Blog

2024 .ie Domain Sale

I have a GIANT list of domains I am now selling. From €100 to €3000.

I’ve been collecting these for years. Got a new business idea? I might have the domain for you or maybe one of these domains will inspire a business idea. I am happy to haggle and give bulk discounts too. dm@mulley.ie

I’ve broken these domains into themes.

Prices are ex VAT.

You pay the transfer fee. If you don’t initiate and complete the transfer within 3 months, the domain goes back to me.

1. Geographical 

  • Domains: andorra.ie, arranmore.ie, artane.ie, ashtown.ie, bahamas.ie, barcelona.ie, britain.ie, cabra.ie, coolock.ie, crumlin.ie, dowth.ie, drumcondra.ie, edinburgh.ie, european.ie, inchicore.ie, luxembourg.ie, mitchelstown.ie, philippines.ie, rialto.ie, ringaskiddy.ie, riverlee.ie, santry.ie, shandon.ie, terenure.ie, tyrone.ie, walkinstown.ie
  • Business Uses: Local tourism guides, real estate listings, community forums, or cultural information portals about each location.

2. E-commerce and Business

  • Domains: businesspages.ie, campus.ie, ceos.ie, company.ie, consultant.ie, corporation.ie, ecommerceawards.co.uk, ecommerceawards.eu, ecommerceawards.ie, ecommerceawards.uk, medialab.ie, moneyandjobs.ie, mortgageadvisor.ie, onlinepages.ie

 

  • Business Uses: Platforms for business news, professional networking, e-commerce awards, business consultancy services, job portals, mortgage advisory services.

3. Technology and Innovation

  • Domains: algorithms.ie, artificialintelligence.ie, cyberattack.ie, elearning.ie, expertise.ie,, metaversestrategy.ie, spatial.ie, spatialcomputing.ie, STEM.ie

 

  • Business Uses: Educational resources or news about AI and algorithms, cybersecurity services, online learning platforms, tech consultancy, metaverse strategy and consulting, STEM education resources.

4. Health and Wellness

  • Domains: children.ie, fathers.ie, grief.ie, maternity.ie, pregnant.ie, nutritioncoach.ie, onlinedoctor.ie, oncology.ie, psychiatrist.ie, socialprescribing.ie, workouts.ie
  • Business Uses: Support and information sites for various health and wellness topics.

1900 searches a month for online doctor Ireland
1700 searches for online doctor.
3900 searches a month for psychiatrist
maternity leave ireland 4.6K
national maternity hospital 3.2K
maternity clothes 3.0K
maternity benefit 2.8K
maternity benefit ireland 2.5K
maternity dresses 2.2K
Pregnant  1500 searches

5. Events and Awards

  • Domains: blogawards.ie, ecommerceawards.co.uk, ecommerceawards.eu, ecommerceawards.ie, ecommerceawards.uk, socialmediaawards.com, socialmediaawards.eu, socialmediaawards.net, socialmediaawards.org, sockies.eu

 

  • Business Uses: Organizing and hosting award events for various sectors.

6. Lifestyle and Leisure

  • Domains: bears.ie, celebrants.ie, crossword.ie, crosswords.ie, drag.ie, gay.ie, interior-design.ie, nightclasses.ie, runninggear.ie, ripped.ie, spinning.ie, sweatshirts.ie, sun.ie, toned.ie, tourist.ie, twink.ie, windfarm.ie, windfarms.ie, workouts.ie
  • Business Uses: Blogs or e-commerce sites for hobbies and interests.

 

Monthly Searches:
crosswords online 2.3K
online crosswords 1.8K
crosswords 1.0K
crossword solver 56K
mini crossword 11K
crossword 8.8K
crossword clue 7.1K
running gear 300
running gear for women 100
running gear men 100
450 searches a month for spinning classes
150 searches a month for celebrants

 

7. Media and Communications

  • Domains: celebrants.ie, pressreleases.ie, socialmediaagency.ie
  • Business Uses: Services in media and communications.

