Congregation 2015 is all about huddles and conversations set in the remote village of Cong. For three days, Cong will be a social hub for those who have insights into social media they would like to share. And a curious mind to learn more is essential. 

It is small, remote and set on the Wild Atlantic Way in Mayo the West of Ireland. And it is not the average conference set up either. To attend you need to submit a blog post. That is your ticket to entry. The blog post is about something that you think will interest people. A new insight, something that you are curious about and want to explore more with others. 

Village of Cong

The village of Cong is one of the most beautiful and picturesque villages in Ireland. And is famous for being surrounded by the Quiet Man film locations.  This setting is what is so unique about Congregation. The relaxed village atmosphere and the use of the different buildings in the village. 

Tech people from all parts of the country and some from Europe take part in this great event. This year Congregation has become a three day event. It is all starting on the Friday evening in Ashford Castle with an evening of talks, movies and exhibitions. Augmented and Virtual Reality are on the agenda along with a demo of Oculus Rift. 

The unConference on the Saturday is central to what Congregation is all about. Throughout the day intimate huddles take place in social venues around Cong village. All are within walking distance of each other. Each huddle has about 10 people in them and every one gets a chance to present at one of the huddles. The different venues include the local bookshop (my favourite), giftshops and a few pubs. 

On Sunday we are all off on a guided cycle tour for 3 hours. It will be a easy trip along forest paths stopping at historical sites such as Ballykine Castle and natural wonders such as the Pigeon Hole Cavern. 

Blog Post Entries 

To give you a flavour of what the talks are about here are some of my favourite blog posts for #Cong2015. Kieran has some fascinating points about disability in his post Everyone Has Impairments. And how "the un-built environment holds far greater potential. The un-built environment, that Interweb thingy, that is where the action is at!"

There is an interesting post by Ciaran Cannon a TD for Galway East and former Minister of State at the Department of Education in Ireland. This is what makes unConferences special. You have people from all walks of life coming together to exchange thoughts and ideas. Ciaran's talk is about our education system.  DisconnectEd – How do we fix an education system that is rapidly losing touch with reality? As a lecturer in Dublin Business School I am particular interested in Digital Marketing and how students and lecturers can learn from each other. 

And being a hyperlocal nut I am interest in talking to Cladagh Barry again and hearing more about her post Work Local. Deliver Global. 

And last but not least you can check out my post which is all about using your apps for better life management. I talk about AnyList, Bullet and My Fitness Pal. 

It is because of these people and so many more that makes Congregation to unique and inspiring. And that is why it is my third year going. I savour the calmness and stillness of Cong. It is a much welcome time out both physically and mentally from a busy life. 

Huddles Galore 

It time to reflect and think about what we are doing with social technologies. Are we doing right with them? What impact will they have on the next generation? Can we keep some of our old ways of communicating. Being human. Being real. Enjoying the emotions and expressions of face to face meetings. Will our children loose the art of talking around the fire sharing stories, telling jokes and singing songs. I hope not. And that is why events like Congregation are essential. Huddles in villages to warm the soul and feed the mind. 

Pauline Sargent, Maria Walsh the Rose of Tralee and Felicity Mc Carthy of Spark Digital

 LinkedIn for Business 

When Pauline Logan asked me to speak at the LEO Dublin City Womens Network meeting in Dublin on June 8th I jumped at the chance. Having attended these women network meetings for many years I was delighted to be a speaker and share my knowledge of how to use LinkedIn to grow your business. 

Looking back at my first meeting in 2010 I was horrified to realise that you had to stand up in front of approx 90 people and pitch your business or idea. At that stage I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do. Now I realise how valuable a service the LEO Dublin City Women in Business Network is for growing your confidence, for connecting and collaborating with other women in business. 

Each month there are featured talks on business issues that matter most to the members. The June event was on two forms of social media used most by members, LinkedIn and Facebook. 

Myself and Felicity Mc Carthy of Spark Digital presented on LinkedIn and Facebook respectively. 

The LinkedIn talk covered 

• Importance of your profile on LinkedIn 
• Personal vs Business presence on LinkedIn 
• Publishing on LinkedIn 
• Interesting formats to enrich your LinkedIn profile 

And the Facebook talk covered 

• Why it's a useful marketing tool 
• Personal vs Business on Facebook 
• Page posting tips & planning 
• Advertising on Facebook 

The talks were followed by questions and answers and discussions at each of the tables. A big thank you to Pauline Logan for th eopportunity to speak and for organising these great meet ups month after month. For €50 a year membership they are definietly worth the time and money. 

