FCR Media would like to wish all of our Staff, Customers and Users a very Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous 2015 to All!

Thank you for your support in 2014 and we look forward to working with you all again in 2015.

Effective reputation management on social media

Today, if you type any vaguely known company’s name into Google, you’ll be presented with a host of relevant links – many of them being social media links. The thing about social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is that people are always using them to chat about organisations like yours… and the results may not always be pretty.

However, this only makes your own organisation’s far-reaching presence on social media all the more crucial. By maintaining an official presence on the below social networks, you can ‘own’ your search results, which is vital to safeguarding your firm’s online reputation.

Facebook

Assemble as complete a Facebook page as possible, and you’ll project the most professional, capable and informative appearance. Facebook is naturally a crucial platform on which to directly engage with customers and clients, presenting a wide variety of content and responding quickly and appropriately to queries and complaints.

Twitter

The micro-blogging service has revolutionised customer service for big corporations like Microsoft, significantly cutting costs while boosting visibility and enabling quick and efficient responses to customer queries. It’s also the perfect channel for publicising one-time-only promotions, discounts and offers.

Google+

As you might expect, Google looks kindly upon its own social network, which is consequently closely intertwined with the search engine. Yes, social signals count for something regardless in determining your search engine result rankings, but you can be especially sure of that with content posted on Google+

YouTube

YouTube is an especially suitable platform on which to have a presence if customers are constantly asking you the same questions about how to use your products or services.

With YouTube, you have a highly engaging means of sharing ‘how-to’ and advice videos, which can be easily shared in turn by other users. The more you proactively answer customers’ questions through YouTube, the less likely they are to voice grievances elsewhere online, aiding your company reputation.

Pinterest

Organisations that are associated with high quality visuals are also strongly associated with high quality products and services – and what better platform could there be for sharing such visuals with the world than Pinterest?

A branded profile on Pinterest allows you to create boards of images themed around relevant product or service categories. Certainly, many a fashion-oriented company has made Pinterest their number one social media destination – with great results.

goldenpages.ie

goldenpages.ie, our flagship platform is highly influencial amongst Irish Consumers. With a reviews feature, users  will often contribute reviews based on their direct experience of a product or service.

LinkedIn

The leading professionally-oriented network is especially important in building your reputation among industry peers, in turn assisting the development of those all-important B2B relationships. It’s another platform not to be overlooked when coordinating an effective social media presence for online reputation management.

Enquire today about FCR Media’s Digital Pack, which gives your organisation a powerful Facebook and Google+ presence alongside such perks as a mobile website, search engine optimisation management and search engine advertising.

FCR Media now offers customers a free Social Media Monitoring tool. Call us today for more information 016188000

5 web design trends that are now out of date

In any area of life, not merely the web, for every stone-cold design classic that remains as relevant now as the day it was conceived, there are many other trends that prove exactly that – mere passing trends.

That’s certainly the case in the world of web design. The online landscape is a fast-moving one, and design elements that once seemed cutting-edge can quickly come to look like a momentary fad in just a year or two’s time.

Here are five of the once-favoured web design techniques that are far from on-trend in late 2014.

1. Flash intros

Flash used to be the must-have technology for organisations to incorporate into their homepages, and it was big news that the iPhone and iPad didn’t support it.

Alas, that proved the beginning of the end for Flash in many ways. More and more smartphones have since come along that have not incorporated support for the technology, which isn’t good news in the age of widespread mobile browsing and buying.

Nor do the search engines react well to Flash, so it could even hurt your site’s rankings.

2. Huge homepage banners

It once seemed logical to have the company’s logo take up a large proportion of the website homepage – after all, it’s worth it to drum your firm’s name and colours into the minds of visitors, right?

Unfortunately, website visitors themselves generally don’t agree these days, considering such banners to be overbearing and to take up space that would be better reserved for content. Your site might be lucky enough to be able to make it work, but the greater likelihood is that it won’t be.

3. Long-winded text

Who wants to visit any site and be confronted by impenetrable blocks of text? Doubtless, one might have once considered such a look wise, on the basis that it made the site look weighty and the company like one that had a lot to say.

These days, time-pressed web users would much prefer if you just quickly and clearly got to the point, particularly when they are browsing on their mobiles. Use bullet points, bold text, links… break up text wherever you can for readability’s sake.

