FCR Media Launch StartLocal Incubator Program

StartLocal is a new initiative at FCR Media (publishers of goldenpages.ie) which has been setup to support tech Startup companies in Ireland who are creating new innovative solutions to help local merchants.

StartLocal will be housed at the offices of FCR Media based on Baggot Street, Dublin 4 and is aimed at providing a collaborative space for up and coming innovative Irish Tech Startups to grow their companies over a period of 6 months.

FCR Media Ireland are part of the FCR Media Group which is present in 12 countries through out Europe and is a leader in local search and advertising. As one of the largest digital marketing agencies for local merchants and SME’s in Ireland we are very proud to be supporting StartLocal.

Over the coming weeks we will be selecting teams to join StartLocal. The first team to join us is PopDeem, they have recently been invested in by Delta Partners and Enterprise Ireland. PopDeem provide a social marketing platform for brands and local merchants to drive online engagement on social networks.

Richard Whelan CEO of PopDeem said, “We’re delighted to be part of the StartLocal launch! Aside from the central location and the state of the art office space – we will be able to leverage off the depth of expertise and industry knowledge of  FCR Media who are a well established in our industry”

Successful teams will have access to:

– 6 months high quality office space located in Baggot Street, Dublin 4

– We can arrange for direct feedback from our experienced FCR Media sales leaders from one of the largest local search advertising companies in Ireland

– Opportunity to pitch to our group spanning 12 countries

– Meetings rooms

What we ask of you is that you share your vision for innovation with our teams at monthly meetups over lunch!

If this sounds like the type of space you can grow your tech Startup at then remember to apply using our F6S page here: https://www.f6s.com/startlocal#/apply

If you would like more information please email gene.murphy@fcrmedia.ie

We look forward to meeting you.

Social Media Awards 2014 at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre

Social Media Awards 2014

On Thursday the 5th of June at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, social media experts and marketing folk from across the country gathered for the award show to beat all others, The Social Media Awards or more lovingly known by their hashtag the #Sockies!

The Social Media Awards were first launched in 2011 to recognise companies for their innovative and business-focused use of social media. Last year 450 people attended the event, however, this year that number increased to over 500. The awards are the brainchild of Damien Mulley one of Ireland’s foremost experts on Social Media and Rick O’Shea, 2FM  DJ and social media aficionado!

popdeemHQ

Popdeem won the #Sockies Cat Walk award with their highly inspiring customised socks!

Upon entering the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, anyone wearing socks was asked to participate in the ‘Sock Walk’ which had an overall winner for the best socks.

Once through the sock walk, guests were presented with ‘Fish n Chips’ style food which seems to be a change from previous years. Maybe they wanted it to be more of a social event?!

The awards ceremony was hosted by RTE 2FM DJ, Rick O’Shea, who most definitely brought the fun factor to the night. Throughout the night sweets, crisps and chocolate were thrown into the crowd to keep them on their toes, literally! He engaged with everyone in the theatre, moving around and making sure everyone got something! He brought an element of ‘Panto’ to the night, adding to the fun atmosphere.

 

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Jill Robinson of FCR Media

Our View of the Awards Ceremony

The FCR Media Team gained a great insight into how some of Ireland’s biggest brands use social media to run creative and engaging campaigns to get their message across to their customers.

Centra, winning 3 awards and the Grand Prix award, really showed us the impact social media campaigns can have on businesses, and what can be achieved if you invest time and effort into your campaign.

It certainly gave us determination and drive to be on the stage next year collecting awards for FCR Media and our clients!

 

This years social media awards sockies winners from FCR Media blog

Congratulations to this years winners of the 2014 #Sockies!

And the winners of the 2014 Social Media Awards / Sockies are:

Facebook Page for a Business (Agency Run)
Universal Pictures Ireland

Facebook Page for Non profit/organisation
Alone Ireland

Facebook Page for a Business (owner managed)
Lidl Ireland

Integrated Facebook Campaign:
Centra Ireland

Best Business Twitter account – Marketing
Spin 1038

Best Business Twitter account – Support
Irish Rail

Best Business/Org Twitter Campaign
Centra Ireland– #CentraCronado

Best Blog of an SME sponsored by .Me Registry
Brave Media

Use of Social Media by an SME
Tour America

Video/Video Campaign sponsored by YouTube
Kevin Egan Cars

Online PR Campaign
Bewley’s fair-trade Fortnight campaign

Use of Social Media by State Body
Defence Forces

Mobile App
Two winners
Just Eat + St Patrick’s Festival

Customer Care sponsored by Sky Ireland
Vodafone Ireland

Best use of SM for a sponsorship campaign
Electric Ireland

Innovative Use of Social Media
Spin 1038 The Drop

Social Media Effectiveness sponsored by Cloud90
UCC

Integrated Social Media Campaign
Centra Ireland

Social Media Only Campaign
Samsung ‘Re:Create’

Experimental
Essential French

Agency of the Year
Radical

Grand Prix
Centra Ireland

Yet Another Change to Facebook Business Pages

Facebook Pages have always been central to how so many Irish businesses market themselves online, so whenever any changes are made to such a trusted platform, a leading digital and marketing agency like FCR Media is always going to take some notice of it.

