From landing pages to microsites, Facebook to Meerkat, mobile to desktop and the myriad of options in between, digital can feel impossible to keep up with.  

However, there are opportunities to learn everywhere: to familiarize yourself with the jargon and build a basic digital acumen. But how are you supposed to decide between the webinars, Google Hangouts, conferences and intensive courses? And here’s the real cherry, when it comes to digital there is no actual limit on how much you can learn. Why? Because the evolution of digital is constant.

When considering opportunities for digital education be critical about your choices. Here is a breakdown to help you determine how to best spend your time and money:

Part 1: How in-depth would you like your knowledge to be?

Part 2: Are you making the best use of existing experts in the field?

Part 3: Is your team built to proportionally represent the knowledge and skills needed for your key business functions?

Part 4: What business objective(s) will this learning opportunity help to fulfill?

By using these criteria, you can be more critical not just of paid learning opportunities but also of the bevy of free options available to everyone. And, of course, budget is always a consideration but you don’t want to let cost be the key factor in your decision. It should be much more about how that cost translates into value against the above decision-making criteria. 

I believe that the other side of this conversation has to do with what you’re naturally interested in and how you learn – I always learn more (and better) when presented with a topic that genuinely gets my brain going. As part of my routine, I block out time daily to learn what’s new in the digital space. Now that has a lot to do what I do for a living but is also representative of what I’m interested in.

If digital, or any topic for that matter, is interesting to you and relevant to your work, then I suggest using the endless supply of content creators and curators on the internet to your advantage. Create a bookmark list in your browser of your Top 5 sites and check them daily or weekly. A few sites that I frequent because of their great, timely content are:

Mashable.com

socialmediaexaminer.com

digitalbuzzblog.com

101fundraising.org

and yours truly

Charityinfo.ca

I’ve always been a believer in constant learning – partly because of the career path I’ve chosen and also because I think it helps me be a stronger contributor both at work and in life. Finding the time not only to devote to learning but also in being critical of what you’re participating in can set you apart from the masses, help you innovate, and, hopefully, create real change.

Simren Deogun is a marketing professional whose depth of experience comes from working both client- and agency-side planning, implementing and overseeing the execution of marketing initiatives. From email marketing and website design to social media and advertising campaigns, Simren provides expert guidance from concept to implementation. For more information, email her, follow her @SimrenDeogun,or www.stephenthomas.ca