There are a lot of skills that you should be acquiring and honing right now, such as better writing skills, interpersonal skills and analytical skills. Although each of these skills is generally important for almost everyone, regardless of age and position, there is something more important that people are going to have to focus on next year: remaining relevant. The major challenge for workers is going to be data consumption, analysis, tagging, sharing and retrieving. It is the reason why I blogged about the personal branding system that I use to be able to remain relevant, organized and a value contributor.
Why is this a skill?
It’s a skill because we are absolutely flooded with information now and if you don’t know what to do with it or if you ignore it completely, then it will have a negative impact on your career. You have to think about all of the other people in your industry who are reviewing their feeds and emails all the time. Technology, media and life is moving so fast that if you don’t have a pulse on your industry, your value to your company will diminish. This is why we’re living in an information society right now, where information is more powerful than money. If you’re aware of the latest and greatest media channels or sites that help you become more productive, you’ll be more successful and valuable to the people around you.
Most people have not mastered this skill and even if you’re confident, your system might not uphold in the future. It’s hard to imagine disconnecting from technology for a few days or even a week anymore. I feel that there is such an opportunity cost for not being aware of what’s going on every single day. The people who pay attention win.
The facts
There have been a lot of statistics out lately about the amount of data we are consuming and the data that’s freely available online. Think about all the data sources that we have at our fingertips now. There are thousands of social networks, traditional websites, forums, etc. Here are a few that have caught my eye recently:
FACT: U.S. households consumed approximately 3.6 zettabytes of information in 2008. (source: GigaOm)
FACT: There are now more tweets than people on earth. (source: Mashable)
FACT: 53% of all adults think things are changing too fast nowadays. (source: amarach research)
5 things you can do to remain relevant
1. Gather industry news and set alerts for topic mentions.
2. Subscribe to the top technology blogs that give you a general feel for the latest gadgets, social networks, trends, and more. I recommend Mashable, TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb for starters.
3. Figure out what skills you need based on your job role and your long term aspirations and learn them. You can acquire this knowledge by taking a class, hiring a tutor, searching online, watching a video instruction manual on YouTube, purchasing a book on the topic, or just experimenting for yourself.
4. Start a blog or force yourself to contribute content to at least one social network. By doing this, it will force you to stay relevant because you have to read and think before you publish.
5. Ask your manager, your mentor or someone you respect in your industry (especially a thought leader) for their perspective on what’s going on and what you need to be aware of.
Your turn
What have you done to remain relevant to your industry?
