As internet marketers, social strategists, community managers, or whatever related title you may hold it’s expected that you know the digital space – all of it. Sales needs to explain the web marketing program to a client? Call Bob in. Operations wants an internal collaboration platform, why is Bob with sales, we need him? The executive team wants to be sure an upcoming launch is “social” and won’t get a bunch of backlash… cancel that vacation Bob.

This idea has become so ingrained in our heads the leading names in digital end almost every talk telling us how it’s our primary goal to bring knowledge to the organization less we get tempted to think this can go on forever as a silo. They’re right – and really it’s bigger than that.

Channels no longer make sense.

Five years ago it was reasonable for someone outside the digital group not to know what ecommerce stats were used by the business, the basics of how search works, or even what the value of reviews and social content was. Five years ago the web no small channel but it was still disparate on all levels.

Now the web is big. Really, really big. We have Facebook with nearly one billion people connected to a social portal. We’ve got mega retailers in category after category falling to online competitors or – and this is the crux – technology smart retail names. We use to think it was ecommerce vs traditional commerce but now we see it’s really how one supports the other. Impulse, showrooming, comparisons, it slices both ways.

To thrive everyone has to think digital – and analog – at all once.

The web isn’t a secondary channel anymore – with the power to check everything literally in the palm of the customer’s hands it should be clear that there are no channels – all that matters is the experience and whether it involves TV marketing, retail stores, customer support, or web research — the customer is pulling it all together to one conclusion: buy or move on.

Silos that exist inside the corporate office have no impact and make no excuse when someone logs online to find that their store-purchased gift card doesn’t work or goes to the store to find that the SKU they wanted is $50 more in stores.

Enough with the “we have a team for that”

When it comes to details it’s no surprise that an expert is needed but you wouldn’t hear an executive pass up a high level question about how the store works, about if TV is still driving customers, and you shouldn’t hear one about the web. But I hear it all the time. I hear the “I don’t really get that, only my kids use it, that’s not really popular, what do you mean they can search our website in store…” and litany of other comments that try to deflect the fact that many have pushed and pushed to avoid learning this new world. But it’s not going away.

It’s not an overnight issue but then again we’re not talking about ground-level details either. I’m simply saying that it’s time to throw away the “call those guys” attitude and realize that to create a great experience “those guys” have to everyone. We can’t put up walls or make excuses – the customer knows too much.

Related reading: The Struggle To Engage Across Multiple Channels Rages On