HEY.

Who Am I?

My name is Cody Hulsey. I am currently a senior at Western Washington University, and will be graduating after spring quarter (2015) with a major in business administration w/ a concentration in marketing. I love music, high-end fashion, abstract art, the internet, marketing, and working-out.

The reason I am taking Digital Marketing

The reason I am taking marketing 476 aka Digital Marketing, is simply because I want to further my knowledge in the area of marketing. Digital Marketing is on fire right now. I want to be able to use the skills that I have learned while taking this course to help businesses succeed.

What I would like to learn from Digital Marketing

As I stated earlier, digital marketing is on fire right now. I would like to become certified in HootSuite, Google Analytics, HubSpot, and Google AdWords. I strongly believe that having all four of these certifications on my resume will make me more valuable and desirable for future employers.

While interning at Bellingham Marine, I have dabbled in HootSuite, but I would like to enhance my knowledge of the crafty social media management dashboard.

I would also like to dip my toes in coding. I have always been fascinated by it, and would like to become more knowledgeable of the subject.

Knowledge and Skill Requirements for Marketing Jobs in the 21st Century

I thought the reading was very interesting. Especially since soon I will be looking for an entry-level job. The article written by Regina Pefanis Schlee and Katrin R. Harich is very eye-opening and something that I will most definitely bookmark for future review.

The article talks about the knowledge and skill requirements for marketing positions whether they are entry-level to senior-level. Technical skills are more important than conceptual skills. It also touches base on what industries are the most prominent in certain cities. Each city represents a region in which the study was done.

One thing that I found interesting was that Monster.com is more popular than CareerBuilder.com because Monster.com filters out duplicate listing of the same job. After viewing Monster.com, the user-face seems to be quite inviting (aside from the fact that the company is called, Monster). While CareerBuilder.com seems to be more boring, and the color scheme is nothing exciting, very similar to Facebook. I have not used either of these sites yet to hunt for a job, but I am confident that I will have to in the future. With that said, Monster.com will be my first choice.

Something that I thought was interesting and compelling was the fact that Internet and technology companies dominate the Seattle metropolitan area. I am very aware that the Seattle area is the stomping grounds of Microsoft, and Amazon. But I was unaware of the fact that Nintendo is considered one of the big dogs when it came to technology in the Seattle metropolitan area.

When viewing the technical skills (Table 2), it was quite evident that an entry-level employee must have MS Office skill (58.4% of job postings). But as you climb the ladder to upper-management positions, you will find that only 25% of the postings require MS Office skills. Which makes you think that they assume that you already have those skills, or if you never have to use them.

While viewing the meta-skills (table 3), I found it interesting that 13% of job postings for entry-level positions require that you have ethics. But for upper management only 4.7% require ethics. Once again, it makes you wonder whether or not it is assumed that you already have strong business ethics, or if you are not in a position where business ethics are not required (doubtful).

Marketing graduates need to obviously be able to possess oral and written communication skills. But also have technical skills that they can use to perform business analytics. Marketing graduates need to be able to use CRM systems and be able to understand the information and data that they are finding/ receiving.

Constantly stay abreast of the industry trends, and don’t be afraid to try the newest things. Fortune magazine has described a phenomenon called, “50 and Fired”. One of the reasons this happens might be because of age discrimination, but it also can be the fact that they are not staying at the forefront of the technology industry. They are staying in the past and using out-dated software programs. For their career to be profitable and healthy, they need to be able to get with the times.

DBM aka Database Marketing is something that needs to be taught in marketing curriculum’s. Universities need to recognize the fact that there is a massive benefit to offering a marketing technology degree. This will prepare their students for the real world, and will generate a lot of positivity for the university, and in return have higher amount of students applying to their university.

In the article written by Maureen Morrison for Advertising Age, called What’s Required of the Next Generation of Marketers, Morrison states, “At one time ‘you could be a functional expert in one very narrow area of marketing tactics,’ said Tome Collinger, associate dean and department chair-integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill Schoolat Northwestern University. ‘Back in the day, if you were a direct or data marketer or PR specialist, that was enough.'” I thought this was very interesting and relates to what I mentioned above about “50 and Fired”. Back in the day you didn’t have to be highly diverse to make a living. Now you have to a wide range of skills that you are able to use in an effective matter.

Forrester Interactive Marketing Forecast 2011 to 2016

The article written by Shar VanBroskirk is quite interesting, and truly makes you think about the future of marketing. 10 years ago, people would not have been able to predict where we are right now with marketing. For instance, social media is the way to go (for most businesses, but not all) and was not foreseeable 10 years ago. Every time I hop onto Facebook (which is honestly becoming quite infrequent) I see numerous ads, and they get thousands of likes. So it was quite obvious that consumers are enjoying this type of marketing.

Social media is quite inexpensive. I have promoted my own clothing brand, SomeFire.com, and I am able to reach thousands of potential customers all over the world for as little as $20. When businesses use social media to promote their business, they are cutting costs, and can use that saved money elsewhere.

Another interesting and important form of marketing is e-mail marketing. For the longest time I thought that sending ad campaigns through e-mail is the most archaic way to get businesses voice out there, especially with the option of ad campaigns getting sent directly to your spam folder. But recently I have noticed that I have been clicking on e-mails that have enticing headlines which at times can be click-bait, but for the most part are offering something that is of my interest. Businesses can utilize e-mail in so many ways. They can have you subscribe to their e-newsletter, or find out when they have new products. I believe e-mail marketing has come a long way and is only going to get better.

Forbes writer Jayson DeMers wrote an article called, The Top 10 Benefits of Social Media Marketing. In this interesting article Mr. DeMers says, “According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating that their efforts increased traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers are currently participating in social media but 85% of participants aren’t sure what social media tools are the best to use.” I found this to be quite compelling. In the fact that, social media is something that is very prominent in our marketing world right now. I hardly ever watch TV, but I love to browse the internet, and that is where I see the most commercials, whether if it is a friend of mine that shared a comical Old Spice commercial, or if it is one of those mandatory commercials that you have to watch while you wait for your YouTube video to play.

State of Digital Marketing Talent

One thing that really stood out to me while reading this article was that there is a talent gap in digital marketing. Having a digital marketing team that is homogenous, and doesn’t rely on others to do certain aspects of the job for them is powerful, and in return your company will produce A1 marketing. After a survey was created, they found that only 8% felt strong across all digital areas. That is quite a small percentage. I believe that if the other 92% of they respondents analyzed what they were weak in, how they could fix that problem, then they will see a significant change in their marketing as a company.

I also found it interesting that one-third of the companies have groomed interns into full-time employees. I believe that if they created a system that really prepared and trained the interns and raised that percentage, then they could save money on hiring and training new people, as well as, produce the cream of the crop level entry employees.

Entitlement is becoming popular around young employees. I recently had this conversation with my boss. My boss thinks that college graduates come out of the gates and want to climb to the top as fast as possible. They watch movies like Wolf of Wall Street and they think that all that success and money came to Jordan Belfort over-night. They need to realize that you need to struggle, put in your 10,000 hours and prove that you deserve that raise, or promotion.

According to an article written called, How college students think they are more special than EVER: Study reveals rocketing sense of entitlement on U.S. campuses  states, “Psychologist Jean Twenge and her colleagues compiled the data and found that over the past four decades there’s been a dramatic rise in the number of students who describe themselves as being ‘above average’ in the areas of academic ability, drive to achieve, mathematical ability, and self-confidence.” I believe that it is important to believe that you excel in all four of those categories but I also think that it is important how you present yourself in the workspace. I believe that it is important to show your ‘above average’ capabilities in your work and not just talk about it.

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