Whilst Digital media and Ecommerce companies continue to blaze a trail in their respective industries, we ask the question ‘who is looking after the people actually running these companies?’

Other than the continual learning curve that working in such a fast paced industry dictates, how else do the top level of management in this vanguard industry develop their careers? Traditionally, Executive Coaching would be the answer to this question – but is the Executive Coaching model appropriate for today’s entrepreneurial Digital Media and Ecommerce directors? To help answer that question, Bearing Partnership has called upon Stephanie Vora, a dyed in the wool Ecommerce and Digital Media veteran who now helps Executives get the very best out of their career – to contribute to this article on the challenges the modern day Digital Executive is facing and what, if anything, they can do to help maximise their career in this frenetic and pressured environment.

Arrested development

With an industry still in its infancy and its top level Executives averaging 10 years less experience than their board level counterparts in traditional businesses, Digital Media and Ecommerce companies will have to consider [...]

Having recently been asked by a client to provide some background as to why they’ve found it hard to recruit Digital Product Managers, we felt it worth sharing our thoughts on this increasingly popular job title within the Digital space. We also look at why it’s becoming increasingly important for companies looking to exploit Digital to get to grips with this area to ensure that they maximise the effectiveness of hiring these very talented and dynamic professionals.

Emergence of Product development roles

Product development positions have emerged as a central discipline within a Digital team as businesses look to gain more measurable return from their Digital channels. A clear definition of a product manager though is particularly difficult in a market that is still in relative infancy. There is considerable variety on what constitutes a product and the skills of a product manager. This has a direct impact on availability of candidates and salaries.

A product can be:

- a content stream or content channel – such as fashion, lifestyle, music, sport
- a platform based service – gaming, dating, ecommerce, subscriptions, downloads, affiliate advertising, comparison sites
- a web application – Google Maps, Spotify, Skype, Twitter, Facebook Chat etc [...]

Web Analytics is becoming increasingly important to any business operating within Digital media or Ecommerce. It offers unparalleled insight into a customer’s online behaviour allowing businesses to improve usability and functionality and ultimately the effectiveness of a site.

Working with a large number of Ecommerce companies and Content providers, Bearing Partnership has seen the growing importance of the Web Analyst. However as web analytics matures as a discipline it brings with it significant issues of staffing and skills management within a Digital function. Web Analytics is becoming too involved to simply lump in with the responsibilities of a Digital Marketing manager – Web Analytics is now a skill set in itself.

It is a specialism that has evolved and transformed to a point where it’s now worth discussing the key emphasis of the Web Analyst.

There are generally three areas of emphasis for a Web Analyst, and this often determines their background and how a company will want to utilise them:

There has been a lot of media coverage dedicated to the subject of blogging and social media recently. And rightly so: it’s a fascinating subject and a constantly changing landscape. There is new etiquette evolving around the way in which we communicate via social media. This includes new faux-pas, new ways to entertain and be entertained. It also means that there are new ways to increase your candidature for an alternative job and conversely, novel ways to ensure you certainly don’t get that dream job you’ve been aspiring to.

We at Bearing Partnership have put together a list of things you need to consider when putting together your social media profile during the search process.

Getting Started: Should I utilise Social Media if I’m looking for a new role?

When asked by both junior and senior candidates if social media can be an effective instrument in their job hunt or improve their chances of securing a better role, the answer is an emphatic ‘yes, most definitely’. But as much as it can improve your candidature, it can also present serious potential pitfalls over your cultural fit with the company looking to hire. It may be unfair, unjustified and totally subjective, but information held on social media networks or blogs is most definitely used by recruiters and hiring managers alike in aiding their hiring decisions. [...]