The dawn of social media marketing seemed like a magical era for brands: They finally had a way to share content far and wide, and it came with built-in tools to report on impressions and engagement.  

Today's brands need to be agile, responsive and iterative. The sheer volume of content being created and shared today means anyone being too precious with their content won't even get out of the gate.

Brands and their creative partners need to get up to speed on what their audience and fans want, where this intersects with their own goals and ethos, and then deliver the goods fast.

The push method is dead. For the first time in our industry, consumers have more control than brands over the journey a marketing campaign will take. They don’t have to listen or pay attention -- not that they they ever did -- but they can take your campaign and turn it on its ear if you’re not having a true conversation with them.

Brands don’t have anywhere to hide. Here’s how to craft a conversation in a way that will be real, honest and will make an impact.

Putting your boss on the spot is always entertaining. Kyle Taylor has worked at different shops for over fifteen years now, but building an agency from the ground up, brick-by-unexpected-brick, is a very different challenge. Being the truth-seeking type, we (the rest of the agency) submitted interview questions to find out why the world needs Fact & Fiction. He wasn’t allowed to look at the questions beforehand. We hit record and fired away.

In this world, only the smart survive. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the backlash has arrived. 

Or maybe it hasn’t. Depends on who you ask.

You get out what you put in. No exceptions. 

The number of marketing channels is exploding, but the budgets we have to fill them are headed in the opposite direction. These two seemingly opposing trends are being driven by the same factors — a segmented economy, widely available technology, and consumers who have grown up making their own content and sharing it on their own platforms, without the assistance of Big Media.

Additionally, technology has given CEOs the ability to hold marketing departments accountable not just for budgets, but for daily results. When you add it up, it’s no wonder clients are asking agencies to place “smaller bets.”

But working with smaller budgets doesn’t mean you should settle for smaller ideas. It’s not always easy, but you can find ways to be more efficient and shorten the process without taking shortcuts. Some agencies are making the difficult decision to move forward with reduced teams, leading to ideas that are developed without the benefit of diverse viewpoints. But here are a few other paths, so you can keep pushing your ideas without compromising the quality of your work.