This weekend I hung out with two lovely friends, who also happen to be software engineers* at the world’s third best employer. One friend, (hi, if you’re reading) made some casually dismissive remark about the role of a social media consultant (something along the lines of “but what do they actually do apart from tell people how to tweet?”, whilst the other friend (hey) remarked “sssshhhh, that’s what Rachel is!”

<Pause for a momentary death stare…>

“I AM NOT A SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTANT!” I cried indignantly, surprising myself at how angry this made me. 

“I AM….

I AM….

I AM A DIGITAL STRATEGIST!”

<Awkward silence, before I add defiantly>

AND A LITTLE BIT INFORMATION ARCHITECT!”

They stared at me from across the table, the three of us shocked at my reaction.**  Whether the lines on my forehead are somehow extending beyond the skin into invisible electric fences guarding personal space, I appear to have developed some professional pride. You see, a male panda will mark out its territory by secreting a waxy goo from his anal glands (just a posh way of saying weeing really… ish) on stones and trees. I am not a male panda though and take a much more passive-aggressive approach…. words lining up like barbed wire, to defend a career choice that goes well beyond Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

But this post is not about criticising the well-meaning intentions of two truly awesome friends who are occasionally spoilt by working in a superior knowledge universe. Nor is about slating social media consultants (see previous footnote). It is simply (as simply as I make things) about slowly approaching the next level of experience. It’s like my Duke of Edinburgh expeditions at school, at the time you think bugger-me this is hard work! You reach a peak, but it’s not the peak and the campsite seems to be far too many corners away. Anyway, sweaty shorts aside, I now have a view called “experience” and having been asked for my advice on entering the advertising universe, I tried (quite hard) not to get distracted by this introduction (sorry, bit longer than intended) and actually distill some vague direction.

In my short stint at Agency A*** (genuine footnote anotation and not blasphemy) in Toronto, before buggering off to Agency B*** (as previous brackets), I was jointly/partly/collectively responsible for interviewing for an Account Executive. Over those five months I was also approached by a couple of graduates wanting to work in advertising and asked for some advice. I’m not sure there’s one way or a “right way” into this industry, but now having met and spoken to a few graduates and AE interviewees, here are a few observations:

* Don’t send your resumé in with the cover “THIS IS SOMETHING YOU HAVEN’T SEEN BEFORE”, it already sets the expectation very high and I’ve yet to see someone hit it. In fact, you probably got the best open-rate out of all applicants, but at complete expense of your main call-to-action.

* Do get at least five other people to read your resumé AND covering letter before you send it over.

* Read through your resumé/covering letter, does it bore you? If it does, the chances are it will bore us too. THINK. This industry is all about grabbing and maintaining attention, we don’t want gimmicks, but we do want a human who can make connections with other humans.

* Know that the early years in advertising are typically (though not always) spent being someone’s bitch. I know you want to get to the creative brainstorming bit (I think it was mentioned in every AE interview), but understand that most of your day will be spent marinading in collective tension, working in Excel, doing lots of desk research and pulling monthly reports for various metrics so we can review a campaign from every conceivable angle

* There will be opportunities for you to shine. Don’t wait for them. 

* Don’t take things personally. It’s a results-based industry, people are naturally careful about covering their backs. Find a way of covering your back, without turning it on anyone. Speaking as someone who has always taken everything personally, I’m preaching what I’m still trying to practise.

* One of the saddest things I read on an application from a young female applicant “I’m single and can therefore work evenings and weekends.” Gaud, how awful it is … this stereotype of women working in advertising – that we ask people to give up on life and love to work here. And she/we may be a stereotype for good reasons, but you’re telling me that  young women educated to demand equality, now demand this? Advertising is a tough field (!), you will need all the love you can get from other sources and places, friendships need effort too. Whatever the rewards that come with a high profile advertising career, no Cannes award, high salary or the respect of one’s peers should be at the expense our own self-worth. 

* Do blog, interact, get out there, meet people. The most interesting digital work in the next 10 years isn’t going to some from social media meet-ups, it’s going to come from a completely non-digital area of life, somewhere we weren’t expecting to go online. It’ll be the digital connection between two random analogue entities and it’ll be a lot more interesting than Facebook. Springwise is my favourite website because it’s full of real-world awesomeness underpinned by digital, that’s what we want! 

