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From the Mash Field to Office Glory – Part 1

February 8th, 2011 By phil Filed Under: Interesting, Weird and Wonderful

Over the next few weeks, we are going to feature some real Mash Success Stories.

The spotlight turns to 5 Top Mashers who – after representing us brilliantly in the field on multiple campaigns – are now displaying their talents and skills here at Dylan Towers – either with us at Dylan London or with our Sister Company – Mash.

Each of our featured Mashers are fantastic evidence of where you can get with hard work, professionalism and no little fun…

Today’s featured Masher is the one and only Seb.

“Whilst at Uni I worked for Mash in the field. I started as a BA working on L’Oreal in-store delighting the females of the North with the fragrance of Ralph Lauren.. Throughout my time I worked on Armani, BlueSquare, Eat Natural, Cadburys, Lindt Chocolate, Ray Ban with the pinnacle of my Mash career running the Tic Tac campaign across the North East of England. The Orange van and Hawaiian shorts were a big hit!

(more…)

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HOW TO: Score a job through Facebook

November 1st, 2010 By julian Filed Under: Everyone

If you’re looking for a job, ask yourself if you’ve tapped every possible resource. Have you scoured Craigslist and made Monster your homepage? Have you set Google Alerts for every possible word combination that could land you a job? Have you checked Facebook? And I’m not talking about Facebook’s rather useless Marketplace.

While Facebook is better known for helping people lose their jobs, it’s largely an untapped resource when it comes to job hunting. With 500 million users, it has the potential to be one of the largest. But finding a job through Facebook isn’t about pestering your friends and junking up their news feeds with status updates like ‘Unemployed and Looking For Work — Help A Dude Out.’ It’s about making the most of your network in a positive way, not by being a nuisance.

By joining groups, keeping track of your friends’ updates and just keeping in touch with your network, you can turn Facebook into a site that does so much more for you than just keep tabs on your exes. Here are five ways to turn Facebook into another resource that can help you land a job. If you’ve scored a job through Facebook, we want to hear your story, so leave us some tips in the comments below.

1. Read Your News Feed

Amanda Flahive is known as the Diva of the Details at Sevans Strategy, a Chicago-based public relations and new media consultancy. She wears many hats in her job working with social media maven Sarah Evans. But Flahive landed the gig just from reading her Facebook feed.

Both Flahive and Evans attended the same college but were in different programs — while they knew of each other, they didn’t know each other well. About a year and a half ago, they were brought back together by a mutual friend’s wedding. Evans threw an engagement party, and the two reconnected. ‘At that time Sevans wasn’t in existence,’ says Flahive. ‘[Sarah] was still at her old position as the director of communications at a community college. We talked about what we were both doing, but the conversation wasn’t too serious. Sevans might have been something in the back of her brain at the time, but it wasn’t something we discussed that night.’

Since they were both going to be in the same wedding, they decided to keep in touch on Facebook, the way many old acquaintances re-connect.

‘I’m a person who pretty regularly reads my Facebook news feed. If it’s not something regarding Farmville or Mafia Wars, then I most likely read it,’ she says. ‘So I was reading through updates on a random day, and had been in one sales and marketing position, and moved to another, and I was OK, but wasn’t loving it.’

Flahive was keeping an eye out — looking on Monster, looking on Career Builder, but wasn’t really hitting anything.’Those sites are quite often so flooded with people that are looking for jobs, that it was my experience that you don’t get very far on those sites. I would send a resume in and either not have it go anywhere or in a direction that wasn’t right for me,’ she says.

So on a random day, Flahive saw that Evans had posted that she was looking for a three-quarter time assistant. ‘From the exact Facebook post: Live in Chicago and love details? Looking for someone to work about 30 hours a week, checking e-mail, booking travel etc. E-mail Jen (her then assistant) for more details.’

Flahive didn’t respond right away, but figured she had nothing to lose since she knew Evans on both a personal and professional level. Evans called her for an interview, and they had a good laugh about it. ‘I said, I can’t believe we are having this phone call, but if it weren’t for Facebook, we wouldn’t be having it.’

