Online Marketing in Galway

Full House for the next meet up session

2012-05-19T22:04:00.000+01:00

We are delighted to announce that we now have a full house for the next meet up session on Tuesday 29th May in the Harbour Hotel, Galway.

If for any reason people can't make it let us know and I will put the registration form up again straight away for other people.

There is also a waiting list available on the Eventbrite site, the main reason we are keeping account of numbers in room size.

There will be plenty of events coming up and it is great to see that there are so many individuals and businesses around Galway who are willing to get involved with this initiative.

Thanks to goldenpages.ie, Galway Harbour Hotel, our guest speakers and everyone involved for making this happen.

Have a great weekend.

OMiG..:)

Event registration for Online Marketing in Galway, 2nd 'Get Involved' Meet Up Session - Tuesday 29th May 2012 at 7pm - Harbour Hotel, Galway powered by Eventbrite

Facebook IPO: Can Facebook Beat the Google Display Network in Online Advertising?

2012-05-18T10:12:00.001+01:00

In the heat of Facebook's IPO, naturally most are comparing it to Google - what do Google have that compares most to Facebook's business model - the 'Google Display Network' of course.

Included in this post (below) is an infographic of how the two advertising formats compare so far. Unlike search advertising the two formats are not known for excelling at conversions however to date it appears that Google's Display Network still offers more.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Facebook going forward, they seriously need to get their act together with mobile...I am sure however they have plenty up their sleeve.

Is Facebook over-valued? Who's going to buy these shares? Check out this clip from the clever folks at the financial times.

BRINGING TOGETHER THE WESTS GREATEST ONLINE ADVOCATES - Online Marketing in Galway a not for profit network – the second meeting.

2012-05-11T11:31:00.002+01:00

We are excited to announce that with the help of sponsorship from Goldenpages.ie and support from the Harbour Hotel, Galway that the network’s second meeting is taking place on Tuesday 29^th May in the Harbour Hotel Galway. At this meeting some of Galway’s most elite business people and online marketing companies will get the chance to listen to four guest speakers who will each be offering their unique prospective on Online Marketing .

On the night there will be presentations by Salvatore McDonagh (Web Marketing Ireland), Michelle Frawley (Mediasavvy.ie), Ronan Kavanagh (Spam Titan) and finally the sponsor for this event Carol Murphy (Goldenpages.ie) . We would like to thank the Harbour Hotel and Sean Rowland for their continued support with this next meet up session.

Galway’s non-profit network, Online Marketing in Galway; is dedicated in its focus to spread the knowledge of Online Marketing and how it can help your business grow.

There are a lot of buzzwords to describe how we conduct business, transactions and just day-to-day activities nowadays but for the sake of keeping things clear, Online Marketing in Galway is about Online Marketing in Galway.

Whether you’re a local restaurateur, hotelier, retailer, accountant, student, charity the list goes on, in 2012 you can’t afford to ignore internet marketing.

Online Marketing in Galway (OMiG) then is a new non-profit network that has been put in place for all types of people in business, to make the most out of their limited resources when it comes to promoting themselves.

As we all know many business are struggling to make revenue these days with many companies without any marketing department or if there lucky to have a marketing department, struggling to make dowith limited resources .

OMiG is about bringing together a group of people with common interests and sharing their knowledge with each other. We do not expect everyone to bring the same skills or knowledge to the table. Different backgrounds, limited experiences and diverse skills are exactly what we want at Online Marketing in Galway.

Last month, over 30 people attended OMiG’s first meet up session with all present interested in getting involved in the network in some way or another. We were delighted to see Pat O’Grady from Enterprise Ireland attend and received some great ideas and feedback for future seminars and objectives of Online Marketing in Galway. Going forward these meetings that are aimed at the people who are getting involved at the moment, all aim to officially launch the network to all local businesses and individuals around the West of Ireland who will benefit from it.

This meeting aims to establish a structure for future seminars, which will be made available to all followers to all followers of Online Marketing in Galway. Already through a process of filling out an online form we can see that the volunteers signed up so far all have considerable experience . There is a great range of expertise, from Google Adwords, SEO, Online and Offline PR to Social Media Marketing.

Maricka says “we are always keen to get more people involved in the network and have been delighted with people’s response to date. In the near future we will have some companies offering some Online Freebies and likewise for anyone that would like to actively contribute relevant articles or news we encourage them to get into contact with us”.

The OMiG team will be offering a range of seminars and talks by experts in the coming months to followers of Online Marketing in Galway, where people can learn more about online tools which can help increase their business’ online presence.

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT IS CURRENTLY FULL - Due to the size of room we have to keep account of numbers. If you want to register on the wait-list click on the eventbrite button below, as soon as or if a seat becomes available from another cancellation another the next person on the list will be automatically notified. Please keep an eye on our website, facebook, twitter, linkedin etc for notification of future events.

We look forward to meeting everyone at the next meeting, we are very grateful for everyone's continued support and also the support of sponsors and the Harbour Hotel.

Thank You,

From all at Online Marketing in Galway.

Next Meet up Session for Online Marketing in Galway

2012-05-07T19:18:00.003+01:00

Hi Everyone,

Just incase you wondering why there has been no direct email to everyone who attended the 'First Meet Up Session' apart from the one my colleague Eimear sent on the day after, it is because we are still in the process of sorting out some of the finer details and I want to make sure everything is confirmed before I send out an email and a registration form.

To give you a rough idea at this time I am working out the logistics of a sponsored room (location) and the three guest speakers. It is looking like it will be Tuesday May 29th 2012 in the Harbour Hotel again at 7pm. We are talking to a company next week who might be sponsoring the next meet up session. As always with everything we do with Online Marketing in Galway costs will be kept as low as possible as where possible no costs at all. The sponsorship will just help with the teas and coffees.

The date suggested above is the date that suited all three of the guest speakers best. I will be sending out all the details once finalised with a sign up form to register for the event. The three guest speakers i.e. Michelle from Media Savvy, Salvatore from Web Marketing Ireland and also Ronan Kavanagh from SpamTitan are confirmed to speak on the night. I will be sending around a registration form with the announcement of this event so you can just register your name as before.

