Here at the ‘Peg we think it’s important to stay up to date with what’s going on in our industry. This month was my first experience at a networking event and my expectation was you get out there, meet people, drink your coffee and listen to speakers talk about things like “big data” or “deep links”. I was pleasantly surprised by the life lessons and key themes applicable to both professional and personal life I got from attending the Indianapolis Social Media Breakfast. The speaker for this month’s event was Santiago Jaramillo. He is the CEO and founder of Bluebridge, a mobile marketing platform changing the way apps are bought and maintained.
In case you weren’t at the event, here are the main takeaways:
Persistence
“When I’m giving up on something, I try 5 more times.” – Santiago Jaramillo
People talk about persistence and I’m not convinced true persistence is practiced very often. People often work hard at a task or goal, but if it takes too long, they cut their losses and walk away. While I see value in both approaches, there has to be a compromise.The concept is not to try it one way forever and never give up, it is more that when you approach the point where it is time to walk away, try 5 more times, adjust your strategy and try again.
Marketing is sometimes a lot like throwing ideas in the wind. It can feel like your messages aren’t received or people just flat out ignore them. We work hard to create content and collect relevant and interesting articles, but the truth is that it’s crowded and very loud in the marketing world. It takes a lot of persistence to continue to develop content and adjust until someone finds that content worthy of any time or attention. Adjust and continue forward.
Adaptation
“Technology and marketing are moving so quickly, things are changing faster than we can learn them.”
We can hardly keep up as it is. Without the ability or willingness to adapt there is no possibility of keeping up and staying relevant. Being uncomfortable is not the same thing as being unhappy. Sometimes in life it’s uncomfortable to try something new or be in a new place. It’s scary, but that is where growth and change live. The last few months have been filled with growing pains for me with a new job and a new residence, adaptation is a lesson not easily learned and not easily forgotten.
Santiago talked about adaptation in his personal and professional life. You have two options when faced with a new situation, adapt and try to keep up, or continue to do what you have always done and falter or get left behind.
People and Culture
A great team of people you can share ideas with is invaluable. There are few things as important as surrounding yourself with people moving in the same direction, willing to share ideas and think creatively together. While this key point might not apply to everyone, we can still apply it in a different way to marketing. Our culture is changing in response to technological advances and the day to day life of an individual is very different than it was even 10 years ago.
“On average people look at their phone 150 times a day – mobile friendly sites are absolutely necessary.”
Technology impacts almost every moment of our day. Mobile marketing and specifically targeted messages are coming up quickly as tactics for reaching people more frequently and with less resistance. If done correctly, messages can reach the people that want to hear them. Bluebridge bridges the gap (very clever name huh?) between marketers and a more engaged audience.
There was a lot to be learned in an hour and a half and I could go on for pages, but I will leave you with this; persistence, adaptation, people and culture are the building blocks to a successful business.
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