8. Education and Learning

  • Domains: campus.ie, postgraduate.ie, revision.ie, nightclasses.ie
  • Business Uses: Educational platforms for various levels of learning.

postgraduate 450
postgraduate diploma 300
what is a postgraduate 200
postgraduate courses ireland 200
Campus.ie has 2k backlinks

9. Politics and Social Issues

  • Domains: brexit.ie, december.ie, handguns.ie, firearms.ie, politicians.ie, politicsinireland.com

Business Uses: Sites focused on political and social issues.

brexit 11K
brexit news 7.4K
brexit latest 1.7K

Prices

 

algorithms.ie

andorra.ie

arranmore.ie

artane.ie

artificialintelligence.ie

ashtown.ie

bahamas.ie

barcelona.ie

bears.ie

beaumount.ie

blogawards.ie

brexit.ie

britain.ie

businesspages.ie

cabra.ie

campus.ie

celebrants.ie

ceos.ie

children.ie

company.ie

conferences.ie

consultant.ie

coolock.ie

corporation.ie

crossword.ie

crosswords.ie

crumlin.ie

cyberattack.ie

december.ie

dowth.ie

drag.ie

drumcondra.ie

ecommerceawards.co.uk

ecommerceawards.eu

ecommerceawards.ie

ecommerceawards.uk

edinburgh.ie

elearning.ie

european.ie

expertise.ie

facemasks.ie

fathers.ie

firearms.ie

gay.ie

greyhounds.ie

grief.ie

handguns.ie

hunting.ie

iha.ie

inchicore.ie

interior-design.ie

ken.ie

kyl.ie

lovesmes.com

lovesmes.ie

luxembourg.ie

maternity.ie

medialab.ie

metaversestrategy.ie

mitchelstown.ie

moneyandjobs.ie

mortgageadvisor.ie

nightclasses.ie

nutritioncoach.ie

oncology.ie

onlinepages.ie

philippines.ie

pills.ie

politicians.ie

politicsinireland.com

postgraduate.ie

pressreleases.ie

psychiatrist.ie

reminiscence.ie

revision.ie

rialto.ie

ringaskiddy.ie

ripped.ie

riverlee.ie

runninggear.ie

santry.ie

shandon.ie

socialmediaagency.ie

socialmediaawards.com

socialmediaawards.eu

socialmediaawards.net

socialmediaawards.org

socialprescribing.ie

spatial.ie

spatialcomputing.ie

spinning.ie

stem.ie

sweatshirts.ie

terenure.ie

toned.ie

tourist.ie

twink.ie

tyrone.ie

walkinstown.ie

windfarm.ie

windfarms.ie

workouts.ie

onlinedoctor.ie

€500

€100

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€100

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€100

€1,000

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€1,000

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€100

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€3000 or free to Kylie if we do a meet and greet

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€100

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€2,000

 

 

 

30 min Christmas 2022 Mentoring

Christmas (Zoom) Mentoring
Normally I do mentoring sessions are 50 minutes long for €90.

These are 30 minute sessions.

Payment is a donation to either:
TENI

or
Fighting Words NI.

Donate in your name/company name, not mine or Mulley Comms.

Times
Monday
1400-1430
1500-1530
1600-1630
1700-1730

Tuesday
1400-1430
1500-1530
1600-1630
1700-1730

Wednesday
1400-1430
1500-1530
1600-1630
1700-1730

email dm@mulley.ie if you want to book a mentoring session. Pick two options.

Nice review from Shawna on my mentoring:

Damien has worked with me 1 on 1 several times to help improve my SEO and hone my PR skills. As a small business owner, I appreciate that he doesn’t waffle. He always comes to the table with so much knowledge and experience and ideas. Be prepared to take notes, because working with Damien means being utterly assaulted with useful information.

