Digital skills are highly desirable in marketing and PR. Professionals who develop superior digital skills will gain a career advantage. Simply knowing how to post photos on Facebook and acquiring a thousand followers is not enough to demonstrate business acumen in digital media.
These are some of the top skills experts advise PR and marketing pros to master heading into 2016. In the always- evolving digital marketing space, technologies, techniques, strategies and social media platforms continue to evolve. Continuous learning is mandatory. The most successful marketers will make meaningful efforts to adapt to rapid-fire changes in social media and other digital technologies.
Analytics. An understanding of PR and marketing analytics is imperative for success. That includes understanding the pros and cons of different metrics and how to analyze performance success (ROI). “While Google Analytics is a great tool, especially with funnel metrics, cohort analysis, and interest metrics, it’s not enough,” says Angela Hausman, a marketing professor at Howard University and associate editor for the European Journal of Marketing, in a Business to Community post.
Design. In the past, specialists wrote and designed ads and brochures. In addition to copy writing skills, content creation now demands at least some design sense and the ability to manipulate images and text using some basic HTML/CSS. Even basic Photoshop skills can give your career a competitive edge.
WordPress. Including Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint on your resume does not help you stand out. You are expected to know those programs. WordPress is the new Microsoft Word, says Joe Putnam, vice president of marketing at iSpionage, writing for Search Engine Journal. “Not only do you need to know how to write a post in Word, but you also need to know how to upload it and schedule it in WordPress,” he says.
SEO. Specialists used to manage search engine optimization. Now, PR and marketers have much greater control. Understanding SEO means knowing how to share content, understanding search engine page results, and long-tail keywords. “The best digital marketers know SEO is more than just understanding keywords and getting them on their sites. It’s about optimizing websites at a page and server level to generate traffic and conversion,” says Avi Levine, executive director of the Digital Professional Institute, a digital marketing school, in an article for MarketingProfs.
Listening. Listening attentively to customers and prospects may be the biggest factor contributing to sales growth for most firms. Tools are now available that analyze and report social media sentiment, grading them on a positive to neutral and negative scale. While tools are powerful, PR and marketing pros must be able to interpret results to identify actionable insights.
Social media listening also uncovers customer needs that current products aren’t meeting, helps evaluate customer support and sales, and gathers information about competitors (competitive intelligence). “If you’re not listening carefully to customers and prospects, you can be sure competitors are and they’ll be the ones reaping the benefits from providing products and services that better meet the needs of customers,” Hausman warns.
HTML. The ability to write HTML, at least at the basic level, is now a must-have skill. You probably won’t be expected to code an entire site, but you should be able to fix a link or change a link color when needed. It can be picked up on the job but it’s best to learn in school in order to hit the ground running.
Bottom Line: The traditional writing, design and communications skills are no longer sufficient to succeed in PR and marketing. Today’s professionals need to acquire multiple digital skills in order to advance their careers.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
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