* Be curious. There’s too much happening now in digital spaces to keep track of everything, but if you’re working for me, I want to at least know you’re making an effort. You don’t have to retweet every Mashable cough, sneeze and splutter, just play nicely with the other kids.

* Find a way to deal with stress, including acknowledging it. Everybody has a coping mechanic and some are probably healthier and more sustainable than others. Yes you can fake it ’till you make it, as long as you don’t forget what you’re faking in the process.

* Be careful of advice, even here, now. People are more likely to tell you what’s not possible than show you the open road. I love the Grace Hopper quote “It is better to beg forgiveness, than ask permission.”

* Don’t follow the crowd. Most agencies have or develop a culture of working late. Finished your work at 5pm? LEAVE! Don’t get sucked into the bad habit of clock watching when your contracted hours are over.

* The future is certainly uncertain. There will be many challenges, we will have various “lives” and very probably live a long life. What seemed serious at 23 hasn’t even left an indent at 43, think painting over print-out.

And finally, though one should never gush in this industry… 

Thanks to Ameet, Jenny, Siobhan, Sheryl, Adams, Pete, Claire, Helen, Nick, Andy, Rich, Jim, Matt, Katie, Mo, Bob, Jan, Mrs Edwards, Mr Lush, Mr Wright and my mum. Have little bits of advice from all of you, which help build infrastructure for everything else still to come. Nobody makes this passage alone.

Foot-in-mouth-notes:

* Hope I’ve got your job titles correct now!

** Hate the term “social media” now, it’s out-dated, constrictive and does nothing for the potential of world-wide-webbing. I’m like a cyborg-ambassador, genuinely interested in technology to extend human capability.

*** They know who they are… with digging you’ll know who they are, but for the sake of keeping my strong opinions a safe distance from my employer and previous employers – they are white-labelled. At least Google won’t matchmake us.

]]> http://agencyg1r1.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/contemplating-resigning-from-a-social-life-in-feb-and-march-so-i-can-get-through-these-books/feed/ 0 agencyg1r1 Media_httpdistilleryi_fewuh http://agencyg1r1.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/ladies-learning-code-getting-to-first-base-with-wordpress-3/ http://agencyg1r1.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/ladies-learning-code-getting-to-first-base-with-wordpress-3/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:33:09 +0000 agencyg1r1 http://agencyg1r1.wordpress.com/?p=885 ]]>

So last Saturday marked my return to vaguely technical activity for about 12 years. I was one of the lucky ladies in Toronto who got on to the WordPress course provided by Ladies Learning Code. They had run about five of these courses to date in Toronto and such is the success of the project, that classes now sell out within minutes. My friend Caroline and I were literally logged on five minutes before tickets went on sale – constantly refreshing our browsers to secure tickets, how geeky is that!

I thought the course was very well run, exceptionally well-catered and offered the nicest mentors in town (mentor to student ratio was about 1:5 I think). At times it got a little tricky negotiating local challenges whilst still trying to keep pace with the presentation, but really appreciated this introductory session and certainly inspired to explore further.

Photos from the day are below:

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

So last Saturday marked my return to vaguely technical activity for about 12 years. I was one of the lucky ladies in Toronto who got on to the WordPress course provided by Ladies Learning Code. They had run about five of these courses to date in Toronto and such is the success of the project, that classes now sell out within minutes. My friend Caroline and I were literally logged on five minutes before tickets went on sale – constantly refreshing our browsers to secure tickets, how geeky is that!

I thought the course was very well run, exceptionally well-catered and offered the nicest mentors in town (mentor to student ratio was about 1:5 I think). At times it got a little tricky negotiating local challenges whilst still trying to keep pace with the presentation, but really appreciated this introductory session and certainly inspired to explore further.

Photos from the day are below:

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

So last Saturday marked my return to vaguely technical activity for about 12 years. I was one of the lucky ladies in Toronto who got on to the WordPress course provided by Ladies Learning Code. They had run about five of these courses to date in Toronto and such is the success of the project, that classes now sell out within minutes. My friend Caroline and I were literally logged on five minutes before tickets went on sale – constantly refreshing our browsers to secure tickets, how geeky is that!