Something else I also want to note before the next meeting is that we are working on doing more with the current www.GalwayMarketing.ie website, one of the main outcomes from the last meeting is that we should have a forum. With the (massive) help we are getting from Senan Kelly from Web Activate who is working on a solution for a forum for Online Marketing in Galway within the www.GalwayMarketing.ie domain.

Thanks a million to everyone who is getting involved with OMiG - the more people we have the better it will get. I hope you all can make the next one and also anyone else who is willing to get involved and helped out I would be great to have you attend also.

We cannot forget about what one of the main aims of Online Marketing in Galway is, it's a non profit network that aims to bring together those with various types of knowledge in this area. First of all we can share and swap this knowledge amongst each other and going forward through seminars, guest blogging, thought leadership and the forum we can help out those who need it most.

Marketing and especially Online Marketing can be a daunting task to companies who have done very little in this area, the aim is to educate people of it's worth and the massive opportunities it can bring to their business, charity and what ever it might be they want to create awareness for.

There are a lot of areas and decisions that the network need to think about going forward and this is exactly why we are having these meet up sessions before we start officially starting seminars etc to the 'target market' as we call it. In the last meeting their were a lot of good points brought up, for example Pat O'Grady from Enterprise Ireland talking about companies who export services, it has long been said that this will play a huge role in saving the Irish Economy.

At the same time we cannot neglect the local economy and the businesses that serve the community that we are part of. Hence, bringing all of us together to ask the questions and question, logistically how can we make such a network work? Can we serve different types of groups and most importantly we want to make sure that Online Marketing in Galway offers advantages to those who offer to help out and get involved as well.

In the last meeting we discussed Market Research, and I like many others thought this was a great idea. Over the next two weeks I will be getting in touch with organisations such as Enterprise Ireland, Chambers of Commerce, Trade Associations who have the database we can send these questionnaires to.

Questionnaire and content design will also be an essential element to getting quality and realistic results, so if anyone wants to get involved in this process and help out please so get in touch stating that you would like to help out with the research.

The great news as well is that people have been in touch from different counties stating that they would like to start something similar within their community too, so lets make Online Marketing in Galway bigger and better and allow these other communities to use this as a template.

If you have not already filled out the get involved form and you do want to get involved in some way and attend these meetings please fill out the following form.

Going forward we will be looking for some more people to get more officially involved with Online Marketing in Galway, this will include getting your own GalwayMarketing.ie email address, taking ownership of a particular area e.g. PR, Events, Partnerships etc.

Maricka and Co.

Online Marketing in Galway - First Meet Up Session, 7pm 24th April 2012, Harbour Hotel, Galway

2012-04-24T17:08:00.000+01:00

Online Marketing in Galway - First Meet Up SessionOnline Marketing in Galway - First Meet Up Session, 24.04.2012. Harbor Hotel. Look forward to seeing everyone coming tonight.

View more presentations from Maricka Burke Keogh.

Online Marketing In Galway - The Initial Gathering

2012-04-18T23:11:00.001+01:00

I think the quote below describes Online Marketing in Galway's objective very well. Of course going forward it will develop and evolve with new members, but next Tuesday will be our starting point.

Quote from todays article in the New Tech Post, written by Tom Murphy (Wednesday 18th April)

A number of individuals from different businesses around Galway who specialize in marketing both traditional and online will gather at The Harbour Hotel on Tuesday, April 24, at 7pm, for the first meetup of Online Marketing in Galway (OMiG.) The purpose of the meeting is to create structure for enabling participants and supporters of OMiG to provide seminars in which knowledge and expertise can be shared.

Below is chart of the different expertise that the group of people coming to our first meet up session next week. It is great that we have a group of experts and volunteers around the West of Ireland that are willing to get involved with an initiative like this.

Responses from the attendees of next weeks first meet up session

If you have been following any of our social media outlets i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter you more than likely have seen one of the many announcements that we made about next weeks first meet up session.

We are always looking for people to help us in this area as we want to offer a lot more to Galway's Business community. We all have our own reasons of getting involved with such an initiative:

it exercises our knowledge on Online Marketing (it changes by the day);
the volunteers have the opportunity to educate those who really know very little about Online Marketing;
once businesses in this case get a taster of what they can do at a low cost they then might have more confidence in taking there online marketing efforts to another level.

I worked in Google for two years, and I witnessed businesses first hand grow from small start up's to large organisations - all because of an online business model that they put in place and done very well.

Of course I talk a lot about Online Marketing, but the great thing about some of the people getting involved is that they have an experienced successful background in traditional marketing and PR. Some of the people attending the event next Tuesday are experts in SEO, Website Design, Social Media, and PR (as you can see from the chart above).

Personally for me it gives me another objective outside of my full time role in Enerit to stay up to date with the latest trends and keeps me very motivated. I am also looking forward to learning from the others that will be at the event next week.

If you know anyone that want's to get involved i.e. some people that have some type of experience in the area of Online Marketing, Traditional Marketing, PR please pass on this form to them.

As soon as we have dates set for Seminars etc we will announce them through out all our social media outlets and anyone who is signed up to our newsletter .

I want to thank everyone to date that have helped for their contribution in some way or another, it is very much appreciated.

Here's to OMiG getting bigger and better.

Maricka

Be Part of the New Network and Get Involved

2012-04-14T23:01:00.000+01:00

If you are interested in getting involved fill out the following form. If you are interested in signing up to Online Marketing in Galway's newsletter, you can do so from the following form. Please note that newsletters are kept relevant and to a minimum. Follow us on Facebook here.

Guide to Inbound Marketing Infographic by Marketo

2012-04-13T20:32:00.001+01:00

The primary job of a Marketing Professional is to position a company for success and to drive revenue. But the trends of information abundance and attention scarcity mean that the tried-and-true ways of accomplishing these goals don’t work as well anymore. Fortunately, buyers put down their “anti-marketing” shields when they are actively seeking information or passively looking to be entertained or educated.

Now companies can engage and build relationships with buyers – and influence their preferences – using inbound marketing. When done right, this approach returns dramatically better results than traditional marketing techniques that rely on interrupting prospects. In this infographic we present a visual overview of what a CMO needs to know about inbound marketing.

