According to a recent survey of marketer and agency sentiment about investing in Facebook, building awareness is the top Facebook goal for marketers. This finding is interesting, but worthy of a little more context based on our experience working with Facebook Ads.

Last year I wrote a column entitled "The Digital RFP Is A Frustrating Mess." The request for proposal is the bane of the existence of digital media buyers, who must wade through thousands of emails and spreadsheets each year to assemble media plans for their clients. Media sellers are equally frustrated, especially when they diligently respond to last minute RFPs only to never completely know why they didn't get the business.

Here are two characteristics that will give you a major competitive advantage, no matter what your field of endeavor: 1) learning to identify your own assumptions, and 2) learning to set them aside when considering a problem.

How big is your digital footprint? I recently went through the onerous process of changing jobs, during which I ended up moving my primary email contact to a different email address. I also reset a number of passwords in order to simplify my life while also trying to thwart the ever-present threat of digital hackers. What I uncovered was just how difficult this process was, given the fact that I'd been using my previous email and set of passwords for more than six years. I can honestly say my digital footprint wouldn't fit in Shaq's size 22 shoes!

When an idea is shared on the Internet quickly and at great scale - popularly called a meme - it risks jumping the shark into the land of clich. Which is why I'm hesitant to cite "The 'Busy' Trap" essay from The New York Times. It's a well-written piece that hit a nerve with a lot of people. But what really resonated with me was author Tim Krieder's sentiment about latchkey parenting:

Whether it's consumer devices like the iPhone or apps like Instagram, well-designed products are now all around us. As consumer expectations for design migrate to business, it's more important than ever to build ad-tech systems that people actually want to use. This is especially important given the number of systems that most people already use every day.

Look up. Lift your gaze from your screen and your device and your social media, and fix your gaze on the Everest you are pursuing. Sear it into your mind's eye. Contemplate its meaning. Remember your own, ineffable Why. Then look down. Consider where you are standing. Appraise your immediate environs, the resources available to you, your own current abilities or lack thereof. Take a step.

I had breakfast last week with my friend Stan Joosten, who works in digital marketing innovation at P&G. We were talking about the role of social Internet apps in brand-building, and how to expand them from tactical tools to long-term strategic platforms. One of the barriers to this happening is a common mode of thinking in the agencies that help handle app development.

Last week I took my family on a vacation to Arizona. In addition to enjoying natural attractions like The Grand Canyon, The Painted Desert and Meteor Crater, we also consumed a surprising amount of media on our road trip. The biggest surprise was all of the print we consumed. Ordinarily, we get our media fix through an armada of iPads, iPhones, MacBooks. And while we brought all of that with us, on the flight from New York to Phoenix we opted to read a physical copy of The New York Times from beginning to end. We hadn't done that in …