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'!

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

More Customer Comments...

Our Testimonial page on the website is now full to capacity, so I'm going to add the latest batch here...


' We would just like to say a big thank you to yourself and Declan for
all your help with the presentation. It all turned out really well in the end
(despite all the last minute changes). Our client Jurys Inns were also
very complimentary.'

Siobhan Ward,
Urban Innovations.



‘…thanks for all the help. The stand looked great and worked very well… Apprec all your help and advice…’

Mona Reilly,
Director,
Team PR Reilly.



… Thanks for getting the stands turned around so quickly – they look great…

Aisling Donovan,
Marketing Executive,
Aer Arran.



… It has been a pleasure doing business with you. … very professional…

Michael Sweeney,
Rally Ireland.



… Your guys fitted the sign yesterday and did a good job. Am very happy with how it worked out.…

Daniel Kearney,
General Manager,
Iveagh Fitness Club.