Mel Carson (@MelCarson) is a digital strategist who helps businesses understand and make the most of digital media and technology. He’s often tapped to be a keynote speaker at many events and conferences. We had the opportunity to get an update from him first-hand about his book, Pioneers of Digital. Mel shares a few of his insights about digital strategies, integrated marketing and branding.

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What's the biggest mistake marketers make when they integrate social into their marketing mix?

It’s a rare thing to see complete integration of social media in any marketing plan. Businesses are still not getting that the content they create needs to be social by design. Many are wasting money on massive research or video projects without thinking about how the content could be sliced and diced for social dissemination and amplification. Social should no longer be the last channel to push out messages. It should be included during any research phase and, subsequently, every step of the campaign.

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My favorite analogy for social and digital PR talks about “bonfires and fireworks”. Bonfires are your ongoing social activity like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn groups. That’s your everyday contact with the community. Fireworks are your big events or PR announcements. They are the flares that shoot your message high and wide drawing potential customers to your products and services and hopefully getting them hooked into the channels that act as bonfires when the excitement dies down.

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Why is personal branding important?

The internet has given us the opportunity to take control of how people find us, literally and figuratively. By having a buttoned up personal brand we’re giving ourselves a chance to express ourselves positively in an ongoing manner that can open many a new door within our personal and professional lives (and keep some firmly shut). Before the worldwide web it was a lot harder, so why not take advantage of digital? It provides us a way to have our thoughts, experience and expertise be discoverable, shareable and memorable.

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Where do you turn to for inspiration?

Inspiration is all around us, we just have to be disciplined to keep our eyes and ears open to new experiences and think about how they might translate into positive outcomes for the work we do.

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I read a lot of business books, fiction, industry newsletters and pick up ideas from Twitter or how friends are talking about their lives on Facebook. Most ideas come when I’m lying down. I read that that is totally a thing. You should try it!

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What's the one social channel you can't live without?

It would have to be Facebook, both from a personal and professional point of view. I’m an Englishman living in Seattle and have friends and family scattered all over the world, so it’s a perfect way to keep in touch. It’s also been instrumental as a broadcast and feedback mechanism for my business, Delightful Communications, ever since I launched the company in 2012.