With the countdown to Christmas and New Year about to officially begin, it's that time of year when prediction blogs start to pop up here, there and everywhere as everyone tries to predict what certain industries might have in store over the next 12 months or so.
Working for a digital jobs board, I'm surrounded by digital jobs on a daily basis - so today I thought it was as good a time as any to try and blog about my predictions for digital jobs and careers in 2015.
Just to clarify, I've come up with these predictions based on the digital jobs we've advertised on Bubble in 2014 and my own personal knowledge of the digital industry - so while I believe in them, I'm in no way claiming that these trends will definitely take place.
OK, now that that disclaimer's out of the way, it's time to go through my top 5 digital job trends for 2015.
1. A Move Away From Digital Agencies:
While I'm not trying to claim that digital agencies are going to die a slow horrible death in 2015, I do think we'll see a lot of major brands turning away from agencies and choosing to hire in-house instead. Why? Well because having complete control over a brand's digital presence is becoming more and more important thanks to things like SEO updates and content marketing - and that control is taken away from a brand when they choose to hire an agency. That said; in 2015 I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of major brands starting to turn their backs on their digital agencies and choosing to invest time and money into building up their own in-house digital teams in 2015.
2. More Digital Communications Roles:
Over the last three months or so, we've seen a massive surge in demand from brands looking to hire 'Digital Communications Officers' who can look after PR, online content, content marketing and social media - and I think that trend is only going to continue in 2015. As I mentioned in my 2014 digital job predictions blog, we're now starting to see more and more roles merge together - and the digital communications roles are testament to the fact that PR is now seen as a key component of digital marketing.
3. A Step Back From Pure SEO Hiring:
With the long-awaited Penguin 3 update being less powerful than hoped, many companies are still struggling with organic SEO and as such are using alternative methods to drive traffic to their site such as content marketing and PPC. With that in mind, I think we're definitely going to see less demand for SEO candidates in 2015, as brands continue to look to other methods to attract traffic.
4. More Insights/Analysis Roles:
In 2014 we saw a bit of a boom in Insights and Analyst roles as brands realised that the key to a better user experience and increased profits was understanding their customers and delivering the right content - and I think this is a trend that is definitely set to continue into 2015. Over the next 12 months, I think we'll see a lot of brands starting to invest serious amounts of money into Insights Managers, Business Analysts and even Data Scientists in a bid to beat their competitors and deliver the best experience for their customers.
5. A Move To Paid Social:
Over the last year or so, brands have struggled with organic social reach as platforms like Facebook have tweaked their algorithms and as a result, many have now started to turn to paid social in a bid to reach potential customers. We expect this to continue into 2015 and expect some brands to bring in paid social experts alongside their existing social media managers in an attempt to regain their social media reach.
So there you go; my top 5 predictions for the digital job industry next year. Don't agree or think I've missed anything? Leave me a comment below or tweet me - @amy_edwards88.