Do You Speak Digital? Or is it a Foreign Language?

I know sometimes you probably just want to stop the conversation and say something like, "Excuse me, but I don't understand a word you are saying." But you don't because, these days, people don't ask questions. They nod and say "okay," and then change the subject... and talk about things they do know. This seems to be the situation with digital. Most people reading this did not grow up speaking digital, and while some did take digital as a second language, they still speak it with an accent.  

Whether you’re a business owner, a sales manager, a marketing executive or an advertising sales person, you have to know what the words mean if you are going to speak with authority about digital. If you feel like I am speaking directly to you right now, you are not alone. There are many people that feel the exact same way. So what are you supposed to do about this? 

Here are three things you can do to improve your digital fluency:

1.  Determine the most important digital words you need to know. I’m not suggesting that you download a 400 term glossary, as that would make anybody's head spin. Start with 20 words that are the most important for you to know.

2.  Know the WHAT & WHY of the words. Knowing the definition of the words is not enough. In order to speak digital fluently, you need to know what the word really means and why is that important. What does that digital term you’re saying actually allow you to do?

3.  Read every day. Keep up with what is going on in the world of digital. I recommend that you make it part of you daily reading to check out the following websites:  TechCrunch, Mashable, and AllThingsD.

If you'd like to learn more about digital terms, check out our Digital What & Why course:

Matt Sunshine is Executive Vice President at The Center for Sales Strategy.