Recently the Rising Digital team has grown. Five months since setting up camp we're now lucky enough to work with two account managers and two interns as junior account executives/researchers. Now when I got my first job, it was all about cuttings, binding and measuring ad values (not something everyone agrees with, but the clients seemed to like it). As time progressed, I was allowed on the phone and unless pitching, you could usually find me talking to one of the many attractive slightly older ladies... basically avoiding compiling media lists... :)
Right now things are different. Yes you need to be organised with your admin, speak to the media and know who the key players are, but to get a job in online public relations or just straight up digital marketing I'd say you need to be ready for so much more.
Here are my top five tips for all those budding communications students just desperate to get started in the digital world (in no particular order).
1. Get to grips with the WOMMA site: The stuff they preach is what we practice. I've believed in strong ethical methodology since my time with Stuart Bruce at Wolfstar, and regardless of what industry, these theories should apply to all marketeers. What's the point of trying to communicate if you don't know how to? For some people, especially with a sales background, you have no idea how hard it is to reinforce the importance of working a pull, not push strategy. Listen and learn, then enter the debate, don't just go in like a bull in a china shop self promoting yourself. It will NOT end positively!
2. Have a play; no-one expects you to be able to build the perfect blog, or compile the right info on a new Facebook page first time, but if you walked into my office and could integrate iLike, Twitter, and a blog into Facebook or MySpace... I'd think you were leagues ahead. Get onto wordpress, blogger or whatever platforms you like the look of and just give it a go. Get a feeling for what pages are, what posts are made up of, but most importantly, what the boundaries are to the different technologies. The same applies to new apps and progammes... things are developing at such a pace now... as digital marketeers we need to keep on top of it all as best we can.
3. Code; this is an interesting one. Should you be able to write pages of html or work in Flash? No, and if you could, I'd suggest reworking your CV and hitting the world of web-design... I hear there's quite a lot of cash to be made ;) However, should you be able to play with the CSS of blog banners so they fit right. Yes. You should also get to grips with basic e-flyer distribution code and the way things like Facebook FanBox's and other widgets can quickly be resized so as to fit into destination sites. Further down the line, learning podcasting (.rss or .xml feeds) will also help you out. Even if you don't get exactly how to do it, learning the mechanics is often half the battle.
4. Photoshop; again, start practicing. Here's a hypothetical one for you. You're client calls up and says he/she needs a quick basic one dimensional eflyer doing in a jpeg format. All they want is a image of the artist's logo and some written copy (given to you) putting on a 300 x 150 pixel flyer. Being able to help with the little things like this is invaluable to your clients. Sounds cheesy, but being the solution is worth its weight in gold.
5. Video editing; again, I must return to my original web 2.0 mentor who one day walked into the office, and slapped a brand new edition of Adobe Elements Premier on my desk. Little did he know I loved the concept of viral video editing. I spent about three days solid playing with clips, learning every little snippet and trick, before finally submitting my first video to YouTube on behalf on a software client. Never mind the fact it didn't work first time round, we got there in the end. Practice, play and practice, over and over again.
One of my very first account directors said that a PR agency person was a jack of all trades, but a master of non. I agree with the first bit of that, but I'd say if you can incorporate the above skills and theory into your knowledge base, you'll be a hell of an attractive option come job-hunting time.
"4. Photoshop; again, start practicing. Here's a hypothetical one for you. You're client calls up and says he/she needs a quick basic one dimensional eflyer doing in a jpeg format. All they want is a image of the artist's logo and some written copy (given to you) putting on a 300 x 150 pixel flyer. Being able to help with the little things like this is invaluable to your clients. Sounds cheesy, but being the solution is worth its weight in gold."
Do you ever think about how detrimental it can be to have someone doing design who has no idea about it (and I'm sorry but having photoshop and knowing how to use it doesn't make you a designer) could be to your artists brand?
Visual communication is such a big thing which I think you really miss the point on sometimes. You wouldn't let your office intern bang together a piece of music in Cubase in 5 minutes to play to 5,000 people, so why on earth would you let someone bang together an eflyer in 5 minutes on Photoshop that will get sent to 20,000 plus people?
People need to understand how important it is to remain clear and tidy in every element of communication, and visual communication is so important. Deadmau5 for me masters this, his branding is constantly spot on and well designed.
Posted by: John | Tuesday, 13 October 2009 at 10:32 PM
John, I couldn't agree with you more, both on your main points on visual communication and the Deadmau5 case study.
What I'm saying about all of this isn't about handing it down to the intern, or more junior member of staff as a fob off. Similar to how I would never in a million years ask anyone without 100% experience and back-ground knowledge to use a corporate twitter account, create a viral video or write and issue a press release... all of this could be potentially 'detrimental'... to both a client or your own company.
My point was and still is, that people who are now coming into digital marketing would do well to understand the above elements, at least to some degree. So, (taking your comment on design as an example) that should you need to meet with a professional designer, web or print, you have some grasp of what is being communicated during a brief. You can sit there and to some credible extent, hold your own, add valuable ideas and theories, to design, content and ultimately... what is being communicated... which is essentially what all this is about anyway :)
Posted by: Seb Mysko | Tuesday, 13 October 2009 at 11:28 PM