1. Read more: largely all you need to
know about the digital universe is available online. Get a reader
like Pulse or Google Reader and start
streaming RSS feeds from your favourite news, brands and blog
sites. Focus on what you're interested in not what you think you
should be and you will find it much easier to do. Every time you
open your preferred reader it will be fresh with all the
latest stuff. You can use twitter in this way too - ie following
your favourite sources of information.
2. Try more: digital stuff (be it website,
app, interaction etc) often helps us to do things in a different or
more efficient way. The trend is convergence and integration so
more and more digital inventions rely on existing digital
innovations - therefore the more you try (even if it's not for you)
the more likely you are to find something and/or understand
something that will change your life
3. Be Awesome: from the NYT,
to Behavioral psychologists like Clay Shirky, award winning
bloggers like Neil
Pasricha and communication gurus like Faris Yacob - everyone agrees
that the way to get heard in an age of infinite media brought
through infinite cheap/free space is to be awesome. If you create
content that changes the way somebody understands the world and/or
themselves - they will want to talk about it more - to share the
feeling of awe.
4. Think differently: Do the above and do
what Steve Jobs did -
think different. Being 'digital' isn't about sprinkling a bit
of social media on an average campaign. From a communications
perspective being 'digital' is about using the resources available
to you to understand your product, audience and evolving world
better. Mix this with an understanding of what scale (the internet
is massive by the way), and tools (you can do loads of cool stuff),
make it easier than it used to be to challenge perception and make
a difference. Challenge everything - make something awesome then
break it. Never settle for mediocre there is way way to much of
that already out there.
5. Know when to be on and when to be off:
it's great to be connected but it can also be dangerous and
irritating. Business meetings, hanging out with your friends and
driving are all times not to be 'BBM-ing', 'facebook-ing',
'email-ing' etc. Only very very rarely will the world fall part if
you wait until a safer/ more polite time.