Understandably, some of our clients (and marketers!) may be a little frustrated every time the social giant announces yet another tweak to its fabled Pages, but much like what we do, each change is invariably to your benefit, and is simply the result of continual and considered evaluation.

So, what is the change?
Announced on the Facebook Business News Page, the change involves the reconfiguration of the ads on the sidebar so that they look more like News Feed ads. Full roll out of the change isn’t due to happen until later in 2014, but as soon as this month, there will be some advertisers adopting the refreshed ad design.

Facebook’s justification for the change
With the ads in the sidebar being enlarged to match their News Feed counterparts, you also won’t see as many ads there. The change has been described by Facebook as offering advertisers “a simpler way to create ads and an enhanced creative canvas on the right-hand column of Facebook.”

On the Business News Page, under three headings of “A better experience for people”, “A simpler ad product” and “Availability”, Facebook stated that the new look and distribution of the ads was intended to improve the ad experience on the network. It claimed to have seen as much as three times greater engagement in early tests for the new design.

Facebook added that with the new ads mirroring the overall shape of desktop News Feed ads, it would no longer be necessary for marketers to choose separate images for placements in the News Feed and right-hand column. Both placements could now have the same image.

Good or bad news for businesses?
It seems that businesses have been responding more positively than negatively to the news so far. Certainly, marketers will be pleased to have less work to do in creating ads, at the same time as superior user engagement. However, some have wondered whether the smaller number of ads will lead to an increase in their price.

Contact FCR Media about your online presence
However, it’s worth realising that Facebook ads – whether in the News Feed or the right-hand side column – are far from the only aid to your Irish company’s success online. As a specialised digital agency, sales and marketing company in Ireland, FCR Media knows how to create a greater number of connections between businesses and prospective customers seeking information.

To that end, we have developed a comprehensive range of proprietary platforms and products, from SaySo.ie to goldenpages.ie. 78 per cent of Irish people use Goldenpages each year, which receives more than 1.5 million monthly visits.

FCR Media also offers the complete ‘Digital Pack’, encompassing Facebook Business Page and weekly updates alongside a host of other online marketing elements, such as search engine optimisation, search engine advertising and Google+ page setup. This all makes it another package helping to keep your Irish business ahead of its online competitors.

The State of Digital in Ireland as of April 2014

It’s useful for those firms in Ireland drawing on the services of a digital agency like FCR Media to know the exact state of play with regard to digital in this country – how are people accessing and using digital media, and who are they?
The social network ‘hits’ and ‘misses’

The most recent available statistics reveal that 86 per cent of adults in Ireland now use some form of mobile device – 61 per cent of them using smartphones and 40 per cent on tablets. Social networking sites seeing widespread usage included Facebook, with a 57 per cent share, while 27 per cent of Irish people used Twitter and 23 per cent had a LinkedIn presence.

Only slightly lesser-used social networks among Irish adults at the moment range from Google+ (20 per cent) to Pinterest (6 per cent), while instant messaging client Skype (33 per cent) also sees widespread popularity in the country. A big hit among the Irish young, meanwhile, is Snapchat, the photo messaging application used by 43 per cent of 15-24 year olds, with half of them turning to it daily.

Household use of the Internet
Clients of FCR Media may be equally interested to read that 82 per cent of households in Ireland had access to the Internet in 2013, suggesting that while much remains to be done, online engagement in the country is still extremely high even before the full implementation of the National Digital Strategy announced last year.

Indeed, 61 per cent of households use the Internet every day, with 78 per cent having used it in the last three months. The Internet has been used to find out about goods and services among 61 per cent of households in the last three months, with 71 per cent using laptops and 39 per cent using PCs. But it isn’t just about those platforms for Irish web users, as 22 per cent had also used mobile in-store for researching products.

How Facebook and Twitter are being used
There’s little question about the continuing primacy of these two social networks for many Irish Internet users, with Facebook having 2.3 million active users in Ireland alone. 70 per cent of those users visit Facebook on a daily basis, and have an average of 280 friends. There’s also a slight gender bias – 54 per cent – in favour of women.

The Irish brand that enjoyed the greatest number of Facebook fans, meanwhile, was Penneys, with 424,280. 70 per cent of all Irish businesses, in fact, are using Facebook, for which mobile is also an increasingly big factor. 70 per cent of all Facebook activity is now done on mobile, with 1.7 million Irish people using their smartphones to access the social network.

The figures relating to Irish use of Twitter are similarly interesting, with Christmas Day having seen 120,000 tweets made, and 101,000 retweets having been made during the Six Nations tournament. 50 per cent of Irish Twitter users are female, and 47 per cent have children.

Taken together, such statistics may seem merely a curiosity, but they actually help to piece together a very valuable and more complete picture of who uses the Internet and social media in Ireland, and how they do it.