•  When:       Thursday 21st May 2015 
•  Time:        2pm until 5pm 
•  Register:   Here NOW 
•  Cost:         Only €99.00 
•  Where:     Guinness Enterprise Centre 

A super half day workshop on all you need to know about LinkedIn. 

This workshop will let you understand the benefits of using LinkedIn to optimise your personal profile and to help grow your business.

Getting to know LinkedIn and being comfortable using it on a regular basis can really help your brand thrive. It can keep you in touch with current customers and help generate new business leads.

What's Involved

•   5 Tips to Improve Your Profile
•   How to Add Rich Media Content
•   Optimise Keywords for Your Business  
•   How to Develop Real Business Relationships 

This LinkedIn workshop is for you if you :- 

•  Want to know how to use and understand the benefits of LinkedIn     
•  Are looking for ways to market yourself or your business
•  Have invites to connect and are not sure what to do with them 
•  Want to increase job opportunities or increase business leads 

The Outcomes

• Be able to create a compelling profile that makes you stand out
• Be confident in connecting with people and finding new connections 
• Join LinkedIn groups and become a valuable member 
• Be able to manage your time effectively on LinkedIn

There will be a maximum of 15 people attending this event. There is no need to bring laptops or tablets as it is a seminar style workshop. There will be opportunities for discussion and sharing of experiences throughout the workshop. 

Pauline loves using Social Media to share and connect with people from all parts of her life. For family events and news, for community activism and for professional reasons. She is a part-time digital marketing lecturer with Dublin Business School and has worked with 100s of people by helping them  use Social Media to improve their lifes and businesses. 

Connect with Pauline on LinkedIn 

This one day training course will teach you how linkedin can be fully utilised to transform your company brand, engage with your current customers and build a pipeline of new business. This includes

The Guinness Enterprise Centre 1st Wednesday club (now running over 4 years) was attended by over 15 companies all at various levels of business. Everyone got a chance to say a little bit about what their company is about and then help other companies if they felt they had a contact that could help. 
 

Conor, Fluidedge has a great drupal event coming up on the 22nd & 23rd of May in the GEC. Also David and Sarah from the Dublin Startup Commissioners office attended and shared some news on what is happening in the Dublin Startup scene. 

David talked about Crunchbase and the mapping of the Dublin startup eco system. Register your business now. And Sarah reminded us about four things that are good for startups to know 


1) Startup Digest 


2) Online SME tool 


3) Dublin Globe new startup publication


4) Startup Brekkie in the DDDA first Friday every month 


It was a busy hour with lots of actional tasks for everyone. We strive to keep it tight within the hour and 99% of the time we succeed. 

The next event is on the 3rd of June 2015. Can't believe we are nearly half way through 2015 already. 


#GEC1stWC

Great attendance and energy at February's 1st Wednesday Club in the GEC. 

Networking in Dublin 8 

Are you looking to generate leads, build business relationships and increase sales?

Come to the GEC 1st Wednesday Club on Feb 4th hosted by myself  and see how it can help your business. As it says in the name, this business networking club meets on the 1st Wednesday of every month in the Guinness Enterprise Centre. It starts at 12.30pm and finishes at 1.30pm. A free Lunch is provided in the way of sandwiches with tea and coffee.

The format of the one hour networking session is to let everyone introduce themselves, their business and who they are looking to get in touch with. Then we go around the room a second time to say who we can connect people with.

It is not always possible to connect everyone with someone on the day, however, there have been many successful connections and sales made as a result of the 1st Wednesday Club.

There is a great mixture of companies attending and it is always interesting to hear about the different businesses that are working hard around us.

We also like taking the conversations started at the 1st Wednesday Club and bringing them further online in between events. The below GEC social links can help with this and using the new dedicated 1st Wednesday club hashtag #GEC1stWC

Twitter: @GECinD8
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GECinD8

Sarah Scannell who works alongside ‘Niamh Bushnell’, Dublin’s first Commissioner for Startups will be coming along this week to hear all about the fantastic work that you all do here at The GEC.

Attendance is a must – get the word out there about your business!

I’ve been  using Short Stack for the last two months and I have to say that I’ve found it very effective. I’ll admit it takes a little getting used to but once you get the hang of it you will really enjoy it.

