Why Is It Important to Develop a “Connecting The Dots” Skill for 2021?

Brian wrote a comprehensive article on Buffer’s blog about “Marketing Skills That Help Teams Produce Consistently Great Content” He pointed out the 7 skills marketers must have today in order to help their team: storytelling, prioritizing, collaboration, visualizing, experimenting, analyzing and learning.

It’s a great list, but after reading it I left him a comment on Linkedin asking about “connecting the dots”

It made me think about why developing this skill is important for marketers today, in 2020.

Why is it important for a marketer to develop a “connecting the dots” skill?

What does “the connecting the dots” skill really mean? Is this a real skill or is it something I just invented?

Well, maybe the name is something I invented, but if we look at the Belbin test we can see that it’s under another name, and even a better one: Resource Investigator.

What is a resource investigator?

A resource investigator is someone that’s using his or her inquisitive nature to find ideas to bring back to the team. It is a very outgoing and enthusiastic person. And he or she is constantly exploring opportunities and developing contacts.

That means that a resource investigator is an extrovert person who loves finding out new ideas. It’s the kind of person who opens tens of tabs in his browser, scanning content, videos and trends that can be used by the marketing team.

One of his main responsibilities must be along developing and maintaining new connections and also finding new opportunities.

Let’s see a few examples on how a resource investigator can connect the dots for his team:

1. Co-marketing projects – he can find out new opportunities to start a co-marketing project or a partnership between his company and another one.
2. Finding new trends – a good investigator, always with his head in the game, can easily find out about new trends in the industry and get back to the team and talk about them.
3. Contacts – there is always a person in a team who knows another person who can get a solution for a problem. And that person is the resource investigator.

How can a resource investigator help a marketing team?

If a resource investigator knows how to connect the dots, it means that he must know what dots the marketing team needs, how to find them and how to connect them in a way that will drive positive marketing results.

For the sake of example, let’s say that the resource investigator is working in the content marketing team. How can he help the team with his abilities?

• He can connect with influencers/bloggers/publications
• He can find out opportunities to distribute the content
• He can easily communicate with people both inside and outside the company
• He can run guest post opportunities for the company
• He is very effective when it comes to picking up other team mate’s ideas and developing them

And these are only a few of the ideas a resource investigator can help a content marketing team.

Conclusion

I believe that in 2020 the “Connecting the Dots” skill is playing an important role in a marketing team.

Especially if we talk about it in an era where communication, connection and finding new opportunities to grow and position your brand are some points every marketer is looking for.

I hope this article made you think about this skill.