Part 3 of 3

So what now?  How do we manage and focus to try and keep up with it all?  The fact is, it’s moving so fast that it’s almost impossible to do so.  And you shouldn’t try.  That’s the job of your agency.  For our clients, we relish the role of being  the eyes and ears of the future, to project or predict what technology or platform might impact their brands, their industries.

I believe the real irony of all of this is that to succeed in this digital world has nothing to do with knowing gadgets or platforms.  It has to do with understanding people.  Real living and breathing people.  Realizing their motivations and fears, understanding what would make them use an app, a social network, a text campaign.  Or, conversely, what wouldn’t.

From a marketing perspective, the more digital our lives become, the more human we need to think.  The currency of our digital marketing future is not in bits and bytes, or clicks or counts, it’s in empathy, engagement and understanding.   If we start and succeed there, we are well on our way to mastering our fundamental communication skills for the future, without the fear and trepidation of clinging to that “technology train” as it zooms by us all.