Building Digital Skills: A #Bufferchat Recap

This week on #bufferchat, we talked all about our processes for building and strengthening digital skills. At the end of the chat, the community joined in to ask their own questions to each other!

Read on to discover all of the awesome advice that was shared during the chat!

Catch our weekly Twitter chat, #bufferchat, at TWO times every Wednesday for valuable industry insights and to meet hundreds of other smart marketers and social media enthusiasts. Same topic, same place, just at different times – feel free to join in to whichever chat time works best for you!

4 pm AEST (Sydney time)

9 am PT (San Francisco time)

This week’s stats:
Bufferchat #1 (4 pm AEST): 32 participants, reach of 1,136,752
Bufferchat #2 (9 am PT): 112 participants, reach of 1,367,599

Q1: How do you make time for building new skills?

From the community:

• “For me it was accepting, that I just need to stop doing other things in order to get better at stuff.” @dan_kaufhold
• “Use public transportation = extra time for learning, weekends, early mornings, nights. Fit it in any way you can!” @blossmweb
• “Prioritise time to work on your skills! Set aside a calendar with once a day or once a week sessions depending on goals.” @ArrowDigitalAU

See all the great answers to question 1 here!

Q2: In your opinion, what are the 3 key [digital] skills marketers need today?

From the community:

• “Video editing, Google Analytics and social media algorithms in no particular order.” @ZakiaRinggold
• “Ability to listen, strong analytical skills, creativity and be adaptable. SEO/graphic/video skills are also a must.” @HollieAdpr
• “Knowing various CMS platforms, HTML + Photoshop. Just basic understanding of those will take you far!” @JCT32Agency

See all the great answers to question 2 here!

Q3: Do you feel like marketers need to learn coding skills? Why or why not?

From the community:

• “I feel that everyone should be taught at least basic coding concepts. Like how sites render onto the screen. #alsoadev” @timothymehlhorn
• “If you’re ever frustrated why something doesn’t work on the web, then HTML+CSS will help understand the tech behind.” @dancecile
• “I don’t need to know HOW to code, but I need to know what’s possible (i.e., understand the tech, not the tech details).” @dariasteigman

See all the great answers to question 3 here!

Q4: What do you think businesses can do to help close the “digital skills gap” that exists today?

From the community:

• “Do what industries did from the beginning of civilization and stopped only recently: hire green & train the skills you need.” @GrowLocalYYJ
• “Stay up to date with latest trends and sign up their employees for lectures/webinars/workshops/events, be open to new ideas.” @fr41l7y
• “Add professional development to the schedule. We can get too confident and forget that the digital world is always changing.” @RossWalkerSmith

See all the great answers to question 4 here!

Q5: What are low-cost ways you can strengthen your digital skills toolbox?

From the community:

• “Twitter chats! Learn from others in your industry.” @TajahBrown
• “@Coursera @skillshare @duolingo @khanacademy @LinkedIn #bufferchat Read, Network with folks (☕️ or ?/ ?)” @RaulARovira
• “Google is your friend, there are plenty of how-tos and examples that can help. Other than that, practice makes perfect.” @ForresterHinds
• “@HubSpotAcademy is WONDERFUL, @Google certifications are also fantastic, networking and grabbing coffee with others is ? too.” @laura_bauman
• “Do some searching and find a community that covers the software or skill you want to learn.” @Toby_Metcalf
• “Check with your local library – my library offers free access to Lynda, Duolingo, Hoopla, etc. Saves me hundreds every year!” @Ben_Soup
• “YOUTUBE. You can learn anything off YouTube. Literally anything. Search anything. It’s there. Promise.” @JuiceboxCA

See all the great answers to question 5 here!

Q6: Do you have any additional questions for the community about building digital skills? Use this Q6 + Q7 to ask/answer each other’s questions!

Questions asked by the community:

(Feel free to head to Twitter to see how the community responded to these questions or share your own perspective!)

• “What’s the priority order of digital skills a marketer should master? Most important to least important.” @jo_easley
• “I really want to learn photography/videography, but don’t have the $ to drop on the best equipment. Any advice?” @Anne_E_Mercer
• “What are you favorite podcasts that help you stay up to date with marketing + digital skills?” @GoLinden

See all the great questions asked and answered for Q6 here!

Thank you so much to our awesome community for sharing such great insights in this chat!

Do you have any comments or answers to these questions? Leave your thoughts in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!

Image sources: UnSplash