INFOCUS

5 ways to boost your industry reputation

  • Previous
  • 1 of 6
  • Sign in for single page

The keys to success

Ever wonder what sets the average marketer or salesperson apart from the industry guru? Would you be surprised if I told you that talent alone is not the answer?

After writing "5 ways to ruin your industry reputation," I got several phone calls and emails saying, "Great, we know what pitfalls to avoid! Now what can I do to put myself on the quick path to becoming a superstar?"

This question got me thinking… what makes someone like Doug Weaver, Scot McLernon, Sean Finnegan, Sean X Cummings and scores of others succeed while others hop from company to company repeatedly without a big victory under their belts?

One of the things I absolutely love about the interactive space is that I've had the opportunity to meet all kinds of personalities -- from the charismatic crowd magnet to the leech that completely sucks the energy out of a room. The leeches eventually fade and are churned by a new group, and the crowd magnets continue to pull away from the pack.

In our hyper-connected industry, taking the right steps consistently will pay big dividends. Although all of the leaders in the interactive space have their own unique characteristics that set them apart, here are the top five common denominators that constantly stand out.

 

Comments

Sean Cheyney
Sean Cheyney July 22, 2008 at 12:56 PM

Michael,

Thanks for your comment. I'm glad some of the publication reference suggestions were helpful. Please let me know as soon as that interactive advertising node is complete within Topix.

Michael Linton
Michael Linton July 21, 2008 at 5:49 PM

Just seeing this five days after the post Sean - guess I need to take your advice and get my RSS on! Good stuff that I am sending to my entire sales team. I am going to take your list of news sources and blogs and add them to a search crawl I am creating on Topix for an interactive advertising node where there will be snippets from many pubs along with forums. Hopefully it will prove another good industry news resource and jumping off point - the node is in production now will post the link here when it goes live.

Sean Cheyney
Sean Cheyney July 17, 2008 at 9:10 PM

Good question about blogs. I've received this question via email several times today. Almost all of my industry information is received via RSS now, and comes from the RSS feeds of both blogs and traditional websites with feeds. Some of the ones I read regularly include:
- imediaconnection.com
- The RSS feeds from Ad:tech, which pulls from several industry sources.
- mediabuyerplanner.com
- Hespos.com
- amediacirc.us
- marketersstudio.com
- dumblittleman.com

H Walker
H Walker July 17, 2008 at 11:11 AM

You mentioned reading industry blogs regular. Do you have recommendations for blogs?

Sean Cheyney
Sean Cheyney July 16, 2008 at 9:59 PM

Thanks Robert. You're absolutely right. I've seen many instances of people moving up the ladder very quickly into highly influencial roles. Treating people well at all levels of an organization will only produce positive results in the future.

Sean Cheyney
Sean Cheyney July 16, 2008 at 9:56 PM

Thanks Hillary. I love that extra Bill and Tedd's reference too!

Robert Kadar
Robert Kadar July 16, 2008 at 5:43 PM

Nice summation here Sean. I agree with everything you say 100%. Treat people the way you would like to be treated and show respect to everyone from the new Assistant Planner on up. You'll never know where they end and besides it's the right thing to do. As they say in Jamaica: "Respect Man!"
Robert Kadar
Good Health Advertising
www.GoodHealthAdvertising.com

Hilary Weber
Hilary Weber July 16, 2008 at 1:45 PM

Words to live by, Sean! It never hurts to remind us about these guidelines for success, and I know you "practice what you preach". Although you did forget..."Party on, dudes!"