Comments on: Can non-bloggers make good digital marketers?

By: Matt Ho

Matt Ho — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:16:52 +0000

Nice blog. I keep a blog for the same purpose – to track everything I come across and learn more about digital marketing. It’s a way to join the conversation and to also initiate discussion with other people.

I agree that people as they get more experienced stay within their circle of expertise – they become one trick ponies. To be an effective digital marketer you need to be able to be knowledgeable in multiple areas – whether that be websites, SEO/SEM, email marketing, mobile, etc….

I dont believe you need to be a blogger to be an effective digital marketer, but it gives you a unique perspective to be on the blogging side rahther than on the readership side. However, I do believe that you need to be engaging in social media (whether it’d be wiki’s, FB, RSS) to be an a digital expert. That’s one of the reasons I try to use all the available stuff out there.

By: Robin Cannon

Robin Cannon — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:22:25 +0000

Yeah, I’m much the same on the likes of SEO. I think the important thing there is that social networking can give you a really good general overview of digital marketing issues. So for SEO I might not be an expert myself, but I have enough of a knowledge to be able to talk intelligently to an expert about what my or my company’s needs are, and to be in a position to reasonable judge the value they are providing with a service. And that knowledge has largely developed because of blogging and social networking.

By: James Duthie

James Duthie — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:23:50 +0000

Thanks for the input Colorado. Creating great content is indeed a key part of blogging. But there is more to it. Understanding how to promote your blog beyond the search engines is a starting point. Building relationships and personal networks is another. You also need to master different technologies such as RSS and web analytics. And it is this depth of experience beyond just writing content that I believe gives bloggers an advantage over other digital marketers.

By: James Duthie

James Duthie — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:13:35 +0000

Good points Robin. Personally, I do believe some hands on experience is essential to develop the in-depth understanding you speak of. SEO is a good example for myself… I have a great theoretical knowledge, but not a whole lot of practical experience (yet). So do I really understand SEO as a result? I’d say probably not…

And yes… the inverse is absolutely true. Blogging opens opportunities that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Just ask Darren Rowse…

Congrats on the role enhancement too!

By: Robin Cannon

Robin Cannon — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:09:43 +0000

I think really it’s the same as any kind of career – you have to keep up with the times and the trends otherwise your value is lost. Given the increasingly integral nature of social media and blogging to online marketing I’d argue that it will become impossible to be a good digital marketer without a good understanding of those aspects.

That might not mean that you have to be a blogger, but it is probably more difficult to gain the genuinely in-depth understanding of social media without involving yourself directly rather than being a passive viewer.

Interestingly I think the reverse is also worth analysis – can blogging make you a good digital marketer. My own increasing involvement in blogging and social media has led to moves at my employer, looking at changing my role to one of focusing on those aspects rather than on my active web design output.

By: Colorado Web Design

Colorado Web Design — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:18:11 +0000

Non-bloggers can make great digital marketers… but if you think about it, essentially what you have to do to succeed in search is to create the stuff that people want to read. (the old content = king saying). The only difference between creating content and blogging is the name. But you’re pretty much doing the same thing. The benefit of blogging is the ability to get your content out there fast because the marketing tools are already in place.