Digital Media News and Views
Welcome to the Digital Personnel Blog where you will find interesting articles and up-to-date news and views from one of the UK's leading providers of Digital Media recruitment solutions. Please feel free to interact with the site and add comments to stimulate discussion about all things digital. Digital Personnel is a proactive Digital Media talent provider, sourcing the very best talent from the UK and internationally for a highly demanding and innovative client base. The blog has been developed to provide greater awareness of our presence within the digital media space and provide a platform for our associates to correspond with us on key issues affecting and shaping the digital landscape.
Important Web Trends for 2010
August 9th, 2010
We are now in the eighth month of the year and it is a wonderful time to assess the latest Web trends. Top trends for this year include things like real-time Web, Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, and Structured Data. Of the latter, real-time Web and Mobile applications have proven very busy. The general movements of Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, and Data Structure have been a bit slower, but they are slowly evolving into mainstream use. When it comes to Data Structure, the movement can be attributed to the Semantic Web format utilised by large companies like Google, Facebook, and other large firms.
What about innovations not seen in mobile devices? For the year 2010, there are several new social network sites including Brightkite, Gowalla, and Foursquare. It appears at this time that Foursquare has taken the lead out of the three in terms of becoming the most popular in 2010.
As for real time web applications, Facebook and Twitter have continued to be the leaders this year. Of course, the most recent changes to privacy policy have caused some problems for the Facebook site, but it has done little to harm the site’s overall growth. In the meantime, Twitter remains a site that people use for keeping up with the most recent news, and keeping up with friends and associates.
Mobile applications are huge and will only get more popular as time passes. Just this past April, we witnessed the launching of the iPhone OS 4, the latest iPhone operating system and the system integrated long desired multitasking tools. The iPhone 4 release soon followed in the month of June coupled with a brand new, novel handset.
Meanwhile, looking to keep up with the “Jones’” Google released the Nexus One last January: a device that has been identified as a “super phone,” or an application where the Web meets phone, the Nexus One is going strong and sales continue to grow. Let us not forget the big introduction of the iPad by Apple in 2010 too; the launching of the device this past January was soon followed by a flood of novel apps and a new interest in a variety of digital-style magazines.
dp@digitalpersonnel.co.uk
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Digital Personnel 2 Years On
June 1st, 2010
Since forming Digital Personnel back in the Summer of 2008, it is fair to say that the British economy has been less than kind! Soon after our inception in June of that year the country dived head-first into recession and it soon dawned upon our hardy bunch of recruitment specialists that we couldn’t have picked a least appropriate time to start building our digital media recruitment empire!
However, our specialist market, the wonderfully innovative and at times unpredictable digital media arena, has fought against the constraints of these tight financial times and continued to show amazing growth throughout. Thankfully!
It has been a great pleasure to lead the recruitment strategy for many of the top interactive agencies and companies that appreciate the value of digital media on a global scale. We have also assisted great candidates by realising and in some cases exceeding their career aspirations – many of whom are now key decision makers within businesses that are furthering the appeal and interactivity of the internet.
As I write I have a pile of trade press stacked up in the corner of my desk, no doubt full of information and opinion on new marketing concepts that have again set a new standard in online campaign delivery. Is there any other industry that is as exciting as this right now?
Thanks to everyone associated with Digital Personnel for continuing to support us as we manage recruitment campaigns efficiently, appropriately and with the best interests of all at heart.
Our reach for candidates is unparalleled within the social media domain as we power one of the strongest UK based digital marketing groups on the LinkedIn platform. We maintain specialist connection lists on many business networking sites and have established loyal followings on social networking sites such as Twitter, Google Buzz and Facebook. Combine this with our unique database of candidates, access to live registrations from digital personnel on all the main job boards, an advertising policy that utilises targeted sites for each discipline and of course our own media – you can then see how no stone is left unturned when identifying the very best talent for our clients!
If anyone feels the time may be right to further their career we have an enormous amount of new opportunities available, particularly in Central London. Our current vacancies list can be viewed at http://bit.ly/5Xe9ev and you will find roles that cover all disciplines and levels from across the digital landscape. Please take some time to peruse these vacancies and be sure to pass the link onto colleagues and friends alike.
If you are hiring right now I have a link for you too! Upload your vacancy at http://bit.ly/9MTDX9 and a member of the Digital Personnel team will be in touch to flesh out the requirement by establishing a feel for your company, the opportunity, candidate attributes and the culture fit.
Happy Birthday Digital Personnel!
Ashley Seddon
ashley.seddon@digitalpersonnel.co.uk
Tags: acquisition, advertising, digital, marketing, media, online, personnel, recruitment, strategy, talent
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How to break into the Search Marketing Industry
May 17th, 2010
For quite some time now I have been involved with a number of high-profile Search Marketing Agencies and have had a great time recruiting at all levels within these businesses.
There are of course subtle differences between each but on the whole most have the same set of principles for candidates aiming to break into the industry and therefore learn from the very best talent available. This is the true beauty of the SEO / PPC Account Executive or Junior Analyst type role – it is an opportunity for someone to get paid for learning directly about Search and see an embryonic career start to flourish.
At the very heart of the need is a real passion for the industry, someone who is looking to push the boundaries and stay abreast of new developments in the search space. It is not always essential to offer a demonstrable track record of success at this level, more a desire to succeed and a technical familiarity.
