If you are a blogger in Ireland you may have heard about the launch of the "Blog Awards Ireland" which will be taking place later this year. I had the opportunity to catch up with one of the organisers, Amanda Webb who shares some insights behind how the idea for the awards came about and what we can look forward to.

Krishna: What gave you the inspiration to host the blog awards especially as the former Irish Blog Awards were retired some time ago?

Amanda: I loved what we were doing in the KLCK Bloggers Network and thought it would be wonderful to run a blogging awards.

Damien Mulley had previously organised the Irish Blog Awards but I remembered him saying he wasn't going to run it anymore.

The Blog Awards had become an institution in the Irish social media world and people looked forward to it. It was sad to see it not happening anymore.

It's important for small businesses who are blogging themselves to get recognition for their achievements. Small business tend not to enter big award ceremonies, perhaps mistakenly, because they feel they can't compete but also because of the expense.

So we spoke to Damien to get his blessing and off we went.

Krishna: How will the awards be different (or the same) as the Irish Blog Awards?

Amanda: We always loved the Irish Blog Awards, and my fellow organisers both Lorna Sixsmith and Beatrice Whelan were finalists last year.

We're sticking with the judging process, free entry, a lot of similar categories and the laid back spirit that has always been a big part of the awards.

We are making some changes there are some elements of the event that will be different, we have some new and exciting offerings for sponsors and a few surprises on the night.

We're also going to put the judging criteria live on the site. New categories include Health and Wellbeing, Eco and Green, Best Designed, Best Mobile compatible, Best Video blog and Best Corporate Blog.

We're also doing a special ticket price for the fist 100 tickets for 30 euro. This includes a three course dinner.

Krishna: Who are you hoping will enter the awards?

Amanda: We've tried to include a category for every kind of blogger. We're hoping to get a wide range of bloggers involved from personal bloggers, small business to corporate bloggers. If you’re proud of your blog we hope you will either be nominated or nominate yourself.

Krishna: When will people be able to enter the awards?

Amanda: Nominations will open in June 2012. Entry will be absolutely free and anyone can nominate you (you can even yourself).

Krishna: You have announced there will be 29 categories; what are some of the most unusual categories?

We're quite excited about including a mobile category this year. With an increasing number of online searches in Ireland being made by mobile devices it's crucial that your blog is mobile friendly.

We've also introduced a category for best designed blog, That doesn't just mean it's pretty blog but that it works well, is easy to navigate and enhances personal or business branding. I'm really looking forward to seeing the entries in this category.

Krishna: How will the awards be judged?

Amanda: We've always liked the way that the Irish Blog Awards were judged in the past so we've decided to use the same approach.

Anyone who is interested in being a judge can apply to be on the panel. More details will appear on the website soon.

For the first time we have a "Peoples Choice Award" for best blog post, which will allow the public to choose the winner. We'll be announcing details of this soon.

Krishna: Will you be looking for sponsors and how do people get in touch about being a sponsor?

Amanda: We have 29 categories open for sponsorship are hoping to announce our first big sponsor soon. If you are interested in sponsorship get in touch: sponsor@blogawardsireland.com

Krishna: Do you know where the awards event will take place and when it will be?

Amanda: The event takes place on 13th October in the Osprey hotel in Naas, County Kildare

Krishna: What three suggestions do you have to help people publish content to their business blog more frequently if they find they have limited time?

Amanda: Here’s one from each of us.

What sort of questions do your customers ask you? Answer these in your blog – Amanda.

Having a regular themed topic for a day of the week helps with idea generation and organisation of time - Lorna.

Every time you think of an idea sketch it out so that you always have two or three posts half written, that way your never stuck for an idea – Beatrice.

Keep up to date with news about the Blog Awards Ireland by connecting with them on Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/blogawardsireland and watch the website in the next month for more details of how to get involved as a nominee or a sponsor.

And of course you can follow the Blog Awards Ireland on Twitter.

