The Internet Marketing Handbook by Lloyd Luna
Before I prepare for my TV show this morning, I was tempted to post this “Internet Marketing Professional in the Philippines” thing.
It caught my attention so strong that I had to write this blog entry before I can even send my presentation to Asian Publishing Convention 2010 in Vietnam.
I just felt correcting this one right off the bat for people who might be looking for the “same” employee. I think it’s very important to clear this up so either party would end up on a winning proposition.
There was a job post on JobsDB website that looks like this:
Internet Marketing Professional
Responsibilities:
- The candidate shall do Internet researching of relevant information & various clients in line with the company’s products
- Will send Email Marketing locally & internationally to explore potential clients and to follow up the inquiries
- Call clients or make a telemarketing
- Visit clients or potential clients locally to sell, promote follow up the company’s product
- Others supporting the headquarter
- Flexible to do other required job matter
Requirements:
- Candidate must possess at least a Bachelor’s/College Degree in Business Studies/Administration/Management, Marketing or equivalent.
- Proficient in MS Applications, Internet savvy,
- Knowledgeable in MS Outlook & Skype
- At least 2 years of working experience in the related field is required for this position.
- Possess strong analytical, research, marketing and event management skills
- Considered themselves as “hardworker”
- Self-motivated & doesn’t need heavy management, should be able to work completely independent and self-directed
- Understands the value of working efficiently
- Passionate about accomplishing a productive day
- Flexible of any given tasks
- Disciplined (no being late/no unauthorized absent)
Human resource professionals should be very careful on posting qualifications of Internet marketing professionals. While it seems easy to define an Internet marketers job description based on assumptions, I personally believe that the success of the intention to fill in this position lies on how we understand Internet marketing.
As an Internet marketing specialist, I’d like to take out some functions that can only confuse the person doing the job. Try:
Call clients or make a telemarketing. It’s not the job of an Internet marketer to make calls and follow ups. We can leave this to tele-marketers. Not too many people can be good on both talking and writing. Most internet marketing professionals are more into content writing and development and not into client calling.
Visit clients or potential clients locally to sell, promote follow up the company’s product. We can leave this job to sales people and not let our Internet marketers do the field assignments. The Internet is pretty fast evolving and sending your Internet marketers out in the field is letting your Internet base defenseless.
These remaining two qualifications are vague and may be irrelevant. I suggest HR should clear this and be specific on ‘Others’ and ‘Flexible’ as these can bring more confusion rather than clarity. So, personally, I stroke it out.
- Others supporting the headquarter
- Flexible to do other required job matter
As for the requirements asked for an Internet marketing professional that this company needs, I don’t think the first requirement would pass my standard:
Candidate must possess at least a Bachelor’s/College Degree in Business Studies/Administration/Management, Marketing or equivalent. Internet Marketing isn’t a full-blown subject or course yet and having graduated with this kind of course or anything to that matter should be a basis for picking the new media marketing expert. My case, among thousands more, is one good example. I took Electronics and Communications Engineering and never did I formally study Internet marketing but now I’m an Internet marketing geek.
Knowledgeable in MS Outlook & Skype. While this may be considered, I don’t think this is as important as knowing “Cloud Technology” or “Cloud Computing.” MS Outlook, for me, is quite a jurassic tool and would need a reinforcement. Skype is for tele-marketers not for Internet marketing man.
At least 2 years of working experience in the related field is required for this position. What are related fields of Internet marketing? Internet gaming is one, Facebook is another, and Twitter can be another related field also. No, I’m not kidding.
Possess strong analytical, research, marketing and event management skills. Why does an Internet marketing professional have to have event management skills? I simply don’t understand this. I suspect that this is just another “copy-and-paste” thing from another vacant position.
For the rest of the qualification, I no longer want to say anything. These are just to generic and can be used if you’re looking for any other employee.
Here are some of the Internet Marketing qualifications I expected to see based on my experience as an internet marketing consultant and coach:
- Knowledge on the Internet Marketing Principles that includes the psychology of web surfers or Internet users
- Knowledge on effective Email Marketing campaign
- Knowledge on Search Engine marketing
- Knowledge on Internet branding
- Knowledge on Social Media marketing
These are just five qualifications that I can think and there are many more in my list. But I’m afraid I don’t have the time now. Maybe, I’ll make a follow up on this in my next entries.
In the meantime, I call on HR directors or managers or supervisors or officers to please understand first the subject before posting because this can only give you headaches rather than fulfillment. Setting the intention clearly is ok but living up to the expectation takes a deeper knowledge on the subject matter.
We don’t want to find the wrong guy doing an intentionally correct position.