4. Autoplay videos

There’s nothing wrong with having a video on your site – after all, it gives a break from reading text or looking at still images, and there’s no doubt that web users respond to moving images and audio, often being compelled to stay longer on your site as a result.

However, making a video automatically play as soon as the visitor hits your homepage is more than annoying. It makes many a visitor look for the ‘pause’ button or simply click the ‘back’ button and head to the site of a competitor.

5. Unwanted pop-ups

Similarly annoying are pop-ups. They were annoying in the early days of the Internet, and they remain annoying now. Most customers don’t want to have one shoved in their face when they are looking for other information about your products or services. The pop-out on the other hand is less intrusive and a little ‘du jour’ right now!

It doesn’t matter whether you’re inviting the visitor to enter a competition, ‘like’ your Facebook page, sign up for a newsletter or something else altogether – the same principle applies. It’s another website design trend of yesteryear to swerve well clear of in 2015!

If you’re in any doubt of the quality of your business website ask us for some pointers! Our web services team are available to take a look at your site. Simply call +35316188000 at your convenience!

How to make your small firm stand out from the pack

Starting a business is easier than ever these days – the tricky thing is to make that business distinctive when it seems that even the smallest possible niches have been covered. However, there are still many extremely effective means of winning your small firm the all-important visibility of your potential customers .

1. Work on your brand

What is your brand about? What does it stand for? What are its values? There are many ways of posing what is essentially the same question, but it is an essential one to answer. The small firms that disappear without a trace are so often those that don’t seem to be different in any way to the competition.

Your company, after all, is the upstart compared to the ‘big boys’, so it does need some distinctive selling points. It’s your message that people will really remember you for – even if they don’t become your customers.

2. Get the right people together

Even the greatest individual superstars can’t achieve everything on their own. Whether it’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift or yourself that you have in mind, so much depends on the assembly of the right background team.

With the most suitable team of staff as well as partners and customers, your business will definitely make itself more distinctive – whatever its size. These are the people who take on roles as brand leaders and advocates, spreading your company’s values and messages far and wide and to the right people.

3. Embrace the potential of digital

It’s staggering how many small business owners still make the mistake of thinking that the Web just isn’t ‘relevant’ to their particular business niche. The truth is that if you aren’t scooping up customers online, a competitor almost certainly will be.

Increasingly, online is where the really lucrative audience is, irrespective of industry or niche. There are all manner of ways of making your given products or services ‘translate’ on the web, even if you don’t construct a fully-functioning ecommerce store and instead largely use it to promote your high street presence.

It helps that online marketing can manifest in so many different ways. You may use all manner of combinations of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, YouTube and Google+ to communicate your business messages, although this does make it all the more important to choose the right platforms and be sure of what exactly your business messages are.

It can be so easy for those tapping into digital marketing for the first time to communicate the right messages at the wrong time, or simply the wrong messages at the wrong time. However, there’s no doubting that when done right, online marketing allows smaller firms to operate on a relatively level playing field with the major corporations.

4. Consider what the competition is doing

There are various ways of reacting to what your rivals are doing. You may admire their methods and consider how you can adopt them for your own small firm’s ends, or specifically aim to do something that the competition isn’t presently doing.

Consider FCR Media’s all-encompassing digital packages when you are seeking to maximise your reach as a small firm. We specialise in marketing SMEs so you can focus on your business!

Jennifer Mullan -FCR Media Racing Lead Driver – pictured here with her goldenpages.ie car

The fact that I just spent four days driving round Silverstone National circuit in my little goldenpages.ie Formula Ford still hasn’t really sunk in but it is an experience I will never forget. The journey began on Wednesday night when I took a flight to Birmingham after work with one of our mechanics, David to meet up with the rest of the team who were already at the track. We arrived at 1am and after dropping David off I headed to my hotel for a few hours’ sleep before having to be back at the track for 8am the next morning.

Thursday and Friday were spent testing, doing a radio interview and then a photo shoot with one of the UK’s best motorsport photographers, Jakob Ebrey. The mega results of this can be found on my website www.jennifermullan.com. I was buzzing for the weekend leaving the track on Friday night as everything had gone to plan over the course of the two days and I was all set for the real action to begin!

