With that in mind, finally the timing worked in my favour to actually participate in Startup Weekend. My role was that of a mentor,  helping to guide newly formed startups through the journey of bringing their idea to life over a weekend.

For those that are considering attending, just do it, you will undoubtedly benefit from the experience. Here are 4 areas that will help you get the most out of the weekend.

1. Pitch Clearly & Loudly

This seems obvious, but there are a number of times you may end up communicating your idea on stage to others. The key one being the initial pitch with lots of others, half the attendees may end up pitching their idea to gain votes on the opening night. Great ideas can get lost purely because they can’t be heard. Hold the mic to your chin and speak outwards. Simple advice but it will help your idea be understood.

If your idea garners enough votes, you will then pitch quickly again, but this time requesting team members. Again speak clearly about what skill-sets you compliment your idea. Finally you will pitch on the big stage at the end of the event. This time you are showcasing how your idea has come to life. Having practised your pitch numerous times, you will communicate clearly and loudly to a wider audience for whom this may be the first time they’ve heard your idea.

2. Organise & Plan for Focus 

Having assembled your team, take the time to get to know one another. What their background is, where their interests lie, what role they can play in the team. This will give you a better sense of what can realistically be achieved. Ideally you want to demo something, and understanding what can be built within that short time span is important. In order to being that idea to MVP, you will need validation from potential customers – getting that insight back to the team to agree on what direction, features and product development.

The trick here is that you may need to work on overlapping areas at the same time, communicating regularly with your team makes this easier. This can be in the form of regular standup meetings or similar to keep focus something. A good idea is to start developing your slide deck early, even using that as the basis to keep notes. You will have a maximum of 5 minutes to pitch, so developing this early and keeping it focused will increase your chance of winning. You will want to familiarise yourself with Ed from Clearpreso advise on pitching.

3. Make Connections

There are a wide range of clever people throughout the weekend, make it your business to introduce yourself. Their network can become your network, and that could include established startups, VC’s, sources of funding, incubation managers, talent spotters and other influential people.

Personally I met with a range of clever folk who I would love the opportunity to work with at some stage. It sounds strange, but expanding your network outside of people similar to yourself is probably the greatest aspect to Startup Weekend and many previous attendees have commented on how this has been a rewarding experience for them.

4. Pushing Your Comfort Zone

A common theme over the weekend was the perspective changing aspect it brought to many attendees, especially those who have that startup itch but are working in a different capacity right now. There are so many amazing aspects to pushing your comfort zone a little that you feel massively empowered by that change and the opportunity that presents.

Going a little outside your comfort zone, you will find that it wasn’t such a big deal in the first place. Just by attending your are pushing yourself, but you can go further – do things you normally wouldn’t.

The Next One?

As a first timer, I was massively impressed with the whole weekend. The organisation to make such a large event run so smoothly is down to the incredible hard work from the team, sponsors and volunteers.

You can find out more information about Startup Weekend Dublin here as well as lots of photos here and here.

Photo credit: Day In Life of Storytelling Photography

I even get asked that question from students already on a course, as they look to further develop their knowledge.

Over the past few years I’ve delivered digital marketing courses for colleges, professional institutes and training companies. I have found one common factor across all of courses – At least 1/3 of the class are in the wrong course and are most likely wasting their time and money enrolling in a course which isn’t what they need. This is not always a fault of the provider, but is  down to the competitive nature of offering commercial courses and training, as well as the confusion around what the course actually offers students.

This is why it’s hard to recommend one course, and the reason why you will get mixed feedback from students across every Digital Marketing course. It’s difficult to recommend something when the specific requirements of the students are unclear.

As a disclaimer, I have delivered lecturing and/or training with the following: National College of Ireland, Digital Marketing Institute, Sureskills, Mulley Comms, and through my own consultancy – Handmade Marketing.

To explain this why it’s difficult to recommend a single course, let me breakdown the different types of courses available.

