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I’m a digital strategist…

September 22nd, 2008 | Category: Jobs, Marketing, Social Media

My job title at Slack Barshinger is Senior Digital Strategist which means that I wear about 10-20 different hats over the course of each week. What I’ve found over the last few years is that the definition of digital or interactive strategist means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Some people are mainly focused on search marketing, others on social media, and others still on online media and advertising. Here’s a breakdown of time I’ve spent on various projects over the last few weeks and months.

How does yours compare? What are you doing similar or different under the title of “Digital Strategist”? Let me know in the comments and I’ll post a follow up of what the majority of our job function appears to be these days.

Sphinn
8 comments

8 Comments so far

  1. Paul Wille September 22nd, 2008 8:19 pm

    Hi Jeff – this looks pretty spot on for me too. I probably trade analytics and search marketing percentages depending on the client, but otherwise very close.

    With how many hats we all wear, it seems the percentage should total over 100% at times.

    Cheers.

  2. Jeff Woelker September 22nd, 2008 8:22 pm

    Hey Paul,
    Thanks for the comment! Yeah – I’m implying 100% of however many hours per week I work :)

    Best,
    Jeff

  3. Jason Baer September 22nd, 2008 9:39 pm

    Awesome. Totally captures the multi-faceted nature of the digital strategist.

    As long as the firm/agency in question has other folks executing in addition to the strategist I’m fully in support of this role. If the strategist is supposed to actually strategize AND execute, you’re getting into the “guru” scenario, and totally reject that model for most agencies. Too siloed. Too risky.

    I have a new post about it called “3 Reasons David Lee Roth is a Bad Internet Marketer”

    http://is.gd/Ste

    Jason Baer
    Convince & Convert – Internet marketing consulting for agencies
    http://www.convinceandconvert.com

  4. Benn September 23rd, 2008 7:07 am

    Thoughts to a few you are missing from my perspective:

    Budget / P&L management
    Staff Management
    Mentoring

    Here’s some thoughts though, R&D isn’t covered explicitly, but would certainly make up components of each of these items. It would be interesting to see how much of ones time is consumed in this space. Education could also either fit into the above group or as a subset for each item as well.

    Food for thought.

  5. Prz September 30th, 2008 8:16 am

    This a good job. But feel to congested pie chart. I wonder if the info would have been in the bar diagram. I think that would have been the most simplest method to present. Never mind the R&D isn’t covered explicitly. I suppose the strategist that could have led the path for job function.
    I’m trying to think wider on
    Budget / P&L management
    Staff Management
    Mentoring.

  6. Scott Meis October 20th, 2008 2:20 pm

    Really solid post Jeff, love the breakdown. Titles encompass so much these days and this really helps to shed light on just how many different areas of expertise are required for those active in digital departments.

  7. Brad Fredricks February 25th, 2009 3:30 pm

    Interesting breakdown. I have worked as a Digital Strategist/ Marketing/ Developer for some time. I can tell you, each project and company is different.

    If you focus on ecommerce, you will find a ton of time on the onset, working with analytics.

    If your in media, you can focus on new products and online pr.

    Gaming, jeez, that’s crazy. Portals, platforms and partners proliferate.

    One thing I would say, your time spent should directly reflect and justify your return for effort. If not, your wasting money.

    Currently I work with a major Ecommerce Company on an entirely new model/ platform. I spend much time with analytics, product development, and loyalty and retention channels. In this market, I would definitely put a curb to new platforms that are fun but yield little results.

    Before you explore new waters, make sure you thoroughly understand what you have, and are making it work to the best of its capability. Then, when your basics and foundation are solid, explore new worlds.

    I will try and create a similar visual to add my two cents.

  8. Jeff Woelker February 25th, 2009 5:40 pm

    Hey Brad,
    Thanks for the feedback. I agree. Digital Strategist really has a wide variety of meanings and that’s why I tried to put my perspective on it. But I can see that any number of online tactics and areas could fall under the purview of such a broad title. On the flip side, I try and avoid anything more generic because it doesn’t explain everything that I do (Online Media Strategist, Web Strategist, Search Strategist, etc.) Let me know when you put together your graphic. I’d like to compare. Thanks again,
    Jeff

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