I love LinkedIn, not in the love I will have for my first child, but close to it. LinkedIn has revolutionised the recruitment industry. It plays on a very simple emotion, vanity. You may disagree with the vanity suggestion, but if you are on LinkedIn, then you are comfortable with promoting yourself to the world, which is being vain.

Your profile is effectively your CV, it’s a highlight reel of your corporate life, an opportunity for everyone to see what you do and how good you may be.  For companies this is an interesting problem because you know you star performers are constantly visible for all to see and for all to contact.

Recruiters obviously use LinkedIn as a first port of call to head hunt candidates. It allows upfront honesty and assuming that the recruiter is ethical in their approach and respects the persons contact settings (ie, the “open to career opportunities” is highlighted in their contact settings) it is an unobtrusive manner to get in touch. So knowing this is the case, why do companies like their employees being on LinkedIn?

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The current market place for Digital is an interesting space. Over the last 12 months the demand for Digital has doubled. Integrated agencies have worked hard to develop their Digital offering, pure play Digital Agencies are expending their offerings to be 360 in their approach and Social Media, well, I think we all know that that is the new “cool kid” at School.

So how has this affected the job market? Well, it has created a skills shortage. Over the last 6 months we have 3 jobs for every one Planner, AD or Media expert. If you are looking for a role in PPC then it’s your lucky day as there is a huge demand for your skills.

So what does this mean for companies? It means they need to up-skill staff or hire in digital freelancers to stay with the pack. Training is often seen as time consuming and expensive so the freelance route is often taken as a quick fix and easy way out to filling the skills gap. The problem with being reliant on freelancers for your company’s digital skill set is that their knowledge leaves the building when they do.

Freelancers, to an extent, have a stranglehold over the market place. It’s in their interest to keep freelancing as they can earn more than their permanent counterparts and the Digital Skill Gap continues to flourish.

Some companies have responded to this by bringing in senior Digital suits to up-skill their staff whilst working on live projects. A famous International Marketing Agency has done just this. Alongside their Digital offering they have brought in a permanent Senior Digital suit to concentrate on educating the agency on Digital; getting the ‘off-liners’ talking to and thinking like the ‘on-liners’. The initial outlay of bringing in a permanent suit can be expensive but it is a brilliant and necessary long term investment.

Read more about my thoughts in this great article from Marketing “Filling the digital skills gap”

I clearly don’t have Miles Young’s experience, nor have I been in the industry for 30 years and seen things come and go, however, I do have the fortunate position to be in the middle of the Digital revolution.

I genuinely believe there is a place for pure-play Digital Agencies. Just like there is a place for PR or SP Agencies. The issue isn’t the silo-thinking; it’s how the silo thinking is integrated into the bigger picture.

We need people who live and breathe Digital, people who are so passionate about the discipline that that’s all they know and/or care for. This is how we progress the discipline. We need agencies of excellence that do nothing else than Digital, offering amazing solutions and exciting Ideas.

What we need to be careful of is who is leading the Strategy. Digital is just another channel. Sometimes it’s the right one to use and sometimes not. There is a need for specialists and there is a need for pure-plays. Marketing is a big puzzle and Digital is an essential piece. Without pure-play Digital agency, we would be missing a huge trick.

Original quote from: http://dyln.it/bw2