14 In-Demand Skills you can learn Online now
With these skills, you'll stand out like a unicorn in a sea of donkeys.
By Larry Kim
Improving yourself and diversifying your skill set has never been
easier thanks to online courses, webinars, video tutorials and guides
that are readily available on the internet.
Whether you’re building your own business or looking to get hired by
your dream company,
adding these skills to your resume will help you stand out like a
unicorn in a sea of donkeys — and best of all, you can learn them
online.
Here, discover 14 in-demand skills and where you can learn them!
1. Chatbot Development: Facebook Messenger marketing is huge — it’s
driving 80% average open rates and 20% click-through rates.
If you have the skills to build and operate a Facebook Messenger
chatbot, you’ll prove invaluable to any marketing department.
I’m so invested in the future of Facebook Messenger marketing, I went
all-in with my own free chatbot building software company
MobileMonkey.
MobileMonkey has tons of helpful how-to articles and video tutorials
for building, using and optimizing chatbots — all without writing a
single line of code.
2. Coding: Even if you are not aiming to become a full-time
programmer, having fundamental knowledge of coding is a major asset.
Whether you’re launching an app, working on AI, optimizing a site for
search, creating content, etc., basic coding skills can go a long way.
You can get started through Codeacademy, which is great for both
beginners and coders looking to learn more and improve.
3. Advanced Excel Skills: Spreadsheets are a staple of any business
process, and learning how to use formulas and other features to
organize and process data in Excel can help save tons of time.
You can learn advanced Excel skills through Data Monkey.
4. New Language: Becoming fluent in a new language can open new doors
and broaden horizons for just about anyone in any industry.
Language learning platforms like Livemocha help greatly with excellent
instruction and a community for other users to help each other out.
5. Photography: Good-quality photographs can enhance any blog post or
social media post, making them more digestible.
Platforms like Udemy have tons of photography courses, from beginner
lessons to in-depth instructionals on its various facets.
6. Photoshop: Knowing how to edit images can let you do things from
making memes to designing graphics for websites, brand logos, and
marketing materials.
Adobe offers its expert tutorials that are more than enough for
introducing Photoshop fundamentals to beginners, as well as advanced
courses for experienced Photoshop users.
7. Writing: This is perhaps the most ubiquitous skill in this list, as
well as the most fundamental.
No matter what field you work in, being able to write well is always an asset.
You can brush up on your writing through SkillShare and even learn new
writing skills along the way.
8. SEO: There is literally no business in the world that can’t benefit
from more web traffic.
Anyone looking to gain visibility and exposure online needs to learn
search engine optimisation.
You can learn the fundamentals using the Google Webmaster Central Blog.
You can also visit Search Engine Journal for a huge library of guides
and how-to articles on SEO.
It has updated information on how to make your website easier to find
on the search engine.
9. Social Media Marketing: Marketing on social media is an
ever-changing field, so staying on top of it is important.
Whether you want to learn the basics or more advanced skills, there’s
no shortage of online courses for social media marketing.
Try an indepth guide that covers all major social media platforms like
How to Dominate Social Media, or a niche course like Mari Smith’s Fast
Facebook Results.
10. Leadership: Want to learn to take control, inspire others, and
lead teams to success?
Mindtools has high-quality courses to help you develop your leadership skills.
11. Budgeting: Managing one’s money seems rather basic, but it’s
surprising how many people get it wrong.
Budgeting is one of those skills that gets used everyday, both on a
professional and personal level.
Boost your budgeting skills with sites like The Motley Fool or apps
like Intuit’s Mint.
12. Graphic Design: Having the ability to your own graphics can be a
boon for your business.
You can make your own logo, images to go with your social media posts,
and so on.
Lynda.com for LinkedIn offers a course on graphic design where you can
get a solid foundation in typography, color, layout and more, while
practicing with InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop.
13. Project Management: Management skills which can help you apply
leadership in an organized and productive manner.
Being able to manage every aspect of a project to completion is
challenging — you must know how to keep everyone organized,
productive, engaged and motivated.
Try a project management course from Edx.
14. Public Speaking: As it’s often said, one of most people’s greatest
fears is public speaking.
It’s a skill that takes a lot of practice to perfect, and doing so can
pay dividends.
Being able to speak to a crowd with confidence is invaluable, wherever
you may go.
There are many online courses for public speaking — I recommend the
Introduction to Public Speaking on Coursera.
*Kim is the CEO of MobileMonkey@larrykim.
