R&R Partners: Moving Minds

This week, I’m celebrating two years as the first and only web content developer in our ad agency’s storied history. I take great pride in that, but it reminds me of two things:

First, I still have to get my self-review form done. Second: I can reflect on how much has changed since I started, and how my job continues to evolve and shift more toward social media, almost daily.

Fortunately, the first part is easy. I generally make the trek to HR every Monday anyway, just to apologize in advance for whatever company policies I am likely to break that week as the agency’s resident goofball. It’s almost like attempting to plea bargain before committing the crime, but it works. So this week I’ll just turn in the form when I do, as soon as I Google every synonym for “great” and pepper those adjectives in there.

The second part, however, is almost paradoxical — two years into a job that was created without a firm definition, my role continues to be influenced by the changing digital world. The constant challenge is trying to plan for the unforeseeable. I have no idea what my job will be like in six months. Or even three.

Fortunately, I’m surrounded by people who can gauge it much better than I, with foresight stemming from research, experience, and intuition. They can’t predict the future, but certainly recognize the trends. That brings me to another piece of irony: At 42, I’m considerably older than all of them. And older than the median age of everyone who uses social media platforms.

Yep, I’m the “age” part of “digital age.” Call me #agefail. My boss is younger than me, his boss is younger than me, and everyone around me is younger than me. On the scoreboard of life, I’ve got a few people in our department beat by a couple of touchdowns. I’m the only fortysomething in our group.

I come from a newspaper background (a medium that, like my age as it relates to my coworkers, is well past its prime), and I “discovered” the Internet a few years ago and adapted, not so much as a means of survival at the time, but because I live online. I’m the postmaster general of email. I’m probably easier to find by source code than ZIP code. It’s Saturday morning, the wife and kids are watching Spongebob — and I’m blogging here.  For the record, I am occasionally waving at them, almost as if to say ”hey, say hello to Plankton for me.”

So how does a senior citizen — in digital marketing years, anyway — keep up with the younger generation? I suppose it helps that I act like I’m 12 most of the time. It helps that my job involves writing words and not Flash coding. Also, I am willing to take the lead from them and learn about things where, despite their comparative youth, they are clearly experts in the field.

But really, it all boils down to the key trait you have to have to succeed in today’s social media-driven communications environment — adaptability. New sites will launch, new technologies will evolve. But whether you are a relative infant or a dinosaur, when it comes to social media, adaptability equals survival.

Come to think of it, that’s true with just about everything else, too. No matter how old you are.