Further education in Digital Marketing are being planned for this Fall by two organisations in Ireland I have come across (one of them I already work  with as a member of their faculty).

DCU have launched a Graduate Certificate in Digital Marketing.

The Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) has announced their Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing and follows the success of their 12 week programmes and their Boot Camps that have been running for the last 18 months.

I don't know much about the programme with DCU, but as someone who has worked with the DMI since their first programmes started, let me share a little of what I know about their programme.

The programme commences on September 21 2010 and you need to apply by 15 August 2010.

The programme is a 1 year part time programme with two semesters of course work and requires the completion of two individual digital marketing projects. The programme requires attendance on two evenings a week, three hours per evening and at 2 Saturday tutorial/workshops throughout the year.

Here is a summary of the curriculum:

• Digital Marketing Fundamentals
• Customer as King in Digital Media
• Digital Marketing Channels
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• Digital Marketing Management

To apply for the Postgaduate Diploma in Marketing you must meet the minimum admissions requirements:

• you must hold a recognised third level honours degree (minimum of a lower second class honours degree)  along with at least 2 years working in an appropriate industry sector
• you must  have significant and suitable work experience in a marketing (or associated) role.

Yes one programme is accredited currently by a third level institute and the other isn't - so the choice is yours. I do know from one of the founders of the DMI, Ian Dodson, that they are in discussions about the formal recognition of their programme through a third level institute.

How do you choose which programme to attend?

Well in my personal experience when studying for programmes in other areas I find that taking the time to get to know the orgnanisations, understanding their apporach and getting clear about the outcomes you can expect does help. I also have spoken to people who have attended previous programmes to get a sense of what the organisation of the programme and the capabilities of the faculty are like in terms of their teaching style and experience. Cost, duration, location and timing have also been a factor for me to consider.

At the end of the day though I have focused on my personal motivation to study for the programme and looked at the curriculum that best fits my personal and professional needs.

How do you choose which programmes and training you attend?

Here is a terrific opportunity for people looking to develop their skills in digital marketing and also for small businesses in Ireland who want to get their businesses online.

The programme is called WebActivate.

Listen to my podcast about the programme here:

At the moment the programme is taking registrants from people through to the 16 July 2010 - they mention on their website that applications are particularly welcomed from people who are unemployed with an existing educational attainment of NFQ level 6, 7, or 8. You will receive 6 weeks ‘In-Centre’ training following which you will spend 12 weeks with 3 different SMEs creating websites and coaching the employees of the SME's on how to maximise business through online channels.

During the work placement you will attend their designated training centres one day a week for classes, ongoing mentoring and coaching from the Webactivate trainers. You will be equipped with a Notebook computer, software and 3G broadband, all of which are provided through the WebActivate programme. Find out how to register HERE.

The curriculum includes modules in:

• Internet Publishing
• Marketing
• Social Media Marketing

Certification includes a suite of FETAC component modules with 4 credits at NFQ Level 6.

If you are an SME WITH NO WEB PRESENCE AT THE MOMENT then I also recommedn that you check out the programme and benefit from the skills that people will be learning. You will receive access to support by providing a workplacement to one of the participants of the programme. There are no fees or charges for the SMEs providing work placements in the programme. The programme will serve small to medium businesses in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway and you can register online here.

Would you like the opportunity to hear from 60 bright minds on digital influence but do so in a compact 60 minutes?

Today I received details from the publicist of an event that is been billed as the shortest marketing conference ever - 'The Influencer Project'.

This is FREE conference taking place on 6 July 2010 at 6pm (no details of the time zone so it's likely to be PST or ET).

The conference promises to offer:

-  How to discover and cultivate a tribe of like-minded individuals who support your work and increase your circle of influence

- What hasn't changed about business for over 300 years, that continues to make or break companies online

- One of the most common mistakes nearly every business makes that strips them of their power to connect more deeply with their constituents and prospects.

If you can not attend the event live You'll also receive, at no cost, a full MP3 recording and PDF transcript of the event.

