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Know How To Build An Amazing Marketing Career

As more organizations turn towards the internet to generate sales and broaden their online footprint, the opportunities in digital marketing have never been greater. The industry is evolving at a furious pace, which means there are a lot of challenges, but also plenty of rewards for competent professionals. If you are planning to make a career switch to digital marketing, this is arguably the best time to do it. The best thing about starting a career in digital marketing is that you do not need a traditional degree to get started. Just basic training will be enough to help you get the ground running. Here we have listed a few important things that can help you get started as a digital marketing professional.

Create a Strong Online Presence Forget about digital marketing, you will be hard-pressed to find a job in any profession without a strong online presence. This assumes added significance if you are trying to build a career in digital marketing. Organizations in this digital age will obviously turn towards the internet to learn about a prospective applicant. It goes without saying that they will move to the next applicant if unable to find you online.

It is therefore important that you strengthen your online profile by creating your own digital marketing blog, social media accounts linked to websites you have created, portfolios, etc. The proof of pudding as they say is in eating, and what better to demonstrate your digital capabilities by showing them what you are capable of.

Improve your Communication Skills More than 70% of marketing executives make use of six or more types of marketing technology as they go about their daily digital marketing abilities. However, developing command over one of them is a daunting task, let alone all six if you are new to this field. However, there's a way to work around it. You just need to start from the basics.

As mentioned above, digital marketing is constantly evolving; however, no matter where it goes or at what pace it evolves your basic communication skills will always be in demand. A survey of employers suggests that over 80% of employees want to see strong written skills in fresh applicants. More than 70% of employers wish to see strong verbal skills. This is in contrast to less than 60% employers who lay emphasis on technical skills and less than 50% who wish to see computer-specific skills in new applicants. This is all great news for new marketers. Irrespective of whether you lack any work experience or for that matter, are moving into digital marketing from another field, there's plenty of time for you to develop strong communication skills.

Stay Abreast of Latest Trends Digital marketing is in a constant state of flux. If you are serious about making your presence felt in this field, you need to keep yourself abreast of the latest trends. The need of this industry changes at a rapid pace, and if you are unable to keep your pace with it, you will find to your dismay that there's always someone available to quickly take your place. You can add more to your knowledge through a variety of means - Take online classes, attend seminars, and keep reading about it to stay ahead of the curve.

Specialize and Socialize Thanks to the expanding job opportunities, you can hope to land in a good job if you are serious about making a career in this field. However, with increasing growth comes increasing competition. Under such circumstances, if you need to stand out from the crowd, you need to specialize your toolkit. A study revealed that the top three skills that employees desired in digital marketing professionals were social strength, digital advertising and content strategy. Creating content and letting the world know about your curation skills can go a long way in advancing your career. One way of doing it is to associate yourself with industry authorities so that you are known everywhere. This will also help you establish your reputation as subject domain experts.

It’s A Great Career If You Make It The demand for digital marketing is set to grow by more than 10 % on an early basis. Honing your skills in this field can help you land a well-paying job with excellent career progression opportunities. Just work diligently to take full advantage of this fast-growing sector. You can also post your resumes on top job portals like Vastium to find a good job as this online job portal is the preferred destination of employers looking for good digital marketing professionals.

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5 Tips to Get Hired by a Company as a Fresher

Starting the first real job is quite a transition from the academic phase of our lives, and it can be a stressful, overwhelming, and tiring time. Freshers have to make a lot of changes when entering the corporate lifestyle. The amount of fresher jobs in India is rising, with more startups looking to hire raw talent. You have to be professional about how you present yourselves, and even though that college attitude may seem cool, save it for after you get the job.

 Don't be too nervous about recruiters judging every aspect of yours, though. Recruiters know you're new to the real world, and they need to be considerate. Also, in the age of digital hirings and online recruitment portals, companies are more interested in knowing candidates than testing their skills. They have a bunch of tests for those.

 To help you understand the process better and present yourself suitably, here are five tips for battling the fresher stress and dealing with the pressure of entering the "work-life":

 1. Always be Presentable

 It's no surprise that the first tip for freshers is on appearance and presentation. Like mentioned before, it can hugely impact the first impression you make with professionals. Although it might not be the most critical thing, how you dress for an interview can make recruiters form firm judgments about you. But clothes aren't the only thing that needs to be taken care of, it's the presentation of your entire personality that you need to be aware of. From your walking style, how you greet your interviewers to your position of seating and your communication style.

 2. Be Certain and Focus on Your Goal

 This is the time that will decide your first designation in a company, and in most cases, set your career path, which you will be on for a long time. This is not a time to be impulsive or indecisive, and you need to set a goal and be consistent to put in your best efforts. This may also be a time to be experimental, and this is an excellent time to decide whether you want to pursue what you've studied and specialized in or not, for the rest of your life.

