Trumblog

Steve Rubel has hit the nail on the head with what my proud role is. I am a Geek Marketer.

These cross-trained specialists are fluent in both worlds and bridge them. They are marketers by trade, yet they also have a hard-core interest in technology and social anthropology. As curious individuals, they are constantly studying how digital advances are changing our culture and media. Armed with these insights, they regularly apply them in a marketing context by working closely with brand teams to codify new best practices.

Geek Marketers create competitive advantage through rapid-fire testing and learning. The people I know in this role are shepherding the development, testing and measurement of all kinds of groundbreaking marketing programs. Their pilots span from the simple, such as building RSS feeds, to the complex, creating multifaceted community programs. Often they are paired with people like me, who are in a similar role on the agency side.

That sounds like my job alright and interestingly we’ve had this position at the company for years. We’ve called them VP of New Media, Tech Evangelist, Director of Online Strategy, etc. But we have all played the role that Steve is describing. Exploring and then championing new technologies, sites, and memes for the purposes of marketing.

That this is such a prized position is something of a surprise to me especially since I’ve been spending the last week or so thinking about how the inclusion of certain capabilities in other positions would make my position unnecessary. So perhaps that is the point. Those capabilities just don’t get built in.

Most marketers – be they clients or agency side – are heads-down running their business. Therefore, companies are creating a new role. They’re hiring people who act as translators between the ultra geeks and the marketers, if you will, and shepherd the development of pilot programs.

Now I don’t think that my boys, as I call the developers that I work with, consider themselves outside of the marketing space and most of the hands on marketers here have a very general understanding of development and more importantly the what’s going on online, but from Steve’s point of view that isn’t enough. Having the stuff ingrained and pushing it every day is what’s needed. That’s what I do and it’s recognized.

I stand tall and proud, the Geek Marketer.

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