In fact, Evans didn’t post the job anywhere else other than Facebook and Twitter (also the method that Sevans uses to hire its interns). The two had a conversation about the position and Evans ultimately offered Flahive the job through a direct message on Facebook.

‘It’s not what I expected to get out of Facebook,’ says Flahive who says it’s typically used to catch up with friends and look at baby photos. ‘I never thought I’d get a job out of it. But now that I have, it makes all the sense in the world. And what’s more, my job got a whole lot bigger after I accepted via Facebook. Now it’s full time, I’m doing development and marketing; it led to a much bigger job.’

2. Get Active in a Group

Web developer Enrico Bianco works at Post Rank but found his previous job creating web applications for the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, just by joining a Facebook group.

Bianco was in the middle of job search, looking to switch gears. At the time, he’d been doing mostly Java enterprise development and wanted to get into Ruby on Rails instead. ‘I started doing rather vigorous networking, and other job searching stuff. I used to answer posts on Craigslist, go to professional networking events for social media and Ruby on Rails.’ On a whim, he says, he found a Facebook group for the Toronto Ruby on Rails community and left a message in the discussion board saying that he had something to offer, if anyone was looking for someone to do some Ruby on Rails development.

Lo and behold, he got a message back from the systems manager at CSIC, who asked for his resume, which in turn lead to an interview, and Bianco landed the job. “So it was really, very much a fluke, but a fortunate one,” he says. “She ended up telling me later that one of the key reasons she hired me was that she saw I was active in the community, and that I was engaging with others on the Internet.”

But Bianco casts it off as a fluke, and he admits it cost him nothing to do. “I wouldn’t use it as a primary tool for job searching, but at the time I was willing to use any resource I could.”

3. “Like” or “Friend” Companies You Want to Work For

Sandra Aaron is a Toronto-based event planner who was looking to expand her knowledge of the destination wedding scene, but she found it a difficult prospect. “It’s really hard to properly plan destination weddings without full knowledge of the travel industry,” she writes via e-mail. “So I decided I wanted to find a side job with a travel agency.”

Aaron spoke with many companies in her search to break into the industry, but the one company she really wanted to align herself with was difficult to get into, as their average new hire had 20 years of experience in the travel industry — something Aaron didn’t have.

Aaron says she spent a few months trying to find her way in, asking everyone she knew if they knew anyone with the company. Then one day, she saw a status update from the company’s Facebook Page that they were seeking experienced travel advisers. “With nothing to lose I commented, asking if they ever hired destination wedding planners. A couple of weeks later their marketing guy sent me a note on Facebook, saying he would be happy to pass on my resume to the right person.” Aaron’s resume ended up in the hands of the general manager who was so impressed with it, that within a few weeks, Aaron scored an interview.

Today, she’s an independent contractor for the company. She works from their offices, and says it’s a great situation. “I have access to their resources, and their staff has access to my knowledge and resources within the wedding industry. I would have never gotten the meeting if it weren’t for Facebook.”

4. Participate in a Contest

Andrew Miller scored his internship at Fast Horse, a Minneapolis marketing firm through a contest on Facebook. The company announced that its newest intern would be the candidate who could gain the most “Likes” in a week. Miller was tipped off to the contest by a college professor and quickly went to work on his campaign.

“I tried to tap into every single social network I had ever been a part of,” he said. “And just send out messages that said, hey if you have a few minutes can you help me win this dream internship? All it takes is liking my Page.”

Miller says he didn’t even start out with the most Facebook friends, but he was able to mobilize people by giving them simple directions to vote. That strategy won him 725 “Likes” and the internship.

“Having to market myself in this process has helped me in thinking about how to market actual products. The mobilization that I was able to accomplish is something I do all the time now, contacting blogs and newspapers, trying to get them to run stories,” he said.

Miller, who moved 1,700 miles from Portland, has completed his three month internship and it was extended another three months, which he says is a typical track to full-employment.

