What might have happened in 5 years happened in 5 months back in 2009.  While traditional publishers were genuinely busy reinventing themselves to become more and more media-centric vs. print-centric or channel-centric… knowing the urgency but still feeling there was time…the time ran out.  Which begs the questions, “What does that mean for you, your career, and your business?”

There is no need to review the recent events in our industry, but there is a need for you to make sure you’re taking the appropriate actions right now to empower your future.  As Helen Keller said, “Security is an illusion,” and this has never been truer in these times of great change.

Simply said, digital media sales and marketing knowledge has become a “must” for all media professionals.  If you have some, get more.  If you have no experience in digital media, get it.  Now.  As one of the leading digital media recruiters with a focus on sales and marketing careers, Media Recruiting Group had to begin making this transition years ago.  We have been recruiting digital media sales talent for years now.  As a firm, we had to educate ourselves on the intricacies of digital media, but more recently saw the great need to offer this to others within our industry in an affordable way through our new training division, with our first courses led by Alex Baxter, General Manager of Parade Digital.

Imagine you’re on a sales call, and your client says, “Branding & search are both important to me and we have to discuss flighting and adjacency, but what I want is a contextual campaign with a behavioral component using rich media and roadblocks on a CPM basis and mobile on a CPC basis and access to the new iAd platform.  Do you think this campaign will be effective in having readers/viewers pause their multitasking and transmedia navigation?”

Huh?  If you don’t know what all this means, or if you know what it means but not with the depth to truly engage, then it is clear that digital training should be in your future.  Whether you take our courses or other courses out there, participate in this transformation of the digital “mediasphere”.

Digital media training takes you from the “then” to the “now”, or the “now” to the future and beyond.  If you are out of work, this will help you get a job.  If you are working in print or other traditional media, this will help you expand your value to your current employer and marketability to others.  If you are selling or marketing digital, look to do an advanced digital media course to advance your knowledge, your small business marketing efforts will be improved.

Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT refers to distributed cognition – the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities, as one of the skills necessary for the 21^st century digital world.

“You have to immerse yourself in the world of digital media,” said Brian McFarland, Eastern Sales Director for VideoEgg, the rich media ad network, and course leader for Media Recruiting Group’s “Strategic Selling for the Digital Age” course.

Providing digital media training for your staff is included in today’s “career survival tool kit” for management.  Media companies need to embrace the notion that the more knowledgeable and effective their staff is, the more the staff will sell, market, and grow business.   You want your staff challenged, improving and inspired.  You create loyalty and higher retention when you offer training programs that will empower them.

Digital media sales & marketing training is good for your career, good for business, and good for our industry.