a space creature from some far away Sci-Fi flic.