“If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that social media can be such a powerful tool for establishing those relationships. There is something so hollow about submitting your standard application, resume and cover letter. With this I was able to be in communication with the decision makers and be sure this was going to be a good fit for me. I would absolutely use social media again to engage with those decision makers.”

5. Start a Dialogue

Fast Horse, the company that hired Andrew Miller as an intern, is a big believer in the Facebook hiring process, according to its creative director and founder Jorg Pierach.

When Fast Horse launched its Facebook Page, it didn’t want the campaign to just be a megaphone for the work they were doing, but rather they wanted to use it as a place to interact with job candidates, sort of a digital informational interview, says Pierach. The company directs job seekers to its Facebook Page so its employees have a place to share information about the company, their culture and what they do.

“So instead of a resume disappearing into a file somewhere, we have a way to keep in touch, and the Fast Horse experience is the way to do that,” he said. “We started this about a year and half ago and we’ve hired about four or five people this way. They started a dialogue, and when a position opened up we already had a good idea of what that [person] was about.”

Pierach says that the intern search was about more than just finding candidates; it was a way to assess them as well, so the candidates could show off their marketing chops. The company asked for video introductions and interviewed 15 candidates before narrowing it down to three finalists who competed for the most “Likes.”

“In a sense it wasn’t about hiring one candidate, but seeing three strong people and their talents. As our needs continue to grow, we know that there are people out there that we liked. It’s about talent cultivation and about them showing us what they can do. But ultimately [it's] about keeping in touch with really talented people.”

Pierach looks at it as a different kind of interview — one that requires people to take the initiative to weigh in with their own thoughts. It’s also a method that saves the company a lot of time when looking to fill a spot. “We have a pre-qualified group of people we can turn to very quickly,” he said, noting that the company saves itself from having to post on job boards and slug through cover letters. They can bring in candidates they know are going to rise to the top, because they have been watching each other on Facebook.

“We recently had a new opportunity that was a very, very quick turn around. We needed a designer the next day. We turned to our Facebook Page and within a couple of hours we had six or seven people who raised their hands, all people we knew, to say they were available. We were able to get them in the next day and keep moving.”

In the future, you can expect to see more companies looking at the hiring process this way, and Pierach suggests that people coming out of college would do well to be aggressive in identifying the companies they want to work with and start the dialogue.

Source: Mashable.com

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10 tips for aspiring Digital Marketers

October 13th, 2010 By seb Filed Under: Candidates, Interesting, Weird and Wonderful, Uncategorized

Digital marketing budgets are expected to increase steadily during the next few years, according to Datran Media’s Annual Marketing & Media Survey, which reaches out to more than 5,000 marketing executives from Fortune 500 brands, top publishers, and leading advertising and media agencies.

This is good news for those of you hoping to break into the digital marketing industry. Whether you’re passionate about search, affiliate, social media, or another area of marketing, there are a few things you can do to prove your worthiness to prospective employers.

We asked five industry insiders about their top tips for aspiring digital marketers. Find their suggestions below and add your own in the comments.

1. Get Hands-On Marketing Experience

A degree in marketing or communications can take you a distance, but most employers are looking for candidates with marketing experience, whether that’s from a previous job, internship or side project. If you already have work experience in the marketing world, congratulations. For the rest of you, internships or other projects will be key.

“Any hands-on involvement with campaign creation, analytics, or optimization can be extremely beneficial to aspiring digital marketers,” says Traci Kuiphoff, online marketing manager at BareNecessities.com. “If you’re in school or a recent grad, the best way to gain experience is to do an internship at a company or agency that has a department or focus in online or digital marketing. Not only do you get real world hands-on experience, but it’s also great to put on your resume when you’re ready for a full-time position.”

If you are in college, look for paid or for-school-credit marketing internships at your college’s job fairs, via job search sites, and on social media sites. You could even land your next gig through Twitter.