1) Third Level Colleges

Initially slower to adapt to the needs of students, possibly due to the nature of academic curriculum creation and approval – Almost all third level colleges will have a Digital Marketing course – in either full-time or part time flavours. Typically the courses are accredited at either Level 7 or 8 or in some cases Level 9 on the National Framework of Qualifications.

If you’ve studied at undergraduate level in Irish colleges, you’ll be familiar with the standard of learning outcomes and course structure. Having recently lectured in Measurement & Project Management at NCI, from my side this allows me to create in-depth content within a clear academic structure over a 13 week period. It also allows me to develop a students knowledge over the full semester. In my module, I covered roughly 30 hours worth of practical measurement and analytics material which is the equivalent of 10 classes worth.

There are a wide range of courses available from all colleges, I would advise researching each and determining which is the best fit for you.

2) Professional Training Companies

These courses certainly have a place within the industry, and I’ve always enjoyed delivering them – they are however very different in nature from the third level courses above.

Much more commercially aware than colleges initially, professional training companies such as the Digital Marketing Institute, Sureskills, and Irish Times generally offer a range of courses from introductory to advanced levels.

An introductory course (often called a Diploma/Certificate or similar) will last around 10 weeks (previously 13 weeks) and cover one topic at a basic level each week with a different lecturer. By choosing this course, you most likely need to enrol on a more advanced course for further develop your knowledge.

It is worth noting that this courses are rarely accredited on the NFQ but may have their own industry accreditation. Some may have also have level 5 accreditation which is the same level as the Leaving Cert.

3) Bespoke Training

A more recent emergence has been the delivery of tailored training to businesses and individuals, typically as single modules or workshop style sessions. There are a wide range of providers as both the professional training companies above, and also individuals offer training – some more locally around Ireland. A good example of these course would be Mulley Courses, where specific areas are delivered to those who are working in the industry in small sized groups. Typically the topics offered will be in-depth and tailored to the audience and share up to date practical knowledge. An example here would taking a specific area such as Social Media Advertising, or Advanced Analytics and going very deep into the subject with a focus on practical learning.

A Note on Lecturer Quality

Choosing a course is one factor but another is the delivery of the content and how it is created. Almost all courses are now swayed towards practical learning – therefore lecturers may have practical experience and may also currently work within the industry. With professional and corporate training courses – all lecturers will be practitioners, while colleges may still use full time academics. There’s nothing wrong with either approach, and works well based on the delivery and structure of the course. I always advise speaking to the lecturer or at the very least – researching their background beforehand.

Choosing The Right Course

I mentioned that in my experience at least 30% of students are in the wrong course, this is down to the difficulty in understanding what exactly a course offers from the three different groups above, but also students not fully understanding what they want to achieve. I would break these down into three groups.

1) Making a Career Change into Digital Marketing

Typically you’ll have worked for a number of years in another discipline and are actively seeking to change careers to Digital Marketing. You may be working in a totally unrelated field, or have an interest in Digital due to some experience and  you’re in it for the long run, I would recommend choosing a third level course that is accredited and contains a sizeable amount of practical work. If you don’t have marketing experience, each course will typically offer a bridging module to help with the basics of marketing – also helpful as a refresher for those already working in marketing.

2) Need Practical Knowledge Quickly

You may be working for yourself, or your role now involves digital marketing, or you need to bulk up your CV – You need as much practical knowledge as possible, and in a short space of time. You should look at courses which are completed quickly, typically only one semester long. Typically these will be offered from Professional Training Companies or Corporate Training, who will offer an entry level course which covers the basics of Digital Marketing, it may also be offered in a Bootcamp style of one week. Either way you are going to receive a large amount of information in a short space of time, the onus is on yourself to utilise this and supplement with additional learning. These are intensive courses which give good coverage of the fundamentals, but won’t go into any depth on each topic.