Some of the speakers that are at the events incude some of my favourite people online including:

- Brian Clark
- Tony Hseih
- John Jantsch
- Justin Levy
- David Meerman Scott
- Michael Port
- Joe Pulizzi
- Robert Scoble.

Register to attend the FREE event here.

I am guessing this is a pre recorded session with a minute of tips from each speaker. That makes for a whole lot of podcast editing!

My only wish for the Influencer Project? That there were some non US/Canadian voices (I only recognised one of the speakers as being from the UK). Who would you have included if this 60 speakers in 60 minutes could have been from 60 nations?

One of my favourite tools for managing Twitter on my iPhone and in my browser is Hootsute so it was great to see a new update of the iPhone app released which has the ability to book mark Tweets that you want to come back to later with their integration of Instapaper.com.

You need to create an account with Instapaper which is free and you can also organise folders for future archiving and easy reference.

Read all about the new release of Hootsuite for the iPhone on their blog - they have also made the app available in Japanese, German, Spanish, and Portuguese and have enbled emailing Tweets (something I have loved for a long time on UberTwitter for the Blackberry.

I've tried the integration and it works smoothly - my only problem now is making sure I don;t bookmark too many Tweets or I will get no work done - but it is a great integration to support your online research.

If you are using a free online URL shortner there can sometimes be problems with their performance an availablility.

You might want to check out the status of your preferred URLshortner with this URL public website status site.

How quickly does your website or blog load? That is a question I covered over at BizGrowthNews.com recently.

Here is another article that you might find of interest where the article at Zemalf shares some tools to check your site speed including some Firefox plugins:

Free website performance analysis tools:

• WebPageTest.org
• Pingdom
• Web Page Analyzer

Firefox plugins:

• Firebug
• YSlow
• Page Speed

What resources do you recommend?

Tomorrow I have a FREE webinar planned about getting started with online marketing especially for new businesses. I'll be covering websites, blogs and Facebook pages as ways to represent your busines online.

For those of you who have already mastered online marketings here is an article about how to optimise your images for your website or blog from Zemalf.

One tool they reference that i am going to check out is Shrinkomatic, an Adobe AIR programme, where you can drag and drop images for resizing (you can browse and select them too), and it resizes them all to the size you want automatically. The tool optimizes the images while resizing and renames the files when it exports them into a directory on your desktop.

What tools do you use to rezise your images when posting them to your blog or website?

If you are a new start up and want to join me for the FREE webinar on the 7 essential steps for marketing your new business online just register HERE. We have attendees joining us from India, Ireland, Singapore, Denmark, the UK and the USA so you will be in good company - it starts at 1pm/6pm ET and if you can not attend the live event we will email you access to the archive if you have registered.

Citrix Systems Ireland, the headquarters of Customer Technical Support for Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA), announced yesterday that it is increasing its workforce by up to 30 full time employees. These jobs are in addition to the 20 new jobs announced late last year and are required to support the ongoing growth of Citrix’ technical services business in the EMEA region taking the team to 150 people in Ireland.

Citrix Systems currently have 11 open roles in Dublin - find the details online:  http://www.citrix.com/English/aboutCitrix/employment/features.asp?contentID=1...

On the 28th April, Citrix and Microsoft will jointly hold a desktop virtualisation seminar in the Citywest Hotel starting at 9am, ‘The Citrix & Microsoft Desktop Virtualisation Roadshow’. Register for this half day event: http://www.citrix.com/English/NE/events/event.asp?eventID=1863531

Citrix is a great example of a company with many Twitter accounts - see them all here: http://www.citrix.com/twitter - their accounts include support, PR and products -as an example here are a few of them:

http://www.Twitter.com/go_view - Tweet with the team behind the new beta GoView product for recording videos using your computer screen and voice

http://www.Twitter.com/GoToMeeting - Find helpful info & support on our easy and cost effective online meeting solution

http://www.Twitter.com/GoToAssist - Ask questions and learn more about our new remote support technology

http://www.Twitter.com/GoToMyPC - The GoToMyPC team is here to help out with support and tips

http://www.Twitter.com/GoToWebinar - Get help with or ask questions about hosting online events and meetings from the GoToWebinar team