I think of #DigitalLiteracy from a corporate communicator’s standpoint as the awareness, attitude and ability of people to appropriately use technology and digital tools to widely communicate business strategy, to leverage digital in delivering business goals, to collaborate and work more efficiently than those who possess the same knowledge and skills but are not digital savvy.

How I define digital literacy

For me, digital literacy is a broad term that demonstrates our ability to continually learn, un-learn and re-learn skills and ways of doing things in order to embrace new digital trends and behavior that bring about positive change in our every-day personal life and at work.

In practice it could be anything from communication strategy and planning, website management & analytics skills, writing & marketing blogs, knowing not only social media etiquette but being able to purposefully use it to accomplish your communication goals, using mobile devices and apps to collaborate, contribute and share content (images, video, copy), engaging, managing or interacting with communities online and virtually.

More importantly, for me digital literacy is a state of mind – the growth mindset as shown below.

Source: Two Mindsets. Stanford, magazine article, 2007 Carol Dweck: Mindset: The new pschology of success, 2006. Design: Nigel Holmes

In my book, digital literate people are:

• The early adopters, the ones who put their hands up when a new tool or platform is launched because they spot opportunities quickly
• The ones who question status quo, who see digital as an opportunity to transform the business and adapt accordingly
• The social media champions who engage with passion and personality, creating an environment ripe for collaboration, authenticity and transparency.
• The real influencers, comfortable with taking risks and not afraid of failing and who are always willing to offer help without self-promotion
• The leaders who recognise the value of digital in achieving competitive advantage and become enablers and advocates for their digital literate colleagues navigating complex governance structures and dealing with the “no” people

Without digital literate people, our colleagues in corporate communications would find it just that bit harder to disseminate key messages or drive employee engagement further into the organisation or gather brilliant case studies about how communication has impacted positively on business processes or resulted in cost-savings.

Without digital literate people, our colleagues in IT or Research & Development, would struggle to test new forecasting tools and collaboration platforms in real-time, to implement new technologies, to find creative ways of adapting to the fast pace of change and to respond to an ever-changing, ever more demanding and competitive environment.

Without digital literate people, our CEO’s messages and vision would remain hidden behind the old-fashioned monthly broadcast type of blog that sees few comments (from the same two people). A blog that does not foster dialogue, that is seldom read by the average employee – who is unable to feedback in an anonymous way or feels that constructive criticism may be met with serious repercussion.

Also, please consider this:

• 62% of organisation have ambitions to be digital leaders but only 8% feel they are well on their way to achieving this
• Current business models are in trouble or are stagnating due to lack of understanding how to embed digital in current processes and culture
• 76% of UK employees use social media in private lives but only 18% of them use it at work
• Just 1 in 5 CEOs are leading the digital agenda within their organisation, despite its importance to future success
• Agile working (working from home or virtual collaboration) has become the norm
• Enterprise Social Network adoption is a key priority for internal communications teams
• Organisations who do not allow employees to access company content via own mobile devices are now in a minority

So, why do I think we still need to make the business case for digital literacy?

Have you been involved in global IT roll-out program where 95% of the budget was spent on hardware, technology and tools and if were lucky there maybe was something left in the kitty for planning and executing your fully-fledged communication strategy and training across 30 countries?

Were you faced with an automated software update or intranet/website re-design that has been “awarded” to you without any training guide or instructions, leaving you now to fend for yourself and while you learn a new way of doing things, it takes twice as long?

Have you been asked to advocate for your company by contributing and sharing related content on your personal social media channels without being given the basics of social media training (other than a meaningless social media policy) or how to condense a key statement in 140 characters including a link?

Have you been prompted to install mobile apps on your personal device so that you can consume company news and access internal tools without guidance on how to uninstall, set preferences or how this may affect any of your existing apps and personal settings?

Have you been asked to contribute selfies (pics or videos) for an internal campaign without being told how to create and edit a video or an image on your mobile device, what format is most appropriate, how to apply filters and upload directly from your mobile?

As a marketer, have you been tasked with cutting down on brand campaign costs by using established digital channels but not been given training in a measurement framework that allows you to quantify success?

I hope you’re beginning to see my point…

I fear we have come to expect that everyone, at all levels and demographics in the organisation should be enthusiastic about adopting a new tool, digital way of working, social network or behavior without adequate training, in-depth coaching and practical guidance.

This is clearly visible in the budget gap between internal communications and large IT projects – the latter measuring success not by adoption and ease of use but by hardware/software installation metrics.

It is also visible in decision making across the organisation, still plagued by silo thinking where IT teams make the purchase or long-term investments in a new social or digital platform without communication strategy forward-thinking in place, without considerate usability testing or adequate training budget allocation that sees the entire worldwide workforce properly trained and on-boarded.

How can we achieve a (high) standard level of digital literacy in the organisation

I think transitioning our organisations into a social business in the digital age is in fact not only about re-evaluating the business model, introducing new governance structures, improving internal processes, working across silos, optimising our channels, educating communicators and marketers, but also about raising the digital literacy level for all employees through:

• Worldwide, well-funded and supported Digital Training Academy Programs available to everyone, not only communications specialists.
• A buddy system – where digital literate people are paired with senior executives and their peers for a set period of time with the goal of educating them, sharing knowledge and raising their level of digital literacy.

If you have any examples where #DigitalLiteracy programs have been successful is large multi-national organisations, please share with me.

Get in touch via my LinkedIn profile or follow me on Twitter: @dana_poole to stay close to my own journey of discovery on the #DigitalLiteracy topic.