There was an “is it a bird, is it a plane” reaction last week to the launch of Weedle.com, a Dublin-based website which offers to connect people with other people who need their skills.

Speaking to Prosperity’s Digital Ezine, CEO of Weedle.com, Iain MacDonald explained: “You have demand for people with skills and supply of people with skills. Currently there’s no large-scale, simple way of connecting people with skills to the people that need them. We provide a very simple way to connect you with people who need your skill or to find people with the skills you need.”

The obvious question is, isn’t there already LinkedIn? “LinkedIn is a very good way of managing your contacts within a white-collar network environment. Facebook is very good for sharing your thoughts or photographs with friends. What Weedle does is enable you to connect with people who need your skill or find people with the skills you need.”

How Weedle works is business people create a profile, explain what they can do and demonstrate what they can do, by uploading a video for example. Businesses could vary from accountants to babysitters to carpenters.

For those searching for skills on Weedle, the search string is semantically analysed so that a search for a carpenter will also return results for a joiner, for example. Answers are ranked according to an algorithm, so that the person most likely to meet your search need will be ranked at the top. Also taken into account are the content of a profile, the last time the person logged into their account and how quickly they respond to queries.

You don’t have to log in for the aforementioned results. However, people who are logged in will also get results based on whether friends or contacts have used them and thought they were good or they have gone to school/worked with people. “It’s like automatic word-of-mouth,” says MacDonald, “you can see instantly who in your social network has used somebody with the skill you need now.”

It’s not just for sole traders or consultants; whole teams can sign up to it and put their Weedle link in their email signature to help clients become aware that the team does more than what the person they are dealing with does.

Weedle, which currently employs 18, is expected to grow over the coming year along with some future site improvements. “We are launching in beta, so we’re looking for some support from the Irish internet community,” says MacDonald. “It isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. The only way we’re going to make it better is through feedback from real live users.”

Job creation announcements were top of the list of goals for 2010 for a number of companies in January.
PayPal, which employs 1,100 people in Ireland announced the creation of a further 100 new jobs in customer service and operations at its European Centre of Excellence in Blanchardstown, Dublin. These positions are in addition to the 150 extra jobs announced during 2009. The Dublin centre, which was established in 2003 with 25 employees, manages all direct customer contact for PayPal’s businesses across Europe. The jobs will see further opportunities for permanent positions in customer service and operations for individuals fluent in English and a second European language.

Commenting on the announcement, Barry O’Leary, CEO IDA Ireland, said, “PayPal’s investment represents a key endorsement from one of the world’s leading online companies, and is further evidence of Ireland’s ability to compete for and win high quality technologically advanced Foreign Direct Investment. This expansion builds on Ireland’s reputation as a global hub for the digital media sector.”

Also on Dublin, 35 high skilled jobs are on the cards over a three-year period at the new EMEA Headquarters of on-demand translation technology and service provider, Sajan, Inc. The company will create opportunities for software engineers, localization engineers, testers, project managers, quality personnel, sales executives and accounts personnel.

Galway is to get 20 new jobs with the establishment of an inside sales and customer care operation in StreamServe Inc. A leading provider of business communications solutions, StreamServe, will initially employ 20 people at the Galway operation in areas such as sales, maintenance renewals, and customer care operations, servicing both the US and EMEA markets.

A week into an unsure new year, the news that 15 new jobs are to be created in 2010 by an Irish software company, is more than welcome.

TerminalFour, a leading web content management company, definitely timed the announcement of the €1.6m of equity funding it has secured, which will fund the new positions well.

The company currently employs 35 people and has its European headquarters in Amiens Street in Dublin. The new investment will see TerminalFour realise plans to increase its employee numbers from 35 to 50. These new positions will be across a number of areas including sales, pre-sales and customer service jobs in its Irish headquarters.

