Let’s face it, marketers want to be the fountain of youth when it comes to generating new ideas, but that is just a dream that will never come true. I’m not intentionally trying to be grim, but with the millions of marketers out there right now, it’s extremely difficult to constantly churn out fresh ideas at a speedy rate.
We’ve enlisted the help of other Mavens at TrackMaven to help with this conundrum. Cameron Maske, our Senior Software Maven, came up with three awesome ways to grow as a developer that are directly applicable to marketers, too. Cam’s advice for idea stimulation is below, and I’ve added my take for marketers in italics — but both are worth reading ;).
– Sabel Harris, Director, Marketing Maven
If you are feeling a bit stagnated or stuck with your current developer (or marketing) skill set, give any of these a try, they may help!
Side Projects
Side projects are a great way to work on that pet problem or idea that’s been gnawing away in your head. But aside from scratching that itch, I believe they can be a vital tool in making you a better developer. You can explore and experiment with different techniques and technologies without consequence. A new project has no resilience to being added to. Want to try out redis/mongodb/node/flask, etc? Side projects present the perfect opportunity to do this.
I’m a side project addict. I’ve dipped my hands into a plethora of different things. In one, I used and learned about the immensely useful Grunt task-runner, how it can be used to do everything from compiling coffee-script files to generating sprite images (and the accompanying css). It’s a tool we now use every day at TrackMaven, and it all started with experimenting around in a side project.
Side Projects For Marketers
We came up with a list of 127 tools for marketers to use, but of course, we advise against using all of those tools at once because it can get overwhelming. However, if you are looking to gain new knowledge about a tool or dive deeper into your analytics, don’t wait for your marketing operations to magically provide that opportunity.
Putting aside that it could become a little disruptive, having a well-rounded marketing stack of tools can make or break your marketing. Diving into a new tool on the side not only gives you new knowledge on budding marketing technology, it can help round out your tool-kit and increase your marketing campaign’s effectiveness.
Contribute To Open Source Projects
There are so many smart developers out there that are producing a huge amounts of excellent code — much of which is open source!
Contributing to an open source project has many benefits. It will sharpen your skills as a developer. As you dive into the project, reading and understanding the code, you are exposed to a new developer’s mindset. When you get to grip and start working with that project, you are forced out of your typical conventions and mentality. This can be frustrating at first, but after a while it becomes refreshing and eye-opening. You’ll begin noticing things that could benefit your other projects, too. Maybe the way the code is laid out makes it manageable? Perhaps the way testing is set-up makes it robust? You may even notice aspects you don’t like and want to avoid!
Jumping into a new code base can be daunting. Don’t be afraid to start small. Start by trying to get to grips with the project by just reading the code. (I find taking notes helps!) Maybe some parts could use a good clean up, such as removing unused imports? Maybe the documentation has a few spelling mistakes, or could do with a bit more explanation? Every contribution helps and you are bound to learn a neat trick or two.
Finding something to contribute to is often easier then you think. Maybe you need a bug fixed in a package you’re using, or wish your favorite package had X?
There are countless other benefits. You’ll meet other developers, get to try out new things, and help grow something that other people use! Plus, it’s fun and great karma. Who doesn’t want that?
I haven’t delved into the nitty gritty of how to contribute here. Let me know if you’d like me to explore that in a further post! In the meantime, jQuery has an excellent article about the subject and this post from Scott Hanselman explains in more detail how to get involved with open source projects.
Marketers: Open Source Your Networks
If you search for people in the marketing space in just the US only, there are over 9 million marketers. This makes it extremely obvious and essential to continue to build relationships with other marketers. Not only is it important to build your own relationships, but it also is helpful to “open source” your own networks. Introduce other marketers to each other in order to contribute to their marketing efforts and it will expand your own overall reach.
Try Teaching Something
Teaching something forces you to understand a concept that you might have just accepted or taken for granted previously. It forces you to understand and get to grips with the topic, which can be frustrating at times, but is an incredibly enriching experience overall.
There are a number of topics and mediums for teaching. Used a new piece of tech? Write a blog posts about what you liked. Have a piece of code you are particularly proud of? Record a screencast and explain it. Started a new side project? Volunteer for a lightning talk to demo it.
Highlight whatever takes your fancy and plays to your strengths. You’ll probably get tough questions that run right to the core of the concept/idea. That’s great. If you don’t know the answer, don’t sweat it. No one knows everything. Look into it and learn more – it will lead to a deeper understanding. Teaching doesn’t just benefit others, it benefits you too.
Marketers: Teach Something To Add Value To Your Audience
Many marketers want to create thought leadership content, but in order to do that, you cannot just talk about yourself. You have to teach something that helps add value to your audience. Teaching is the best opportunity to help indirectly spread your own message and pave the way towards creating thought leadership.
How are you growing professionally? Are there other tactics that you found that help your career development, but boosts your brand’s efforts as well?