Selling ham at the corner delicatessen is not the same as serving it to half the world through the Internet. Placing an ad in the pages of a traditional newspaper has little to do with mounting an advertising campaign through social networks. Two different worlds, the real and the virtual, which translate into two very different ways of selling. Do you want to succeed in the 2.0 universe? Universities and private centers increasingly offer specific training. The recipes for success business digital.
"The universe online It has its own rules. For example, while in many traditional companies the need to control all information is defended, in the digital company the norm is that the more open everything is, the better. These are things that are learned as you get to know this world," explains Enrique Dans, bloggers, professor at the Instituto de Empresa and one of the most recognized Internet experts in Spain. "The problem is that most of the knowledge that is acquired when working on the Internet is informal. And when the time comes to make a business plan, it is not easy to apply it. Specific training teaches models, helps to frame knowledge to make them applicable to a company," reasons Dans.
More than half of the companies that have Internet in Spain have their own page websites and 11% of companies made sales through electronic commerce in 2008, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. Last week, the Spanish Association of Electronic Commerce (AECEM) presented a forecast study in which it assured that this type of transactions will grow by 56% this year. It is not strange that more and more universities and study centers adapt their postgraduate courses to online businesses.
"It is vital to generate layers of high-level professionals who carry out businesses online in Spain." This is how blunt Javier Rodríguez Zapatero, general director of Google Spain, is. "I have been a manager in real businesses and in virtual businesses. It is true that the principles are the same, but the tactics are very different," he comments. According to the director of the Internet giant, there is currently more demand for products online than professionals capable of developing them. "And that gap will be filled by foreign companies," he warns. It does not matter if the demand is in Spain and the supply in Japan, because on the Internet, Europe and Asia are one step away. click away.
This concern is what has led Javier Rodríguez Zapatero and other professionals in the sector to launch the Master in Internet Business (MIB). "It is the first master's degree in comprehensive Internet management," he boasts. This postgraduate program, promoted by the Higher Institute for Internet Development, will be taught starting in September at the Complutense University of Madrid. 400 hours of class and project taught and coordinated by Internet business professionals to train e-directives. From viability plans for the Network to how to position yourself in search engines. The manager of Google Spain, for example, will impart knowledge in this field. "The problem is that the Internet is a very new market, with very little teaching experience. That is why we look for the best active professionals," says Rodríguez. Ignacio Marinas, coordinator of the master's degree, also indicates that the contents are based on real cases and that 100 of the hours of the program will be dedicated to working on a real project, thanks to a company that has donated its knowledge and products.
Apart from this program, which promises comprehensive training in the digital world, there are other programs more focused on specific areas that also stand out. The IE Business School, for example, has been carrying out a master's degree on marketing online and another on telecommunications and digital business. They are 13-month long programs. In the first case, a good part of the subject is studied precisely online, something quite common in this type of training. "It is because it is better to train online. Previously, training like this was considered second quality. However, now there is no point in not using the Internet. Who trusts online to do business, knows the advantages it offers," explains Enrique Dans. "But be careful, as long as it involves training online quality. I'm not talking about those sites where they send agendas by email and that's it. I am referring to the master's degrees where, thanks to the Internet, there is more participation, deeper and more elaborate discussions, forums, multimedia work... ", she emphasizes.
Another common characteristic of the new master's degrees for Internet business is continuous change. "To teach in this field you have to have a daily and complex update of the contents. It is difficult, but at the same time very nice," says Carlos Delgado, deputy vice-rector for international relations at the Carlos III University of Madrid. In this center you can take part of a master's degree in computing focused on electronic commerce on the Internet, a program subsidized by the European Union with recognized prestige. Students who access this postgraduate course, whose teaching is in English, spend three months at a university in the United Kingdom, three in Greece and three at Carlos III. "There are more than 500 applications for 25 places. In Madrid, the term most focused on the technological part is taught," Delgado reviews.
Even journalism is different in the digital universe and that is why there are more and more specific courses in the area of communication. IPECC and the University of Alcalá carry out one of the journalism master's degrees online with more years of experience. "For the Internet, a different profile is needed," explains Álvaro Ordóñez, program director at IPECC. "In general, those who study these studies are already journalists. They have worked in the traditional media, and now they need recycling. On the Internet, the models are still changing, but those who are trained to understand these changes will be the most prepared to take them on," he says. .