I thought the course was very well run, exceptionally well-catered and offered the nicest mentors in town (mentor to student ratio was about 1:5 I think). At times it got a little tricky negotiating local challenges whilst still trying to keep pace with the presentation, but really appreciated this introductory session and certainly inspired to explore further.

Photos from the day are below:

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

My neighbour, Robert Graham, is a musician and songwriter and is relentlessly passionate in his pursuit of building a career and community in Toronto. In short, he’s awesome. Through his adventures in TO, he has discovered many weird and wonderful music initiatives, ventures and events. 

This Saturday, his pursuit of exploring musical talent and collaboration included Joanne Slate’s “at home” concerts… literally what it says on the tin: a concert in the living room of the Slate family home. I was fortunate enough to get an invite to the concert because Robert’s wife couldn’t make it and he knows I love live music. I had no expectations of the gig…..  it was just some woman in Toronto who used the format of an “at home” concert to showcase the talent of her grown-up kids. 

Proud parents…. pah!

So at first I paid little attention to the line-up…

Gavin Slate:   

Songs in movies and TV. 

Played across Canada on CBC. 

http://www.gavinslate.com

Madeleine Slate: 

Originally from Toronto, now based in Nashville.  

Recent cut on Grammy nominated David Nail’s album. Carnival music artist/songwriter.

http://www.facebook.com/madeleineslatemusic

Stephanie Lambring: 

Nashville via Indiana

BMG singer/songwriter. Turned heads at our last house concert.

http://www.myspace.com/stephanielambring

Maia Davies: 

Singer/songwriter from Juno nominated “Ladies of the Canyon”.

http://www.ladiesofthecanyon.com

As Joanne introduced them, I couldn’t help thinking what a gushy mother she was. Ya, ya, ya, whatever. They’re your kids, of course you’d say they were amazing.

But I soon ate my own silent words when Gavin started singing. 

Blown away….

And now I’m gushing myself, but crikey…wowzers….shazdazzleness.

Gavin’s superb voice and beautiful songs were equally matched by the performances of Madeleine, Stephanie and Maia. Stunning vocals, charming banter and songs written straight from the heart. I can’t say I favoured one particular performer, though now I’m going to investigate their music further and see what else I can find. Admit I was thoroughly absorbed in each song, even getting a little goose-pimply at times. Oh my!

By the end of the show, I was feeling a little guilty at my initial skepticism. Joanne Slate has every reason to be immensely proud of her family and their friends.

They asked for a $10 door fee as a contribution for the concert, with the proceeds equally split between all the performers. I gave an additional $10 at the end because it was all the cash I brought with me, but I would have happily donated an additional $30 (perhaps even more but not before payday!), which is what I would have paid for a commercial gig. 

If I know these guys are playing again in town, I’ll definitely be first in line with my bucks.

One of the great things about moving to Canada and working in Toronto has been the opportunity to work on global brands and therefore global projects. I’ve said this before, yada yada. It’s been both daunting and exhausting; in terms of defining processes, securing the approval and feedback of global stakeholders and identifying the rare windows of time when conference calls can progress projects by allowing us all through the gate at the same time.

As the Web grows up and as smaller brands get absorbed into bigger brands, companies are now looking at their own digital ecosystems and appreciating the inefficiencies in their networks. Global enterprises may now have hundreds of websites in their portfolio, perhaps even multiple websites per brand … microsites floating in cyberspace … and it’s often not clear, where and how the clean-up should begin. After all, this is cyberspace, you don’t pay tax on the sites you’ve created, nobody regulates active versus inactive content, you can push out as much digital media as you like and still receive no penalty for clogging up the Web.

I guess what prompted me to think about this, is a recent assignment on migrating a brand’s regional Facebook Pages to a global template. I’ve never had to examine Facebook in such minute detail and in wireframing (a kind of mapping process) how the pieces of regional content will fit into the global template, it has saddened me that we will lose quite a lot of the regional identity en route. Maybe I think more about this, because I migrated too and since I now have multiple identities, I want to keep the regional variance. I don’t feel “expat”, I feel Canadian AND British.