If you have not heard about #truDublin and you are in the role of recruitment, talent management or human resources, then take a moment to read a little about these terrific events. You will have seen me tweeting about it over the last few weeks.

#truDublin is one of a series of global events spearheaded by Bill Boorman and facilitates the profession coming together to discuss and share insights and trends.

I was fortunate to be able to attend the first #truDublin in May last year but missed the November 2011 event due to my diary commitments.

What is particualrly impressive is that the event has gone from strength to strength and this forthcoming event now spans two days - there are a limited number of one day tickets available.

Date: 16-17 May 2012

Location: The Sycamore Club, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

How to book your place: Book online

Unlike other conference you may have attended recently there are four simple rules:

1: No PowerPoint (or KeyNote, or Prezi...)

2: No Presenting

3: No Name Badges (Just ask!)

4: No Pitching.

This means that the discussion leaders for the topics are there to share briefly their experience (with an introduction to their topic of no more than five minutes)  but their main role is to facilitate the discussion.

For the remaining 55 minutes of the session, anyone can contribute, offer an opinion, ask questions, tell a story or even direct the conversation into a brand new topic.

Take a look at the current agenda of discussion tracks - you will see from looking at the speakers it reads like a 'who's who' of recruitment with facilitators from Eircom, Google, Oracle, Zynga and recruitment firms including Monster, BrightWater, CPL, LinkedIn, Hays and Sigmar.

Current Agenda #truDublin 16 May 2012

Current Agenda #truDublin 17 May 2012

The event would not be taking place without the fantastic support and energy of Johnny Campbell the founder of Social Talent. If you are not following him and are in the business of talent management in your company on Twitter you must - he is a great source of top tips in the new world of resourcing and his company also delivers great social recruiting workshops in Ireland and the UK if you are looking to build the capability of your people in social recruiting.

By the way - if you want to become more actively involved in #truDublin than as a participant in the sessions, if you’re interested in leading a track or sponsoring truDublin, don;t hesitate to contact holly@socialtalent.co.

I will be attending the afternoon of both days - I just wish my diary were not so full of great meetings and events this week so I could be there for the full two day session - I'm delighted that Johnny approached me to facilitate a session titled "Everyone in Recruitment is a Marketeer". I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject if you join that discusstion track.

How can you move visitors through your online properties?

Here is an example from Tesco Ireland where they are hosting a competition for Easter that takes people from their Facebook Page to their online magazine and to different pages of their website on an Easter egg hunt.

It's a great idea that you could modify for your business - remember to integrate it with your ezine, your instore promotions, your traditional media and your direct mail shots.

If you are a retailer you could reference your competition on your till receipts and if you are a restaurant or case you could promote the competition on your menu - you never know people just may enter when on your premises using their smart phone!

And if you run a competition like this while you won't get more fans of your Facebook Page through like gating, you will build awareness of your Page and if it's engaging people may become a fan.

Furthermore, if you are using a competition to build your data base of prospects, the fact that people enter on your website means that you are not limiting your audience to those who are on Facebook.

One recommendation I would make versus the Tesco Easter competition is whether you need to ask people their age - it's simpler and less obtrusive if you ask people to confirm they are over the minimum age for entry.

How could you adapt this idea for your business? Do leave your feedback on our Facebook Page.

A suprising number of Facebook Pages seem to have forgotten that Facebook Timeline comes into effect today.

As I was navigating through Facebook I found these Pages that had forgotten to add a cover image to their Facebook Pages - some of the brands might suprise you.

What was interesting is that some of the organisations were also promoting their Facebook Pages with adverts and all have posted on Facebook recently so there is no reason that they should not be aware of the impending changes.

I also found a number of Facebook Pages which have breached Facebook cover image guidelines for example adding their website URL, including their contact details to their cover photo, adding calls to action and using images that are mainly text.