Pros

1. Customer Support: Anytime that I ran into some sort of difficulty while using the Short Stack app I was able to resolve the problem by either looking at their FAQ section, looking at their own tutorial videos on YouTube (which are done by staff members) or by sending them an email which they always respond to. Check out this article here from Amanda Webb of Spiderworking which shows you how to set up a Facebook competition.

2. Installation: Installing your tabs from Short Stack to Facebook is really easy. You have two options. Quick Publish and Custom Publish. I would recommend that you use Custom Publish although it’s a little trickier you can do more with it. Also once you have installed your tab you can make changes to it from Short Stack and update instantly, a nice touch.  

3. Access to Information: If you’re running a Facebook competition through a Short Stack tab that you’ve made, you have easy access to your entries as Short Stack gathers and stores their information for you. You also have the option to select a random winner as well as being able to export your entrants detail to an excel document. This is really useful for companies who want to contact their entrants again in the future.

Cons

1. Limited Design Options: When choosing a theme for your tab the user is limited. As far as I know there’s no option to make a custom theme but to be fair the ones available are pretty good. If anyone knows of being able to make custom teams please feel free to let me know. Note: Short Stack has the option to add your own code but I have zero knowledge about coding

2. Initial  Difficulty: When starting off using Short Stack I found it difficult to be honest. I have no previous experience in design or anything like that so maybe it’s just me but after a few attempts and tutorials I did get better at it. My advice would be to practice with it in your free time before you have to use it for business.

Overall I would recommend Short Stack to people but with the warning to practice if it is new to you. If anyone would like to recommend any similar apps or websites to Short Stack I would love to hear them.

Stay Zavvy,

Seán Carroll

As part of my Business and Management degree in the Dublin Institute of Technology I have to undertake a 16 week work placement. 16 weeks sounds like a long time but when you’re working for an amazing company like Social Zavvy the days feel like hours. As I write this I’m just about to finish up my 4th week. I’m already a quarter of the way through it.

I’m not much of a blogger but if you bear with me I’ll do my best to recap the last 4 weeks and to give you an overall idea of what it’s like to work for Social Zavvy.

When you hear the word intern you think of some poor guy coming in from a college and having to make coffee and file papers all day. The Social Zavvy experience is a million miles away from this. During my first week I was barely even in the office. I went to 2 seminars about digital marketing and I got to learn so much valuable information. I took particular pleasure in rubbing this in my peers’ faces when they told me about all the lovely office based activities that they were doing (I kid).

My second week in Social Zavvy was a lot more office based but I learned how to use some pretty cool social tools such as Hootsuite, Eventbrite and Animoto. I also got to meet our clients face to face and discuss strategies and operations. I never thought I would be getting this involved during my time in Social Zavvy.

My third and fourth weeks have been a mixed bag of office work, seminars and meeting clients. I got to attend the Irish Internet Association event on Inbound Marketing and Content Creation. At this event I got to see some of the pros in action including Kieran Flanagan from Hubspot and Alan and Siobhán from Wolfgang Digital.

The thing that I like the most about working for Social Zavvy is that I feel like an important member of the team and my opinions and ideas are always valued. I have 12 more weeks to go before I’m finished with Social Zavvy and I’m going to relish every day that I have left.

Stay Zavvy,

Sean Carroll

I didn’t really know what to expect before I went in to the seminar but I did a bit of research on some of the speakers and knew that I was going to be in for a great day. I arrived just before we were addressed by Robert Ward, the Director of Marketing in NCI. When I entered into the lecture hall that the event was in I was taken aback by the volume of the crowd in attendance. This fuelled my interest and made me think that this is going to be a pretty awesome event.

The MC for the event was Karlin Lillington from the Irish Times and she gave us a quick introduction before the first set of speakers.

The topics of discussion were varied and ranged from social media to cloud computing and everything inbetween. There was something there for everyone who loves a bit of tech. There was talks from people who have set up their own business in the areas that they have a passion for. They included:

• Rory Nugent from showbizgeek.com
• Kirstie McDermott from Frillseeker
• Naoise McNally from OneFab Day
• Andrea Magnorsky from BatCat Games
• Jennie McGinn from The Prowlster (Not to be confused with a similarly named site

They all told the audience why they started up their business as well as some of the lessons that they have learned along the way.

There was also the opportunity to attend one of a possible nine deep dives on a specific topic. I attended the Simple Analytics Dashboard deep dive with the very helpful Barry Hand from Grabone.ie

After the ‘Brownbag Lunch’ we were treated to the comedy stylings of Colm O’ Regan. I didn’t want to be late for him with the fear of being ridiculed Colm was hilarious and got the crowd into a more livelier mood which was a nice touch (well played dotconf).

