Welcome to Brazen Careerist!

Rapid consumption and comprehension of content is power. With more information coming at us from more places at an ever-increasing rate, we must learn to not only consume from multiple places simultaneously, but also improve our filters to find the best content and most relevant information. We should not be unafraid to stop bad habits or time wasting activity, to unsubscribe from off-topic sites, or exchange one practice for another.

Today's Web services simply move the collection of data to a new place, to be owned and manipulated by proprietary interfaces - whether they call themselves cloud or not. But this increases problems with data ownership and migration. In order for us to truly own our own data and its related metadata, these Web services should tap into our own personal cloud, enabled with our own secure credentials, and not store any of it locally. This would make us truly service and application agnostic.

I believe that social media marketing and traditional marketing will merge, as participating in new places becomes more accepted across all facets of companies. The idea of dedicating resources to social media will disappear, as it becomes core functionality of marketing, public relations, customer service and sales. In parallel, companies will cease to farm out online engagement to inexpensive interns, and take it more seriously as senior management increases involvement.

The best bloggers in the world today are those who are not just finding out new stories quickly, or getting the most page views. They are the ones who are taking unique angles, and uncovering new companies, people or ideas. It's not about making the most noise, but instead, doing what's right and advocating for your readers and representing yourself well.