Content Quality beats Content Quantity in building Social Media Influence
by malte on October 5th, 2010
Worried that you have to spend all day playing with Twitter and Facebook to get results from a quality Social Media Marketing Strategy ? According to this Marketing Profs report, studies show that quality content creates significantly more influence and reach through social media than quantity alone.
From the article :
Though most marketing executives (84%) agree there is a correlation between one’s ability to drive action (influence) and one’s reach, 90% draw a clear distinction between influence and popularity, and cite the quality of content as the most important factor in building influence online, according to a survey from Vocus and Brian Solis.
Fully one-half of surveyed marketing execs say creating, posting, and sharing compelling content is the single most important action people or brands can take to increase their influence online, followed by authenticity (31%), and depth of conversation (10%).
Continue reading at Marketing Profs : 
http://bit.ly/bhEthO
Connector’s 1st Social Media Survey Results
by Sarai Fernandez on May 26th, 2010
As you know, last week we were running an online survey to find out about social media use. Some of the results have been really surprising, for example 77% of those polled says they use social media to find out about events and organise their social life, and 67% access social media from their mobile.
Digital and Social Media Workshop- 8th april
by Sarai Fernandez on April 8th, 2010
Connectors’ first Digital and Social Media Workshop is taking place today at Cassidy’s Hotel. We are going to be learning how to develop a digital marketing strategy following 10 simple steps: Connector’s 10 C’s.
In the afternoon session we are looking at the differences between a Facebook Group and a Facebook Fan Page; the LinkedIn groups and Twitter to see how social media tools are very useful for marketing strategies if they’re used thoughtfully.
Guest speakers include Aaron Downes, Thomas O’Duffy and Greg Fry. Aaron will discuss creative development in social media, Thomas will be talking about the importance of peer inlfuence and Greg will be telling us about his top ten online tools for businesses.
Connector Training – Course No.1!!
by Sarai Fernandez on April 1st, 2010
Connector has gathered together a diverse group of people keen to learn the basics of social media marketing and how to get the most of it. Today Connector is running its first training course, called “Introduction to Social Media Marketing” at Cassidy’s Hotel in Dublin 1.
We are looking at the Connector blog, Â Conor’s Facebook profile, the Connector Facebook Fan Page, and friends of the Facebook Group; Conor’s LinkedIn profile, where we joined the Connector LinkedIn Group, Connector Twitter and WordPress.
Two of the attendees, Nessa O’Hara and David Curry, were the lucky winners of 2 free seats. Connector is still giving your the opportunity to win 2 free seats in the next 3 courses which are being held in April. To find out more about the contest, click here.
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.Â
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.
Connecting With Consumers
by Sarai Fernandez on December 1st, 2009
Several days ago I found this article/ad in a spanish newspaper.
Short translation: “Blogger wanted, reward: 3.000 euros monthly and a the use of a new car, the new Citröen DS3, for a whole year and totally free of charges”. Maybe the salary doesn’t seem too high in Ireland, but in Spain, where the minimum wage is 624 € per month, and the average salary doesn’t reach 1,500 €, this job is a huge deal. Actually, it’s is being promoted as the best job of the year.
Citröen said they wanted to get the impressions of their targeted costumer directly before the launch of the car. And publicity as well, because now, for good or for bad everybody knows about the Citröen car that is not in the market yet. And this is a good example of how companies are choosing new ways of advertising, they’re not showing the car’s features, they’re just creating awareness. Blogs, twitter, facebook… social media are the new marketing tools, as the promotion in this area is cheap and allows for a much more targeted approach.
The idea is original, but not new, Ben Southall got what was considered as the “best job in the world” this year when he won the contest organised by the Tourism Department of Queensland (Australia).
And a closer example, Rob Cumiskey, one of our Connectors, won a new Toyota iQ in June. The agreement is that, in return for writing regularly on his blog and on Twitter about the iQ, he will be given the car for 6 months to drive and review. Rob has been writing regularly about his adventures around Ireland in his iQ and will surely be very sad to be giving the car back in January.
Job Hunting 2.0
by Rob Cumiskey on November 20th, 2009
The following is a guest post by Sarai Fernandez, and was posted originally on her blog:
It’s almost a month since I gave up sending CV’s out. Before, I used to sit down in front of my computer for an hour each day, log into different websites and apply for all the jobs that I thought would suit me. The only thing I achieved from this was feeling exhausted, and I have not had a single phone call from these applications since September.