As the afternoon went on there were some more speakers including the very entertaining Jon Morter aka ‘’the social media hellraiser’’. Jon pretty much showed us examples of big companies doing social media completely wrong and gave some great advice on how to do it right. I recommend following him and his page Condescending Corporate Brand Page for a laugh and you will actually learn a few lessons.

There was a few more speakers before the main event and keynote speaker James Whelton took to the stage. Karlin told us that they had tried to get James twice before for the dotconf but he was unavailable at both times, once was for his Leaving Cert. James is the Co-Founder of Coder Dojo and the Hello World Foundation.

James discussed the importance of the need for coding in peoples lives. He said that ‘’we learned how to read and write and now we need to learn how to code’’. He talked about all of the advantages and benefits towards society if for example doctors and lawyers were able to code. He also talked about privacy issues and gave his views on them.

James is only 20 years old but he already has accomplished so much and I can see him having a great impact on the world.

The only negative of the day was that my phone died early on and I couldn’t tweet

I’ll finish off this post by saying that the dotconf was a fantastic day out and I left feeling inspired having listened to so many accomplished speakers and having meet some really nice like minded individuals.

Until next year,

Stay Zavvy

Seán Carroll

Social Zavvy were in attendance at the recent Irish Internet Association (IIA) deep dive event. The theme for the day was Digital Marketing Mix and this was the third of the deep dive series so far.
The event took place in the Digital Hub on Dublin’s Crane Street. Joan Mulvihill ,the CEO of the IIA, was the MC for the day.
The first speaker of the day was Conor Mullen from RTE. Conor’s talk was entitled "Content and Context – Dispelling Some Myths about Online Display Advertising". I knew that this would be interesting after having been at the previous deep dive.
Anyone who was there would understand but anyway I digress.

To sum up Conor’s talk Display Advertising works when you have the right content in the right place. Some of the examples of incorrect Display Advertising were crazy and if you were the company involved with them you would not be happy.

Felicity McCarthy from Facebook was the next speaker and she talked about Facebook being the place where you are your real self and gave some tips on optimising Facebook for both yourself and your business page.

Some of her tips included :

• Keep Updates Short
• Keep Updates Timely and Relevant
• Make it about your fans/ Engage with them

Those tips might seem simple but they are often ignored and it’s always great to have them re emphasised especially from someone who works for Facebook!

After a brief coffee break we returned to the event and into the case studies. There was an example of B2B from Sage Ireland’s Beatrice Whelan, B2C in the service industry from David Stone of Burritos & Blues and another B2C from Aedan Ryan of Puddleducks.

Beatrice was up first and she told us how Sage Ireland used Social Media in the Integrated Marketing Mix. Sage ran a campaign in late 2012 which involved listening to their customers and running a very unique and well presented competition with the chance of winning their latest software. Sage are an example of a company who know their audience and what they want.

Up next was Burrito & Blues main man David Stone. I know you’re all wondering did we get free burritos? Sadly not as to quote David ‘’they don’t travel well’’. He was forgiven because of his really interesting presentation. David showed us how he uses Social Media, preferably Twitter, to engage with his audience and develop his company’s image. David told us that it’s just him his iPhone and he doesn’t have any Social Media Expertise per se. David informed us that when it comes to Social Media he doesn’t try to hide from any problems and tries his best to turn a negative into a positive. Really good customer service in my opinion.

The final case study was presented by Aedan Ryan of Puddleducks. Puddleduks sell childrens’ waterproof clothing and are based in Cork. Aedan gave us a brief insight into the history of Puddleducks and the range of clothing that they supply. They were founded in 2005 and have over 200 Products with over 1500 variations.

Aedan showed us their marketing mix and they use Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to name just a few. They also use Google Adwords and Facebook Ads. He told us that their marketing strategy is – Brand Awareness- Building Trust-Community and Loyalty. He showed us example of all of these aspects in action and they are all really well executed to be fair to them.

The day finished off by having a short Q&A session with the three case study speakers, with Joan being the main contributor as the audience seemed a little quiet (it was a long day to be fair ).

I left the IIA with an overall better view of how to engage with existing and potential customers alike on Social Media. It was well worth the trip into town for and I can’t wait to go back again.

Stay Zavvy,

@Sean_Carroll_