The cash injection will also accelerate TerminalFour’s growth strategy and will be used to finance the development of its partner network, sales force and research and development.
Piero Tintori, chief executive officer, TerminalFour, said, “We’re an Irish software company with a large client base of blue chip companies throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe. We decided to raise equity funding to provide us with the platform and strength to develop our interest in the US market. Given our very strong position, this investment gives TerminalFour the platform to capitalise on the growing international opportunities.”

The investment was led by the Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund, managed by NCB Ventures, with investment also provided by the AIB Seed Capital Fund, managed by the Dublin Business Innovation Centre, and with grant aid from Enterprise Ireland.

Prosperity has just finished its 2008 Media and Marketing Salary survey - http://www.prosperity.ie/survey.html

As we are the Irish specialists for Digital Recruitment, this area formed an important part of our overall survey.

This  sector has been by far the biggest growth area for us, with growth as a share of our recruitment activity increasing by over 20 percent since March of last year. The growth in this sector in Ireland has been significant, with many new online enterprises in the market and from the flurry of activity from traditional agencies launching and expanding their digital divisions. This rapid growth has been excellent for the online industry; however it has led to a shortage in candidates which in turn has led to an increase in salaries for those with digital expertise and experience.

The current problem for our clients is that Digital is still very much in its infancy in Ireland, and therefore there is a shortfall of supply in terms of skilled and experienced digital staff. It is only in the last couple of years that graduates are entering the market with the necessary abilities.

Even though there is a strong demand for digital candidates, we do find that Irish companies are keeping their heads and are not paying high salaries to poorly experienced candidates.

To meet the demands of our clients for highly experienced candidates, Prosperity recruits extensively in the more mature digital markets, primarily : the UK, America and Australia. While we advertise Irish digital jobs to UK and other European Nationals, we also find that many of the candidates we represent are Irish nationals who have gained the requisite experience in the likes of America and are now open to returning to Ireland.

While there is a strong demand for all aspects of Online Marketing , we are currently experiencing a particularly strong demand in the areas of -
• Digital media planning/buying
• PPC and SEO (Search Marketing)
• Online Content  - writing and editorial
• The ability to use Ad Serving Technology (in particular, being able to use Doubleclick or Atlas)
• Selling online inventory, and understanding the pricing models – CPC, CPA etc

Whilst the graduates entering the market have an excellent knowledge of these areas, their lack of hands-on experience means that we are a few years off having a fully-stocked market of Digital professionals. Of course, that’s not to say that there aren’t some highly experienced Digital folk out there, it’s just that they are few and far between.

Also, an added factor to the imbalance of supply and demand would be the arrival of new companies to Ireland from other sectors of New Media – Social Networking sites, Mobile Marketing companies, Rich Media Advertising providers etc. More and more of these companies are setting up here, or relocating their current offices here. This is increasing demand yet again.

However it’s not all doom and gloom: we predict that in a relatively short space of time, the balance between supply and demand of Digital talent will even out and we predict healthy days for the Irish market in the near future.

Ellie Doyle - Prosperity.ie

The search for top online talent is on! With the rumours this week that Google is expanding into additional buildings and creating 200 jobs and with the multiple jobs appearing on job boards, the battle for talent has begun. As demand exceeds supply, the outcome is that salaries are increasing in Search and Online Marketing faster than traditional media.

A second issue would be sourcing the talent, as training in online and search is only now being introduced into courses in Ireland. On the positive side, there seems to be much more of an interest in Search with graduates and with the explosion for social media and the Bebo generation there is an appetite for all things digital. The general consensus in the market is more training followed by retention strategies is the key solution for the industry moving forward. Companies have also adopted the approach of taking on good traditional advertising executives, mainly from below the line and provided in house training. Google have also run training courses through IAPI for through the line agencies which have also proven effective. Search is an exciting industry which is set to grow exponentially, however we need the talent to drive the industry. Our mantra at Prosperity is, birds of a feather, we recruit where the media community congregate and that’s online.

Ellie Doyle, Prosperity Recruitment