Does technology interfere with you getting your job done, , or do you see it as a way to do a better job?
It is fair to say that changes (advances? improvements?) can be a mixed bag when it
comes to job performance. After all, if you were a speed demon on an IBM Selectric typewriter, it might have been uncomfortable to adapt to a personal computer.
Or, when Google comes along and updates its analytics tool, the learning curve might seem too steep to bother adapting.
Upgrades to Downgrades and Back Again
Even though I think I adapt easily to technology changes, I have been known to mutter, "Every upgrade starts as a downgrade." The point: no matter how amazing your new and
improved technology might be, it won’t work well until people shed the old way of doing things and get used to the new.
As technology advances at an ever faster pace, learning to adjust is a skill worth having. As a 60-something Boomer, my writing tools have evolved from manual typewriter to electric typewriter, to scanner-generated paper tape fed into a room-size computer, to PCs, to laptop computers, to smartphones. I haven’t dabbled with dictation-to-written-word, but I have writing colleagues who have.
I mention my age only to compare with younger generations, who have faced some of the same adjustments, but also have dealt with changes
to entertainment and games, social media, and employment. Look out, artificial intelligence will require even more adjustment.
It’s Not Just Me
It’s not getting any easier to keep up. Try. At least be open-minded about new technology.
When you do things the way you always have, you fall behind. When you use the tools you always have because they’re comfortable, you fall behind.
The technology behind digital marketing is changing, too. We all need to adapt.
Jargon O’ The Week: Earned media
You might hear marketers talk about earned media vs. paid media. As you might guess from the context, earned media is publicity or attention that you get for your business without using paid advertising.
That doesn’t mean earned media is free. Earned media could be a favorable article in a local newspaper or
a television news report. You might have to hire a public relations agency to win your business some earned media.
It could be a social media post that goes viral, word of mouth from a satisfied customer or an online review on Google or Yelp. Those types of publicity require effort, time, and sometimes money.
Paid media, of course, includes all types of paid advertising, whether online, print or broadcast.
Until Next Time
The next newsletter arrives Aug. 29. Some of my favorite holidays occur between now and then:
Aug. 19: National Potato Day and World Humanitarian Day
Aug. 24: National Waffle Day
Aug. 25: National Banana Split Day (I’ll bet you didn’t know that I helped build a 1.5-mile-long banana split in 1982. It was the first "longest banana split" recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. The record has since been broken.)
Until next time, be grateful. Be generous. Be patient. Love.
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Thanks for spending some of your time with me,. I appreciate you.
Mark
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