I give mentoring on the below areas.

Social Media Mentoring

I can help you evaluate your social media and whether it is working the way it should be. I can help you refine what you are doing or re-evaluate whether what you are doing is best for the company. From running the Social media Awards for 10 years I’ve gotten to see some of the best and not the best social media campaigns and strategies.

PR and Media Mentoring

I have decades of experience in getting into the media so I can help there. Media coverage. I help people get into the media by writing press releases, rewriting them or devising media strategies to get into local, national and International media. Getting into the media nowadays too is a nice way of getting an SEO bounce for your website, if done right.

Job Applications

I’ve been on interview panels, devised questions to ask candidates and designed job specs. I help people with their job applications and their interviews.

Startup Mentoring

I’ve been giving startups advice now for about 20 years and have helped companies grow and sometimes change their offerings and focus on new or better markets. And I don’t take equity cos that’s a bit grabby.

Established Business Mentoring

Like for startups I’ve been mentoring businesses and help them figure out how digital can work for them.

September 2022 Political Social Media Stats

September 2022 Political Social Media Stats

Leo Varadkar bigger on social media than Sinn Féin which is the largest party on socials

  • Summary:Sinn Féin has 597k social media followers bigger than all the political parties, 22M YouTube video views, 10M+ Tiktok views
  • Leo Varadkar has 757k followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (he’s not on TikTok)
  • Leo has more followers than Sinn Féin the party, massive numbers onTwitter and Instagram
  • Fine Gael the party has 113.5k social media followers, 1.5M YouTube views, 1.2M views
  • Simon Harris is the king of TikTok with 92k followers, millions of views and positive comments

A social media analysis by Mulley Communications of the social media accounts of political parties has shown that Sinn Féin has the biggest following across all social media networks but if Leo Varadkar was his own political party he’d be the biggest party on social media in Ireland.

State of social media in Ireland
Right now there are 2.7M people using Facebook who are majority over 40, 2.6M on Instagram who are mostly 20-40 and 2.2M people over 18 on Tiktok with probably another 1M under 18 (Tiktok will not provide teen numbers)

September 2022 Irish Political Social Media Stats
Figures as of budget day September 27th 2022

Irish Political Party Social Media Table

September 2022 Political Social Media Stats
September 2022 Political Social Media Stats

NT = No Tick, not verified

Party Leaders:

September 2022 Political Social Media Stats - Leaders
September 2022 Political Social Media Stats – Leaders

Leo Varadkar is the party leader with the most followers on social media with over 720,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Mary Lou McDonald has the next highest number of followers with 370,00 followers and Micheál Martin has 179k followers. Mary Lou McDonald has the greatest amount of Facebook followers. To note: Facebook has the oldest demographic where almost the majority of people are 40 or over. Instagram and TikTok have much younger demographics.

Simon Harris
While we couldn’t find TikTok accounts for any party leader, Simon Harris is King of TikTok with 91.6k followers  and has more followers than the political parties except Sinn Féin and has has millions of views on his videos. He also talks to his a audience as Minister for Higher Education so his account is more a source of information than of whataboutism or political promises.

What’s interesting to note is that unlike comments under most political party videos, his comments are positive or sarcastic but positive. See end of this for examples

The TikTok algorithm
This algorithm shows you content whether you follow the account and so a lot of positive or negative engagement under a your video will push your content into other timelines too. You live and die by engagement on TikTok

What are TikTok likes about?
These are a measure of engagement and feed the mysterious algorithm. More likes more views which then gets you more likes etc.

TikTiok and Irish Political Parties

TikTiok and Irish Political Parties
TikTiok and Irish Political Parties

Views were based on manually adding numbers of the videos so I stopped after the bigger parties

Top Tiktoks

Sinn Féin
35+ videos over 100k views
10+ million views

310k Mary Lou “You are making beggars out of people”

789k Gerry Adams telling a knock knock joke and singing Oró, Sé Do Bheatha ‘Bhaile

1.1M Pearse Doherty Dublin Hotel Prices

Fine Gael top Tiktok

The Truth about Sinn Féin 746k

@finegael

The truth about Sinn Féin.

