Bridging the gap between Irish business and advances in digital marketing
by Diarmuid ORiordan on June 10th, 2010
Irish companies feel like they are falling increasingly behind the times in terms of advances in digital marketing. While the digital community prepares itself for advances in areas such as location based marketing, the SME community is still unsure as to whether Internet marketing actually works. We need to further establish both positions and how we can bridge the gap between the two.
Mr. Bill Thompson was part of an open discussion at the IIA conference in Dublin recently. In a conversation with Jim Power on the use of social media in business, he was of of the view that companies not embracing social media would cease to exist in a few years. He also added that this may not be a bad thing, as companies who do embrace it will be offering a superior service to their customers.
Mr. Jim Power, prominent economist with Friends First held a conflicting opinion. Jim also runs an economic consultancy practice and has a lot of contact with SMEs. His view was that SMEs on the ground were largely untouched by the advances in digital marketing. He added that SMEs didn’t understand many of the platforms, were wary of privacy issues and were not convinced “social media actually works, and that its not just something fluffy and useless!”
So having established these hugely different viewpoints, who can we say is correct?
Both are correct in my opinion, and bridging the gap between the two is where the way forward lies. Jim is right in terms of SMEs on the ground, they still have a large customer base which is not using social media. Among SMEs who do use social media, their is a misconception that all a company has to do is set up a Facebook and Twitter page and watch the market come flocking. These users are only moderately succesful in their attempts and a general feeling of social media marketing being ‘fluff’ has been created.
Bill Thompson’s viewpoint can be easily backed up using Internet usage statistics and how people are using social search to find products and services. Business in Ireland must follow consumers onto social media.
There are innovative online marketing solutions being devised here in Ireland. However there is a danger if SMEs are not informed and trained, revenue streams will dry up and this could impair the advancement of these solutions and Irish business in the next number of years.
Mutual dialogue must be initiated between the two groups and the government must also be involved in the roll-out of broadband. Marketing through social media is all about listening to the conversation of customers, the digital community must listen to its customers for the benefit of all Irish business in the coming years.
Connector College – Career Connections Event
by Diarmuid ORiordan on April 21st, 2010
Connector college brought together speakers from Google, Microsoft, Careers Coach and Connector. The event for students took place at the Science Gallery and was themed around ‘I have my qualification, now what?’. It had some great insights for students in attendance on how to brand yourself, networking and job application techniques.
To organise the event, Connector collaborated with DCU masters student Roisin Lyons. Roisin did a really great job in organising the venue, bringing together our speakers and publicizing the event. Well done and thanks Roisin!
Bryna McCool works as a Senior Recruiter at Microsoft Ireland. She began proceedings and spoke about the process of graduate Recruitment. She continued on with some great interview tips before handing over to Careers Coach, Greg Fry.
Greg set up Careers Coach in March 2009 with the aim of assisting people with their Career Transition. He focused on using social media to build your personal brand, and urged attendees to bring these connections offline also.
Lindsay Brown continued the evening. Lindsay is a Recruiting Specialist. She recently moved to an in-house recruitment role with Google, having previously worked on the agency side. She gave great advice to students on dealing with recruitment agencies, techniques used by recruiters, networking and personal branding. Check out Lindsay ‘s great blog.
Conor Lynch rounded up proceedings and had a few hard acts to follow! Conor capped off the evening with some good advice for students and information about how Connector gives students a chance to get great work experience and make connections . We collaberate with students, graduates & interns to run events, marketing campaigns and much more.
The ‘Career Connections’ event helped Roisin Lyons gain valuable project management experience, improve her personal brand and make some great connections. If any students would like further information about joining the Connector Team, don’t hesitate to contact conor [at] connector dot ie
‘Career Connections’ connect with Microsoft and Google
by Connector on April 14th, 2010
Connector has organised a very special event ‘Career Connections’ on Tuesday 20th April @ the Science Gallery, Trinity College.