These days it is imperative that you have a good degree, preferably a 2:1 or above and advantageous if it involves mathematics as numeracy and a head for figures is a great starting point.
Following university it would be beneficial to find a role that will involve at least an element of online marketing and if possible try to instigate involvement in an SEO or PPC campaign. You could also start by adding value to a social media project that will involve raising a clients profile via blogs, forums and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. If you can blog in your own time then that will also give you an edge over the competition.
Typically a junior member of an SEM team will be involved in research, analysis and creation of Paid Search campaigns. For SEO the role will comprise of data analysis, report writing and drafting presentations.
Client-facing staff will manage strategy and delivery of campaigns aswell as being a key driver for strategic change, meeting revenue targets, discovering new revenue opportunities and identifying up-sell opportunities. Establishing and maintaining strong client relationships take time and effort that will involve long hours in face to face meetings and strategy planning sessions back at base. This industry is not for the faint-hearted!
These sort of responsibilities will require candidates to offer a real passion for online marketing with good commercial awareness, excellent Excel skills, attention to detail, the ability to work to tight deadlines, familiarity with web analytics and the ability to draw conclusions from raw data. You will also be at ease presenting information to senior staff, be organised and have the ability to generate creative solutions.
You see these roles are much more than data analysis and keyword research!
At its core the Search Marketing arena is stacked with creative and inspirational talent so if this evolving and exciting industry feels right for you the opportunities are out there to grasp.
At the moment Digital Personnel have vacancies available at entry-level within the Paid and Natural Search arenas, visit our jobs page at the short link here http://bit.ly/5Xe9ev.
Ashley Seddon
ashley.seddon@digitalpersonnel.co.uk
Tags: advertising, digital, marketing, media, natural, online, organic, paid, ppc, search, seo
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Digital Personnel Group Tops 2000 Members
April 8th, 2010
The Digital Personnel Group crashed through the 2000 members barrier recently, proving again that our LinkedIn group really is the place to network openly with peers and explore new and effective ways to further revolutionise the digital media market.
Our Twitter list is continuing to be very popular, with 128 members now added. Users can follow the list at
http://twitter.com/DigitalRec/digitalpersonnelgroup
and can be added to the list by adding their username to the discussion thread within the group.
The “terms of use” for the group have been revised and these can be found in a featured discussion post. The close moderation of the group helps members to quickly access discussions, news and jobs so all users are asked to adhere to the usage guidelines.
At the time of writing there are over 40 positions being advertised on the Job board, opportunities in such exotic locations as Sydney, San Francisco, Dublin and Birmingham! We at Digital Personnel are working with some tremendous clients at the moment and would like to remind everyone that we are particularly keen to speak with Flash Developers / Designers with ad-serving systems experience – especially if you are based in London.
The subgroup, Publicise Your Event, although still in its infancy has more than 80 members and is starting to stimulate some interesting correspondence. Remember, if you wish to advertise a digital marketing themed event or are curious as to where and when the next great event is scheduled – this is the place to be.
Thanks to all member’s for making this group a pleasure to run, and please continue to message me with recruitment requests, availability for work and new ideas to further improve the group value.
If you are not a member please click on the LinkedIn icon on our homepage for further information.
Ashley Seddon
ashley.seddon@digitalpersonnel.co.uk
Tags: digital, group, linkedin, networking, personnel, social
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Publicise Your Event
March 16th, 2010
Publicise Your Event is the new subgroup available to members of the Digital Personnel Group on LinkedIn.
The Digital Personnel Group has evolved and grown significantly over the last 12 months and is now closing in on 2000 members. It was recently acknowledged by Online Marketing Jobs as one of the most popular UK marketing groups on the LinkedIn platform!
Due to the popularity of the group, a number of members have suggested various ways of utilising the subgroup facility. All great ideas but up until this point I had resisted as the fundamental objective of the Digital Personnel Group has always been to provide an open networking platform for people who share the same passion for digital media – to create new relationships between peers and offer a platform to discuss the evolution of the marketplace.
In addition to this, the underlying objective has been to provide members with a selection of fantastic new opportunities to further their careers by nurturing a live and relevant job board. Unquestionably these objectives have been achieved and the Digital Personnel Group has become a real hive of activity and a first-call for digital media professionals looking for a new challenge.
One area that I have found difficult to direct though has been the advertising of live events. Up until March 2010, the publicising of live events had been confined to the News section. Members can now get some real value by advertising their events on a platform dedicated to this purpose – the newly formed subgroup “Publicise Your Event”.
This subgroup provides a great facility to engage with fellow group members in discussion both before and after the events have taken place. My hope is that members who are involved with the provision and management of events (on or offline) can light up the discussion board and entice valuable critiques from other members who are keen to develop their skills and engage with new audiences.
This is a great new way of expanding your reach for potential visitors to your live events, digital forums, tweet-ups, seminars, webinars and any other form of gathering that has a digital media theme.
Since forming the Publicise Your Event subgroup on 12th March 2010, over 50 members have joined and the list is growing by the day!
To join and start publicising your events, please go to http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2855170/.
I hope to see you there soon!
Ashley Seddon
ashley.seddon@digitalpersonnel.co.uk
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