If you don’t land an internship or find a position of interest, create your own project or enter a marketing contest. While studying marketing and international business at NYU Stern’s Undergraduate School of Business, a classmate and I entered the John Caples Student Campaign of the Year contest and created a digital marketing campaign for Pentel. Our campaign included a mix of digital, social and direct marketing communications, along with thoroughly gathered success metrics. Not only did we win first place, which included summer internships and a cash prize, but we also met industry experts who have acted as mentors to us.

2. Know the Lingo

Being able to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what worked or didn’t is the key role of a digital marketer — in order to do that, you’ll need to know (and love) the industry jargon.

“Understanding metrics on the web is key,” says Naishi Zhang, assistant marketing manager at Barnes & Noble. “The Internet provides so many ways of analyzing user behavior, and knowing how to gather and interpret data is important for success. Read widely and learn the lingo, so when someone asks about the CTR of a banner ad or the number of page views a landing page received, you’ll be ready.”

Mastering marketing terminology and metrics, and knowing what they mean, will take time and practice, but you can get a basic knowledge by picking up a marketing 101 textbook or attending an introductory course. Check out local college or continuing education courses. If that isn’t an option, the Internet is at your disposal. About.com’s glossary of marketing terms and HubSpot’s glossary of social media marketing terms are both very useful for beginners, and you should also read some of the top marketing blogs to get your daily fill of information.

3. Nurture Your Personal Online Presence

Rick Bakas, director of social media marketing at St. Supéry Vineyards and Winery said he believes a person’s online presence can be a major deciding factor on whether an aspiring digital marketer makes the cut for a job. “If an employer is deciding between two candidates,” he notes, “they might go with the person with the strong following online. Build your personal brand online. You have to show you can build your personal brand if you’re going to build someone else’s.”

Your personal brand is value-added in the job market.

“Your online clout is sometimes referred to as ’social currency,’” he continues. “In other words, there’s a value associated with your online personal brand. Increased value carries as much weight as a great resume. A high Klout.com score for example, will help you stand out and validate what your resume says about you.”

Your Klout score is a number between 0 and 100 that measures the size of your engaged audience, the likelihood that they will amplify your messages, and your overall influence within your network. Bigger isn’t always better. Bakas explains, “Aspiring marketers would do well to grow an engaged online following, not necessarily a large online following. Again, Klout.com is a great tool to evaluate the strength of your online presence.”

4. Dabble in Everything, Specialize in Something

There isn’t just one career path in marketing. You can choose to work for an agency, with an in-house team, or start your own firm. There are multiple marketing disciplines, including affiliate, search, social media, e-mail, mobile, and display marketing, to name a few. Teams come in all sizes — some in which teammates specialize in certain areas, and others where a team can be composed of just one stellar know-it-all.

The best way to get a taste of all of the options is to dabble in a bit of everything. “Digital marketing agency experience can be extremely valuable — at an agency you can be exposed to all avenues of digital marketing from paid search, social media, mobile and everything in between,” Kuiphoff advises. ”Most likely, you’ll touch a number of different accounts which can help you choose a vertical focus or specialty.”

Once you have a base knowledge in each area of marketing, you’ll be better equipped to choose a more specific path of focus. Having a specialty enables you to hone your skills in that area and become an expert, which is a valuable asset to potential employees.

5. Attend Industry Meetups and Conferences

“Put the ’social’ in social media and spend time engaging with people in the real world,” Bakas says. “Go to lots of events to create or nurture quality interactions that can later continue online. Use plancast.com to see which upcoming events are worth going to. These experiences are ripe with opportunities to meet other digital marketers. The strongest relationships are the ones nurtured online and offline.”

Kuiphoff adds, “Digital marketing conferences not only provide a great networking opportunity, but most offer in-depth workshops that can enhance your skill set.”

Some worthwhile conferences to consider include SXSW, Search Marketing Expo, Web 2.0 Expo, Ad Age Digital Conference, ad:tech, Search Engine Strategies and Pivot.

If you’re not into the hustle and bustle of industry conferences, you can consider a more toned-down approach by attending or organizing your own Meetups. There are thousands of marketing Meetups around the world. The NY Entrepreneurs Business Network and San Francisco Entrepreneur Meetup are two of the largest.