So here is a quick reminder of the guidance from Facebook about your Facebook Timeline cover images:

• Use a unique image that represents your Page. This might be a photo of a popular menu item, album artwork or a picture of people using your product. Be creative and experiment with images your audience responds well to

• To get the best quality image and fastest load times for your Page, upload an sRGB JPG file that's 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes
• All cover images are public, which means anyone visiting your Page will be able to see the image you choose.

Cover images must be at least 399 pixels wide and may not contain:

• Price or purchase information, such as "40% off" or "Download it at our website"

• Your contact details for example your web address, email details, mailing address or other information intended for your Page's About section

• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as "Get it now" or "Tell your friends"

• Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties' intellectual property
• You may not encourage or incentivise people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines.

You can find more information about Facebook Pages guidelines here.

Here is a bonus tip: why not use the change to Timeline to increase some new visitors to your Page?

Take for example Dell using their corporate Twitter account to promote their Facebook Page and then writing an extensive article on their blog about their Timeline on Facebook including before and after images and alos references to the milestones in the history of their brand that they have added to their Timeline.

Please do share with me other examples of great promotions of Facebook Timelines on my Facebook Page.

Here is a nice collection of social media case studies from the Board Gais Energy 2011 social media awards featuring the award winners.

I hope this inspires you in your social media marketing in 2012.

 

Here is an event that unfortunately I am not able to attend but I know a number of you will be interested in.

This conference is aimed particularly at social media practitioners and will bring together journalists, academics, politicians, and business people with an interest in web-based technologies to look at some of the complex issues facing Ireland's economy.

The European Commission Representation in Ireland is supporting a one day conference in Galway for social media practitioners  "The Challenges facing the Irish Economy ".

In summary the details are as follows:

Date: Saturday 24th March 2012 - registration from 10.30 am

Venue: Aras Moyola Building, National University of Ireland, Galway

The following people will be leading discussions at the conference:

• Professor John McHale, Professor and Head of Economics at the National University of Ireland
• Dr Alan Ahearne, Lecturer in economics at the National University of Ireland
• Seamus Coffey, Lecturer in economics at the University College Cork
• Ronan Lyons, Independent economist

For more details you can visit the conference website.

Entry is free but places are limited - register to attend by sending an e-mail to Sarah.Pearcey(at)ec.europa.eu

Are your customers reaching out to you on Twitter for support?

This is an example of how someone having a poor experience of your brand, product or service can lead them to Tweet a message which then can result in coverage in traditional media.

Of specific note - if you have a presence on social media then even if you had not planned to manage customer service issues, customers and consumers are expecting you to listen and respond.

Issues can occur for customers over weekends or late at night and for people across different time zones, so how do you manage customer service outside the 9-5 traditional office hours?

In the example below relating to Easyjet, they actually have a Twitter account called Easyjetcare, but as you will see from the screen shot, it has not been updated since November which is not a positive reflection on them as a company.

As I have written about before, when customers post a message to social media channels for support, they expect a fast response - research I reported on earlier this year referenced that 42% of customers expect a response in 60 minutes or less.

So if you have a Twitter account for your brand, product or service, what processes will you put in place to ensure that your reputation is enhanced rather than being negatively impacted as a result of your social customer relationship processes in 2012?

View the story "Easyjet, Twitter and the case of the guide dog" on Storify]

Here is an event not to miss if you are a recuiter and based in Ireland - it is the second TruDubln - I wrote about the first event here.

The event is the brain child of Bill Boorman and thanks to the Socialtalent team, #TruDublin 2 will be taking place on 15 December 2011 followed by #truChristmas, an evening of musi and dance.

#Tru events are unconferences, where the emphasis is on conversation, communication and the free exchange of ideas and experiences with participants including recruiters, Human Resources professionals and Technology Developers and Vendors.

#TruDublin2 will have three tracks per hour and there is no need for speaker applications or preparation.

