Important Knowledge in the Internet and New Technology

Important Knowledge in the Internet and New Technology

Working in the Internet or new technology industries (that in many cases go along) demands a lot of efforts and knowledge. In general, when say ‘Internet’ we actually need to precise the exact sub-category we are talking about: website creation and development, website design, social media, e-commerce…

If your career is linked to Web or IT company you need to be aware of everything happening around your company, even not directly impacting it. All topics are related to each other on the web. And success in a job is always equal to your knowledge and experience.

While experience comes with time, you need to work on your knowledge by yourself.

Even if you’re working in a company with a specific product, e.g. website selling mobile phones online, you need to know so much more not directly related to your product and job, like:

• how to be ranked by search engines to come up on the first page of results;
• how to promote your website on social media website;
• what new trends are there is tablet market – almost mobile phone rival;
• how to develop an app for iPhone, Android and Microsoft Mobile for your online shop;
• what e-payment system to choose and why;
• and so on…

On top of that the industry itself is evolving so quickly that we sometimes cannot follow it.

Main topics covered by Internet and Tech magazines
To have an idea of what you need to know to succeed in your career in IT world, let us look at the main topics covered by Techcrunch or Mashable: the biggest website about Internet and technology:

• Social Media: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube
• Mobile and mobile apps: App Store, Google Play; Microsoft Store
• Gadgets and innovations
• Startups
• E-commerce: Amazon, eBay,
• Payment systems: PayPal, Square, Amazon Wallet, Google Wallet
• Dev & Design: HTML5, Use Experience, etc.
• Blogging & Entrepreneurship
• Software
• Storage
• Security

This list could go on by adding more and more new information and new topics once break-through products are launched as they usually change the whole understanding of how we use the web.

What search engines can tell us about Web and High Tech
It is also interesting to see that all these topics are very popular, some more, some less, throughout time. Here is statistics of Google Trends for some search queries from 2004 until present time:

Another interesting finding is related to Google AdWords. After entering only 3 search queries: ‘web’, ‘internet’ and ‘new technology’ – you can get the following keyword suggestions:

• gadgets
• webdesign
• website
• information technology
• computer technology
• innovative technology
• internet games
• mobile internet
• web hosting
• new trends
• IT news

It clearly shows how broad is this topic. Way to go for us to learn them to obtain all necessary information about Internet and new technology.

Additional areas of expertise
In addition to the topics highlighted above, you need to be aware of other important skills to have for your career in IT and Internet, such as:

• Content Management. This area of expertise is related to Website Development, but also Social Media and PR.
• Project Management. The ability to manage projects and motivate teams is essential in the Internet and IT industry as all launching products are in fact new projects inside an organisation. The most difficult part is usually that the teams are spread all over the world.
• Marketing. This is almost equal to Social Media these days – promotion of products through Internet. This area related to understanding of your Customers & Users, ability to attract and keep them.

How new trends in Web and Tech can affect your work
You cannot just specify in one narrow area if you want to succeed and advance in your career. You should always be aware of what is going on in the market, what new products are launching and how it all can affect your work.

Let’s look at how mobile revolution affects our work. As a content manager I’ve faced a necessity to find out more about development of mobile devices as it impacted my work directly. Who would know in the first place? I had to develop skills in accordance with this new global change: going mobile. It meant that I had to adapt my usual content to small screens, come up with shorter terms, be able to send a clear message in just a few lines.

As a designer you’ll need to be able to squeeze the page depending on the device used and be sure it looks nice and professional. As a developer you’ll have to find ways to reduce the page load time.

In case of social media development as a customer service agent you need to know new channels users can use to contact you and be proactive in those channels, like Facebook page.

In order to be successful we need to be proactive and react fast to the changes the Internet and new technology prepare for us. But due to the fact how fast these changes are implemented it may be particularly difficult to foresee them.

It is not that you need to know some specific information about some specific product. You just need to know how the world of web is developing. For example, how was the Wikipedia created, or who is Anonymous and what he is doing. These types of ‘companies’ can affect even some non-online institutions, like governmental affairs. They can also give you some insights on how certain things may be done: for example, the fact that the greatest encyclopedia has been created by people themselves without any material motivators, like salary or worldwide recognition.

And our success in Internet and tech area depends on our knowledge about this market.

It can be compared to financial analysts: any event in the world in general can massively affect stock prices.

Generation of new experts
This being said, once we enter into the world of the Internet and High Technology we need to be prepared and alarmed about what is happening in the industry. It may help us not only be up-to-date with the news, but also excel our competitors by following the innovations first and create new products by ourselves combining our knowledge in different areas.