I know, I know. All I ever talk is my love and hunger for knowledge. Well tough, it’s what I think about almost constantly. Knowledge is power blah blah blah. But really, something hit me a few weeks ago. This idea of sharing knowledge. Being a part of an industry that is full of a really tight knit group of people throughout the city can be hard sometimes but I think it’s really important to be a team. We are all marketers and we are all working with clients that are so different so why not share in what we know. I have been working on this idea of shared knowledge for awhile. Things like joining community boards, networking events or groups are a great step in starting this process of shared knowledge and a community of experts.

This week I got a phone call from a digital marketing company out of Texas and the guy asked me, “If I was trying to figure out what my competition was doing and that’s why I was on the site” which was honestly just hilarious to me. This business prides themselves on their content blog about industry topics. Isn’t the goal in having something like out on the internet to have other industry people read it? Why do they have webinars online about social media analytics if they don’t want industry people to watch them? Who else is watching these videos and engaging in this content? It’s not entry-level stuff. This really got my gears going. I, of course, engaged with him for about 10 minutes about this and got nowhere.

Conversations like that happen to often in our industry. I get we all are vying for client attention and to be the newest, best agency at X Y Z but there’s something to be shared within that.

I started attending a few different banks of knowledge including Columbus Web Analytics Wednesdays, Columbus Women in Digital and AAF Columbus. These are great places to talk about things going on in the industry and nerd out about what we all LOVE talking about. These groups have been a great avenue for me to learn but also to share even in the smallest of ways. Being open to networking can be hard because you have to decide why you are doing it. Are you doing it to learn? Are you doing it to nerd out? Are you doing it because your co-workers do it? Are you looking for a new opportunity? There are so many reasons people network. I am all about shared knowledge, hanging out with industry peers and talking about work with people who understand. That’s one way to share knowledge.

Another thing that I’ve been doing is taking people up on coffee talks. I’ve had a few people reach out to me about some job postings at The Shipyard and there are 2 ways to handle those requests. Say no and not be helpful at all or say yes and help equip them for interviews. My response is always YES! So someone asked to get coffee and talk about work, they have questions about what the position entails, they have questions about who will be interviewing them – why would I not help? What do I get out of it? Just some networking and hangs but also talking about my industry. What do they get? Hopefully some useful knowledge about the company, the job and knowledge needed to attain that job.

Knowledge is power. Share it. Help others with what you know. Engage in conversations about what you are passionate about.