Students and graduates are facing an uphill struggle to find a job these days.Sadly, Connector cant help you all ‘connect with a job’, but we do have the connections to help you get ahead of the pack in the hunt for a job.
This promises to be a great night, showing students how to pursue careers in the competitive job market.
Speakers include Bryna McCool: Senior Recruiter at Microsoft HR Ireland, Lindsay Browning: recruitment specialist at Google and expert careers coach: Greg Fry. Conor Lynch, the founder of Connector will also be along to talk about the use of social media to market yourself to employers.
Focusing on the theme ’you have the qualifications…now what?’ Connector wants to give students the best chance to land a job when they get out of college.
The event kicks off at 7 with doors open at 6.45. The event will conclude with some networking and a chance to meet the speakers.
Remember to bring your student cards, as this is a student only Connector event.
Check out the presentation below and register on our Facebook page to attend.
Rosin Lyons, DCU
Connecting Manchester United supporters around the world
by connector on April 3rd, 2010
Social Media plays an essential part in the way tribes connect in an increasingly smaller world. One organisation MUST (Manchester United Supporters Trust) have begun utilising social media to spread their own campaign message. MUST have always existed as a tribe in their own right, but as we have seen throughout history the bigger your gang the more power you can exert.
MUST have wanted the Glaziers out since they took ownership of the club, but this season they have given their movement legs with the “Green & Gold Campaign”. These are the original colours of Manchester United, then known as Newton Heath, with the idea being that the fans will continue to wear Green and Gold until the owners go.
MUST are also aligned with another tribe, the Red Knights, who are the financial arm of the campaign. The Red Knights are made up of wealthy investors, some who are fans of the club, who are prepared to invest in Manchester United if and when the Glaziers agree to sell and then give 25% ownership of the club to MUST.
In February 2010 membership was 50,000 when it was announced that Blue State Digital, the same company who led the digital campaign for Barrack Obama during the presidential elections, were appointed to take the Green and Gold Campaign to the next level.
Membership of MUST, a month and a half later, has nearly tripled and currently stands at 134,440 at the day of writing (Friday 12th March). Using new media such as a Facebook page , a Youtube channel as well as providing easier ways for new signups to share information through their Facebook status is the reason the campaign has mushroomed recently.
Traditional media has caught onto the movement recently too, with not a day going by where MUST or the Red Knights don’t feature in the sports pages.
Every tribe though needs a tipping point and a figurehead. MUST’s tipping point and figurehead could have come on Wednesday the 10th of March after their game against AC Milan. Enter David Beckham, famous the world over for his football playing ability and consumer appeal, who made a clear expression of support when he donned a scarf in MUST colours after the 4-0 defeat of Milan on Wednesday night.
The MUST movement is now ready to explode and reach every corner of the globe and gain support of an estimated 75 million fanbase. This simple gesture by David Beckham is exactly what MUST and the Red Knights needed to cross over into the mainstream.
The power of Social Media in this movement should in no way be underestimated!
David Mulligan
Connect with NAMA
by Diarmuid ORiordan on March 11th, 2010
This is a bit Irish. The Facebook group “No to NAMA” has 11,369 members. I want John Joe from the late late toy show to fix my clock group has 47,415! In my opinion, Ireland needs to connect online to have a discussion about the most important piece of legislation in the history of the state.
Lets use social media to voice our opinions and lets get interested in what could potentially make or break our state. Why?
NAMA is purchasing loans at only a 30% discount from the banks. The lands these loans are based on are now priced back at agricultural value. Unless the farmers strike oil on this land, the actual underlying value will remain as low as 10% of the loan value. We’re screwed!
David McWilliams sums up the figures as “we see that there will be €51.5bn of land and development assets and associated loans transferred, based on what he has seen so far, we are looking at a hole of possibly €40bn, where we will borrow €51.5bn from the ECB, for assets worth a little over €10bn”.
A loss of €40 billion ladies and gentleman, puts Ireland in the red for generations to come.
Ireland should prepare for even higher increases in taxes to pay for the debt, unemployment and emigration should this happen.