The globalisation of content isn’t just a Facebook issue of course. I saw a similar issue in a former agency as we worked on developing a consistent global brand identity for a client, including website design, experience and structure. Though I think overall this project was a tremendous success, I’m not convinced it’s appropriate for a brand to try and squeeze all of its content and conversation into a particular template, especially when it’s organised from a logistical, housekeeping perspective, rather than a review of what would really be effective for its audience.

The hardest thing about having a reasonable amount of experience in this industry, is that I know enough to have lots of questions, but am too inexperienced to have the answers. Still, perhaps you never get to this point in Digital? I don’t think it’s right that a brand should spend all of its budget on Facebook activity, but I can’t argue with the fact it’s a space with significant and targeted reach. Facebook offers no value to a brand’s search ranking, it compromises design and development, it’s less sustainable due to the constantly evolving nature of the user experience (changes in design and privacy settings) and most importantly it’s not your own outfit, it’s a uniform.

We talk a lot about global warming and climate change for the physical world. We argue for sustainable routes forward and a more environmental approach to living. In the same vein, I wondered about sustainable digital strategies, not just for brands, but for the Web in general. After all it is the World Wide Web and not just the World Wide Facebook. How we invest our money individually, collectively in digital infrastructures impacts real world economies and our digital evolution.

Last week, I found this article via @flackadelic. I posted it on Facebook and Twitter. One person commented. We complain about the corporate fat cats who’ve squandered our investments, but we behave in a ridiculous tit-for-tat fashion by exploiting pirate media on the Internet. I’ve meandered in my argument here, but essentially I’m arguing that when we spend on the Web, design on the Web, build on the Web, do anything on the Web (!), every behaviour and decision impacts value. Not just in terms of online. Not just in terms of our immediate lives. Not just as profit. Our lives are digitising and we look no further than tomorrow for consequences.  We need to behave as we would in the physical world. Is the investment sustainable? Is the venture environmentally friendly? What will be the impact of an action now, in five years time? 

]]> http://agencyg1r1.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/there-isnt-really-a-filter-which-makes-this-photo-particularly-interesting-but-im-fish-sitting-my-neighbours-guppies-so-i-put-them-next-to-my-guppies-in-the-hope-that-like-bus-drivers-going-on-o/feed/ 0 agencyg1r1 Media_httpdistilleryi_hcvbc http://agencyg1r1.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/whizzpopping/ http://agencyg1r1.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/whizzpopping/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:23:12 +0000 agencyg1r1 http://agencyg1r1.wordpress.com/?p=871 ]]>

2011 is simply too epic to document in full. Besides I’ve already captured most of the highs and lows and they sit on this blog-shelf… I imagine like dreams from Roald Dahl’s The BFG.

There’s also only so much looking back one should do, since that is all stuff we can’t change. As the 1st January arrives, we are, once again, given the chance to redefine our future and get closer to where we really want to be.

I awoke this morning, feeling a little “passive-aggressive-space-cadety”, as the distance between homes (and people) became tricky to reconcile. I don’t have many moments like this, but every now and then I’m nudged by envy of the life I left. I see friends back home discussing plans, I see photos of their nights out and I can’t help the weather change as clouds of confusion drift in. Even in the wonderful dinners and parties here, I have that “Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future” moment, where time freezes and I meander around the characters I’ve met, studying them with an alien curiosity.  

Christmas felt easier to lend to Canda and the time difference easier to manage, but New Year…. for a variety of reasons, was much more difficult. Still, this is introspection over melancholy and by writing in the shadow of a hangover, it would be easy to let my sentimetal mood distort perspective of an otherwise brilliant week (and a bit), so I’ve included my highlights of the “holidays” below (photo feed from Flickr).

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxKHrep

For those of you curious about “whizzpopping”!

Caroline (long suffering Canadian friend and confidant) and I met this evening at Snakes and Lattes to discuss some wireframes for a side project.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Although we had to wait an epic TWO AND A HALF HOURS for a table (we simply passed the time over food and wine in a nearby bar), this cafe is such fun. I hope to return soon and since we were the only people who weren’t gaming, next time I’m setting my sights on Pictionary.

Genius café, shame about their website.