So, my new strategy is focused in two main points: learning and networking. Besides my PR studies, I try to spend all the time I can reading articles on the web about new trends, new systems or anything else relating to Public Relations. They can be blogs, e-zines, or discussions in LinkedIn, it doesn’t matter what, because I am learning a lot and also improving my English.
The second point is Networking. I started this with the Connector Lunches, and the Connector Halloween Party, and I hope to continue with these, and also try more networking events in the future. Besides that, I was at the Monster’s Career Fair today and, as was expected, I didn’t get a job, or even an offer. I did get a few business cards that could be very helpful in the future. I also attended some motivating speeches, and I took some very good tips from all of them.
If I have learnt something during this year, it’s the importance of social media and networking for your own professional development. With these tools you will never be ignored, and that is the most important step in order to achieve a successful career.
Diary of a Meteor Apprentice
by Rob Cumiskey on November 18th, 2009
Last week, we were proud to announce that one of our own, Izabela Zelazna, was chosen to compete in the Meteor Apprentice competition. Izabela has written a diary entry about her first task in the competition:
My first task in the Meteor Apprentice competition was all about social media. We were given a week to get as many fans as we could for Facebook fan page.
‘Use all possible social media and scream about your case’, my friend told me. Scream is good, I thought, however I didn’t want to create too much noise. I think that people are usually reluctant and slow to join Facebook Fan Pages these days, not wanting their News feed to be spammed.
First of all, I decided to record nice and friendly videos and post them on my Facebook page and YouTube channel. I wanted to spread the word through the networks and personal contacts that I have made so far. Knowing that Meteor is about entertainment, engagement and humour, I wanted to incorporate it all, and make people interact and smile.
The number of people signing in was not impressive though. Facebook may have had spectacular results in reaching 100mln users in 9 months but it was essential for me to understand that my audience is dispersed and the key is to have an interesting twist and share worthwhile content.
With that in mind, half way through the task, I decided to use another angle –to position myself as a foreigner, who aspires to succeeed and boldly goes for a high profile job. I sent this positive release to the press and it worked perfectly. My press release got coverage in two Polish newspapers in Ireland (Gazeta.ie, Polski Express) as well as Polish newspaper in Poland – Gazeta Krakowska. I also asked my international friends from Amsterdam for support.
So after all the effort and campaigning, I ended up with nearly 780 of the most diverse and multinational fans in the whole competition.
This has great potential. What should the next step be?
Social Media Training
by Rob Cumiskey on November 17th, 2009
Originally posted on Sarai Fernandez’s blog -
Last week, while I was shopping in town, I ran into a guy who was doing some promotion for beauty products. Despite my refusals, he took one of my hands and started to polish my nails. When he was finished, they looked awesome, but my main surprise came when I realised that the same tool he had used, a six-faced file, had been in my wash bag for at least a year with absolutely no use. The fact is that I never learnt how to use it, and it led me to think about how we sometimes have the best tools in the world at our disposal, but without the proper knowledge of how to use them, they become worthless.
This is the same problem that many people have in the world of Social Media. They have a Facebook and a Twitter account, but they don’t know how to make the most of it for their own bussiness. They’re kind of intuitive, but sometimes some specialised training can make a great difference.
On December 14, the Irish Times Training will offer an interesting one- day workshop: “Twitter and Facebook for Business†focused on how Facebook and Twitter can be integrated in a marketing and communications plan.
Besides that, organisations such as the PRII Â have detected the need to offer a more extensive education, new programmes to prepare PR people to exploit these new media, such as the Certificate in Social Media.
So now, companies have two options: either send their PR people to these kinds of training sessions or just apply a new trend called “Reverse mentoring“, I found this article on one of my visits to Connector’s Twitter profile. Surely Reverse Mentoring is going to be a really important method of Social Media training into the future?
Connector Lunch @ Saba
by Rob Cumiskey on November 12th, 2009
After last week’s lovely lunch at Little Caeser’s, where we connected with some great people, we’re going back to Saba on Clarendon St, Dublin 2 (where we had some lovely dinner here) for a 1PM lunch this Friday.
Unfortunately we won’t be sponsoring lunch this week, but we’d love you to join us. You will of course be meeting with some great folk from both the online and offline world. In the last few weeks we have had a diverse crowd but quite a few are from Dublin’s fast growing digital scene with people in from Dublin Web Summit, Balcony TV, Facebooth and reps from Truvo & Connector.
Hope to see you there 