First Official 'Meet Up' Session confirmed

2012-04-10T18:22:00.001+01:00

Online Marketing in Galway's first 'meet up' session for those willing to get involved has just been confirmed for Tuesday 24th April 2012 at 7pm in the Harbour Hotel.

This date was by far the most popular date according to my reliable pal the Doodle Scheduler, apologies to anyone it doesn't suit. We will make sure we keep you in the loop and hopefully next time.

If you haven't expressed you interest in Getting Involved yet and you would still like to, leave your details on the following form and I will record your invite.

If you have left your details through this already let me know if you didn't receive a Doodle Scheduler email.

Looking forward to seeing everyone,

Maricka

Stay Organized & Stress-free: “Getting Things Done” Method Applied to Business Tools

2012-04-05T15:32:00.000+01:00

These days we hear lots of calls to be more productive, effective and organized. They sound like “Achieve more in less time”, “Beat the work overload”, “Be more effective”, well that sounds pretty inspiring, but is it really achievable? And if so, what are the magic actions to take to get to this degree of perfection?

Today I’ll take a look at one of the time management methods called GTD, whose core promise is to boost your productivity in a stress-free manner. I am also going to give you a couple of business software tools that can actually help implement the GTD ideas and make them an integral part of your daily life.

GTD is shorthand for Getting Things Done, productivity method pioneered by David Allen. Its idea is that today, people and especially business people, have to remember a lot of things they need to do. It takes up an unnecessary amount of your brain’s work and energy to track all these things, it results in stress, frustration and apathy. GTD method says we have to free our mind from remembering tasks and concentrate on actually performing them. GTD says it’s possible to transform overwhelm into an organized system, and it’s going to be a stress-free switch. That seems to be what we all really lack and want. So what’s the secret? How to get things done and at the same time overcome the stress of overload?

There are four steps to make it work:

First: Collect any relevant inbound information, coming through emails, phone calls, articles, requests from colleagues, ideas, etc. Empty this information from your brain into a trusted system (it can be anything - from a computer program to a notepad), in fact anywhere outside your head.
Second: Ask yourself if every task on your list requires an action from you to move it forward. If it doesn’t, maybe add it to a “Someday” list or keep it as a reference file. If it is actionable, make a decision what is the next action. If the action requires just a couple of minutes, perform it immediately. If you are going to delegate it, add a reminder to your “Waiting for” list. If the task is complex and consists of more actions, record it in your Projects list.
Third: Review your actions and keep your list up-to-date. A weekly review helps determine if the system is working for you and make necessary adjustments. If you don’t keep your action list up-to-date you start to lose your confidence in the method. Once your external memory is organized into a trusted system that works, you’ll develop a great feeling of order and control.
Forth: Finally, before you start to perform the actions on your list, there is one more thing - choosing the right actions to do. GTD offers some criteria to help you choose the tasks you should be doing right now, or say today.
For example, context, if you group your tasks by context, such as work, town, etc. you can perform these tasks more efficiently.
Other criteria could be by the amount of time it takes, or even the time of the day when you have the most energy - e.g. perform the most difficult tasks when you’re full flight and do the routine stuff in the lull periods.
The last criteria is priority - start with the most important and urgent actions.

This is a summarized version of GTD on how to keep up with a high workflow and stay in control. Since Getting Things Done method became popular, some business applications have applied GTD within its workflow. Here are three business applications that support the GTD idea and assist to integrate GTD approach into your daily workflow.

OnePage CRM

Software core function:
OnePage helps small businesses manage their relationships with prospects and customers. It provides a single application to store customer and sales related information. This enables companies to attract new customers and retain their existing ones, in less time and at less cost.

How GTD idea is implemented:
OnePage CRM is focused on sales activity and turns it into a GTD-style workflow. By putting every prospect or customer in a list that’s sorted by their "Next Action", the sales person will in a natural way, move prospects through the sales funnel towards a sale. One glance at the main screen lets the sales person know what actions they need to take now, today and tomorrow. That uncluttered focus helps to move forward every single sale to success.
(www.onepagecrm.com)

Nozbe

Software core function:
Nozbe is a time and project management application for busy professionals and their teams. The app helps not only manage tasks and projects, but most importantly collaborate with others and communicate through tasks so that everyone is clear what needs to be done at any particular moment.

How GTD idea is implemented:
Nozbe focuses on three key GTD elements: Projects, Contexts and Next Actions - users can organize tasks into projects, execute them in contexts and quickly "star" their next actions and focus on their Next Actions list throughout the day. When they collaborate, delegating actions makes them someone else's Next Actions. The idea is to help the team learn GTD by using Nozbe (aka "learning by doing") even when they don't want to read the amazing David Allen's GTD book. These three core functions are further enhanced by an easy way to "dump stuff" into "Inbox" and processing it later. Nozbe tries to be user's "trusted system" for storing tasks and projects and focusing on what really needs to be done next.
(www.nozbe.com)

Tudumo

Software core function:
Tudumo is a powerful to-do list. Instead of managing many lists scattered all over computer, Tudumo keeps everything together. It allows to see all tasks, or focus on a subset and ignore everything else.

How GTD idea is implemented:
Tudumo distills GTD principles into a clean and simple user interface. The shortcut keys makes entering actions fast and easy. Tudumo helps focus on today’s work by reducing distractions. With Tudumo, the overwhelming workload becomes a structured set of tasks - to focus only on the actions that have to be done next.
(www.tudumo.com)

Have you ever tried to apply GTD principles in your life? Did it help you succeed?

Google Panda (in plain English)

2012-04-01T11:54:00.003+01:00

A great little infographic to help explain the myriad of changes made through Google’s Panda Updates – and some tips on how to improve your sites performance in light of the changes.

To get a better understanding of what Google Panda is about, I have included a short sentence to describe this;

Google Panda is a change to the Google's search results ranking algorithm that was first released in February 2011. The change aimed to lower the rank of "low-quality sites", and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results. CNET reported a surge in the rankings of news websites and social networking sites, and a drop in rankings for sites containing large amounts of advertising. This change reportedly affected the rankings of almost 12 percent of all search results.

Thanks to the team at Singlegrain for creating the infographic. Have a good look over this infographic, it might point out some areas you need to look on to within your website.

Are you ready for Facebook's mandatory changes for Business Pages coming up next week? - check out the infographic from Marketo below

2012-03-23T22:05:00.000Z

Have you heard of 'Farticles'??

