How to create a Social Media Strategy in 10 steps
by Connector on October 29th, 2010
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!â€
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 Review: Movie Maker, iMovie and Camtasia Studio
by Dave Dungan on May 31st, 2010
Video is taking over the Internet. After Google, You Tube is the second largest search engine in the world ahead of Bing and Yahoo. Last year they hit 6.6 billion streams and currently have over 73% of the online market. With this in mind, anyone who wants to seriously market themselves online needs to be doing video.
You’ve probably heard already how video is great to add to your website, how it can be great for SEO and how users love to share good video with their friends. The reason many people are not doing video is because they think that it is either too expensive to produce or requires technical skills they don’t possess. Luckily there are a number of tools available that make it possible to edit your own video.
Microsoft Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker is the one that most people are familar with. It comes freely available with Windows software or can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft website. It has basic video editing features that allow you to make your own videos without any great technical knowledge.
It allows you to import various clips, sequence them, clip them and apply basic transitions and effects. In addition to this it allows you to record voice narration and produce and share your video on YouTube or your blog. The drag and drop interface is really easy to use and the functionality is perfect for making basic promo videos for events or customer testimonial videos. There are limitations however.
If you want to use more advanced video techniques like screen record, Movie Maker does not offer this. Nor does it offer features such as callouts, zoom and pan or cursor effects. Overall it is a great package for most of your needs and it’s ease of use makes it ideal for beginners.
Apple iMovie
If you are using a MAC then Apple iMovie pretty much gives you the same deal as Microsoft Movie Maker. It is freely available with any new MAC but unlike Movie Maker it is not freely available to download.
It offers pretty much the same functionality and ease of use as it’s Microsoft equivalent and is ideal for anyone looking to do basic promo videos without having to spend a fortune or learn how to operate complicated software.
Camtasia Studio
Camtasia offers all that the others do plus loads of nifty features, plus it is available for PC and MAC. Like Movie Maker and iMovie the interface is intuitive and easy to use although the additional features add a little extra clutter if you’re not planning on using them.
Some of the extra features include Record Screen and Record Powerpoint functionality which are great for doing video tutorials. In addition to this it offers more advanced effects such as Zoom and Pan, Callouts which allow you to write over your video or images, Cursor Effects that allow you to highlight mouse clicks, and more advanced audio editing features.
Camtasia will cost you around $300 to buy so if you’re not planning on using the extra features it’s probably not worth your while. They offer a 30 day free trail that will allow you to test the product before putting your hand in your pocket so it’s definetely worth a look in.
Conclusion
Basically if all you need to do is pop up a few video interviews or make a very basic promo, the first two options are ideal. If you would like to feature video tutorials or use more advanced editing techniques then Camtasia is the way to go. We’ll be posting some live tutorials ourselves really soon to help you get to grips with each of these products so keep in touch!
The Connector 10C’s Model for online marketing strategies
by Dave Dungan on May 26th, 2010
The Connector 10C’s is a strategy model to devise, implement and evaluate any digital and social media marketing plan. Aimed at businesses and organisations of all sizes and industry sectors, it can help executives and entrepreneurs to combine their website, social media and email marketing to attract and retain more customers and to gain the best return on investment possible.
The video below discusses the Connector 10C’s model in more detail.
Disconnect with Europe ?
by connector on June 11th, 2008
I was on boards.ie earlier and spotted an online ad for Libertas which led to their web site. This site looks quite good and a lot better than this other one anti-Lisbon site No2L.com anyway. No2L were even doing Google Pay Per Click (PPC) ads so online marketing is the way to go for the no campaign !
Libertas even had a link to their Facebook profile but it had an underwhelming 99 friends from around the world.
However, I must compliment Libertas for picking a great place to connect with young active web browsers in Ireland’s top community web site. Most Irish online marketers have missed out on this opportunity which always amazes me as I know boards.ie have a huge audience.
I did also find a Google Ad for ‘Yes to Lisbon‘ Alliance. Has anyone seen any other ads for the Pro-Treaty parties or are they strictly off line, and maybe off colour ?
My voting preferences will remain undeclared but will online marketing beat offline marketing on Thursday ??
