John H. Cox

The most important part of the question is "What are your goals." To reach a B2B audience, I will likely advocate for social media marketing on a platform like LinkedIn. If I'm endeavoring to supercharge awareness, and then lead generation for a whimsical art-focused storefront, I'll leverage organic and paid content on Instagram and TikTok or display ads through Google or programmatic buys. At the end of the day, the objective must dictate the digital marketing channel.

One of my favorite turns of phrase regarding social media marketing is that it's like building a house on rented land. That is, at the whims of the platforms and their algorithms and their need to turn a profit for shareholders, marketers' time invested in content development, graphics, and community engagement and management may all be for naught if they're not willing to further advertise that content to be seen by audiences. On the other hand, time spent by marketers in building email lists is an investment in owned assets where the marketer and client maintain more control. So long as messages continue to be sent to audience members in the spirit of trust and in providing value, the ROI stands to blow social out of the water.

Having worked on small teams throughout my career, I've taken more of a generalist approach to online marketing vs. specializing in any one facet—my teammates and I all wore multiple hats out of necessity. I've led web design and development, SEO, email marketing, social media marketing, conversion optimization, pay-per-click ads, and more. That said, there are pros and cons to each of the generalist and specialist approaches. On the upside, one can claim an enviable breadth of knowledge in being a generalist; on the other hand, specialists likely know every minute best practice and platform idiosyncrasy by focusing on their practice area. Either way, one must move forward confidently and efficiently to meet marketing objectives.

I consider myself to be a classic lifelong learner due in no small part to an always-in-flux online marketing industry. Valuable insights from authoritative blogs like Search Engine Land and the HubSpot Blog, LinkedIn Learning's support of self-paced learning, podcasts like "The Art of Online Business" by Rick Mulready and "Social Media Marketing with Mike Stelzner"—all of this offers a finger on the pulse of the latest trends from trusted industry peers. Regardless of the information source, for me, it's not about relying on one platform alone. It's the aggregation of resources that enables all of us to maintain a comprehensive understanding of the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape.