I really dislike people claiming that a specific type of marketing (or a product) is “dead” when it clearly isn’t, just to make some kind of point or drive clicks. Perhaps the worst player on the field is Forbes with a whopping number of 1,465 articles with the phrase “is dead” in it.

Sure, some of them are valid, such as the one about Osama bin Laden and Africa’s last polar bear being dead, but many of them are either clickbait or just stupid, perhaps both.

Below are 7 things in marketing that clearly AREN’T dead, even though Forbes claims so.

Personal branding is dead (sic)

The argument: LinkedIn Premium has killed personal branding since recruiters can contact any of your LinkedIn connections, which means that you can’t cherry-pick your references the way you used to.

The truth: Personal branding is more important than ever. LinkedIn users are getting increasingly aware of their profile and more active online. Influencer marketing is on the rise, recruiters look for people with a strong personal brand and large network and social selling is on the rise. I don’t see any signs of personal branding becoming less important in the future.

The corporate website is dead (sic)

The argument: Number of visitors are decreasing, the customer journey happens mainly elsewhere and that the most traffic is concentrated to 10% of the pages on the website.

The truth: It’s far from dead. In fact, one could argue that because of the increasingly fragmented communication map, the corporate website is more important than ever as a place for a company to give their own view on things.

I’ve dissected this in a separate blog post called The corporate website is far from dead – no matter what Coca Cola say

User-generated content is dead (sic)

The argument: Media companies, brands, educational institutions and publishers are all creating high quality video that is better than the video produced by amateurs.

The truth: Us “amateurs” produce more content than ever and we trust people we know more than media and companies. We also tend to move from massmedia to smaller niched online networks and groups online. Instagram has turned everyone to master photographers, Facebook has given a voice to everyone, WordPress has allowed anyone to create a professional looking blog or website in no-time and hundreds of online tools have enabled us to be creative with the content we create. User-generated content is here to stay.

The mobile browser is dead (sic)

The argument: Only 14% among mobile usage by US consumers take place in a browser, the rest is in apps.

The truth: Ok, I have to admit that this post was pretty interesting and there are some valid points here. Among apps, gaming apps are most used, followed by Facebook. But one fact remains; 14% still use mobile browsers which means it’s not dead. And it’s easy to come to the wrong conclusions from the stats, such as that companies should prioritise apps before websites.

A good advice is to make your content as adaptive as possible using good clean code, clear and distinct design and well-formatted content with subheadlines and short paragraphs. By doing that, your content has a good chance to look good when consumed on other platforms than the browser.

The CMO is dead (sic)

The argument: Marketing is too fuzzy and the CMO should be replaced by a CCO (Chief Customer Office) instead.

The truth: Come on, marketing has been around for ages and will continue to be so. Marketing is adapting to new times and so will the CMO. Bringing on a CCO is a good idea since happy customers is one of the most effective marketing methods, but someone needs to own the marketing as a whole. And while Forbes has doomed the CMO, they continue to arrange CMO events until the alleged end…

The PC is dead (sic)

The argument: Smart, highly mobile devices will replace the PC.

The truth: According to Business Insider there are about 1.5 billion PCs in use globally in 2013. Even though the number of smartphones has surpassed the number of PCs in the world, the PC is far from dead.

Facebook is dead to teens (sic)

The argument: Teenagers have left Facebook and move towards sites like Snapchat and Twitter. Facebook is not just on the slide, it is basically dead and buried. Mostly teenagers feel embarrassed even to be associated with it.

The truth: 94% of online-using teenagers has a Facebook profile. Not dead.

So there you have it. Obviously, Forbes is using clickbait tactics to get more people to read their content, but they should ask themselves what it’s doing to their credibility.