Monday, June 22, 2009

The IIA Social Media Working Group

In the latest in our series of informative guest blogs, Joy Redmond, co-founder of flexitimers.com, fills us in on the work being done by the Social Media Working Group to promote and encourage the use of social media marketing by Irish businesses.

There are as many resources on how to do social marketing, as there are networks so rather than provide a whistle stop tour of the social web in 2009, I’ve elected to introduce you to the Irish Internet Association’s Social Media Working Group and the sterling work they’ve been doing over the past twelve months.
The Social Media Working Group seeks to support businesses in the development of strategies for engaging with social media, including blogging, social networking, community sites, RSS, tagging, and podcasts. IIA 2008

The committee members consist of a diverse range of skills and disciplines ranging from social media, web development, marketing, to PR and education.

Although their main output: Guides to Social Media for Business are restricted to members of the Irish Internet Association, they also have plenty of tips and advice available to the general public and one I’d like to particularly highlight are the weekly blog posts containing Social Media case studies.
Each week a committee member writes a case study on a particular area of social media that has caught their attention, the tone is ‘how to’ providing the reader with step by step descriptions of how a particular campaign was designed, implemented and measured – certainly a must read for anyone thinking of dipping their feet in social media in Ireland today.

However, the Working Group’s formal output is not the only rich content on offer as many of the members provide valuable resources themselves.
For example, Eoin Kennedy from Slattery Communications writes an excellent PR blog entitled ‘Thoughts on Communications in Ireland’ and here you’ll find many tips and checklists on how to go about raising your profile online.
Bernie Goldbach from Tipperary Institute does an interesting video round up of tech news in the Sunday papers on Qik.com which is also syndicated on fellow committee member Campbell Scott’s now global social network IGOpeople.
Krishna De aka Ireland’s social media ambassador is also a member of the working group, she’s on every network and if you’ve ever seen her present at her many speaking engagements, you’ll agree her passion for social media is infectious and her many resources are definitely worth a browse.
Last but not least, I’d like to mention the IIA’s Roseanne Smith who is always online and at hand to help with your every social media whim.


Joy Redmond is the co-founder of Flexitimers.

Joy started her career in 1996 as Marketing Director of Newmedia, one of Ireland's first web design companies. She remained agency side working with Zartis.com and Campaign HTDS before moving client side to become online marketing manager of IngredientsNet.com (a joint venture between Fyffes and Glanbia). Before setting up Flexitimers with Dervla Cunningham, Joy was a lecturer in E-business, research and marketing in the Dublin Institute of Technology and was Course Director of the Masters in Business & Entrepreneurship. She is a mentor on the Wexford County Enterprise Board and a member of the Irish Internet Association Social Media Working Group.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Social Media to Market Your Event

The rise of social media has changed the landscape of marketing, and event marketing is no different. Facebook's invitiation facility and the event listing section on Linkedin, along with Twitter's meatoric rise in popularity in the last few months mean that you would be crazy not to use these varied media to publicise your event to a huge audience, for FREE. What's more, the instant-ness of applications such as Twitter for i-phone means that attendees are marketing and publicising events for you, in real-time! UK based events website TSNN.co.uk are running a free webinar this month to guide you through the process of harnessing social media to market your event. And InfluentialMarketingBlog have a great post on how you or or your guest can utilise Twitter during an event to connect with those not in attendance or gain instant, online PR for your event. Check out Scott Monty's blog for an insight into the variety of markets which can be reached through these channels, from Generation Y-ers to 'Mommy bloggers'!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Gorta Ask The Big Question...




Is it possible to make hunger history?

Gorta, Ireland's oldest charity, last week marked the launch of their online video initiative, makehungerhistory.org, which aims to collect opinions and feedback from members of the public on the issue of global hunger. With one in seven people worldwide now going hungry, this initiative aimsto help inform and mobilise the public in the fight against hunger and poverty.