Social Media was used as a primary method of communication among opposition supporters in the Iran 2009 elections. Tight state control of traditional media drove the opposition online to spread their message. In the USA, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign generated $60m dollars from social media channels.
Users of social media in Iran and the USA were able to establish a voice in important moments in their history.
Whether NAMA is a success or failure will decide the fate of the Irish economy for a generation.
This is an important moment in our history, and we can use social media to establish our voice and contribute.
The Late Late Toy Show’s John Joe connects online & offline
by Diarmuid ORiordan on January 24th, 2010
Oh to be young again. John Joe is at that great age, he is 8. He is discovering the magic of Roald Dahl, the delight in laughing hysterically at nothing in particular and the general rough and tumble of being a happy and carefree young lad. And all of us can remember wondering what we wanted to be when we grew up: a soccer player, a farmer, a fireman, an horologist, or maybe we wanted to line out for our county on All Ireland Final day.
Now I know what your thinking, no child in their right mind would want to be a farmer with the price of milk the way it is.. Your right, it is a dead-end job. A horologist on the other hand; that’s a profession for an 8-year-old to aspire to! And thats just what our friend John Joe wants to be.
John Joe is a one of a kind. He got a style and vocabulary of an old English gent, the logic defying sense of humour only an 8-year-old can have and he wants to be an horologist when he grows up. There are 47,077 members on the “I want John Joe from the Late Late Toy Show to fix my Clock” group on Facebook, and the RTE video on YouTube has had 220,739 views. John Joe’s “Clockside mix” dance tune has had 78,784 views!
There is something more to his new found fame than just the obvious. Its very similar to the Breffmania group which has 26,816 members on Facebook. I think people in these groups are getting most of their information from the web, but they still have their quota of TV, maybe 2 or 3 shows a week. Shows like the Toy Show, The Apprentice and the X Factor are filling a lot of these people’s quotas.
The less TV people watch, the more interested they are in what shows they do actually view. Perhaps people are viewing these shows with the attitude that it is more of an event, more of a novelty; like they feel about going to the cinema. So when they do watch, They want to get online to see what everyone else thinks and to get their views across also.
Traditional media still has a huge ability to connect people, and the evidence of this is the fast growing online communities growing as a result of offline content. Perhaps the future of offline media lies largely in their ability to connect with their audience online.
Connector ‘Tribal Love’
by Diarmuid ORiordan on January 24th, 2010
Connector ‘Tribal Love’ – Thurs Feb 25 @ The Science Gallery, Trinity College
Connector and The Science Gallery are connecting to bring you ‘Tribal Love’. It will be an event themed around Tribal attraction in the digital age. As well as some prominent guest speakers, we will showcase some of the top Tribes from Dublin.
It’s really exciting to be connecting at this great venue. The Science Gallery ‘Love Labs: Science of Desire’ exhibition, runs from the 11th of Feb to the 12th of March 2010, and as part of this Connector ‘Tribal Love’ will look at the science of ‘group chemistry’.
Tribes are communities of connected people with shared interests & ideas. Whether its 5,000 Shamrock Rovers fans turning out to a windswept Tallaght Stadium for an Eircom League game, or 44,000 people joining a facebook group called ‘I want John Joe from the Late Late Toy Show to fix my clock’: its a human condition; to be connected to an idea; to a movement.
It promises to be one of our best events with a great mix of Tribes from the online and offline worlds featuring. Some of our old friends will be back, along with new tribes with passions for the likes of music, film, fashion and sports.
Please Click through to view our presentation and check back for more details before the event…
Connect with Munster Rugby
by connector on January 18th, 2009
You may recall before Christmas I helped raise €300 for charity at the Bloggers Christmas Dinner while raffling 2 VIP tickets to see Munster v Sale Sharks. Well the match was last night and I was at the match with the two winners & my Limerick based cousin Diarmuid O’Riordan.
The winners were Christine Coen & Keith Delahunty who are pictured with myself, Diarmuid and Louise from Toyota.
