Introducing SocialMedia.ie social media services

by adam on October 11th, 2010

Connector recently launched a sister web site SocialMedia.ie and here we present our brand spanking new services guide including training and community management.   Hats off to Alvin Perry & Bernie Grogan for the great design work!

Connector Intern Event 2010 Review

by Shelsea Rawson on July 29th, 2010

When I plan events, it’s always more fun if it is planned for a good cause. There is something to be said for doing an event with the purpose to help another. With this intern event, Barnardos was our charity partner.  Barnardos mission is to challenge and support families, communities, society and government to make Ireland the best place in the world to be a child.

To help this intern charity event come together we received sponsorship from The Church, Jameson and Shamrocker Tours. The Church allowed us to invade their club downstairs while providing us with welcome food and a free glass of wine or beer.  Shamrocker donated a trip for three days around Ireland, a chance for an intern to see other parts of the country. Jameson graciously donated several bottles of their famous whiskey, along with a lunch for four, and an 18 year old bottle all for us to raffle off; along with providing our guest speakers a bottle of their gold whiskey.
Our speakers for the night were Orla Tighe and Neil Leyden.

Orla Tighe is the fundraising manager for Barnardos. She told a moving story about a little boy she had met that is in programs at Barnardos, she talked to the struggles that he has in his life and how Barnardos helped this boy and his family move towards a better life.

Neil Leyden is the project manager at Gateway Ireland. He spoke to what Gateway Ireland is striving to do. They are focusing on promoting Ireland to the world and harnessing the vast majority of people in the world with an Irish connection. He focused on people with an Irish connection around the world and how they can bring these people together for a common purpose through various social media outlets.

The event all in all was a success; we talked, mingled, danced, enjoyed ourselves, and most of all did it for a great cause. We learned about the cause and we learned about how vast the Irish culture is spread no matter where you are in the world.

We would like to give a big thank you to all of our sponsors and our speakers for coming out last night. It was a great time and we could not have done it without you.

And thanks also to Jason Roe from BTW who kindly helped us raise more money for Barnardos at his event also in The Church.  Their collection brought in approx €250 which is brilliant for a meetup and much appreciated by us and Barnardos.

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.

Culch.ie – Connector 'Tribe of the Year 2009' (Shortlisted)

by Conor on November 30th, 2009

As part of Tribes Week, we are featuring all of our shortlisted Tribes on the Connector Blog today. Each of these Tribes have been shortlisted for the Connector Tribe of the Year award. The winner will be announced at Christmas Connector.

Culch.ie is a new and growing group blog, the main  theme being pop culture. The site also features information about different events around the country as well as features on gossip, movies, newspapers, photography, radio, politics, etc.

Connector would like to recognise the fantastic work that Darren Byrne has put in over the last year in creating a fantastic Pop Culture resource and community.

As Darren and Rick say themselves:

The idea was a simple one – a few months ago we thought it’d be fun to start a group blog project (well, everyone seems to have one these days), the theme took a little bit longer. To be fair, pop culture is one of the few common threads that runs through almost all of us and Ireland doesn’t have a  huge, enormous pop culture review site/aggregator/news place (can’t you see we’ve researched the lingo here?) so we decided to give it a go.

Check out Culch.ie’s presentation at Connector Tribes event in May:

Support Izabela Zelazna as The Meteor Apprentice

by Rob Cumiskey on November 9th, 2009

We here at Connector are very proud to announce that one of our own, Izabela Zelazna, has been chosen by Meteor out of more than 1,000 applicants to be in with a chance to win an Apprenticeship in the marketing department at Meteor.  In recent weeks she has been helping Connector and impressing us with her talents & great humour.

Izabela, a PR freelancer is originally from Poland.  She holds a Masters degree in Sociology and post graduate diploma in PR and Event Management. Her overall ambition is to be happy and successful. She is one of the final seven hoping to impress Bill and his award winning marketing team at Meteor.

We’d like to reach out to our readers and ask you to support Izabela by becoming a fan of her Facebook page here. The applicants with the most fans will progress ahead in the competition, so it’s really important that as many people join her page as possible.

Izabela in action! (bottom left)

Thanks in advance for your support and watch this space!  Connect with Izabela on her blog here or @ironiza on Twitter.

Connector Tribes

by Conor on May 27th, 2009

I am a big fan of Seth Godin.  He is an American marketing writer & speaker and has a huge international profile for his books and blog.  ”Tribes’ is his latest book about communities of connected people with shared interests & ideas. I think it is his finest work and below is his excellent presentation @ Ted.com

The Connector No.10 event called ‘Connector Tribes’ is inspired by Seth’s new book and is a unique event I hope will work out as planned !  I will follow up with an Connector eMag about the Dublin Tribes and the Connector Tribe Awards are coming later in the year. 

A great mix of Tribes have been confirmed for tomorrow’s event.  We’re still waiting for a couple of confirmations but here is the line up so far …. Boards.ie, D-light Studios, Synth Eastwood, The Attic, Crewger, Funky Seomra, Edenbee, Nouveau Vadge, Dublin Streets so lots to look forward to !

If you’re a Tribe and not on the list, come along and I’ll see if we can fit you in!  Big thanks to all the Tribes who are speaking on the night with a special prize from TheChurch.ie for one lucky winner.  Which tribes are you in ??

Thanks to Alvin from Fresh Design for the Connector Tribes logo below.

Connect with Pieter & Ronan from locle.com

by connector on May 5th, 2009

Nice guys, nice idea and we wish them the best of luck with locle.com and well done to Pieter especially for making such an interesting presentation @ Connector No.9

Connector Meetup – February 2009

by connector on February 9th, 2009

Connector brings the Facebook generation Face 2 Face.

Here are the details of the next Connector Meetup No. 7 in Dublin.  The theme this month is ‘Digital Video Connections’ & we have over 120 people expected again at this event in 4 Dame Lane bar.

The events are FREE to attend and please RSVP to niall [@] connector.ie with names of attendees if you would like to come along.  Join our Facebook Group >>

Connector No. 4 Roundup

by connector on November 14th, 2008

Well the experiement to add in some speakers / presenters for connector no. 4 worked out really well with a very positive reaction for Philip McCartney, Jennifer Maguire & Niall Harbison.  Thanks also to cabaret chanteuse Rose Lawless who sang 2 great song for us.

It was great to see some many video production guys there including iFoods.tv, Muzu.tv, BalconyTV.com, YourNight.ie, Crewger & conman.TV Live Streaming.  This is in addition to several web start up, a band, graphic designers, web designers & loads more ! I hope you all made some new connections !

Thanks again to Bulmers Light who sponsored the event and will hopefully be a partner for the Connector Meetup in December too.  More details soon.

Connect with cool Dublin digital videos

by connector on October 25th, 2008

Motorbike Show Promo – Martin – Progressive Productions