2012-03-21T16:50:00.003Z

Have you heard of 'Farticles'??

If you’ve never heard of a thing called a Farticle, it stands for fake article (allegedly). These fake articles usually resemble news/facebook updates and are used to sell offers and products etc.

They are slightly deceptive in the fact that the reader thinks they are reading legitimate news/reviews etc from a news website, facebook page etc.

It is fair enough to say brands will do this on their own Facebook page i.e. stories that will promote their company/brand/news story itself, and every marketer is aware of the press release methods that at times give us a bit of coverage in a paper. Now it appears more and more that publishers are doing this through their social media too.

I love Online Marketing (obviously), I love a good read of my Sunday paper - what I am finding more and more however is I am not too sure whether I am reading an 'advertorial'. 'press release', 'Farticle' (when on Facebook/Online) etc. I am all up for press releases (when used in the correct manner) and I find it great when a journalist takes up our story, it really is a great help !- however what makes it more credible is when they do a bit of research themselves and really find out about the product/service/news we are trying to promote. Day by day, I am loosing faith each week in the papers I am reading (yes it has been happening basically forever) and more and more this is happening to the social media outlets I am following that belong to them also. It can be REALLY obvious at times and for those times it is not obvious it is not fair on the readers who make the paper or publisher what it is.

What ever the terminology it's a shame it is happening so much and creeping more and more in to Social Media. The one benifit of Online Media is that often it can be more transparent and people, followers and readers can out them faster. If anyone knows more about this area please feel free to add it to our discussion board on LinkedIn...

FREE tips and tools to test your new (Or not so new) website

2012-03-05T22:01:00.000Z

Tips and Tools for testing your website from Online Marketing in Galway.

STEP ONE – advance preparation. Define your internet marketing strategy and set the goals for your new website.
STEP TWO – marketing messages for your new website. Come up with great original content.
STEP THREE – search engine optimisation and your new website. Find out what services matter most to people searching the web.
STEP FOUR – tips and tools for testing your new website:

Now that your website is SEO ready, has a great layout and interesting content to help you achieve your internet marketing goals, you need to test it. Here are my TOP 5 FREE TOOLS.

When building web pages, the temptation to view the web only in terms of your favourite browser is hard to avoid. It is important to remember that visitors to your website will view it using many different browsers and across multiple versions of those browsers. For this reason you need to make sure that your website works on browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera. This is one of my favourite free testing tools. It allows you to test your website on multiple versions of several browsers at the same time. Check it out at http://spoon.net/browsers

The next free tool tests your website for broken links. A broken link on your site will result in a 404 object not found error, which looks really unprofessional and is to be avoided at all costs. The W3C link-checking tool is free, easy to use and works very quickly. http://validator.w3.org/checklink

Having great content is really important, so once your website is launched you will want to analyse how visitors to your website are interacting with your content. Having this information will help you to evaluate the goals of your website and it will also assist in developing new engaging content. How? Once you see what people are reading on your site, you can learn to develop content that appeals to the people interacting with you online. Google Analytics is free software that allows you to track lots of useful data on visitors to your website. You can set up a Google Analytics account at www.google.com/analytics

Building links is one of the most important elements of any good search engine optimisation strategy. How do you track when someone links to you? One great way to do this is to set up an alert for your company name. Google Alerts will automatically send you an email when it detects a fresh mention of your business name of on the web. Set up a free alert at www.google.com/alerts and to help in building links, avoid those services where you buy links from a link farm. Look at reputable directories and think about whether you could be contributing to an industry online publication that is relevant to your business. Join conversations and add value where you can and build inbound links from sites where people who buy your services are likely to spend some time.

My final free tip is to submit your new website to the major search engines. You can do this for Google by creating an XML sitemap using your content management system.

This all sounds easy when you say it quickly but trust me, the search engines want you to be really good at this and they want to help you to get great results too. Every step along the way there are tutorials and help screens to keep you on the straight and narrow. The trick is to keep your content fresh and relevant and to do that, we have given you some serious food for thought in the points raised above.

At EzSales, we help people to understand the process of internet marketing and we try to demystify some of the barriers that stop people from turbo boosting their own online presence. Many small businesses cannot afford to bring in outside help and once they have the time to give to these activities there is no reason why they cannot manage their own web presence on an on-going basis.

Facebook Timeline for Business

2012-03-02T23:11:00.000Z

Social Fresh held a webinar, (Friday 2nd February) discussing all details about the new Facebook timeline for pages. It's a big discussion these days for Social Marketers or anyone who as a Facebook changes, one reason is there are some significant changes some of them most would consider good others might not as beneficial. Whatever you think of the changes if you have a Facebook page you will have to go with the changes by March 30th so I think it is best to start working out the best strategy and imagery for your new Facebook timeline now. No longer will we be able to direct people to different landing pages i.e. apps etc we had on our Facebook page - examples include iFrames, Newsletter Sign up apps etc. So it's time to get creative - at the moment we are thinking about the basics, the logistics and then we will get technical. Technically at the moment our Facebook is not following the rules set out for the new cover image, however we are working on getting a new one and we are open to people's opinions and contributions. For now, if like us you are wanting to get to grips with the new Timeline for pages check out the slideshow by Social Fresh below. There are a lot of other tips my many other reputable sources that we have posted on Facebook/Twitter page so keep an eye out for them.

View more presentations from Social Fresh

Multiply your Effects of Your Inbound Marketing, by Marketo

2012-02-28T22:38:00.001Z

We are really liking Marketo's Thought Leadership approach to creating awareness and leads for their company and its services. The other day I downloaded a really good PDF from there which I listed here i.e. Lead to Revenue Performance.

In order to download this useful PDF, I had to give my details... the next day I got a call at work to ask to see how I found the article/PDF/Whitepaper whatever you want to call it.

As a result I am now more aware of there services and I am in the process of considering them as a service down the line.

Today, Marketo have released a New Webinar Recording: 'Multiply the Effects of Your Inbound Marketing' ... I have indirectly explained inbound Marketing above however as defined by Marketo themselves;

"Inbound marketing is “the process of helping potential customers find your company – often before they are even looking to make a purchase – and then turning that early awareness into brand preference and, ultimately, into leads and revenue.”

