The Rise of Digital in a Post-Covid World
By Drew Benvie, founder and CEO of Battenhall.
The lasting impact that COVID-19 will leave on the digital landscape will be profound. As meetings stay virtual, contact remains distanced, and business priorities pivot, not only have we become accustomed to our more digitally-natured lives, but we have found new benefits too. Because while there is much to mend in our world right now, we have seen years of digital innovation take place in weeks, and that, I believe, will be a good thing for business.
A great deal of what we’ve now learned to do on lockdown, especially for those of us who were less digitally minded pre-COVID, are now new found habits. And after all, it only takes three weeks to make or break a habit. So by my counting, we should have a handful of new ones by now, and I expect an equal amount of old ones have been ditched for good.
So what digital trends will remain once the world begins returning to normal? How has the rise of digital through COVID impacted the C Suite and Non Execs specifically? Let’s take a look at the changes that I expect will last, and what this could mean for business.
Video-first work
The rapid rise of video meetings has been matched by a surge in video for all areas of the social and digital media landscape. While Zoom has risen from 50m users to 300m, Houseparty became the #1 downloaded social network in 82 countries due to its video calling functions, and Facebook launched Rooms, bringing WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram together for video sessions. We should expect to see more video communications across the board, from sales pitches to board meetings, and an equal rise in consumption of business content over the medium of video too.
‘We should expect to see more video communications across the board.’
Remote work is here to stay
Data from analyst firm Garther suggests that 74% of global CFOs expect their workforce to be remote working more in the future than they did pre-COVID. The impact of this new work routine will be less time travelling and more digital media consumption, with a decline in print and outdoor media to keep business audiences informed, and more digital and social media for news and peer contact.
GlobalWebIndex research shows that news is increasingly being consumed through social media channels during lockdown, a trend I expect to continue for business audiences moving forward. So executives should look to be more active on social media, even if it’s to story ahead of the news agenda.
‘Business executives have spent longer than normal on social networks in recent months.’
Evolution of LinkedIn
With more time in the home office and less in the car or the boardroom, business executives have spent longer than normal on social networks in recent months. LinkedIn has reported a 26% surge in use since lockdown, and new functions have started rolling out to cater for the ever more active audiences. For example, LinkedIn users in The Netherlands and Brazil have been given early access to LinkedIn’s newest function: Stories, which allows users to post content that last just 24hrs, encouraging greater creativity and more engagement amongst business users.
Moving forward, while senior business leaders adapt to the new normal, they could consider the changes they have experienced across digital platforms as new skills, and new found efficiencies that could be transformative to improving the way they work. The rise of digital in business post-COVID will present opportunities for those open to capitalising on them.
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