I wrote a story on LinkedIn the other day about what I loved the most about working at HubSpot. 

As the comments were piling up, I started thinking about everything that has happened before and after I joined HubSpot. There's one thing I realised defines success whether in life or at work. 

It's all about making choices. The right choices at the right time for the right reason.

The choice to study hard.

The choice to work hard.

The choice to take a risk.

The choice to never give up.

The choice to want more.

The choice to do more.

The choice to never stop learning.

The choice to always be curious.

The choice to never be satisfied.

The choice to commit. 

The choice to grow.

These choices are influenced by the mindset you choose to follow – fixed or growth:

We are entering a new era of globalisation – a digital one – McKinsey says. Practically non-existent 15 years ago, digital flow of information and content now exerts a larger part on GDP growth than the centuries-old trade in goods. 

What we once called normal is no longer normal, it's traditional and old-school. Digital is disrupting the way we lead our lives and the way we do business. 

The outbound methods of pushing messages via TV, radio or direct mail no longer work. People ignore all that. We've become a lot more sophisticated because technology and online have offered us a lot of choice to design our ego ecosystems where we decide what to consume and what to ignore. 

The problem for business is that right now there's way too much noise everywhere which creates a huge challenge when trying to reach your audience. Hence the need for a partner in solving this challenge – an agency that's an expert in communicating your messages to the right audience at the right time with the right tools. 

But this presents yet another challenge: the list of agencies out there is huge too. Not all of them, though, are experts in the new world of digital, and among them, fall some PR agencies too. 

PR agencies still have this weird aura around them, being seen primarily as media relations experts and not getting respect. 

I've worked in the industry myself and now being on the other side consulting agencies on how to grow their business, I see the pains again and again every day. And they all revolve around one thing – the inability to measure and track results. 

I've made two big realisations over the past 12 months observing all this: 

Digital, social and mobile is our day-to-day. It's normal, we've embraced them all, it's how we live. It wasn't like that a few years ago, and it certainly wasn't the norm for businesses but companies today are realising that without digital, they will simply cease to exist. 

Realising this is one thing; taking action and actually transforming every level of a business is something different. 

But it's becoming inevitable. Businesses have to react and act as technology is disrupting every aspect of our economy and society. They need to be on top of this now because we as consumers require it; this is how we lead our lives, with digital, social and mobile at our fingertips all the time. 

To put some pressure on you, I want to show you some stats about social, digital and mobile from this year's research by We Are Social. 

I reviewed the same study in 2014 so today we are going to look at 2016 and compare what's happened in two years. A few additional things have been added since then such as the share of web traffic which I find very interesting and useful.  

Just as the old post, this one focuses on Germany and the UK as the markets I am professionally and personally most interested in. 

Social, Digital and Mobile Global Snapshot 2016

I was on holidays last week and I actually managed to not open my email, read any blogs or articles or even write. I completely switched off. And I'm proud of myself for doing so for the very first time in my life.

Now I'm refreshed and ready to get back to it with full energy. And so I spent a few hours on Sunday afternoon catching up on all my reading from the past two weeks. Almost 500 articles were waiting for me in my feedly but yet again, sitting on my sofa with my coffee and reading helped me learn quite a few new things that I thought I need to share with you too.

Below you'll find 17 must-read pieces about digital, inbound marketing, public relations, agency world and management and leadership I recommend for you to go over this week.

17 Articles and Blog Post to Read Now:

Digital

#1: 26 Disruptive Tech Trends for 2016 – 2018

Brian Solis again gives us a sneak peek into the future. Brands, brace yourself and start adjusting and adapting again and never stop if you want to stay relevant!

I'm now very dedicated to ramping up my blog series "Why Work in PR?" as it looks like they are very helpful to you, dear PR students and young professionals. 

Today, it's Scott Guthrie who shares with us his PR career story and some fantastic guidance with three big tips on how to succeed in the PR industry.

It looks like I tend to meet other PR professionals on Twitter. Same happened with Scott and also through the #FuturePRoof book project that we both wrote chapters for and then started reading and tweeting each other's content more often afterwards. He writes regularly about communications, creativity and change on his blog so I encourage you to subscribe there to learn. And don't forget to follow him on Twitter @sabguthrie. 

(If you've missed any of the previous interviews, you can take a look as well: Richard Bailey, Pippa Hanson, Jessica Hodkinson, Chryssa Skodra and Farzana Baduel.) 

Why Work in Public Relations: Interview with Scott Guthrie

1. As a short introduction, can you tell us a little bit about you and what you do?

I’m the Digital Director - Influencer Relations at Ketchum London.