3) Already working in Marketing

If you are already working in marketing, and possibly already experienced in some areas of Digital already, I would recommend a combination of two things. The first is 1) Part time study at Degree level or greater, and 2) Supplement with specific training courses. The reason I recommend this is the third level course will equip you with the marketing theory to develop a strategy, and the specific courses will develop your ability with tactics and tools.

Why Is It Difficult To Recommend A Course?

It’s the perfect storm: Lack of digital skills + increase of digital jobs = Goldrush for digital marketing courses

So everyone is offering digital courses, colleges with no previous marketing strands, companies with no accreditation and others offering training with little expertise. This makes it difficult to recommend any one course – and I hope my insight above helps others choose the right course for them.

If you are a recent graduate from a digital marketing course, or contemplating selecting one – I’d love to hear your feedback below or on twitter @barryhand.

Previously, and probably the cases in most companies – Services and applications are decided upon and they become the de facto tools everyone uses. Oh you’re new, we’ll just get you set-up on Dropbox / Asana / Trello – it’s what we use here. Uh huh.

Here are seven consulting applications I’ve used to speed up my workflow.

Generally, there’s only two big decisions that need to be made. Email and Storage.

I’ve pretty much tried most variants of these so had a good idea going in what I wanted to use – but it didn’t turn out that way. Here’s my stack (no, I’m not comfortable using that term either). Anyway…

1. Google Apps

I use Gmail as the email provider, but rarely if ever use the Gmail app / site. I also use Google Drive for file storage. I had played around with Microsofts One Drive, but found it a pain to actually sync files. I’m not a fan of Dropbox either. As I’m paying for Google Apps, makes sense to use their file storage. In fairness it does work well and syncs quickly.

2. Airmail 2

I have around 5-6 email accounts across various domains, and Airmail 2 is the only application I’m comfortable using for email. If you’re familiar with Sparrow app, you’ll like Airmail. The recent upgrade has smoothed out some bugs and it makes for the best email client available for Mac.

3. Dashlane

This is a life saver, I have two computers and this allows me to sync passwords between both. Dashlane also has the bonus of storing autofill information which makes it much easier to switch between various profiles. Easily this is the best purchase I’ve made.

4. Sublime Text 2

Billed as the text editor you’ll fall in love with, Sublime Text is an extremely powerful editor. Recently, much of what I do ends up in a text editor. I prefer to write both code and markdown through a text editor. And after a bit of a learning curve, I find Sublime Text to be the application I’ll use to edit most files.

5. Mixradio

A very simple and cost effective music service. I’ve used every streaming service but never found any of them value for money until I tried Mixradio. It’s a great lightweight app on both mobile and desktop and has the best taste profile out of all the big streaming services.

6. Bullet Accounting

If you’re a small business in Ireland, you’ll know the pain of dealing with accountants and invoices. Bullet makes all that simple and is one of the best developed Irish services I’ve used. Very simple to use and makes invoicing and accounting super easy.

7. HR

I’ve tried a few time trackers previously but found them all annoyingly cumbersome. HR runs on the status bar and makes it easy to track activity. It is essentially just a timer but one that you’ll actually use. I track two things – 1) Client time, and 2) My time. This gives me an understanding on how much time I’m dedicated to client work and how much time I’m doing everything else.

Syncing Across Multiple Drives

I switch between two computers a lot, my office machine is where the bulk of work happens – but I need access to everything important on my laptop as well. This is where Dashlane and Google Drive come in, between them I’ve full access to all my online accounts and work files as needed. The added benefit is that all this data is backed up in the cloud, so even if the local versions were inaccessible, It’s very easy to retrieve access. All of which makes live as a consultant so much easier.

Marketing is in transition, perhaps it always has been. The emergence of digital tools has enabled personsalisation, dynamic experiences, and customer analytics helping us understand the customer journey flow.

Whenever I’m speaking with future digital marketers, there’s a tipping point in getting them think like marketers first before they thinking like consumers. We are the marketers. Most of these students fit into two buckets:

1. Experienced marketers looking for digital answers
2. Digital marketers developing a marketing mindset

The experienced marketers look at marketing as an exchange, whereby the aim is to get the consumer to perform an action such as purchasing, and in exchange consumer gains a benefit that is tangible or perceived.

