Knowing my company would eventually reach the age when it wanted to be part of digital marketing and participate in interactive social platforms, I started researching on my own two years ago to gain an edge. I formed relationships on Twitter, I participated in social networking events, went to conferences on interactive marketing and even got to the point of being asked to speak on a panel as an “expert” in my related field. In my perfect-world brain I thought, ‘When the time comes, they will ask for my expertise.’
Wrong.
Two years later my company is finally getting to the point where it wants to dip it’s toe into digital marketing waters – and the people who make the decisions are looking elsewhere for expertise. I can answer all of the questions asked in meetings, I can lay out strategy, brainstorm realistically and offer up suggestions for getting a campaign started. But it’s falling on deaf ears. Why? I never told anyone what I’ve been doing for the last two years.
I’m not pointing fingers. How would they know if I’ve never shared my knowledge? The error is completely mine. Unfortunately I will have to scrape my way to the top of the heap, and it’s going to be 14 times harder because no one trusts that I know what I’m talking about. In hindsight I should have:
- written a summary report each time I attended a conference
- made my blog public knowledge
- put digital marketing strategy in front of decision makers from the beginning
- continued to follow-up with my strategy, even when the decision makers weren’t listening
- documented my actions by category with successes and failures in columns that could be related back to company successes and failure
If you want to get ahead, you can’t suddenly become an authority. You have to prove yourself publicly, which is what I plan to do from here on out.
Great advice Colleen. Now to activate that program! Most companies do not listen to their own employees, which I do not get, they would rather pay 5million dollars for something. The thinking is no one in my company is as smart as I am and if they are I can not let anyone know that. So they hire a $400 per hour consultant because they are supposed to be smart than upper management. Maybe I should make an anonymous call to people in your company about you to get the ball rolling. I can tell them I am a social media guru (they will like that) and tell them that when I see guruness I know it and Colleen McGuire has it, so activate her to the big leagues!
What do you think?
Ha ha! With friends like you I can conquer the world!
Thank you for the sweet offer, but there are a lot of other things at stake beyond trust. I get to play a large role in the digital marketing arena we plan to enter (acknowledgment that I know more than anyone else has been said repeatedly) but there are other obstacles that make the situation more complex. It shall be interesting to see played out and whether we ever become what we COULD become if a little risk is taken. However, I will put your anonymous call in my back pocket and consider it a rain check.
Oh Colleen… I’m so sorry. I fell victim to this same thing at my last company (It was actually one of the contributing factors to my departure.)
Some public companies can be so leery of risk and are prone to a certain behavior. When dealing with new ventures, hire out, not in. If it’s not a success, it’s the fault of the expert or agency, not the VP that’s ultimately answerable to the The Board and The Street. Where’s the incentive to put any skin in the game?
If you still have faith that you can win this thing, remember Seth Godin’s advice from Free Prize Inside:
In order to get the internal support for a new idea, you must have three things:
1) Powers that be must understand what must be done.
2) They must agree that it needs to be done.
3) They believe you can do it.
Best of luck!
Thank you for your encouragement! While all is not lost, my journey has definitely been a lesson to learn by. I should have been more mindful of company structure and not hopeful for behavior changes based on trust alone. While I know it’s the way you should do things, it’s not the way the company does things. Now the challenge to prove myself even more! Roar.