Florida Will Train Students in Cybersecurity and IT: Why This is Good News for Local Businesses

In today’s digital world, a business’ online presence can either make or break them. For Floridian businesses, hiring qualified cybersecurity and IT experts is about to get a whole lot easier.

Governor Ron DeSantis and Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz recently announced that $15.6 million would be funding projects to train students in cybersecurity and information technology – meaning that once these students graduate, the state will be ripe with IT savvy candidates.

After a rough few years of recovering from the pandemic, these skills are just what entrepreneurs trying to rebrand themselves to boost sales need. The market has changed, requiring especially small business owners to put way more effort into building and maintaining their online presence than previously.

But since this isn’t exactly most owners’ expertise, hiring a specialist will in most cases be well worth the investment. Read on to find out why you should consider upping your business’ IT game as soon as you can afford to hire an extra person.

Businesses need help with cybersecurity

Are you a small business owner, and is the risk of being cyberattacked not something you worry about? If so, you’re not alone – but unless you’re a tech genius yourself, you definitely should be worried. In the most recent CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey, most businesses weren’t nearly as concerned with the increased risk of cyberattacks in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as their customers were.

According to the survey, many customers are less likely to choose businesses that have been hacked in the past. So, should your business be the victim of a cyberattack, you don’t just risk losing data and accounts. You also risk losing credibility and returning customers.

Thus, we can only stress the importance of strengthening passwords, backing up files, installing antivirus software, etc. – and, ideally, paying a specialist to make sure your cybersecurity is always up-to-date.

Digital marketing expertise boosts sales

Besides increased cybersecurity, there are of course many other advantages of having a digital native on board. For instance, the most effective place in which to increase your marketing efforts is, by far, the online space. And if anyone knows what works there, it’s a recent graduate who has navigated social media and webshops their entire lives.

They will, for example, know the value of investing time and effort into SEO to land a nice spot on the target audience’s Google searches. And, if they don’t have the resources to do it themselves, they’ll know how to find a quality company that’ll help for a fair price.

For instance, We Digitize – a Danish SEO company focused on link building – provides a wide range of digital services and only accepts tasks if they’re confident they can provide enough value. Link building and SEO optimization are effective ways to reach more potential customers on search engines – as long as you understand your target audience’s online habits and know what to ask for.

Customers choose relevance, coherence and participation

Your brand’s online presence has to outperform your competition in certain areas to make customers choose you – something a digital specialist will make sure you’re prioritizing. According to Tjaco Walvis, author of “Branding with Brains: The science of getting customers to choose your company”, three criteria can either make or break your brand: relevance, coherence and participation.

First off, your brand should be fulfilling a specific need that is highly relevant to the target groups’ lives. Whatever this is should be abundantly clear as soon as customers see your SoMe content and enter your website – making them realize that they need what you’re providing.

Secondly, you should be maintaining a common thread in all of your marketing efforts in order to remain recognizable to customers. And lastly, the more you can interact with customers and have them participate in e.g. campaigns, the more likely they are to remember you fondly.

All in all, a lot can be done to boost your cybersecurity and digital presence – so much that hiring an IT specialist will be more than worth your money.

Similar Stories