What are Digital Skills?
Before we get into specific digital employability skills, let’s look at what they are. As more and more humans go online to research, search for data, and shop, organizations of all shapes and sizes need people who know how to operate, promote and speak online. Digital capabilities are vital to businesses and industries that like to increase brand awareness, provide high-quality social mentoring services, generate leads, and expand revenue.
UNESCO’s definition of Digital Skills is "a range of competencies to access and manage information using digital devices, communication applications, and networks. They enable humans to create and share digital content, speak and collaborate and solve problems for brilliant and innovative self-fulfilment in life, learning, work, and social activities."
Students who study Digital Capabilities not only make themselves extra employable by understanding the major digital channels but also build their careers for the future.
To help you stay a competitive job candidate, here are some of the top skills you should prepare for in 2022 to land that dream job:
1. Email Marketing
One of the best ways to acquire and retain leads is with a tried and tested method: email.
Email is one of the oldest forms of direct marketing and still packs a punch in customer acquisition and retention. From startups to multinational corporations, a great email marketing strategy helps launch successful campaigns.
An experienced digital marketer knows that each funnel stage must be carefully planned. From the signup page—including its placement on a website—to the welcome email, each step needs to be optimized to attract users and build engagement.
Educators should not view email as an old-fashioned tool but rather challenge students to rethink the ways they use email in their roles – present and future.
Click here to learn about Email Marketing
2. Content Marketing
Marketers may spend their time optimizing keywords and advertising campaigns, but the content is still king. After all, a website or social media page is driven by its content and without it, customers have no way of understanding the benefits of a product or service.
Content is important in increasing brand awareness and can establish brands or influencers as thought leaders. So new employees need to understand the importance of not only creating content but content that is relevant to keyword research and needs to be adapted into a strategy. With experience and knowledge in content marketing, students will have valuable and employable skills that will set them up for a career in any industry.
3. Artificial Intelligence
It may sound daunting at first but there is no need to learn the technicalities of what goes into AI development. You will need to know how using AI and machine learning will affect your job.
For example, chatbots often use AI and ML to improve their conversations. You will become a valuable asset by knowing how to input data into the system and when to step in for human reviews. You can also learn how these AI technical solutions can improve internal processes and save on long-term costs.
4. Web Development
There are three basic areas of web development: client-side coding (frontend), server-side coding (backend), and database technology.
Frontend development refers to everything the user interacts with. It involves converting data into a graphical interface through the use of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript so that users can view and interact with that data.
Backend development is the behind-the-scenes action that ensures smooth running on the client side. It is responsible for storing and organizing data and ensuring that everything runs smoothly on the client side. It does this by communicating with the front end.
Database technology takes information, stores, organizes, and processes it in a way that allows users to easily and intuitively go back and find, organize, edit and save details.
Frontend, backend, and database technologies all work together to build and run a fully functional website or application, and these three layers form the foundation of web development.
Web development is a demanding skill today, thanks to the emergence of new web technologies and application programming interfaces (APIs), which let websites have “plugins” for other useful features.
5. Mobile App Development
Mobile app development involves building applications to run on mobile devices, such as Android devices, iPhones, and the Windows 10 platform.
Mobile development includes developing apps for phones, tablets, smartwatches, and all other types of wearable devices that run some kind of mobile operating system.
As mobile devices are becoming a major part of our lives, mobile development is arguably the future of mobile technology and job aspirants must take advantage of it and learn a skill in mobile development.
6. Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is a form of marketing that uses the Internet and other digital media platforms and tools to promote products and services. Digital marketing leverages popular digital media channels such as email, social media, and search engines to help businesses connect with their target customers in all possible areas.
As the era of word-of-mouth marketing becomes increasingly useless, a lot of businesses are trying to promote their products and services online and this is where digital marketing comes in handy. Digital marketing seeks to sell goods, services, and products online.
This is a skill that is fast becoming an in-demand skill, as so many brands are moving their business online.
7. Video Production and Editing
Consumers have an insatiable appetite for video content, and as a result, video remains a priority for production companies.
Video has evolved from a form of entertainment to a major social media content driver. YouTube is now a powerful and influential platform, while networks like TikTok and Instagram have turned video head-to-head for wealthy influencers.
Why is the video so popular? With smartphone users getting smaller and smaller, social media apps like WhatsApp, Weibo, and WeChat are becoming de facto tools of instant messaging communication. WhatsApp has over 2 billion users worldwide, with the majority of downloads being from the United States. Video as content is easier to consume than other formats e.g. A blog post. It is also more entertaining and appeals to millions. By combining the emotional power of social media video with the reach and scope of digital advertising, marketers can tap into a growing market of engaged consumers.
8. Social Media
According to a recent study, there are 4.2 billion active social media users worldwide. Of these, 4.15 billion are active users on mobile devices. These figures show a 13.2% increase in the number of global social users in just one year, with no signs of slowing down.
The ability to understand and use social media effectively is a key and valuable skill that every professional should possess. Social media marketing goes beyond posting a tweet or Facebook update; It is about understanding the dynamic relationship between brands, influencers, and consumers. Simply put, businesses need to reach customers for potential conversions in a way that drives traffic to their website—or product. It now also plays a vital role in providing good customer service as many consumers take to social media to ask questions or comment.
Educators who recognize the impact of social media should understand the intricacies of each platform from YouTube to TikTok marketing and its potential to maximize community engagement to provide graduates with valuable and applicable skills.
9. Data Science and Analytics
Data analytics is the process of analyzing data to find useful information, inform conclusions, and aid decision-making (Wikipedia).
The role of a digital marketer has evolved as brands no longer rely on intuition to make informed business decisions. As a result of the availability of tools to track and measure data, brands have become more data-driven during the decision-making process.
With this data-driven mindset, the skill set required by digital marketers has evolved, becoming a combination of a creative enthusiast and a data strategist.
As data science has been recognized as one of the most in-demand skills, marketers must now understand the impact that analytics will play on their day-to-day duties.
10. UI/UX Design
In UI design “UI” stands for “User Interface”. A user interface is the point of interaction between a user and a digital device or product—such as the touchpad of a smartphone. Concerning websites and applications, the user interface considers the look, feel, and interactivity of the product. The user interface is the graphical layout of an application. It contains the buttons the user clicks, the text they read, images, sliders, text-entry fields, and every other item with which the user interacts, such as screen layouts, transitions, and every form of the visual element.
UI designers are like graphic designers, they are concerned with aesthetics and ensure that the interface of the application looks attractive to the users.
On the other hand, the term “user experience” attributed to Don Norman, a cognitive scientist and co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group design consultancy, refers to the interaction between a user and a product or service.
In his words, here’s how Don Norman describes the user experience:
User experience is concerned with the user’s experience with an application. Is the experience intuitive or confusing? Is the app straightforward to navigate or does it seem like a struggle? User experience is determined by how easy or difficult it is for users to interact with interface elements created by UI designers.
Conclusion
With advances in technology and an introduction to remote working, a lot of companies have had to move their businesses online and this creates a need to build products that will make this change viable and effective.
More expertise is needed to help organizations design and build more people-centric products and experiences and thus create job opportunities for candidates with the required skills.
As a job seeker, it is important to take advantage of this opportunity by advancing and expanding your skills.
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