They go on further to explain that 'age where customers prefer to avoid salespeople and do their own research early in the sales cycle, inbound marketing is a vital part of a successful marketing strategy'

To check out the recorded demo click play on the video below....

Online Marketing in Galway - Latest Facebook Insights (up to Feb 20th 2011)

2012-02-25T22:49:00.000Z

This is what an Online Marketer likes to see, more engagement, more 'likes; more 'monthly users'.....This does not include the latest results i.e. which we hope to see a little rise from the Galway City Tribune article that was posted on February 24th.

If you have a Facebook page it is important you keep an eye on your insights. For example if you see a certain comment or post increases engagement i.e. positive engagement it's a sign your going in the right direction. If on the other hand you notice you loose 'likes', look into insights a little further and see what actions you made on the Facebook page might have caused this.

In previous roles I worked in, some actions caused EXTREMELY obvious behavior to our Facebook page and 'Fans'. The one thing that annoys me about Facebook insights is that you can't get the latest data from it, unlike Google Analytics where you have data from that data and now they have 'Real Time' data.

If anyone knows an alternative way I can get the Freshest Facebook insights results please feel free to drop a line, because as far as I am aware I can only get results for 3/4 days prior to the day I am looking.

If you are not already joined or do not yet 'like' our Facebook page you can do so on the lefthand side of the page by clicking 'like' on the Facebook Widget, alternatively check out our page direct on www.Facebook.com/GalwayMarketing.

New note (Sunday 26th February 2012): I received an update from Facebook Insights saying there was a delay in results - however I still stick by my thinking that their analytics/insights what ever you want to call it really need to get better and more up to date.

OMiG Featured in Today's Galway City Tribune - check us out!!

2012-02-24T23:10:00.002Z

I am delighted to say that today Online Marketing in Galway were featured in today's Galway City Tribune, if you haven't pick up a copy already may be check the shops tomorrow.

I can say that we our proud to have gotten a nice few 'column inches' in todays issue (24.02.12), so I can see already from all the lovely Facebook comments that we are raising more awareness.

Heres a sneaky peek of today's article i.e. Friday 24th February 2012

I want to thank Bernie Ni Ní Fhlatherta who interviewed me, it wasn't till afterwards I realised John Cunningham (RIP) their former editor passed away shortly before I talked to Bernie.

Of course I offered my condolences I didn't know him personally but I soon found out he meant a lot to Bernie and the rest of the team at GalwayNews.ie.

So despite the past two difficult weeks they have still managed to get out a great paper.

As I keep on saying the response to date has been amazing and I am aware that the freshness of this network definitely gives it great punch and reason to include within local papers.

However, we have to be realistic and such awareness will come and go. I believe that more students should getting involved, especially those who are looking for work being involved in such a network will give you objectives and will also read a great CV to potential future employers.

More and more companies are getting involved so I do believe we will have more and more to offer as time goes by. The best email to get me on if you want to get involved is maricka[at]galwaymarketing[dot]ie.

Once again I would like to thank Galway City Tribune, alongside all the other publishers to date.

Maricka

7 Ways To Improve Your Internet Marketing

2012-02-20T11:55:00.005Z

Last week, Enerit's Social Media Strategy was discussed and analysed by Enterprise Ireland's Best Connected news centre. The article was written by Deirdre McArdle of EnnClick on behalf of David Scanlon from Enterprise Ireland's Internet Marketing Unit. Please click on the link below to read the article.

Enerit and Social Media | Best Connected

For those who don't know who Enerit is and why I am talking about them have a look at our website www.Enerit.com. Enerit is an Energy Management software company that I happily took the role of Senior Online Marketing Executive with last August 2011.

When I started in Enerit, they had only just launched their software solution for ISO 50001 two months prior to me starting. Enerit ISO 50001 software automates all aspects of the ISO 50001 standard (an internationally recognised standard), for those marketers I just lost by the following sentence come back and finish what you are reading, there is method to my madness. To all Energy Engineers, or clients looking to get ISO 50001 certified as I mentioned before have a look at Enerit's website.

Since starting in Enerit I am seeing each day the potential this product has and listening to the great feedback we get from clients or potential clients after they have a trial. With a great product in hand, we want to build a good marketing strategy and Best Connected's articles discussed what we have done to dates, how it worked out for us and the article also discusses (at a high level) plans we have for our website and social media going forward.

So if you haven't done already click on the following link to read this article Enerit and Social Media | Best Connected . Since starting in Enerit and working with Enterprise Ireland through workshops, programmes and different initiatives I have found them to be an invaluable asset to a company who are about to set of to be big.

Watch this Space!!!

Maricka

Bounce Rate Demystified

2012-02-15T15:17:00.004Z

It's great to see this stats, I am well aware of industry standards but as the internet changed so quickly it is good to stay on top of things. Below, I thought was a great INFO GRAPHIC that split out industry rates by standards. For those of you who are not fully aware of what we talk about when we say bounce rate, as included in the KISSMetrics INFO GRAPHIC below and as defined by Google Analytic's;

'Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality - a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren't relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy'.

INFO GRAPHIC Source: KISSmetrics; http://blog.kissmetrics.com/bounce-rate/

Pinterest: Everything You Wanted to Know About 2012′s Hottest Startup [INFOGRAPHIC] via Mashable

2012-02-15T11:04:00.004Z

Pinterest has emerged as the runaway social media hit of early 2012. You probably knew that already. But did you know the company just has 12 people? Or that 97% of Pinterest’s Facebook fans are women?

I will have to get OMiG on the Pinterest Bandwagon and make sure that you can pin from our site.

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/14/pinterest-daily-users-are-up-125-percent/

Make Hay while the Sun Shines - Sunday Business Post Article

2012-02-12T12:46:00.003Z

It is with absolute delight that today I can say that Online Marketing in Galway (OMiG) are featured in todays Sunday Business Post, please click here to see the full article.

Like the title of this blog post says 'Make Hay while the Sun Shines' which is exactly what I will do today! Despite the rain in Galway, I am going to make sure I get the word out - LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Emails, Calls etc.