6. Keep a Pulse on the News

Because of the nature of the Internet, digital marketing is ever-changing. If you don’t keep up with the latest trends and news, it shows in interviews and on the job. Sarah Hofstetter, SVP of emerging media and client strategy at digital marketing agency 360i, says it well:

“Remember that standing still is going backwards. Yes, it’s an adage that has been used for years to inspire ambition, but it is blatantly obvious in the digital landscape. Not only does that technology evolve at a lightening pace that transcends Moore’s law, but consumer behavior is shifting at a radical pace, and media consumption becomes more and more fragmented.

“Being on top of consumer behavior –- understanding what they’re doing online, what motivates them and their social and mobile behavior –- and staying ahead of that by learning what’s in the market and what’s on the come, will help ensure you don’t get stuck on the sidelines when interviewing for jobs in digital marketing.”

Kuiphoff recommends subscribing to industry blogs and newsletters to stay on top of the latest news. Some of my personal favorites include Ad Age, ClickZ, eMarketer, BrandWeek and AdWeek.

7. Get Technical

You won’t be coding programs or building full websites as a digital marketer, but you will need to work with developers and designers or other web specialists to communicate your marketing design needs. A basic knowledge of how the web works, HTML, and one or two programming languages, such as PHP, JavaScript, CSS and Ruby, will help you understand the current boundaries and opportunities that will affect your marketing campaigns.

“It’s important for anyone working in the digital world, whether it’s marketing or designing features for a product, to have a basic understanding of coding,” suggests Dharmishta Rood, a research assistant at Harvard Business School and fellow at the Center for Future Civic Media at MIT. “There are great experiential benefits from understanding the underlying technologies that shape what we do online — it’s easier to understand how users can interact with content, what is possible for design with things like CSS and JavaScript, and understand the nuances of basic technical terminology.”

8. Perfect Your Resume

Everyone needs a resume; what you do with it is up to you. To help you stand out, here are a few tips from our digital marketing experts:

“Demonstrate that you can produce results and work in a fast-paced environment, whether you’ve had previous digital experience or not. Don’t be afraid to include things about yourself that may not be directly related to the job. Resumes get scanned quickly, so it always helps to inject something creative and clever.” — Naishi Zhang, assistant marketing manager, Barnes & Noble

“One way you can make your resume stand out is to get certified. Google has a certification program for Adwords. If you have a paid search marketing focus this can help assure a client/employer that you’re proficient in the system.” — Traci Kuiphoff, online marketing manager, BareNecessities.com

“I’m a big believer in making sure your resume is on LinkedIn, and to have recommendations on LinkedIn. Start asking for recommendations soon. LinkedIn is like your digital resume. Make sure the facts match up. Also, Google your name to see what comes up — your prospective employers will.” — Rick Bakas, director of social media marketing, St. Supéry Vineyards and Winery

“Use keywords to describe your previous experience that make sense for the specific job you’re applying for — if the job description or department does ’social media outreach’ and your description of all those Twitter @replies, Facebook messages and moderated blog post comments is currently called ‘customer service,’ this does not play up your strengths as a digital marketer. Use common sense though. If their keywords don’t match your experience, don’t write anything untruthful, and consider doing things to get the types of experience for the jobs you want, such as volunteering to help with the social media of a non-profit whose cause you support.” — Dharmishta Rood, research assistant, Harvard Business School

To showcase your skills alongside multimedia and other online assets, check out some digital alternatives to the paper resume, including video resumes, VisualCVs, social resumes and LinkedIn profiles.

9. Let Curiosity and Passion Drive You

“Sure, it’s great to know about Facebook, iAds and whatever is coming next from Silicon Valley,” Hofstetter points out, “but when we’re looking for key talent at 360i, nothing matters to us more than intellectual curiosity and passion…In a business where answers and solutions aren’t always obvious, you need to be innately curious (about everything) and obsessed with the ‘why’ behind the ‘what.’ ”

It may sound cheesy at first, but she has a point. Without inquisitiveness and zeal, we’re just work drones on a mission to take over the Internet. Plus, these traits have a positive effect on the way we work, Hofstetter says:

“People who have these qualities can innovate and identify trends from seemingly ordinary data — they’re the first to try new things (platforms, tools, technology) and think about how marketers can benefit from them. They don’t always have the answers, but when you’re being asked to do never-been-done-before things, there isn’t a rulebook. That’s why when we’re recruiting, we look for people who know how to ask the right questions.

