Why I Love Mondays

Simon Rees is Director of Clients and Marketing at Idiro Technologies. Simon has been at Idiro since 2005.

Company: Idiro Technologies is an Irish-owned company focussing on big data analytics, and in particular on social network analysis, for marketing. Put simply, we help our customers to do better marketing by analysing their data to provide insights and predict behaviour. We have a small commercial team and a bunch of clever techies who deliver the magic.
Job description: There are three parts to my job: first, I am responsible for Idiro’s marketing: the website, SEO, paid search, sales collateral, product management, conference speaking – everything. Second, I have ultimate responsibility for making sure Idiro’s customers are happy. I keep in touch with them and listen to their needs, and make sure the Idiro team delivers against those needs. At the same time I’m always trying to sell our customers something new. Thirdly, I offer consulting to our customers in data-driven marketing and influencer marketing.
Likes: The variety of the job – and the freedom to do whatever is best for the customer and for Idiro’s marketing.
Career ladder: After leaving school in Wales I had various youthful adventures. Then I found myself in telecoms marketing in London… where I met and fell in love with an Irish woman. She wanted to come home, so I found a job with Eircell in 1996. What fun that was! Eircell became Vodafone Ireland, where I met Aidan Connolly. He left to set up Idiro, and in due course invited me to join him. A small tech firm is so much more exciting than a big company, I wish I’d made the move years earlier. My humble career advice for others? Keep asking yourself what you want to do when you grow up, and to keep trying to move towards it.
Qualifications: I have a couple of bachelors’ degrees in business, a masters in marketing and a postgrad diploma in international selling. Oh, and the Digital Marketing Institute’s diploma.
Working hours: As much as it takes to get the job done – maybe 40-45 hours a week on average?
Breaktime: I catch up on the news of my football team, Cardiff City at my desk – and I get outside for some fresh air a few times a day.
Social media credentials: As well as tweeting and posting to Linkedin regularly for Idiro, I’m a fairly heavy social media user. I founded the Linkedin group ‘Mobile telecoms Ireland’  and the Facebook groups ‘Beekeepers of Ireland’  and ‘Dublin beekeepers’ . I also run the website http://dublinbees.org/. Guess what my hobby is! I also edit the blog http://telecomsblog.ie/.
News sources: I consume http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ and http://www.rte.ie/news/ avidly, and subscribe to a bunch of email newsletters on the analytics industry and on telecoms, which is the industry of many of our customers. I dip into my twitter feed when I can but it’s always a losing battle with the sheer volume.
Onsite or offsite: Most of my time is in the office – punctuated with trips to see Idiro’s customers, most of whom are overseas. This spring I spent three weeks with customers in Jamaica, El Salvador, Haiti, Trinidad and Martinique – which is a lot less glamorous than it sounds!
Digital strategy/vision: digital is essential to Idiro’s marketing. As a small firm selling to customers worldwide, we rely on the internet to reach our market and find our customers.
I love Mondays because I work with a great team and the work is ever-changing.