The Sunday Business Post is a paper I get EVERY Sunday religiously, so to get an article for OMiG is something which I am sure you can tell I am extremely happy about.

p.s. whilst you are reading this and if you want to continue to follow our updates - please 'like' our Facebook Page, www.Facebook.com/GalwayMarketing. You can also follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, details are all in the 'about us' section of this website.

To get back to what I was saying, I am delighted that we are getting recognition from these publishers i.e. The Sunday Business Post, New Tech Post, Silicon Republic, The Galway Advertiser and The Galway Independent (to date) as it all raises awareness of this network and what we are trying to do. Again Please visit the 'about us' section on this website.

We are getting more and more individuals on board and more and more companies who are willing to offer guest blogging, guides, tools etc on an occasional basis for example the blog post that Tom Murphy from New Tech Post added yesterday 'A Cut Out Social Media Guide for non-Profits'. If you will have a look at it i.e. it's just the latest blog post below this, you will see how comprehensive and valuable this is to non-profits and there are elements of it that can definitely help out the small businesses out there.

In the Sunday Business Post Article is mentions that there are a lot of businesses in Galway that are not online, please note when I say this I mean every type of small business from the small hairdressers down the road to a local physio or small take away that may not have their services listed online.

Back in May 2011, a joint initiative with Google, Blacknight, An Post and the County and City Enterprise Boards i.e. www.gettingbusinessonline.ie, shocking statistics was revealed i.e. 40% of Irish businesses do not have an online presence (Irish SME's)*. This great initiative by the previously mentioned organisations and although I do not have stats at the moment I am sure this number has increased.

What OMiG plans to do is bring news such as this to the forefront for local businesses around the west of Ireland. As Google was involved with the Getting Irish Businesses Online initiative this would have been one of the more recognised free or low cost places for free such tools. Helping Irish Businesses to get out there and increase their online awareness but believe me there are more, which if you follow us we will keep you updated with.

We definitely recognise that there are also a lot of businesses in Galway that are Online, and I am well aware many are doing a lot to promote there business both online and offline. I am also aware that there are a lot of agencies out there in Galway offering great online marketing services and OMiG is in no way trying to take away from that, all we are doing is bring tools and techniques that are already out there available together in one place and we encourage such agencies to get involved - that is exactly what a network like this is about.

The great thing is, is that we have been contact from many of these businesses and like the individuals who volunteering they are more than happy to help out by either guest blogging, spreading the word or offering some freebies that will help a company get started. This site is mainly aimed at those small businesses that have little or no online presence, however overtime it will get more sophisticated and we will have a section for each type of business/organisation//not-for-profit user.

I have been overwhelmed with the response to date, but for todays article in particular - I want to thank both Eimear and Ciara (who rushed out to Eyre Square
with me one morning before work) for the photo shoot with Darach Glennon of Darach Photography. Please check out and 'like' Darach's Facebook, page he kindly completed this shot pro bono, all he asked for was for us to donate to Concern (which I have done). Although for this you might have no direct reason to donate but out of Darach's generosity I would ask anyone who can or wants to, to do so also. Please visit Concern's Donation Website where you can choose to do a once off or monthly donation.

I also want to give a massive thank you to an amazing company called TheAppBuilder , please check out there website and 'like' their Facebook page also here, if you feel they have something relevant to you to follow. Personally and from the team at OMiG we think they do, within todays article it mentions that we have an app live on Android, since then we also have one live on microsoft. Without a shadow of a doubt with the resources we have this WOULD not have been possible with out Mark McCann and TheAppBuilder.

To summarise what I think they do, I think they make having your own app accessible to every company/person/organisation etc. I would be considered a 'techie' enough person but I am not a professional web developer and by knowledge of apps is even further reduced - so with the services available from TheAppBuilder, i.e. the platform to build the app (think of it as the wordpress of the app world) and the fact that they also work with you to get them published we now have two apps published one with the Android store which you can download here and the other with Microsoft which you can download here. We are working with the TheAppBuilders to get approved for the apple store (who are notoriously hard to crack) and their 'How To' videos to get this right for them. I am doing my best this week to set aside time to do this and after this is all done we will work with the TheAppBuilder for a big official launch of all.

Finally, I want to finish this of to say thank you to anyone else to has helped to date. Siobhan Brett for todays great article and also all the companies and individuals I have talked to during the week. This is a not-for-profit network and we want to get everyone who is relevant to the network to get involved, please do not hesitate to contact me or anyone else on our small team with any ideas on contributions (and by that I do not mean monetary contributions, just your knowledge and creativity) that can make this network better.

As I keep on saying it will get better and slicker with time, at the moment I myself have a full time job in Enerit which I care about immensely so number one I have to look after that however I am working as hard as possible with others like this who help out to make this a useful resource to local businesses....So to end......there is a lot more to come!!!!

Thanks a million to Everyone,

From Maricka and the little team at OMiG

Maricka Burke Keogh

* Source: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0509/online-business.html

Quick Startup Guide for Non-Profit Social Media Campaign

2012-02-11T11:30:00.000Z

A daughter of a good friend of mine attends the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES) — A public school that has a particularly fine educational track record.

However, due to the difficult financial situation of the State of California funding for some of the school's programs are either being squeezed or are ceasing. While recognizing the need for cutbacks, concerned parents feel the cutting of the study group programs, in particular, are unfair and could possibly damage the educational prospects of their children.

The parents, working together, made this short campaign video, Help LACES Fight Budget Cuts

Wanting to take further steps to get the message out, especially on social media channels, my friend contacted us at New Tech Post (NTP) to see if we could help.

We should say at this point that we are not social media experts in any guise nor do we aspire to being so.

However, since we have had a lot of dealings with people, technology and issues involved in the social media field we have become somewhat familiar with the area and its practices.

At NTP we have conducted social media campaigns on our own account and have also commissioned an in depth social media analysis of our own online profile.

With that in mind we wrote back with a few suggestions to help them get started.

The following is an edited (for clarity and privacy) version of the tip guide that we provided.

This article is aimed at the complete beginner with the idea of getting them up and running as quickly as possible.

Each group or person's campaign will have its own aims and constraints. Hopefully, by reading the material and implementing what is appropriate to their needs the new user of these tools will be able to configure and shape a useful and effective campaign of their own.

But before we start, let's just deal with a commonly held misapprehension.