♬ original sound – Fine Gael

Rest of their videos don’t hit 100k

People Before Profit
“They’re murdering bastards”. PBP’s Gino Kenny doesn’t mince his words when talking about Israel.
431k

@peoplebeforeprofit

“They’re murdering bastards”. PBP’s Gino Kenny doesn’t mince his words talking about Israel. Protest tomorrow (Sat) @ Spire 2pm. #freepalestine #gaza

♬ original sound – People Before Profit

105k Eamon McCann thank you

@peoplebeforeprofit

Big thank you Eamonn McCann, stepping down from his council role for health reasons. We’re sure he won’t stop campaigning! #socialism #lgbt #derry

♬ original sound – People Before Profit

144k Why life in Ireland sucks

@peoplebeforeprofit

Why life in Ireland sucks for young people. Brigid Purcell – our PBP rep in Dublin Bay South explains. #housingcrisis2021 #housingcrisis #ireland

♬ Space Song – Beach House

524k scrap the leaving cert

@peoplebeforeprofit

Scrap the Leaving Cert. It is wrong. Stop gatekeeping higher education. Everybody should have a right to education. #leavingcert #leavingcert2022

♬ State Lines – Novo Amor

Fianna Fail

200k Lisa Chambers calls for a change in the restrictions of partners at child birth

@fiannafail

Lisa Chambers calls for a change in the restrictions of partners at child birth #irishpolitics #fiannafáil #fiannafáil

♬ Ashes – Stellar

177k Darragh O’Brien puts Sinn Féin in its place

@fiannafail

We are delivering the largest home building programme in Ireland’s history #fiannafail #irishpolitics #fiannafáil #housingforall

♬ original sound – Fianna Fáil

140k Coming out of lockdown 140k
https://www.tiktok.com/@fiannafail/video/6945522780863548677

Labour Party
216k Hybrid Leaving Cert petition set to Taylor swift https://www.tiktok.com/@labourparty/video/7051943619627912453?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Green Party
2k https://www.tiktok.com/@greenparty_ie/video/7145556028262796550

Social Democrats
282k

@social_democrats

It is ludicrous and pathetic that TDs would be offered free antigen tests – while Min Donnelly refused to offer free tests to those who need them

♬ original sound – Social Democrats


It is ludicrous and pathetic that TDs would be offered free antigen tests – while Min Donnelly refused to offer free tests to those who need them

109k What planet are they on? Ordinary families earning a decent wage should be able to aspire to own a home.

@social_democrats

Ordinary families earning a decent wage should be able to aspire to own a home. But years of failed housing policies have resulted in thousands of children growing up in emergency accommodation; ‘affordable homes’ that are €400k and renters being squeezed for everything they have. It’s time to start doing things differently.

♬ original sound – Social Democrats

Links to Party and Leader Social Accounts
Sinn Fein
https://www.facebook.com/sinnfein

https://www.instagram.com/sinn_fein/
https://www.tiktok.com/@sinnfein
https://www.youtube.com/c/sinnfeinireland

PBP
https://www.facebook.com/peopleb4profit

https://www.instagram.com/people_before_profit/
https://www.tiktok.com/@peoplebeforeprofit
https://www.youtube.com/c/PeopleBeforeProfitAllianceNational

Fine Gael
https://www.facebook.com/FineGael

https://www.instagram.com/finegael/
https://www.tiktok.com/@finegael?lang=en
https://www.youtube.com/c/finegael/

Fianna Fail
https://www.facebook.com/fiannafail

https://www.instagram.com/fiannafail/
https://www.tiktok.com/@fiannafail
https://www.youtube.com/c/FiannaFailTV

