Over on the Mulley Communications site I’ll be giving away my Online Marketing training documentation if 103 people leave comments on the post. Oh and there might be a free Online Marketing training course resulting from it too. The training material can be used for commercial and non-commerical activities too once Mulley Communications get attribution. We’re almost halfway there when it comes to comments.
Archive for the ‘business’ Category
Online Marketing Material
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
Online Business/Marketing style jobs, Cork and Dublin
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009A little clue about the future of business comes from two recent job adverts.
Boards.ie are looking for an Online Community Manager. Someone to look after and work with their 200,000ish community. As more people go online, this idea will not be so rare. I love this part of the spec:
We are looking for logical thinkers with the ability to facilitate community discussion with fairness and impartiality. This is a unique opportunity to work with the most fantastic web community in Ireland.
Then in Cork we have a company looking for an Online Retail Specialist:
Online Retail Specialist required for a large Cork based organisation
Reporting to the Online Project Manager, the successful candidate will play a key role in the delivery of a large scale online ecommerce solution. Role will involve working with the online team to shape the entire online proposition and support the delivery of the solution as well as creating the appropriate brand experience
Ideal candidate will have a recognized background in online marketing, in particular with brands with well established online trade as well as excellent commercial acumen, budgeting experience and knowledge of online design.
Email: poconnell@berkley.ie if you want more info.
Not such a leap forward
Monday, January 12th, 2009Keith pointed to a doc from the Irish Institute for European Affairs called The Next Leap. I barely agree with any of it. Too much blueskying and sound bites. Too much investing in talking shops and new industry bodies.
Some of the “key action points” from the report and my thoughts.
Commit the funding required to provide sufficient connectivity and equipment to bring Irish schools up to the OECD average, and exempt all school ICT equipment from VAT
Laptops in classrooms is a waste of resources. Laptops outside of school as a policy is needed. Laptops in schools should not be a stepping stone for this. The new whiteboards in schools are already gathering dust in many schools because the basics aren’t being done right. How many Irish speakers do we have because of Irish in school? Putting subjects in digital format does nothing extra. Though it’s a handy number for the sponsors of this report.
Kids need to be thought (ironic I know) taught how to teach themselves, how to discover, how to analyze, how to think. That’s what will get us our knowledge economy. Not HP laptops running Windows.
Support “niche exploration” groups to investigate possible areas of national expertise
Quango quango quango.
Introduce weighted marks at Leaving Certificate level for ICT relevant subjects
Extra points for maths and other subjects to corrupt the system in favour of IBEC like industries? That will get us more kids under pressure to do these subejcts and do honours. More time spent on these than the “easy” subjects. We’ll be in SAT country next instead of a holistic approach. Maths is not education. It will also get more grind schools making lots more money for Maths classes and the like and from it all they’ll do is teach the kids tricks on how to do well in the Leaving Cert, not educate them on the subject. It’s a dog training school that will come out of this.
Establish a Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) within DCENR
Cos they did so well with our broadband future. Why the hell should tax money be wasted on this?
Re-task RTE as an incubator & developer of media content irrespective of platform
Yes, cos we want the civil service to use even more of our tax money. Let the private sector do this.
Convene a taskforce to discuss an optimal national strategy to promote Ireland as a location for localisation services
Did Dell teach us anything? This is not high-level work. This is grunt work. It can be moved outside of Ireland quickly. Many of the tech companies are already doing so.
Can we get James to be an intern in Apple?
Thursday, January 8th, 2009(Spoon feeding Steve his vegan yoghurt or whatever interns do)
James Foley is a UL student who dreams about working for Apple. He asked me to help out to try and get him an internship in Cupertino next year. I’m sure there are some that read this blog that might know someone that knows someone. So can you help?
So as you know at this stage, U.L makes a big deal about sending it’s students on work placement during their degrees. Most people doing my course (Business) get placement with local firms, some even venture as far as Dublin in search for work. But I really want to make use of this opportunity, I want to work somewhere relevant to what I want to do after college. I want to work for Apple, and have made it my number one priority this year to get an internship there starting in January of 2010.