Going Viral

Producing a video to with the specific aim for it to 'go viral' is an ill-advised strategy for getting your message out. It is about as useful a plan as buying lottery tickets is for accruing wealth. Very few videos go viral and a major reason is because there are so many of them.

On the YouTube faq page this is their answer to the question, "How many videos are on YouTube?"

"48 hours of video are uploaded every minute, resulting in nearly 8 years of content uploaded every day."

In YouTube's own list of "Most Watched Videos of 2011" the only common factor seems to be randomness and unpredictability — which for our purposes is not very useful.

With years of video footage being uploaded every day it is clearly going to be hard to be stand out in a unique and compelling way.

I say this to just to clear the working space of unhelpful ideas and misguided ambitions.

But what can be done, extremely effectively, is to run a targeted campaign to a clearly defined audience.

You don’t hear so much about this sort of strategy because, as you will see, it needs time, focus and good organizational skills to keep track of all the balls in the air. The ability and willingness to make a consistent effort is an absolute prerequisite.

The Video

Choose the title carefully: A clever title might be cute but a more descriptive one that people can either guess or remember easily, will make the video that much easier to find when people search for it online.

For the school's funding campaign, we suggested; “Save Math Study Group at LACES” and “LACES Needs Funding for Math Study Group” or that they use some combination along those lines.

(The title the parents committee eventually decided on was: "Help LACES Fight Budget Cuts" which is very workable in this context.)

Video Length: Between one minute and one and a half minutes is ideal. Unless the footage is something very special, two minutes is pretty much the outer limit for holding people's attention in this format. One exception is an interview where ideas need extra time to be laid out and discussed.

To keep the campaign video short and punchy it is important that the story it tells should just make one major point. Only include other elements if they contribute to reinforcing that point.

If you have more than one major point to get across you can always make another short. punchy video with another undiluted message.

You will then need to open accounts on the following platforms:

gmail

YouTube

Google+

Facebook

Facebook Page

Linkedin

Twitter

You will have to put the video up on to:

Youtube — It is best to do one upload to YouTube rather than posting the video on each individual platform. The YouTube video links and embed codes can be inserted into your social media pages simply by copying and pasting them.
This method gives you a better count on how many views the video had and you only have to make edits or changes in one place.
A website — For the purposes of this article a home site isn't really necessary but it is usual and something people expect to see. It can be useful to act as a holding place for various materials and a place to put a call to action. The problem is that websites just don't have anything like the connectedness that the major social network platforms have.
Connecting is what a social media campaign is all about.

OK, Deep breath, here we go.

Google

Since you are going to be setting up YouTube and Google+ accounts later on it is probably best to get a gmail account.

You will have to use your real name or run the risk of Google blocking your account.

The gmail account you provides an easy bridge between your YouTube and Google+ accounts, in addition, of course, to being able to handle email.

Google+

Once you have set up the gmail account you will be taken to the gmail homepage.

In the selection bar at the top on the extreme left click on ‘+You.'

That will take you to your Google+ personal set-up page.

Link the video and add your text to this page.

Before you start adding people to your ‘circle’ set up the brand page first.

https://plus.google.com/pages/create

With the Circles of networks on Google+ it is not obvious until the Circles are populated how they work and much easier for you to simply do rather than me describe.

It is best to just have everything public from the start. You can lash down your privacy controls later once you get the hang of it.

The first key tactic to implement on all the networks is to get the invites out, to get the people in, and get the conversation and exchanges of information going as quickly as possible. In any campaign velocity and momentum are the keys.

YouTube

In the dropdown menu reached by clicking on ‘More’ in the selection bar click on Youtube.

Link the video and add your text to the description box.

Thumbnails:Go to settings. Once the video has processed you will eventually see in the thumbnails section three images to choose from. Hopefully, YouTube will have grabbed the opening title image but quite often it doesn't.

YouTube captures thumbnail images from the video to allow a still image to be displayed if the video hasn't been started. But it doesn't allow you to do this with any degree of accuracy. What they do is offer you an automated, pre-selected choice of thumbnails.

There is no workaround for this except to delete the video and reload a new version hoping Google will select a more appropriate set of three thumbnails. It's a pain.

(Unless the thumbnail is completely blurred or totally misrepresentative, it is not something to spend that much time over. They are transient images in people's attention space and aren't viewed the same way as the cover of a book or a cinema poster. Both of which are specifically designed to be noticed.) Underneath the video on you tube you will see a link and a dropdown box called 'embed.' Copy and paste the links to your Google plus account and your Google brand page.

Pages: Once the brand page have the videos and blurb up (are ‘populated’) then send out invites to as many people as you can think of who would appreciate hearing from you would possibly like to support your cause.

Using a Page is far more preferable than using your personal page. People Liking your Page have no access to your personal updates or your friends details and this helps to maintain your privacy.

With both Facebook Pages a Google+ Pages, the key thing is to keep updating and not to let them languish. That means encouraging the other participants in the campaign to leave comments, updates and click on the likes.

Communication: A good policy is to ban email altogether for those involved. Have all communications come through the social platform. If needed, there are ways to send messages privately.

The amount of activity matters a lot. So the more you can interact with other people on the sites and the more you do to keep the page alive the better.

Facebook

Despite the order of construction that we have laid out for building your social media campaign using popular platforms there can be no argument, at least for the present, that Facebook should be the hub of all your activities.

It is probably the place where you will get the most activity and spend the most time.

This is my Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tom-Murphy/136274716385273?sk=wall

As you can see it takes in feeds from where I am elsewhere on the web. I rarely update it directly. I don’t really need it now as people can either subscribe to my public statuses or view my public timeline. But in the old days it was a way to reduce noise on my personal newsfeed.

A Facebook Page has to belong to someone. And that someone has to have a Facebook account. If you are the lead in the endeavour then you can either create it from your account or delegate the ownership to else. Others can join as administrators once it is setup.

Facebook > Home> (Left hand column, below FAVOURITES and LISTS) PAGES > In the dropdown box that you need to roll the curser over) MORE> (New page) Click on “Create a Page> Click on “Cause or Community”

This is the Facebook page for "Friends of Laces." Please feel free to give them a like or support them in any other way you can.