Minister for Community, Rural & Gaeltacht affairs, Eamon O'Cuiv, joined Gorta CEO, Brian Hanratty, at the Dublin Docklands to launch the site, just days before the National Famine Commemoration Day took place in Skibbereen to commemorate victims of the Great Irish Famine.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Evolution Of Logos



I absolutely love this chart of high profile logos through the years (from Brittany Bohnet via Ogilivy's blog - thanks). Am I the only one who likes many of the oldies best? I much prefer the rainbow Apple logo and the 70s/80s BMW logo. Think IBM could have made more of an effort in the early days though! Love love love the previous two Canon logos also. Would love to know your thoughts...

Friday, April 17, 2009

INTO Annual Congress Display


Many issues were discussed at the 2009 INTO Annual Congress last Tuesday in Letterkenny, including the issue of renting pre-fabs for school buildings and the possibility of a day of action in the next few months. There was no love lost between delegates and the Minister for Education, Batt O'Keeffe, and an estimated 30 delegates walked out of the congress to show their distaste for recent cuts in the education sector. Above is an image of the stand we produced for this 'eventful' event.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Executive Job Club In Rathmines

Following the lead of Executive Job Clubs in New York and England, an Executive Job Club is now up and running on alternate Fridays in Rathgar.

As the first network in Dublin focusing on executive, managerial and professional job seekers, this club has much to offer its members:

- the members are highly skilled in their sector and share contacts to help fellow members trying to reach specific recruiters or break into a new sector.

- Job leads will be shared at each fortnightly meeting, helping disseminate placements across the group and increasing the number of opportunities each member is exposed to.

- Optimum Training, the facilitators of the club, coordinate the networking and provide career counselling and professional training to each member at a reduced cost.

- The club will also provide executive job seekers with something that can be difficult to access otherwise - moral support from others in a similar position. This type of social back up can be crucial when a redundancy has left the job seeker in shock or lacking confidence to take a step in a different direction.

- This type of network can also benefit those who are still in employment but have been scared off changing jobs because of the current eceonomic climate.

- Contact Aaron Downes for further details - downesad@gmail.com

Another example of a people taking positive action in the face of the non-stop doom-and-gloom at the moment. Would love to hear your views on this or any other such initiative currently going on.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Twittering Away...

Applied Signs & Display are now officially ensconced in Twitter - believe what people are saying, it is addictive. I think the reason it has caught on so well for business use is that it's fun. It's a fun, instant, dynamic way to get your brand out there and connect with people you might never have had any contact with otherwise. Which can only be good for business! Apart from the many business contacts, friends, customers and IBW and IIA members I have connected with, I am also now following John Mayer, Stephen Fry, MC Hammer, and have even received a private message from Yoko Ono. Seriously, that made my year!

As of today we have 204 followers and we were ranked 355 in a recent survey of Irish Twitterers by Irish Blogs. Give twittering a go. And be sure to follow us at http://twitter.com/appliedsigns


Some Useful Sites For Twitterers

Top 100 and Top 1000 Irish Twitterers

NearbyTweets: Find Twitterers Near You or By Location & Keyword - great for business searches

Aggregator of Irish Tweets - follow http://twitter.com/irishblogs to be included in the stream.

Twitterholic.com: Find the most prolific Twitterers (lots of big names in here)

WhoShouldIFollow.com: Find Twitterers similar to those you already follow

StrawpollNow.com: Create Simple Polls on Twitter

RememberTheMilk.com: Use Twitter as a to-do list and reminder service

GroupTweet.com: Tweet in Private to a select group of friends or colleagues

Twuffer.com: Schedule Tweets in advance

Twittad.com: Advertise on a particular Twitterer's profile or monetize your own page

Twalala.com: 'Mute' or filter certain twitter updates to streamline your twitterstream

TwerpScan.com: Scan for Twitter Spammers

UseQwitter.com: Get notified when someone un-follows you

Twellow.com: Search the Twitter Golden Pages

EasyTweets.com: Brand and Trend tracking on Twitter

Tweetwheel.com: See your followers and their followers graphed in a 'wheel'

Twitterless.com: Graph your followers over time and track un-follows

Twitter Mosaic Create a visual mosaic of your followers to display on blogs etc.
 
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