As there are only 80 tickets I urge you to book your place soon. Topics so far include everything from using Twitter for recruitment, Gaming and recruitment and the future of job boards.

The investment is just €125 plus a small admin fee per person - the event starts at 9.30am and takes place at the Harcourt Hotel, 60 Harcourt Street, Dublin2.

So if you are looking to fill your empty chairs with terrific talent in 2011 make sure you book your place for #TruDublin2.

And to get you in the mood here is one of Bill's recent presentations about using Facebook for recruitment.

 

Photo Credit Johann In London

This week LinkedIn in Ireland broke the 600,000 barrier - it has seen dramatic growth in the last number of months. The estimated number of members in Ireland is 600,799 as at today.

Once you have become a member of LinkedIn what next though? How do you get the most out of LinkedIn for your business especially if you are a sales professional.

I am delighted that next week I will be running my 'LinkedIn for Sales Professionals' programme in association with the Europa Academy.

Read on below and you will find out how to book your place AND get access to a workshop with Bill Cullen, Jackie Lavin and Brian Purcell of the Irish Apprentice.

Date: Tuesday 6th December 2011

Venue: Europa Academy, Balheary Road, Swords, Co Dublin

Investment: €195.00 per person (10% discount for bookings over 4 people) - Group Bookings of 4 or more receive a 10% discount.

Duration: 9.00am – 1.00pm

Bonus Workshop: By booking your place on the LinkedIn for Sales Professionals programme you also get FREE access to the programme with the Apprentice Ireland team of Bill Cullen, Jackie Lavin and Brian Purcell called '100 Ways To Success In Tough Times'.

Who the Programme Is Relevant For

This workshop is relevant for sales professionals and business leaders who want to discover how to integrate and enhance their use of LinkedIn into their business development and overall sales activities. 

The programme is ideally suited to professionals who are unfamiliar with LinkedIn or have established a profile on LinkedIn but are unsure how to integrate their presence on LinkedIn with business development.

Programme Curriculum

The programme will cover the four point ‘LinkedIn for Business Growth’ programme developed by myself:

Profit From A Professional Profile – how to build a magnetic personal profile so that you attract more business opportunities and qualified leads

Contact Conversion Secrets – how to build your network of strategic contacts and convert those contacts to appointments

LinkedIn Advanced Strategies – how to leverage LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn Answers, LinkedIn Polls and LinkedIn Company Pages

Building Brand Buzz – how to integrate your LinkedIn profile with your online marketing and social media programme

Programme Preparation and Support

- Prior to attending the programme you will be invited to complete a confidential online questionnaire about your current experience of using LinkedIn in your business

- You will be required to have already established your profile online at LinkedIn.com

- If you wish to get the most out of the programme and update your LinkedIn profile in real time you will need to bring with you your own laptop which can connect to the Europa Academy’s wireless connection.

- You will be invited to an online webinar 30 days after the programme has taken place to support you in using LinkedIn in your business and embed your learning from the programme.

For more information or to book your place, please contact Peter Finnegan on 01 883 9212 or email him at peter@europaacademy.com.

I hope to see you there if you are looking to get more out of being a member on LinkedIn in 2012.

Have you started to explore Google Plus pages for your business?

One of the elements of Google Plus is the opportunity for you to host online video conferences with others - this  feature is called hangouts.

This week some well known employees of Dell in the US hosted a Google Plus hangout  talking about the of social media by Dell for supporting their customers including the use of social media platforms across the globIn the event they also talk about the fact that they are not listening to Dell customers on a geographic basis - but by language.

You can watch the Dell Google Plus hangout with Richard Binhammer and Lionel Menchaca below.

If you are interested in learning more about Google Plus for lead generation rather than customer service then you can join me at an event I am delivering for the Sales Institute of Ireland on Wednesday 23 November 2011 in Dublin. And if you can not attend the live event you can join me on a live webinar - I will be posting details of the webinar on my Google Plus Page and over at Facebook later today.