I was explaining my job to my brother-in-law the other day and what I said made me realize how exciting it is to be an interactive marketer right now. I told him that in the last decade, consumers have gained power across devices and through social media. Now they know quickly if a product will break easily or if a movie is bad, and they can tell each other at mass scale. As a Forrester analyst, it is my job — not to help marketers trick consumers into buying bad products and seeing bad movies — but rather, to help change their marketing practice so that they make better products and better movies, and tell consumers about it effectively. It is my job, I went on, to inspire interactive marketers to be catalysts for a new kind of marketing that doesn't take a widget and force it on the market, but rather, gives a consumer something truly valuable.

I'm going to be speaking with my colleague Chris Stutzman at the Marketing Forum in April about the new role of marketers. I'd love to hear your stories about this new marketing style and how you've been a catalyst for creating a better product or service, being more transparent to consumers, or becoming more agile.