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Earlier this month I was delighted to gift a free scholarship to the the Greenhouse Limerick Social Media workshop.

The winner of the scholarship was Mary New of PaperCocktail.com Wedding Stationery Specialists based in County Wicklow. Her business was established just 5 months ago.

Here is Mary’s guest blog post and a review of the event:

As someone new to the world of social media, I was delighted to receive Krishna’s De’s scholarship to the Greenhouse Blogging and Social Media for Business Seminar at The Absolute Hotel in Limerick on Saturday 13th June 2009. The event was organised by entrepreneur, Evert Bopp of the Greenhouse Start Up Incubator Project who had lined up an expert panel to address this seminar.

While familiar with some of the nuts and bolts of social media and blogging, despite much research, I was severely lacking in knowledge on how to use the tools available effectively for business. In this regard,  I would like to thank Krishna De (Biz Growth News), Campbell Scott (IGO People), Fred Cabellero (Channelship), Bernard Golbach (Tipperary Institute of Technology) and Peter Donegan (Donegan Landscaping) for their contributions at the seminar which I believe have provided invaluable knowledge and insight in respect the effective use of  social media and blogging for business.

The speakers on the day explored a number of key concepts in this area as well as providing many practical tips and specific information about the networks, software and tools that are available.

It would be impossible to capture and summarise all that they shared in this post so I will confine myself to indicating just a few of the general points that I have taken away with me:

1)    Developing and protecting your online identity while being true to yourself is key

2)    We have the opportunity to develop relationships with our customers and fellow professionals through social media platforms such as LinkedIn (professionals), IGO People (Ireland’s network for individuals, businesses and organisations) and Twitter . Talking at people, making announcements or simply advertising to your target market via social media will not have the impact you may expect if you are basing your predictions on the effect of traditional mass media campaigns. The professional and often cold face businesses have shown to their marketplaces in the past have led to an element of distrust (think financial institutions!) and now is the time to explore and develop more meaningful and open relationships with customers. Through social media and blogging, when utilised correctly, we can enhance our business relationships and ultimately grow our businesses in a customer focussed manner

3)    Exploring video as a medium of communication is not as complex as it may seem and can add a valuable dimension to your business’ online presence

4)    Online communication via social media and blogging is most effective when it is informative, interesting, insightful, interactive and individual.

I understand that Evert intends to organise future seminars on the above topics and would highly recommend that any business regardless of scale, that is either considering using social media for business purposes or that like many others is struggling to plan and develop their use of social media in an effective manner, attend one of these events.

It is in listening to people with in-depth knowledge of a subject and a passion for imparting same that you will gain far more insight, understanding and practical advice than the many hours you will spend trying to find your way through the world wide maze (or web) on your own!

Note From Krishna: It’s always terrific to see scholarships for social media workshops go to people who then actively take insights from events and put them into place in their business. Mary has been busy engaging in social networking since the event and you will find her on Twitter @PaperCocktail – we wish Mary all the best in bringing her brand to life for her new business through social media in the months ahead.