Labour
https://www.facebook.com/thelabourparty

https://www.instagram.com/labourparty/
https://www.tiktok.com/@labourparty?lang=en
https://www.youtube.com/c/LabourIreland

Green Party
https://www.facebook.com/GreenPartyIreland

https://www.instagram.com/greenparty_ie/
https://www.tiktok.com/@greenparty_ie?lang=en
https://www.youtube.com/user/GreenPartyIreland

Social Democrats
https://www.facebook.com/socialdemocratsireland

https://www.instagram.com/social_democrats/
https://www.tiktok.com/@social_democrats?lang=en
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClDl025RoxtCksilNH9LLBQ

Leaders and Pols

Leo
https://www.facebook.com/leovaradkar

https://www.instagram.com/leovaradkar/

Mary Lou
https://www.facebook.com/MaryLouMcDonaldTD

https://www.instagram.com/maryloumcdonaldsf/

Micheál Martin
https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd

https://www.instagram.com/michealmartintd/

Simon Harris
https://www.facebook.com/DeputySimonHarris

https://www.instagram.com/simonharristd/
https://www.tiktok.com/@simon_harristd?lang=en

Simon Harris Comments under his video wishing people well in the Leaving and Junior Cert

Yeah but WHEN ARE TYE RESULTS OUT !?!?
ur the best simon thank you !
U comming to the sesh after ?
Thx Simon
thx a lot Simon. really made me destress.
thx
this will be a quote on my English paper 1 or 2
thanks you so much simon my stress has gone
thanks x
thanks x
Thanks x
Thanks very much Simon !
Thanks very much for that Simon , I’m gonna pass now
thanks so much simon anxiety = gone @mavlynch
Thanks so much Si
Thanks Simon
Thanks Simon!
Thanks Simon xx
thanks simon x
Thanks Simon means alot xx
Thanks Simon means a lot
Thanks Simon lad
thanks simon i’m still gonna fail bud
thanks simon i’ll write about you in my english exam
Thanks Simon
Thanks Simon
Thanks Simon
Thanks Simon
Thanks king
thanks buddy
thanks bro x
thanks bae
Thank you king Simon
tara kelly
Tara
tara
tahar Yahi
Swole on the dole
sucyamada
Stress is gone thanks sm x
Stress has disappeared now disappeared
Sound simple simon
Sound Simon hope u get a feature in the comprehension
Sound Simon
sound simon
sound simon
Sound bud
so adorable
Slay Simon….now can I have 625 points ?
simon u have just cleared my stress
simon i’m gonna quote you in my english paper 1
Simon I promise you in some way or another I’ll find a way to put you in my English paper
Simon Harris Has Spoken
simon harris has spoken
right thanks alot. Youre really helping mate
Reuben Coughlan
Really settled my nerves pal
Na mate I haven’t opened a book and just winging it thanks bud
much appreciated thanks bud x
Made me feel much better thanks si x
Lovely speech thanks
King thanks so much
I’m going to name my the protagonist in my short story after you Simon xx
i love you king
Good man Simon
Gonna put this in my politics essay
Gonna pass now cos of this
Cheers Simon, Nans doing cartwheels to keep warm
Cheers Simon will think of your words during my french listening
Cheers Simon the kids are crying
Cheers Simon luv ye x
Cheers Simon ☝️
cheers mate was in dire need of this
cheers mate
cheers mate
Cheers for that simon
cheers bud
Cheers bro
Cheers babe you are so nice giving us all the heads up my luv x
cheers babe
Appreciate it Simon brother
absolute legend
abbey 🙂

