A few things came to mind when listening to Vince Buschemi describe digital marketing and its place in the world. First, that this was a very loud man. Second, that a lot of what he described sounded like the job my friend’s sister, Madelyn, has (that I wish I did). A third, I wondered about the age range of people who work on marketing and digital identity projects.
I met Madelyn when my friend and I stayed overnight with her after attending a concert, and there she described her job to me. Her company works for other companies to design their brands, labeling, websites, and products. After researching and meeting with members of that company, she would try to peg down its “personality.” Was it a refined, traditional company? Or one that had a lot of snark? What was its audience? I was totally enamored with this idea. Vince’s discussion of brand identity, specifically Flying Dog’s, brought the whole thing back to mind. I love the aspects of problem solving, team work, and creation in this career. Maybe it’s something I should look into!
Another thing that I was left wondering about was the question of who makes up a social media team? Personally, I believe that each team (of high budget or performing companies) should have a teenager, a middle aged person, and an older citizen on deck to look at the content they intend on posting and give feedback. As digital natives, young people understand nuances and references that older people might not. An “average citizen” of middle age will give an idea as to how less “in the loop,” but still competent internet users might react. An older user, or someone less adept, can give input on how user-friendly the content is, if it’s still understandable to people who may have little to no knowledge of certain pop cultures, etc. Of course that’s generalizing people by their age, but it leads to some important issues in my opinion.