Why would this audience want to engage with your brand?

The reality here is that the target audience is unlikely to do something just because you asked. Ever changing priorities and a hyper competitive landscape for attention have resulted in an audience, which is increasingly difficult to engage with. Why would this audience want to engage with your brand?

The experienced marketers know this. They understand the challenge, and look at digital tools to overcome it. But the newer digital marketers are facing the exact same challenge. Using the same old style mass marketing tactics that have proven difficult in the traditional model and applying them to the world of digital and even worse – through social media.

Think like marketers first

Does this social audience care? – Beyond competitions and shiny quick wins? If consumers are still unequal in the marketing exchange, shouldn’t we try to change it to deliver more value on their side?

The need to think like marketers first avoids the challenges faced in the past. Understanding the exchange that takes place. Huge energy and effort that companies put into creating content sometimes masks that consumers don’t care about their brand. Consumers care about their side of the exchange – what’s in it for them?

How to think like consumers

So how do we think like consumers? by shifting our focus into creating compelling messages, remarkable stories, outstanding experiences and giving reasons to return and engage. Providing value for the attention that they are offering in exchange.

Digital marketing, marketing – is becoming increasingly fragmented and difficult. We’re all competing for attention from an audience, which is more concerned with their lives than our brand. What would happen if we thought more like consumers and less like marketers?

A common theme we discuss is around the skills needed in Digital Marketing. Students are often guided by what job positions are available. The feedback I get is that the roles advertised are unrealistic both in their scope and the experience needed.

I had a quick search for roles available and came across a Digital Marketing Executive one – assuming this was an entry level role.

Some of the highlights

• 3-4 years experience in a digital / online marketing and communication working at Executive / Manager level
• Devise, implement and execute the Digital & Communications marketing strategy
• Oversee and drive SEO activities and Email marketing campaigns
• Proven track record in Project management and campaign management with the ability to multi-task and prioritise
• Highly skilled at using Google analytics to measure results, optimise campaigns and reporting
• Strong database/email marketing experience
• Experience of managing corporate events and sponsorships

Here’s the problem, someone with 3-4 years experience is highly unlikely to have the technical skills to be an expert at Organic Search, Paid Search, CRM, Email Marketing, Project Management, Social Media, Copywriting – and also have the marketing ability to create a strategy, develop comms, manage agencies and corporate events – the list goes on.

If I look back at the early part of my own career, each role I’ve taken on has added at least one core skill to my capability. In the beginning this was SEO, then PPC, then Email, then Analytics. That took 5 years. This meant completely immersing myself in each new area as well as retaining advanced knowledge of each previously developed skill.

This role, and similar are basically wish-lists. This will attract all rounders, and more likely spoofers, bluffers and those just out of their depth due to the wide range of skills required. This is before you consider the visionaries, goddesses, ninjas and growth gurus.

Those that end up in these roles are often box tickers who have heard of enough of these terms are desperate enough to say “Yeah I know in-depth link building strategies, and also I can host your annual awards gala”.

Digital Marketing is a wide area, and like any craft requires suitable dedication to develop that craft. We should not expect a 25 year old graduate to have the capability of a seasoned marketer just because the area they operate in is Digital.

I often tell my students that I would happily hire a 35 year old with a background in marketing, business, comms over a 25 year old with digital experience. The 35 year old only needs to develop digital skills and has most likely already got experience of personal development over a 25 year old who only has general skills in digital marketing.

Those seeking employment in Digital Marketing in Ireland have my sympathy, this is a tough industry to get into when recruiters have an under-appreciation of the whole digital space and what it takes to really develop ability in some of the sub sections of marketing.

One of the best pieces of advice I received when moving from IT to Marketing was:

“Marketing really is not difficult, but there is a bloody lot of it”