With qualifying and one race on Saturday I was gutted when I opened the curtains of my hotel room to see that it was wet. I don’t have much experience in these conditions and we only got one run on a wet oily track on Thursday morning. I qualified 14^th out of 18, which wasn’t too bad considering. I needed to finish 14^th in the race to qualify straight to the last chance race the following day but I just missed out by finishing 15^th meaning I had to take part in the progression race early on Sunday morning. I was gutted to say the least, as my lap times in the race were a second off what I had been doing in testing.

Sunday morning was once again wet. I was starting in third place on the grid for the Progression race and needed a top six to get through to the last chance race. Had it been dry looking at the times I might have just scraped 6^th place but as it was wet I ended up finishing 10^th out of 26 cars. Dropping back sounds worse than it was as there were a good few top guys that had problems the day before that had to come from the back of the pack so I was happy enough.

That left me just the Historic final in the afternoon to contest. Once again it was still wet and the session before hand had covered the wet line in oil the whole way around the track which was a nightmare but it was the same for everyone. I lined up 19^th, got a mega start and found myself up to around 15^th going to the second corner. That’s where the good news ended unfortunately, I spun there on a really slippy bit of track and I got collected by another car, I was able to continue but it had damaged my steering so I spent the rest of the race with the steering wheel off to the right when I was going in a straight line. I fell to the back of the 26 car pack but quickly made my way back to 19^th before going off again and then again later on! I had more spins in this race than a washing machine but I was just trying so hard. I ended up 20^th at the end, which was disappointing as I had the pace for around a top 12 or 15 but that’s how it goes I guess, we’ll put it down to experience and come back stronger next time hopefully!

It’s mad to think that the 2014 season is now over but what a season it was. I have had the privilege of working with some of the best people in the business and picked up a few trophies along the way so for my first season in Formula Ford I don’t think I did too bad! The 2015 journey begins now and I really hope I get the chance to do it all again next year and put to good use what I learnt this season and if I’m really lucky I’d love to go back to Silverstone next year and battle it out again with the best formula ford drivers in the world.

I’m going to stop rambling now and end by just saying a massive thanks to each and every person who helped make this year possible, every person who wished me well, my team FCR Media Racing and of course my fantastic sponsors www.goldenpages.ie, www.MobileReady.ie, www.SaySo.ie and www.wheelsforwomen.ie.

Incase you missed the first installment from Jennifer Mullan, FCR Media Racing’s lead drive – click here.

What a year it’s been racing for FCR Media Racing and representing the FCR brands goldenpages.ie, MobileReady.ie and SaySo.ie. I have been blessed to be able to continue my partnership with these guys since 2012 and after enjoying two successful years in the Formula Sheane Championship we decided to make the switch to Formula Ford 1600 in 2014. There is great history with goldenpages.ie cars in Formula Ford and they enjoyed a lot of success together back in the 80’s and 90’s so it was a great honor to bring the colours back to the series.

We set out a plan to compete in the newly launched Champion of Mondello series, the Vivion Daly Trophy, the prestigious Leinster Trophy and the Martin Donnelly Trophy at County Down Circuit, Kirkistown. We unfortunately missed the first weekend of the Mondello Championship but despite this I managed to go on to win the Pre ‘87 class championship in my 1984 Reynard Formula Ford with three class wins and two third places. I also took the class win at the Vivion Daly trophy and secured myself some very rare prize money. The Leinster Trophy didn’t really do to plan despite a very positive qualifying, I made a mistake in the race and didn’t finish. With Kirkistown being my favourite track I was keen to end the year on a high with a strong performance. Testing for the event was a wash out so qualifying was the first time I drove the track in the dry and by the time the final came around I was on the pace of my fellow class runners and took home a nice trophy for third place in the pre’87 class for my efforts.

Thinking that was my season over with after Kirkistown we managed to put a package together to head over to Silverstone, England, the home of the British Formula 1 Grand Prix to compete in the Walter Hayes Trophy. This event generally attracts over 100 Formula Ford 1600’s to compete for the top prize. I am the only female entered in a Formula Ford this year but this doesn’t really matter as I’m pretty used to it at this stage and when your helmet goes on we are all the same at the end of the day!

I really can’t wait for racing to get underway on Saturday and Sunday. I’ll report back next week and let you all know how I got on but in the meantime cross your fingers and wish me luck!