Hey, it’s not that we don’t believe … well … actually, yes it is. Among the abundance of shiny new marketing techniques, freshly-digitized tactics and Web 2.0 How-To-Do-Everything videos, is it possible to sort out who the real experts are, or if there even is such a creature? If you’re having trouble, you’re not alone.

After all, is there really anyone who truly understands how to tame social media? Someone who actually knows when a raw, documentary-style video is appropriate; or whether you’ve chosen the right “description” tag; or how to decide between building a custom website or tweaking a blog platform. Perhaps. The problem is telling the difference between those who know the language, and those who simply know the catch phrases.

One of the stars on our team (formerly of the Daily Reel and YouTube) just went back to school to earn her Masters in the new-ish ATLAS program at the University of Colorado. As she put it, “I thought my years in digital and video made me an expert. But then, I’d meet these people who’d just gotten into digital media, but because they knew all the jargon, people thought they were experts.” ATLAS combines the study of technology, learning and society because they recognize that our future (and that of marketing particularly) will be characterized by the convergence of media, technology and content. Think you’ve heard that line before? Something like it, maybe. The important distinction here is that ATLAS includes the study of human behavior. It’s like the fourth dimension for social media — something the technicians left out in their haste to be branded ‘social media experts.’

It’s a little bit of ‘the more things change, the more things stay the same.’ In other words, though the medium is different, we still need to understand consumers’ wants, needs, dreams and desires as well as how they are affected by interaction with, and through, technology.

Exactlimundo! This, my friends, is precisely what we were getting at when we categorized One Degree as a “Persuasive Communication Design” firm. Recognizing that the intention of most marketing efforts is to persuade the audience to undertake some specific action, we must be experts equally in understanding consumer motivation, crafting content that engages and provokes the desired action, leveraging the latest yet most relevant channels for connecting with them, and providing ways that make it easy to take the first step. Now. Not after 47 impressions.

So, while marketers will get along fine without knowing anything about Moore or Metcalfe’s Laws, they do need to figure out — among all of the department store Santas — which one is for real. Because embracing technology, and the undeniable fact that it is changing the way humans communicate, learn, shop, express themselves, spend their time, and shape their identities, is mandatory for continued success. Having the right help could be the best present you could give yourself. Believe it.