Drive, determination and gumption are three of the basic ingredients necessary for success. Ambition inhabits all three of those qualities. We live in a time of ubiquitous connectivity, with the availability of communications networks of all sorts (social, business, special interest). Ambition can be realized, applying digital strategy.
Two examples come to mind: looking for a job and looking for a communications tool.
When Twitter made its debut, many marketing professionals quickly recognized its feature set: immediacy, mobility and the value of short messaging. One of those professionals had just lost his job. He used Monster, Dice, LinkedIn, a few recruiters – all the usual methods. Interviews were set. But a few attractive jobs led to no response whatsoever. He tweeted about this. One firm read his tweets and invited him to interview. Prior to this, the firm’s resume screening process had rejected his applications. But his tweets and determination got him the interview and then the job: Director of Marketing. Ambitious tweeting paid off.
An academic researcher used Facebook to identify others doing work in his field. This evolved into a group dedicated to learning and doing joint studies. But how were they to accomplish file storage, real-time messaging, and version-controlled iterations of the research process and workflow – all within one contained work arena and with no budget, to boot? The available services are expensive, they were told – beyond their reach.
Researching open-source programs and free tools, the team leader found Yammer, Slack.com and other methods, all as freely available resources.
Perseverance, tenaciousness and use of the available tools served both of them well. Ambitious usage of digital resources brought about success. Both the job hunter and the group research project tools search are true stories.
Digital strategy encompasses a broad swath, from using search engines to create and design wire frames for web sites, to e-commerce, determining keywords, and using analytics and data analysis for planning. Advertising and marketing also require digital strategy to meet modern-day needs.
As an arrow in the ambitious one’s quiver, digital strategy is essential in the information era.
A Digital Strategist’s Take on
Ambition
By Dean Landsman