Over the last few months I have been thinking about what I wanted to do with Marketing Elements. I really haven’t been inspired to write or do much about social. I felt everything I had to say has been said by others. So what was I do to?

I created Marketing Elements as a way to share my love of social and wanted to leverage it to get a new job. I think my previous posts have been very journalistic, and a blog is all about an opinion. I showed some personality but kept it very professional.

Over the last week I have figured out my point of view and that is my take on social and digital marketing. How I use it, tell my clients to use and tips and tricks I learn. I’m going to show more personality and share my experience working with small businesses.

So flash back to 2008. I was just laid off from my job at TMP Worldwide. At that time they were a traditional recruitment advertising agency. Meaning we did mainly print, some radio, outdoor and a little bit of online. When the economic down turn happened so did their business. The operation was really downsized.

I looked at the marketing landscape and realized that everything was going to be digital and social. At that time I rarely was on Facebook and used Twitter to chat with friends. So I knew the basics but never really contemplated the marketing potential of the services.

One of the first things I did was dive in to both. I read everything I could read. There were even books I bought back in the day about it, granted they weren’t much help. The blogs really gave me the most information. I can’t recall who I read back in the day but it gave me my education in social. I started to do social for atone who would let me. I made some mistakes back then but they always taught me how to be better.

As for digital marketing I found researching media was very similar to do int for print. Some of the terms were different but you always paid attention to reach, of both, how much a cost per thousand was and tried to negotiate a great rate. Granted there are differences but this allowed me to grasp what was going on and I learned how to research and buy digital media.

I have had my ups and downs in the world of digital. Some days I feel like I can take over the world and others it makes me feel like I’m not being heard. But when things level out you see what is happening. In the social and digital world things happen faster. Sometimes it sticks with your audience and sometimes it doesn’t. You just have to redo your strategy and keep experimenting.

I think teaching myself allowed me to really learn the space. I have done everything from planning, community management and analytics. And sometimes I’m amazed when I walk in a contract job and realize I know what I’m doing and can make informed decisions from the information presented to me.