Why Apple? It’s a company I have a genuine passion for, every computer I’ve had since I was a child has been a mac and I think that working for a company where culture and design are held in such high regard would make the early mornings and late nights all that much easier. There are probably people out there that are more qualified than me, that know more about the software and silicon that make computers work, but I honestly don’t think anyone else wants this as much as I do. I want to learn how to make great computers, how to write great applications and to help innovate and turn really cool ideas into really cool products.
So, can we help the guy? Be nice to see Irish people work in the Valley and *cough* get us contacts.
Photo owned by BALLISTIK! (cc)
The assault on Blacknight’s coffers is working!
Thursday, January 8th, 2009I’ve heard that 13 people signed up to new hosting packages with Blacknight already thanks to that last blog post. Not bad in 24 hours. You have until midnight tonight to use the 25% off shared hosting voucher, the code is: mulley
You don’t need to be a blogger to avail. 25% off is a pretty damned fine discount.
Photo owned by ralmonline (cc)
Let’s bankrupt Blacknight – 25% off voucher for shared hosting
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009Ok maybe not but from today January 7th to January 9th, if you take out a new shared hosting package with Blacknight and use the voucher/code: mulley then you’ll get 25% off. Why not reblog and reTweet this and Facebook it and all the rest. Not a bad aul deal now in fairness.
Photo owned by wellohorld (cc)
Please note I get nothing out of this myself. Yes, I’m happy to do the same deal for other companies if I think it’s a worthwhile offer to the readers. If you want me to offer a discount to 1500 subscribers and another 1500 daily readers then it’s got to be worth the effort.
How you can help TeenCamp Ireland
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009TeenCamp Ireland is only around the corner (January 17th) and you can help out in a few ways. They’re looking to increase teens registering, they’re looking to have more teens do talks and they need sponsors for food, for the projector and AV and other bits and pieces.
So what can you do?
1. Spread the word. Maybe blog about it? Get them some press. Email some teenagers you think would like to go along. (You know those clever ones who will end up being your boss in about 9 years.) Anyone know those CTYI kids? Tell em. Add it as a note to Facebook. Send it out via your LinkedIn Network. You’re getting the idea now so I’ll stop.
2. Sponsor them or find them some sponsors.
3. Loan them a projector or AV somethings or others.
Let’s get the kids sharing with the kids and educating each other. Or else I’ll send you a special thank you card:
More pressies
Thursday, January 1st, 2009A phone and a big telly. Again from Santa Pat. Get entering the competition.
Ones to watch in 2009
Thursday, January 1st, 2009
Photo owned by timsepulveda (cc)
Ones to watch from 2008. 2007.
Pat Phelan
Third year in a row for Pat Phelan. The perennial one to watch, 2009 will not change that. Bigger and better year on year for man who is probably the hardest working man in Irish technology and the most generous with his time too. Some say he’s got a big head but his heart is much much bigger.
Niall Harbison
Chief spud peeler at iFoods.tv, he was on the Dragon’s Den earlier this year and held his own. A thoroughly nice and modest chap too. Prolific videographer and blogger. He makes a mean steak and a fantastic cheese sandwich. I’ve seen Niall on Twitter, on his blog and in his videos and the amount of work and the positivity that he brings with it is admirable. His energy gives you energy. Second chef on this list, probably tells you something about the character of chefs as much as entrepreneurs. Fred Wilson and other VCs talk about the founders of a company will always have an influence on it and iFoods.tv is going to be huge because of Niall and Seán alone. This is why VCs invest in people, not tech, not business plans.
John Peavoy
Networking god. Seeing John work a room is like watching an artist at work. Always the good word for people, always oozing positive encouragement to people and helping them make connections. Someone like that is always going to make an impact and John is just starting.
Paul Savage
Winner of the Geansai Gorm competition and asker of some very good questions at BarCamp Cork. We’ll ignore all the examples of good social media campaigns he named that nobody heard of though… Will he remain in Germany in 2009?
