This is a guest post by Anna Julow, Director of Social Media Accounts at BLASTmedia.

The digital world is growing at a rapid pace. Each month, there are an estimated total of 11 billion searches in the United States alone. With the number of websites on the Internet quickly approaching 1 billion, the need for companies to make a strong first impression is even higher. In the digital marketing world, it has become a necessity for us to adapt and grow with the ever-changing market.

Although the Internet, and as result how we use it for marketing, continues to change rapidly, working at BLASTmedia has given me insight on how to keep up in the fast-paced digital marketing industry. As a digital marketing firm who specializes in a number of different marketing approaches, we are constantly learning and evolving, while we maintain the foundation of basic communication.

Although our field is ever evolving, when it comes digital marketing, there are some best practices that continue to remain true. Here are a handful of best practices I’ve learned from my work and my colleagues during my time in digital marketing:

Always take the extra minute to perfect the content you are writing. Don’t be afraid to put in the little bit of extra time to produce something that is error free. Often, the most common grammatical errors are simple and would be fixed with another look-over.

Never fabricate any of your results. Be sure to consider the fact that data driven decisions could be made off of the numbers you produce and report on. Whether you’re sharing information about social media followings or ad impressions, reporting the most accurate data will help your company or client reach their maximum potential as they forecast future results.

Remember it’s a conversation when you’re using social media. It’s easy to feel like you’re hiding behind a screen and just rapidly firing content out; make sure you know it’s a real conversation and it should involve interaction. Successful brands have a knack for communicating with their followers, even when they aren’t using direct mentions or messages.

Don’t forget to maintain your relationships. When it comes to securing coverage—digital or otherwise—it’s important to remember that media you are dealing with are people too, not just an email address in a database. We always recommend maintaining a “Midwestern sensibility” and general nice attitude, whether you’re reaching out to online editors or traditional publications.

Be creative in all of your work. The digital space is where you can make it happen because there isn’t a “general audience” anymore. You are sending your content message to a specific market so you can tailor it to exactly how they will respond. Jacquelyn Smith may have said it best in a 2013 article for Forbes, a truly memorable ad campaign has to create a response filled with joy, wonder, inspiration or shock. Remember your audience is inundated with messages throughout the day, without that little something extra, you’re just going to get lost in the noise.

So what’s next on the digital marketing docket? In an industry that evolves everyday, there’s no telling exactly where it will be in two weeks, two months or two years. Deciding exactly what we should classify content as won’t be a focus in the future. What will matter is the quality of the content and the conversation it generates.

MadeUp3@cision.com'

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