• by Judy Shapiro , January 5, 2010

We all know about our New Year's resolutions. We make them with all good intentions, but we also know what usually happens is that our resolutions one by one go by the wayside. So, instead, this year for a change, I have started to make "un-resolutions" -- things I am determined not to do -- and here's my top un-resolutions for 2010.

1) I will not be seduced by any new digital marketing toy just because some industry pundit thinks it's the coolest thing to hit the street. Nor will I believe every promise made by every new marketing technology company.

2) I will not abandon common sense in digital marketing and be blinded by digital agency promises that their "new" campaigns will go viral and get millions of people to become aware of your brand. I will continue to listen to my gut, and if it sounds too good to be true, that's a red flag warning I will heed.

3) I will not abandon newspaper, magazines, radio and other forms of traditional media if it is the right vehicle. No matter how sexy digital media may seem because of the perceived lower cost, I will continue to create integrated programs that weave together the best of both the traditional and digital worlds.

4) I will not give up my attachment to email marketing. Sorry, folks, but email marketing -- done well -- drives real business results. If your email campaign did not work, either you had a bad list or an inadequate call-to-action or maybe your agency did not know what it was doing.

5) I will not be fooled into thinking that the ad market is going to rebound in 2010. Nope. The ad market will continue to be buffeted by the tides of an evolving economic landscape and by consumers' ever-fickle attraction to new tech toys like mobile devices. These trends will continue to dampen ad revenue for publishers for some time to come.

6) I will not blindly follow Google as it chows down every tech industry from telecom to digital publishing in its relentless march toward digital dominance. In the process, it stifles competition and kills real innovation by companies that deserve to succeed.

7) I will not diminish my slavish devotion to data-driven marketing, no matter what new platforms come out that can behaviorally target any audience any way I wish. I know, I know -- the BT folks can slice and dice an audience so many ways that it makes a marketer salivate. But unless I can see, touch and feel the data, I will pass for now.

8) I will not start following every Tom, Dick and Jane to gain more Twitter followers. Okay, so I only have about 170 folks following me, but at least I know they read what I tweet. Quality, not quantity, is what drives social media.

9) And my final un-resolution: I will not try to appear to be "30 something" just because I love digital marketing. I know that the median age of people in digital marketing tends to be 27, but my depth in this space has yielded real-world, hard-won recognition. And while I am at it, I will not submit to peer pressure to use more "hair product" than one can find in a Duane Reade store so I can appear suitably young as a digital marketer. What you see (grey hair and all) is what you get.

What are your New Year's "un-resolutions" for 2010?