7 Must Have Skills to Become a Perfect Digital Journalist in Nigeria

Today, the job of a digital journalist is quite different to that of a regular journalist in terms of skills.
In the digital world, communications are done in a new way and information is also extracted in an altogether different way as compared to traditional means.

Today, Nigerian news site like Hynaija.com and magazines in Nigeria use new strategies to cope with changing times.
Digital media holds sway these days and so the modern digital journalist must adapt to changing forms of communication.

Here is a look at 7 must have skills to become a perfect digital journalist:

1.) Basic knowledge of SEO
Understanding how SEO (search engine optimization) works is an essential skill that every modern digital journalist needs.
This skill helps in making website pages more visible.
Knowing how to insert keywords into the content that are most searched is another essential corollary skill that modern digital journalists must possess.

2.) Checklist of content
Digital journalists must also know how to create the right kind of content.
They need to know what length their article must have and they also need to ensure the content is unique and not duplicated.
Digital journalists also need to understand things like optimum keyword density.

3.) Links – both internal and external
Digital journalists must understand how to use links – both internal and external.
Outbound links in which your content is linked to a high authority site helps to make your content more visible.
At the same time, it also is important to use inbound links which help to improve the on-page SEO.

4.) Multimedia
In the digital world, images and videos play a very important role in making your content more appealing.
Using images properly is a skill that every digital journalist must possess to ensure that the content is visually superior because only then will it help to drive more traffic to the website.

5.) Excellent writing skills
This is perhaps the most important skill a digital journalist needs. When creating content for an online audience, it is important to create content that is relevant, unique and which will prick the audience’s interest.
It is important for the digital journalist to create content that will persuade readers to read at least half of the content in front of them.

6.) Formatting the content
In the old days, newspaper content was formatted in an entirely different way than modern digital content.
It is therefore necessary for the digital journalist to create content that is short and to the point.
Chopping sentences and use of bold headlines and sub-headings as well as use of bullet points are all things the digital journalist must know how to do.

7.) Analytics
Finally, it is necessary to find out what people are saying about your content. In addition, it is also necessary to know how many page views the content is getting.

Digital journalists will also need to keep track of site views as well as number of clicks the content got.
In this way, it is possible to know how well your content is performing and it also helps to create a yardstick by which they can judge the progress they are making.