10. Unplug for Your Sanity

Staring at a computer screen all day long can take a toll on your body, mind and social life. Get away from that monitor and breathe for crying out loud!

Bakas advocates getting out every once in a while to work on who you are as a person outside of work. “Because transparency is important, it’s important to be a good person in the real world,” he says. “It’ll translate into the digital world — you can’t fake being a good person if you’re a jerk in real life. Unplug for your own sanity, but also to continue growing as a person in life.”

I second that. Now, get out of here and get a job.

Source: Mashable.com

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Work experience central, say students

July 16th, 2010 By Sarah Filed Under: Everyone

Fri, 16 Jul 2010

Work experience is critical to standing out in the crowds, according to a survey by Vodafone.

The survey shows that 69% use work experience to help their job applications, while 34% take up volunteering to enhance their CV and increase their chances of a getting a job.

Almost half (45%) of students say the marketplace is becoming even more crowded, citing the huge growth in graduates is the main obstacle to getting a foot on the career ladder.

“Volunteering and work experience have become critical assets which young people today can use to enhance their attraction to employers,” said Vodafone UK graduate manager, Nicola Fitzgerald.

“Over 3,000 people applied for our 2010 graduate programme which offered 50 places. It was those people who communicated how their life experiences and personal interests added value to their academic successes who shone through both in their CVs and interviews.”

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CIPD calls for ‘training wage’

June 28th, 2010 By phil Filed Under: Candidates, Employers

An introduction of a £2.50 an hour ‘training wage’ is being called for by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development on the day that internship schemes for recently graduated students begin across the country.

With CIPD research showing that over a third (37%) of internships are currently unpaid, a policy paper entitled Internships: To Pay or not To Pay? proposes that all interns are paid a guaranteed minimum wage.

It argues that a new ‘training wage’ would help reflect the contribution that an intern is likely to make to an organisation, as well as promote social mobility through encouraging people from poorer backgrounds to apply.

The proposed training wage of £2.50 an hour – which is the current minimum rate of pay for apprentices – would be introduced under the plans, to cover all interns and apprentices regardless of their occupation or industry sector.

Any position that is advertised as an internship would automatically trigger a legal obligation on the part of the employer to pay at least the training wage throughout the entire duration of the internship.

Tom Richmond, skills adviser at the CIPD, says: “The continued existence of a major loophole in the national minimum wage legislation has created a lot of confusion and concern around the issue of whether interns should be paid or not. We believe that the introduction of this training wage would reflect the contribution that interns make to their organisations.”

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Graduate vacancies are set to increase this year!

January 13th, 2010 By Ant Filed Under: Uncategorized

Graduate vacancies are set to increase this year. However, 2010′s graduates will face stiff competition from their 2009 counterparts, according to new research from market research firm High Fliers.

The research shows that:

Firms expect to recruit 11.8% more graduates this year than in 2009.

Half of employers are in the process of stepping up 2010 graduate recruitment targets.

More than 40% of graduate applications have come from 2009 graduates as opposed the current undergraduates
the average graduate starting salary of £27,000 is expected to remain unchanged.

Managing director of High Fliers Research, Martin Birchall, says: “After two years of swinging cuts in graduate recruitment, it’s very encouraging that Britain’s best-known and most sought-after employers are stepping up their entry-level vacancies for 2010.

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The Dylan Blog

From the Mash Field to Office Glory – Part 1

HOW TO: Score a job through Facebook

10 tips for aspiring Digital Marketers

Graduates and recruiters urged to get more social media savvy

Work experience central, say students

CIPD calls for ‘training wage’

Graduate vacancies are set to increase this year!