5 Digital Skills You Need to Have to Advance in Your Career
If you want to succeed in the modern workplace, digital literacy is a must. Without having the essential set of digital skills, how can you expect to tackle whatever challenges your career throws at you?
No matter what industry you’re involved in, digital literacy is the key that unlocks the doors to a higher position on the corporate ladder. With that in mind, you’d do yourself a favor to have the following skills in your back pocket:
Search engine optimization
By understanding the ins and outs of SEO, you can propel your website straight to the top of search results in Google. It will drive a steady stream of organic traffic to it even while you sleep.
You don’t need to be a search engine optimization specialist or even a marketer to make use of SEO skills. Your portfolio website or personal blog can shine brighter because of it too.
Once you’ve managed to attack readers to your site, it’s time to gain their trust. Then the visitors will be more open to buying products or services from you or hiring you as their coach or consultant.
Google tends to reward fast-loading websites. Of course, only if they provide useful information to the visitor and answer their initial search query. Moreover, Google relies on various signals to gauge a website’s authority. Backlinks are one of the stronger ones. But you do need to make sure they are relevant, not spammy.
Have you already known everything mentioned in the last paragraph? Great! Time to move to another digital skill.
Digital marketing
You can’t escape from marketing these days. If you want to make money, you have to sell your products or services no matter what niche you’re operating in. Hence, digital marketing is a skill that’s always in demand.
Make no mistake; learning how to advertise your offerings online is a good start. But without brushing up on your copywriting skills, you will struggle to make any sales.
In other words, you need to highlight the benefits your products and services offer to the buyer. It could be saving money, saving time, or getting rid of a hassle. The more you focus on what the buyer gains (and not so much on how great your company is), the more success you’ll see.
Information security
Can you recognize when networks present a threat to your data?
Do you know what a VPN is and how to use it to protect your data from being intercepted?
Are your eyes sharp enough to spot a potentially malicious email attachment before opening it?
Mastering these skills is a must if you want to stay one step ahead of the digital threats that never cease to evolve. And if you make them a part of your arsenal, companies will be much more inclined to hire you.
After all, they are looking for individuals who understand the value of protecting sensitive company data. The implications of a data breach guarantee that.
Setting up and operating a website
In the days gone by, knowing the basics of HTML used to be necessary to set up a website. Nowadays, the web has evolved to a massive degree. Many CMS platforms like WordPress make the process simple. Anyone can set up and manage a website without knowing a single line of code.
Larger companies should consider hiring a professional to undertake the task. But setting up simple WordPress-powered websites can, in some cases, be more than enough for smaller mom-and-pop businesses.
Combine this skillset with SEO, covered a couple of sections above, and you’ll set up your own automated digital salesman. It will be working for you 24/7 without even asking for a salary (if you leave out the hosting fees).
Social media management
Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others are where you can find millions of potential clients. If you haven’t already, now is the time to familiarize yourself with these platforms. Start thinking about how you can advertise and siphon new leads there.
Those without any prior experience might get the impression that marketing on social media is simple. You only need to come up with a compelling ad and post it all over the place.
Wrong.
These days, it’s more about giving value. You can start an info-based Facebook page and post useful content. You can and should promote it with paid ads, but don’t lose focus on content.
It’s the same on Twitter. If you help others out with a problem they have (that’s in any way related to whatever you do), you might land a new customer before you know it.
Conclusion
How many of these essential digital skills have you already mastered? Is there still something you need to sharpen? If you want to make it happen and skyrocket your career in 2020 and beyond, now is the time to leave all the excuses behind and start learning.