MY HUMBLE ADVICE FOR YOU A DIGITAL MARKETER

Dear Digital Marketer, kindly try and ‘read’ me out today. You see, this can never be overemphasised enough. One of the things that you need to settle in your mind if indeed you want to stay in this field is: you must be sure you know what you know!

Hasn’t Bible also admonished us to “Study to show [yourself] approved…” 2 Tim. 2:15

Yes, that is a counsel that would never go irrelevant, irrespective of your fields of endeavour, as long as the world [liveth].

Having had different certifications in this specialisation, including Nano Degree Digital Marketing Course from Udacity, I can tell you that really, being a Digital Marketer should be seen the same way you would see someone who goes to school to earn their degree in Marketing. Traditional Marketing in this case anyway.

But one of the challenges you may likely have to face, being a Nigerian, is the fact that, you are often seen as someone below the price—sacrifices that you have paid to acquire knowledge.

Have you [ever] met someone on the road or in an office, introduce yourself as a Digital Marketer and the next thing they said was: Oh, so you can help me advertise on Facebook. Right? Yes, I can help you advertise on Facebook but that is not all I do as a “Digital Marketer”. If you have seen yourself in this kind of scenarios before, you would agree with me that sometime things that follow that conversation is almost as ‘frustrating’ as a car that refuses to start after you stop to pick up your crush.

You see, as a digital marketer living in Nigeria, you are often confronted with this challenge of being reduced to just a Facebook marketer instead of someone who specialises in marketing using all forms of digital devices available.

When a customer comes to you that they want you to advertise their product for them on Facebook, one of the things you need to find out from them–if they would listen to you, is the fact that how sure are they that the audience they need as pertaining to that product or service is limited to just Facebook users? How did they know that the audience they need is limited to Facebook?

For example, an insurance or engineering company wants to recruit new member of staff and you are asked to handle their promotion for them. In today’s world, my candid advice would be to go on LinkedIn for such ads. But if you want to sell “Get Rich quick eBooks” or you want to recruit models for a modelling agency, then you can come back to Facebook and do the job. Am I saying that that is all you can advertise on Facebook? No! My point is you must be able to differentiate the usefulness of each social networking platforms that you have available to you. Moreover, even at that, never forget that you are also not a “Social Media Marketer”. You are a Digital Marketer!

And What does being a “Digital Marketer” mean?

It is simply means your ability to “utilise [the] internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services”, says Wikipedia

Therefore, dear digital marketer, if you know that is who you are, irrespective of the pressure that may come, never allow anyone to reduce you to something below that.