Am I smart enough to give advice?

Being in the startup business, I live within a growing brand. Every person I meet, every blog post our company writes, every event we attend grows our identity. From our personality to the market perception, every day brings a new element to this cycle. Simultaneously, my job is to help other small brands grow into attention worthy companies.

I have the fortunate perspective of watching and aiding in external and internal growth. I spend hours a day reaching out to other companies to understand a brand, from the inside out. I’m constantly on the phone navigating the corporate structures of small surf brands to names that make billboards in Times Square.

My limited experience in this industry has already led to a massive learning about how to help develop brand positioning within the market to both industry peers as well as to the everyday consumer.

If you are a small brand looking to take yourself to market, this wanna be digital marketer has a few tips for you.

1) Go to where your customers are.
Every agency in this country talks about knowing where there customers are spending time and the constant connection they want to establish. Yet no one is consistently acting in those spaces. From mobile sites, to social networks, to niche video sites, users access millions of messages a day, yet brands complain they can’t find their customers.

2) Take a chance on a new medium.
I’m sure your portal and search buys are effective and are proving worthy investments. But how do you drive those searches? Where along the line did your customer remember your brand and try to find you in the chaos of the Internet? Capture your consumers everywhere, and let them help develop your brand story, for they are the most powerful tool out there.

3) Read, read, and read.
I exist within the heart of the most wanted target demo out there; Adult 18-34 who loves to spend money and be on the cutting edge. I work in media and I still can’t always keep track of what’s new and cool. Our job as marketers is to act on the fine line between predicting trends, and reacting quickly to new ones. With the constant changes in our industry and in the ever growing digital space, the time spent learning about something new is worth the ideas the knowledge will spawn later.