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New Media and Social Media Case Studies in Ireland

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Are you wondering how new media and social media are being adopted by businesses in Ireland?

Well in a series of audio’s I recorded for the PodCamp Ireland podcast series and through other entrepreneurs and business leaders I have met, I explore how companies are adopting these new communication platforms.

KRISHNA’S STATE OF THE NATION, IRELAND SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT AT THE END OF 2008

When it comes to social media and social networking there is definitely a generational divide with even Generation X professionals wondering how social networking is relevant to them.

Popular social networking sites are Bebo, MySpace and increasingly Facebook. There are also online forums such as Board.ie and niche social networking sites such as IrishBusinessWomen.com. However the majority of business leaders and professionals would not yet have developed a professional profile online through social networks or through blogs.

Blogs would historically have been seen as online journals and many personal bloggers would not have sought to develop their personal brand with people taking on ‘alter egos’ while having many readers and people commenting would. It is rare to find someone with a personal blog as part of an online career portfolio.

However increasingly we are starting to see some high quality business blogs primarily from solo preneurs or from employees within organisations such as Microsoft where they employees are encouraged to blog. With awards for blogging, social media and podcasting being recognised and receiving awards for example the Irish Internet Association Net Visionary Awards, this is helping profile best practice. To put it in context, in a recent survey by a leading communiations provider O2, just 7 per cent of SME’s were using business blogs asd part of their online communications.

There is an increasing interest in social media and how it can be used to support the expression of your personal brand online through the increased number of events and workshops in this area and with some Irish based social networking platforms developing, such as Pix.ie, a photo sharing site which won the Best Social Media Site in the 2008 IIA Net Visionary Awards.

Twitter based services such as Twitterfone and the controversial Quitter were interestingly developed here in Ireland and launched in 2008.

There is also a notable increase in the number of business professionals starting to explore using Facebook and LinkedIn for business and online networking.

Social media has been adopted by entrepreneurs, small businesses and certainly in the technology community more readily with some great results. There is an active Irish community on Twitter and there are also Creative Camps, BarCamps and PodCamps which have developed since the first ever Barcamp was held in Ireland in 2006.

Just this fall there have been an increase in number of events and conferences about social media including the second PodCamp Ireland taking place, in the public sector, there was a recent conference about how to use social media in the public sector, the Arts Council in Ireland hosting an event about how people in the arts can use social media, the PR Institute in Ireland hosting a social media workshop and the EU representative office in Ireland held a conference about blogging and how it can be used for social activism.

In addition, the Marketing Institute have held workshops and published articles in their magazine both offline and online about personal branding and social media and the Sales Institute of Ireland hosting events about personal branding, the dialogue is certainly commencing.

With this wider engagement along with the traditional media from radio to TV and main stream press embracing social media with their own blogs and podcasts, I predict that the interest in social media in Ireland in 2008 will develop at a pace in 2009.

And once that happens, people will start to pay more attention to how engaging in social media can support them in their professional and personal success and they will begin to consider more carefully the intersection of their personal brand with their company brand and how their personal brand is expressed both online and offline.

PODCAMP IRELAND INTERVIEWS

These interviews are now available as a stand alone series so you don’t have to listen to all the podcasts from PodCamp Ireland and I know this is valuable advice.

The audios posted below are the most popular and content rich audios of the series.

All you need to to access the audio’s is to right click with your mouse and save the MP3′a files to your hard drive.

In addition as part of my BizGrowthLive programme I recorded the following interview with FllowersMadeEasy.com, an online florists in Dublin about how they use blogs, Flickr, Twitter and Facebook to increase engagement and sales – access the interview through streaming audio, by download or subscribe in iTunes HERE

PodCamp Ireland 2008 Recordings

Mike Buckley talks about social media and baby boomers

Minister John McGuinness discusses the business of social media selling Ireland overseas and using social media in business

IRISH eGOVERNMENT SYMPOSIUM 2008 INTERVIEWS

Listen to interviews with some of the guest speakers and delegates about the adoption of social media and digital media in the public sector:

IRISH INTERNET ASSOCIATION, BUSINESS BLOGGING WORKSHOP

Listen to a workshop where entrepreneurs, leaders, web development professionals and PR professionals discuss business blogging in Ireland.

This workshop took place in December 2008 as part of the development of the white paper on business blogging for the Irish Internet Association. You can access the audios HERE.

IRISH INTERNET ASSOCIATION, BUSINESS PODCASTING WORKSHOP

Listen to a workshop where audio and online video podcasters discuss business podcasting in Ireland.

This workshop took place in April 2009 as part of the development of the white paper on business podcasting for the Irish Internet Association. You can access the audios HERE.

IRISH INTERNET ASSOCIATION, CONGRESS 2009

If you were not able to attend the IIA Congress in May 2009 you can listen to the podcasts of the main speakers. (Disclosure: my company were appointed to record and edit the podcasts.)

IIA Congress 2009: Colm Lyon, Managing Director, Realex Payments – Duration 51 mins
Devising a Strategy for accelerating growth in an internet business

IIA Congress 2009: Trey Harvin, CEO, dotMobi – Duration 45 mins
Mobile Web – Building for the Future

IIA Congress 2009: Ronan Harris, Online Sales & Operations Director, Google – Duration 47 mins
The End of Estimation – Certainty through Analytic

IIA Congress 2009: Colm Long, Director of Online Operations, Facebook – Duration 50 mins
Creating engagement and dialogue with users and customers on the social web

IIA Congress 2009: Tips from exhibitors, speakers and delegates – Duration 48 mins
Interviews with exhibitors, speakers and delegates at IIA Congress 2009 about how they are doing ‘Better Business Online in a Tough Economy’

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

©Krishna De.  All rights reserved. This article and audio tips can not be replayed, repurposed or re-issued and are solely for educational purposes. If you wish to quote from these audio’s, please contact us with details of where the audio is to be used and for what purpose. See our audio policy here and our copyright policy here. Attribution must be given to Krishna De (bizgrowthnews.com), brand engagement and social media strategist and co-founder and host of PodcampIreland.com

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