The Social Media Skills Gap You Haven’t Heard About

I thought I would share this very interesting article from the Hootsuite blog!
Reading this article really hit home that we are really on to something with our class!

Basically, the article suggests that social media is extremely under utilized by staff as they are overwhelmed by platform options and do not understand how to use social media in the workplace. Far from simply being used for marketing, social media is increasingly being used to streamline customer service, drive sales, and improve HR processes. As well, employees are increasingly encouraged to participate in online collaboration through sites such as Slack and Facebook at Work.

Social media is no longer a discrete thing that certain people do in certain jobs, and more of an integral component of work itself.

Companies are beginning to acknowledge social media literacy as a critical job skill (just like Internet and basic computer literacy back in the day) and are starting to offer on-the-job training programs. However these can only go so far as many employees do not have the time for an intensive social media bootcamp. Ultimately, the right training solution needs to be on-demand and mobile-friendly.

Check out the article here.

Published by

Megan Kennedy

MLIS Graduate Student.

3 thoughts on “The Social Media Skills Gap You Haven’t Heard About”

  1. This is so interesting, Megan! I think part of the problem is that (many) companies still see social media as something silly and superfluous, rather than something they have harness to truly improve communication, collaboration, and their bottom line. That’s the stigma that I continue to see, with the exception of some forward-thinking companies. Hopefully this will change, and organizations will begin to realize all of the possibilities that using social media to its fullest really has. Thanks for sharing!

    1. I really don’t understand the reluctance to accept social media by many companies! It really is so easy to do and requires very little in the way of additional resources (we all have computers), but I guess there is definitely an element of training that it required (what can I post online? type of thing) that companies do not want to invest in. Having said that though, social media is here to stay so people should get on board! Rant over.

  2. Hi Megan, I started to use hootsuite for the first time this week. I really like how it aggregated all my content and that I could publish one post to multiple platforms. But I would also agree that it was a bit overwhelming to learn the new features and interface. For example, I think when I post to instgram through the hootsuite web app, the post gets rerouted to the hootsuite mobile and I have to go through my phone to approve the instrgram content through the mobile application.

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