We Can Count… On 10 Years

By now, you probably know that Philosophy Communication is 10 years old. We haven’t had a “10-year” blog post in a few weeks, so I was thinking about what to write about. I fired up my laptop and began checking our social media sites to see if anything sparked an idea. My pages were loading weird, and I was getting strange “Internet connection problem” alerts. Doing what I always do when technology goes haywire, I turned my computer off and on, thinking that some magical gremlin inside was taking a snooze and a flip of the switch would kick start it back into gear. I think the gremlin had a rough night, because my computer is still not working properly. But I’ll power through anyway.

This whole experience got me thinking about how much has changed in 10 short years, yet how much is still the same. I thought this week’s top 10 list should be about just that: the top-10 things you can count on in the marketing/PR biz no matter what year it is.

10. Gremlins still rule technology. As great as it is, technology is still just a tool to help with business, but it will never replace good old fashioned personal connections.

9. There will always be clients who think they can do your job… better than you.

8. There will always be clients who admire what you do and appreciate the creativity and effort that goes into a smart, successful campaign.

7. Marketing and PR pros are a vain bunch. Most of us think what we do is pretty cool, but we get an even bigger kick when someone else thinks what we do is cool (take a look at any agency website for the proverbial “awards” section if you don’t believe me).

6. The client’s spouse is really the decision maker.

5. Your printer will inevitably stop working two hours before whatever deadline you’re trying to meet (see #10).

4. There will always be “the next big thing” bandwagon to jump onto. You can’t jump on every single one, so be selective, and don’t feel bad if it appears you’ve been left behind. Another bandwagon will be along soon. Better yet, find your own and be the driver.

3. Administrative assistants hold all the power. Be nice to them.

2. Whether you have 140 characters, 250 words, or five pages double spaced to tell your story, you still need a solid grasp of the fundamentals of language. Good writing is still good communication.

1. Nothing can replace experience. A lot of lessons are learned in 10 years.