Why we all need to be honest about Digital Imposter Syndrome: Naomi Biltcliffe

If more people would admit it’s impossible to know everything about every digital platform, it would be a big step forward.

Self-promotion on social media, one-upmanship, competition between agencies and organisations, and the impression that not being a digital encyclopaedia is a sign of weakness are all part of the problem. LinkedIn is a great tool, but like all social media, it can have the power to make people feel like they’re failing compared to their peers.

The digital industry also needs to reduce its use of jargon. There’s nothing like chucking in some impressive sounding words and phrases to make other people feel they don’t know nearly enough. Digital Imposter Syndrome can be particularly hard for junior colleagues or people returning from parental leave who might feel hesitant to speak up in meetings.

We need to be careful not to overcomplicate everything to the detriment of getting the basics right. The more time we spend stressing we don’t know the latest algorithm change across every platform, the less time we spend on the strategy behind what we’re doing and why.

The key is surrounding yourself with people who can help teach you the elements you need to know, when you need to know them. That’s why our agency set up, drawing in senior specialist freelancers to help us deliver on client briefs, is so helpful. People who are all over the detail of their specialism, keeping us up to date with the latest in terms of trends and new ideas.

One of the things I like best about digital marketing is that it brings together so many different skillsets. We need creatives, comms, technical and data-led experts all bringing their ideas to the table. We don’t want to put people off joining the industry because they don’t know how to create a data warehouse then use ETL tooling to pipe Meta data into BigQuery (no, me either).

At the end of the day, a bit of fear is no bad thing. It can push us to be more open to learning and improving. It can drive collaboration and help us to appreciate genuine experts. It encourages us to create bespoke teams for briefs, rather than trying to shoehorn in a one-size-fits-all approach.

But it’s a problem when the fear becomes debilitating. We need to stop underestimating our own knowledge – appreciating what we bring to the table, not what we don’t. We need to foster a culture of inquisitiveness, so no one feels stupid asking questions. We need to use less jargon. We need to encourage gatekeepers to share their insight instead of holding on to it.

Digital marketing doesn’t need to be seen as a dark art. But part of that is acknowledging that we all have a bit of Digital Imposter Syndrome. It can be key to opening up honest conversations and opportunities for learning. That’s a good thing for everyone.

Naomi Biltcliffe is client director at digital agency Perfect Storm