 3. Sell Yourself in an Undeniable Way

 The company already wants someone to work with them, and they're interested in hiring young people. You fulfill that criteria, and that's what matters the most, the rest is just storytelling. You have a particular set of skills which could be useful for the company, all you have to do is convince the recruiters you're exactly what they're looking for.

 4. Be Clear and Confident

 When meeting professionals, or talking in interviews or group discussions, make sure you don't fumble or speak in a volume too low. You want to show you're clear on what you think and how you say it. In case you're not sure about what you think or how you want to say what you want, take a moment and formulate what your agenda, tone, and conclusion will be. Do not start talking only because you need to or are spoken to, if you don't know the answer or response to a remark, it's better to clarify than make a guess.

 5. Don't Lose Focus of What You Want

 The companies that will hire you or consider hiring you are searching for a simple set of skills that are readily available, and all these companies can offer is a job. There are plenty of companies looking for new talent on a daily basis. Numerous jobs offer better pay and work environment, and there is no particular company or job that will "set" your life. There have been a lot of companies with a lot of jobs, and there are many to come, but you will only get this chance to decide how you want your career to look when you start. So don't think that if you don't land a job at a particular level you won't be happy or life will never be good again.

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Why Should Companies Hire People With Disabilities?

Just like others, the majority of persons with disabilities want a dignified and productive life. Employment not only provides them with a source of income but also opportunities for social participation. This is especially important for persons with disabilities. Spending on systems and facilities for persons with disabilities is not for the privilege of a small minority, but an investment for everyone. 

 But why should companies hire disabled persons?

Diverse work groups develop to come up with better solutions to business challenges. Many companies have found that by employing people with disabilities they have been better able to understand and serve their customers with disabilities. Adapting services to meet the diverse needs of people with disabilities allows the business to develop greater flexibility, build a reputation and reach out to a sizable market.

What’s more?

You get to promote diversity in its true sense.

You can build a positive brand image of your business.

You put in efforts to create an inclusive environment for your employees.

People with disability are more reliable and have better retention rate.

Because they are as capable as any other employee in your organization.

Persons with disabilities are frequently not considered potential members of the workforce. Perception, fear, myth and prejudice continue to limit understanding and acceptance of disability in workplaces everywhere. Myths abound, persons with disabilities are unable to work and that accommodating a person with a disability in the workplace is expensive. Contrary to these notions, many companies have found these people are more than capable.

As per a report by the U.S. Council of Commerce, "Leading Practices on Disability Inclusion", hiring individuals with disabilities is useful for the core functionality. The report has analysis from organizations such as 3M, PepsiCo, Merck and AT&T. The organizations revealed that proving accommodations brought about such benefits as retaining valuable employees, improving productivity and morale, reducing workers’ compensation and training expenses and improving organizational diversity.

What does the constitution say?

The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities Act, 2016 states under Article 35 Section 1 “The appropriate Government shall formulate schemes and programmes including provision of loans at concessional rates to facilitate and support the employment of persons with disabilities especially for their vocational training and self-employment.”

Right To Employment of Disables in India - Disability law

With advancements in medical sciences, breakthroughs in technology, greater understanding of the causes of disability and improved methods of coping with it, increasing consciousness of civil rights and the emergence of people with disabilities displaying skills and knowledge to improve their own lives, are some of the factors which have contributed to the new thinking that the disabled deserve a dignified status in society on the same terms as the non-disabled.

Right to work

“Only 1% of disabled people are able to find jobs.” This is despite the government has set up 28 employment exchanges to source employment opportunities for the differently-abled. Also, the 3% reservation of government employment opportunities is only for Class III and IV jobs. There are many factors related to disability which need to be investigated. For instance, the Government of Maharashtra appointed its full-time disability commissioner in 2016 even though the Law of Disability was passed in 1995.

The Disability Act, that promises equal opportunities to the disabled, provides for three per cent job reservation for disabled people. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 is the disability law passed by the Indian Parliament to fulfill its obligation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which India approved in 2007.

The current quota requirements for disabled workers must be met by employers and those successfully implementing these are to be provided with subsidies by the government and those neglecting it must be charged with the fair penalties. 

What’s happening in the rest of the world?

“In developing countries, 80% to 90% of persons with disabilities of working age are unemployed, whereas in industrialized countries the figure is between 50% and 70%. In most developed countries the official unemployment rate for persons with disabilities of working age is at least twice that for those who have no disability.”

-‘Disabled still face hurdles in the job market’, The Washington Times, 5 December 2005

 74% of persons with physical disabilities and 94% of persons with mental retardation are unemployed.

-‘International Disability Rights Monitor’, Regional Report of Asia, 2005

 The hiring trends for the differently-abled has seen a positive turn towards helping the community and give them fair treatment when considering them for jobs. US states have made it a crime to discriminate any candidates on the basis of disabilities. The following economic conditions were favourable to provide senior positions to the differently-abled.