Enter text about what you are trying to achieve in the 'about' section. Link the video from YouTube.

The first goal is to get 25 people ‘Liking’ the page. With 25 'Likes' the page can have its own title which is really important for search. Vital in fact.

NB: Don’t be deterred. Like a lot of computery things it is easier and quicker to do it rather than read about it.

Following these instruction and getting the page up should take about 15 minutes.

There are other settings and so on that can be configured but getting the page up but getting the 25 first subscribers is the immediate goal.

Time for a cup of tea.

Now this one is a grind and to be effective you are going to need the help of other people.

If you don’t have an account then set one up. It is important to fill it in as fully as possible. The search engines will discount accounts with incomplete profile entries.

Once you have your account you will see a search box in the top right with a dropdown box labelled ‘people.’ If you click on that and select ‘groups’ you can then search for groups whose members maybe interested in your cause.

But first create your own group. Select ‘Groups’ which is 4th from left on the same bar as search box. Select 'create groups' and your away.

Again, invite as many people as you can to the group and make sure everybody understands to cross post between all three platforms.

Now the hard bit. Using the search find all the other likely groups that would want to know about your cause. Once you have a list of likely candidates assign people in your group to each join one or two of these other groups so they can post updates into that group and if needs be engage in debate.

Don't Spam

Be human and treat other people like humans. Civil and appropriate conduct is as important online as it is offline. Also, spamming is counter-productive. You want people to join with you so that you might achieve your aims. Alienating them at the very outset isn't going to help you in any way.

Linkedin doesn’t take too long to set up but finding groups and joining them is time consuming. A get together with laptops for coffee and assigning key groups to particular members of the team might be the best way to share the load.

Warning: If you join all the relevant groups and try to manage them yourself you will not have a life — at all.

Because users interests are so conveniently grouped on Linkedin it is possible (if you behave appropriately) to get some very good responses but because of the time involved in getting to know people and the dynamics of individual groups it is the slowest of all the platforms for upscaling engagement.

Twitter

The name that goes with @ symbol needs to be short. The word length, although not included in the composition of your own tweet is counted when retweeted.

Make sure there is as much relevant information in the bio as possible.

Twitter is very dynamic and an account for a cause or a campaign has to be actively managed. One very good tool to help with this is Buffer. It allows you to schedule your tweets thus freeing up for other activities.

Scheduling your tweets is key. If we didn’t get our first tweet out for NTP by 09:30 we missed the morning window for maximum reach in our timezone as people had checked their email and had drunk their coffee by then and were now settled into work.

With just a bit of brainwork and some trial and error you will be able to work out the times that are best to tweet out at depending who you want to reach.

The timing for messages to parents at the school gate may differ from reaching public officials who maybe locked in meetings at the end of the school day.

Tweets should be short and to the point and if possible have a link but always a hashtag.

For any campaign every tweet you send should have a hashtag, '#.' Like the Twitter name it should to be brief. #ntp12 would work for something that we might want to do this year.

What the hashtag does is aggregate the results for a given term. Putting a hashtag in front of a word or combination of words and letters ensures that when people use that hashtag on Twitter they only get the results for updates that include that tag. It reduces ambiguity in results and cleans up the noise somewhat.

Go to the Twitter search engine and enter a common word like sugar and have a look at the results. Then type in #sugar and see the difference.

Although, you have to use an email address to set up Twitter you can use any name that is available for the handle.

Have all friends in your circles and on Facebook follow you.

Setting Twitter up is probably the easiest and quickest of all three.

The Twitter home site is not the greatest to use. Tweetdeck is a very popular Twitter manager. I don’t care for it that much. However, the official Twitter app is particularly good for mobile devices.

These four platforms are your priority and should be up and running before you spend time registering with other services.

Setting them all up should be either a morning's or afternoon’s work.

The key thing to remember is that online campaigns, like any other campaigns, are not passive activities. While the platforms allow you to reach people in ways not possible before, they are not hands off, automatic processes.

They don’t do your thinking for you, they don’t do your strategizing for you. They don’t work out your tactics for you. They are just tools that need skill and care in implementation much like any other tool.

Basic workflow:

Create Google account using gmail

Create YouTube account

Upload video to YouTube

Fill in description

Choose Thumbnail from settings

Create Google+ account

Copy YouTube link into Google+ account plus description

Copy YouTube link into Google Page account plus description

Invite people to Google Page

Create Facebook Page

Link in YouTube video plus description

Invite people to Facebook Page

Create Linkedin account

Copy YouTube link into account

Create group

Copy YouTube link into group

Invite people to join

Get help finding relevant groups

Assign people to post, update and engage in those groups

Create Twitter account

Craft bio

Follow as many relevant people as you can. (Tweet out to your community for suggestions.)

This is neither a definitive approach nor the only approach but simply a way to get people started on a social media campaign. If you think there other, better ways of doing this then let us know in the comments.

Great news, our Online Marketing in Galway app is live on Android NOW Thanks to TheAppBuilder.com

2012-02-07T23:46:00.002Z

Great news, our Online Marketing in Galway app is live on Android NOW thanks to TheAppBuilder.com – Please go to the android marketplace and download the app here.

We are delighted to say the within the next two to three weeks we will have Online Marketing in Galway apps that will also be published on both the Microsoft and Apple marketplace. Apple are notoriously difficult in this area but we are doing our best with the resources we have and I have to say the team at theappbuilder provide a great service as mentioned above you can check out out here.

Where does Social Media fit in to your 2012 budget?

2012-02-07T23:36:00.000Z

Where does Social Media fit in to your 2012 budget? or like most of us do you even have a budget for Social Media? Attached is a B2B Guide to Social Media (short guide) - it can be a bit blunt & bring home a few home truths so - be warned!!

My immediate thought after reading it is - WE DO HAVE TO go beyond the tried and tested methods of traditional marketing techniques and at times take risks, please also be aware that I am well aware that this is difficult for small businesses but any ways I am blabbing on just have a read for yourself...

Throw out your text books from college, just think to yourself how can I get my target markets attention in the right way - sometimes you will bring in theory you captured from back in the day or in some cases yesterday but with regards to marketing and especially Online Marketing - every day is a new day to learn!

Source: http://www.b2bsocialmediaguide.com/?s=Marketo&submit=Search