Sabrina Dent
Oi Dent, I want more than flowers for all these Blog and Web awards you’re winning. Sabrina is far from a designer or “just a designer”. She’ll get involved in what a company is doing or launching. She’ll ring her client up and bollock them out of it if they don’t blog enough or don’t convey their message properly. She’ll tell them using the words “honey” and “fucking” to sort their PR out or their business model. Sabrina Dent is an honest-to-goodness business makeover person and while she might not launch a product or specific service herself, her influence on dozens of businesses and startups means that her reach will go far in 2009.
Ciara Crossan
Ciara sprang up in 2008 at the various meetups in Cork and soon became a scene queen. Someone not at all afraid to get stuck in and approach anyone or everyone in a room. Ciara’s WeddingDates.ie service is great but the real value in the whole thing is Ciara who a hell of a lot of people should get lessons from when it comes to promotions and engaging with those strangers who become your customers and friends.
Darragh Doyle
His blog was born just after the 2008 Blog Awards and he roared out of them. Darragh is going to make a bigger impact in 2009 than he did in 2008. What’s this about a book/writing deal? 🙂 Darragh has covered more news items and the personal journeys of more people than most people in the media would do and he’s done it in a very natural and open way. I don’t think it’ll just be a Blog Award trophy or two in 2009 that will define his success either.
Robin Blandford and David Doran
Robin and David were already mentioned in an earlier post and are working on Decisions for Heroes. Decision For Heroes is going to be much much bigger in 2009. The big time for these lads is around the corner.
Brendan Hughes
Brendan has been working away in FBD for a while now and working hard with the No Nonsense brand online. He also chairs the IIA Social Media Working Group and does U.N. style work from time to time as well. This is a good guest blog post from Brendan. Brendan’s work with and influence on his employer on top of the advice given out by the IIA Social Media Working Group means when it comes to Marketing and PR online in Ireland in 2009, he’ll be a hub of influence. And besides all of that, Brendan is a genuinely decent guy wanting to do good, that philosophy means a hell of a lot.
Patrick Collison
We started with a Patrick, we end with one and another One to Watch from last year. Patrick and John Collison have already been well documented on this blog and Tommy is popping up more and more too. In 2009 John will be kicking ass in the Leaving Cert and fending off advances from the best colleges in the world so I think he’ll be slowed down from changing the world. Tommy will be doing that whole school thing and drumming in a jazz trio in his spare time so I think it’ll be Patrick who’ll once more make an impact in 2009. Dunno how but I have no doubt it’ll be useful and clever.
Who are your ones to watch?
Broadband in Ireland in 2009 – Could it get better?
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008Two things at the very end of 2008 could mean there is a little hope for better broadband conditions in Ireland come 2009.
Photo owned by andrewjstevens (cc)
First, many operators seem hopeful that when it comes to selling broadband products over copper, it will now be easier and cheaper. This is to do with new pricing models for Local Loop Unbundling that ComReg (the patentedly useless telecoms regulator) brought out forcing eircom to remove what could be classed as getting hello money for moving a customer from one broadband service to another (despite there also being a connection and even a cancelation fee). This means there is more of an incentive by operators to offer good products that compete with each other. This pricing change should have happened about 7 years ago. If those telcos weren’t such wimps when it comes to the regulator maybe this would have happened sooner but despite all the private moaning about ComReg, they’re all afraid to say something about them in public. People too comfortable in their fucking jobs. The attitude would be different if they owned their telcos.
Unlike IrelandOffline, who thankfully are back. A more independent, nothing-to-lose by telling the naked truth group has always been needed in Irish telecoms and it’s great to see a group of dedicated people restart IrelandOffline. There is a huge amount of work to do and a massive amount of issues to tackle but at least their is now an identifiable voice for the masses. Hopefully we’ll see them meet with Eamon Ryan sooner rather than later and despite all the shit I give the man here, he is always open to listening to people and groups about broadband. Maybe they’ll get him to do something too though.