Member Article

Five reasons to develop your digital skills

Did you know that every second, two new members join LinkedIn? Or that Google’s +1 button is used five billion times a day?

No? Do you know why and how this can generate results for you and your business?

Digital skills are important. Not the digital skills that people think they have because they can send a tweet or sync an app on Facebook, but the digital skills that enable marketers to deliver real results for brands.

Here are five reasons to think about developing your digital skills:

1. Currently digital accounts for 8.3% of the UK’s GDP and this is only set to increase. It’s predicted that if we don’t up skill, the lack of digital services will cost the UK up to £2bn a year in 2017 – if you don’t up skill, you might miss out
2. More and more people are using social channels, so more people join the conversation. There are around 15 million businesses on Facebook competing for a share of voice – so you need to know how to stand out and achieve results, or be lost in the fray
3. 57% of people who like a brand online do so to get an offer or a discount. The problem with this is that this type of customer is fickle, driven by price so typically won’t show loyalty unless it’s to the cheapest provider – you need to understand how to provide genuine value to build lasting social relationships
4. The online environment is constantly changing. There is so much content out there and so many ‘gurus’ promising instant results – you should be selective where they take content and advice from, bad tutorage is worse than none in many circumstances
5. Online sales have consistently grown for four quarters and 81% people say social interactions with friends and family have influenced their purchasing decision – you need to understand how to influence social opinion in a non-commercial way to generate genuine recommendations

If you’ve been working with social media for a little while and want to develop your knowledge of the tools and channels so they deliver more commercially for you or your company, then you should consider the next corporate course in social media. Hosted by The Juice Academy, the course has been developed and delivered by practising digital strategists and social media consultants.

Anna Wilson is Head of Digital at Tangerine PR and The Juice Academy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Wilson .