How marketers can address the social media skills gap. (c)iStock/lechatnoir We all know that the rise of social media has revolutionised marketing and changed how businesses market themselves to, and engage with, customers. Social Media Examiner found that 92% of marketers have said that social media is important to their business, and it is clear having the right digital skills is essential to both social and business success. Are they sufficient for today and can they bring you into a future where we’ll be even more reliant on social for new business and customer engagement? Social media used to be the domain of specialist social media managers. For marketers, the sudden proliferation of new platforms and features is also a factor in the skills gap. Few employees have time for in-depth courses or bootcamps, so the right training solution needs to be on-demand and mobile-friendly. Getting an online education and certification is convenient and allows training materials to be short and easy to digest. Hootsuite Academy is an online offering that provides hundreds of free social media videos, resources, and industry certifications to help professionals drive value from social media. Our aim is to help marketers and other employees involved in digital become comfortable using the variety of channels and tools available.
(c)iStock/lechatnoir
We all know that the rise of social media has revolutionised marketing and changed how businesses market themselves to, and engage with, customers. However, the rapid pace of this revolution has left a digital skills gap with many in today’s workforce woefully ill-equipped to unlock the value of social media.
According to a government report, the UK is on the verge of falling behind on the global stage if we don’t address this skills shortfall. We don’t need everyone to become computer scientists overnight, but when you bear in mind that 12.6 million adults lack basic digital skills, it is a cause for concern.
Businesses and marketers know they need to be on social to reach their audiences, and you can’t just “wing it” anymore. Social Media Examiner found that 92% of marketers have said that social media is important to their business, and it is clear having the right digital skills is essential to both social and business success.
This calls for workforces around the country to assess the social media skills they have. Are they sufficient for today and can they bring you into a future where we’ll be even more reliant on social for new business and customer engagement?
What’s behind the gap
How social media is used in the workplace has fundamentally changed. Social media used to be the domain of specialist social media managers. However, in just a short space of time, activities on social media have been radically democratised and decentralised by easy to use social media management technologies. Since then, employees – marketing employees in particular – have been asked to use social media in ever more numerous and unfamiliar ways. According to Indeed, job ads that mention social…
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