 India

According to the 2001 census, 21.9 million people or 2.13% of the country’s population are persons with disabilities.

-‘The disabled trip up on Job Street’, The Economic Times, 19 August 2005

Information technology-enabled services find persons with disabilities loyal and hard-working and have no problem hiring them as long as their disability does not affect work.

-‘Calls for special skills’, Business Line: The Hindu, 4 February 2005

 Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop 

 Ms Pooja Aggarwal is a trilateral amputee after a near-death train accident cost her an upper limb and both lower limbs. However, wasn’t defeated by the disability. She is a champion of wheelchair shooting and secured the Silver medal in the World Shooting Para Sport World Cup 2017, 10m Air Pistol.

Besides being a pro-Para Shooter, Pooja also works full time at Allahabad Bank and was also conferred upon by the Government and earned a National Award for Best Employee of the year 2018 under the category of ‘Loco-motor Disabilities’.

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Social Media Soaring to Miraculous Heights

“Social media is not a media. The key is to listen, engage, and build relationship” -David Alston

The Birthplace of Social Media

The definition and classification can although be controversial, in 2019 Merriam-Webster defined the term as "forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and micro-blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)".

Social media has two large aspects under which it can be studied: the technological and the social. The technological developments and innovation help improve the connectivity while the user-based networking helps transfer different types of data. Users build profiles specific to the service provided by various platforms. It was designed with the idea of connecting a set of users to exchange data across predefined networks with maximum accuracy and quick transfer.

Social media is well on its way to snatch the title of “the fourth pillar of democracy” from the traditional forms of media like print or radio. The term “social media” and its popularity are largely due to the outburst of multiple social media platforms from the mid to late 2000s. Giants like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have dominated the industry for some time but platforms like Orkut, Reddit and Tumblr remain close to user’s hearts to this day.

The single objective of these platforms is to connect various people and businesses from various parts of the world. This has inevitably resulted in an untraceable amount of networks spreading over the whole world. With advancing technology to complement it, social media is getting bigger by the second only to morph into the next generation of advertisements.

Networks of the New Era

An enormous 3.2 billion internet users are active on social media, that’s a little over 42% of the entire world population. This makes it the biggest audience to any other form of media, ever. After the second quarter of 2019, Facebook report 2.414 billion monthly active users of which 303 million were from India.

But the most significant feature of social media as a new form of marketing is the increase in the number of consumers and as a result, promoters and products. With more individual influencers connecting with consumers online, social media has become an ideal place for big, medium, small brands and start-ups. With 81% of all small to medium businesses and 91% retail brands using a social media platform in some form of the other, the industry is headed nowhere but up!

The wide use of social media has actually also become a relief of sorts to the employment conditions where software and technology firms are hiring largely for social media platforms or other directly related businesses. Marketing Managers, Art Directors and Copywriters are all full-time and readily available jobs as a direct result of social media platforms and their popularity.

That being said, a “social media influencer” or “tweets about your day and Instagram stories with foodie pics” is not a career choice. One can most certainly try and make a career out of it, but not something that might be sustainable. However, saying that having the words “social media” in your job title implies your job is unimportant is simply misguided and can discourage people from entering into an emerging space that is ripe with opportunities.

Where are we headed?

The world of social media is complicated and hard to understand but in this day and age, knowing about the happenings of society is rather important and social media, as risky as it might be, is getting that job done. But the industry is not all flowers, it has had its fair amount of dips. The rise in the number of platforms has sparked debate of invasion of privacy, spreading hate speech and/or racism, government censorship, self-censorship by social media platforms and ownership of content. 

The most recent case was the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal that revealed Cambridge Analytica (CA) collected personal data of millions of peoples' Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political manipulation and advertising purposes. 

Notably, CA was hired by the Indian National Congress (INC) to carry out "in-depth electorate analysis" and influence voters, including in the 2010 elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly. 355 Indian Facebook users installed a Cambridge Analytica app, exposing the data of 562,455 users. In early 2018 Cambridge Analytica made a 50-page proposal for the INC for both the upcoming 2019 general election in India and their upcoming electoral campaign for the Indian states of Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh state elections in 2018.

Although the platforms and the overall workings maybe treacherous and uncertain, social media platforms have brought about better connectivity and a great deal of relief to millions with various campaigns all the from terrorism (“je suis charlie” for the attacks on the French newspaper offices of Charlie Hebdo in 2015), sexual assault cases (MeToo for awareness about sexual assault by encouraging survivors to share their stories) to civil movements (Black Lives Matter movement for an end to police brutality and the killings of African-Americans in the U.S).

The platforms, their impact and complexity have all been well studied and documented in recent years and is going through tremendous change even now. The rational step forward is to use these tools effectively and help find ways to help improve as many lives as possible.