The Truth About Sinn Fein comments

Ye well for them but he fails to mention himself and the money that he has been spending and receiving
Where was Leo when he was announcing lockdown in the country?
Well said Leo
we all know SF has a past but FG and FF are rotten to the core they joined up with the greens that nobody voted for to keep SF out
To my eyes SF will always listen to the people unlike FF and FG! FG and FF need to be OUT asap! Or there will be no more young people in Ireland
That’s rich coming from him
something something
SF hit a nerve
Scooper
Says leak it leo
playground antics, meanwhile the country goes down the swanny………..
People in glass houses…
Pearse got personal and a bit rude, but Leo seems to have a bad attitude. It was between Leo and Pearse ; he shouldn’t have called them vagabonds
oh shots fired we need backup
oh no sinn féin are travelling around the world establishing business connections that can be used to help the country in yhe future, the horror……
Like he didn’t fly first class
Less mickey swinging more houses please
Leo you fly private
Leo what’s wrong with people that live in a caravan?
Leo under investigation by DPP!
Leo the leak the Irish people will judge you Leo in the next election
Leo that’s a little too political there bud
Leo know next election he is unemployed
Leo has to come out boxing because he knows he is on the ropes ultimately
Leo had a grand trip to the middle east not that long ago
Leo grasping cuz the whole country fed up with him and his party lies
Leo dropped a truth bomb
Leo as usual trying to throw mud what he does best. Trying to gain votes for a party that has destroyed
Jaysus Leo the leak
Is Leo talking about himself ?
if ye could spend less time taking digs at each other like children and more time sorting the crisis that would be great lads.
I mean… he’s not wrong
his days are over…. come the next election
him calling people hypocritical good one
He’s not wrong but pot calling the kettle black much? Chap has taken multiple trips and lives a handy life while making decisions for us the 1%
he isn’t wrong tho, truth is no party is any good especially SF, they “fight for people” by making promises they cannot deliver to the most vulnerable
he has just described a fraction of what he and his pals do. hypocrisy at it’s best.
has b worst government in history
had plenty of time to run off his mouth and did nothing only line their and their rich buddy’s pockets. Fine Gael a dinosaur party for the wealthy
Gwan Leo!
Gowan Leo you say it how it is! Call out SF for who they really are
FG trying anything because they know next GE the GAME IS UP leak it leo really scraping the barell. must of been his rich mates told him too
fg have had 10+ years .. and as the president said this very week housing here is a DISASTER
every time FG does this another person decides to vote for anyone but FG
Does this lad know the Dàil Eireann that he claims to be a leader in was formed in 1919 by the Irish republicans with sinn fein as leaders
Didn’t Leo write to Kylie minogue to meet her the second he was in power?
Didn’t he charge people thousands per plate for a dinner celebrating 10 years of Fine Gael in government?
brilliant well said Leo
bit rich given our huge housing crisis that fg and ff put us in
ask leo what happens every st paddys day
and when we couldn’t celebrate st Patrick’s day off ye went to America etc
and he wants the orange order to march in Dublin
And can we get a financial breakdown of your party and what they do there leo
Also the leader of a housing crisis calling people in rough living conditions vagabonds just shows how disconnected from the people they are
a bit hypocritical there leo

Briefing Paper on A.I. Image Generation

Briefing Paper on A.I. Image Generation

Exec Summary:

Machine Learning / A.I. software now exists that allows businesses and organisations to create photorealistic images, drawings and illustrations in-house for free or at a very low cost.

Business Advantage:

Costs of using stock photos, sourcing basic illustrations and designs can be reduced to zero. Smaller businesses will be more competitive.

Business Threat:

Stock photo production companies may see sales impacted in the medium to long term but they will also see a massive decrease in production costs allowing them to infinitely expand their collections

Business Opportunities:

A new creative economy can be created where people with just an idea can will the imagery to life. Create that poster, that comic, the new brochure by typing a few words. The same way the likes of Photoshop and an internet connection unlocked so much creativity, now people can make art like professionals without having creativity suites.

Background:

In the past few months we’ve seen A.I./ Machine Learning advances so that you can type a few words into a website or desktop app and images will get created for you. Or someone takes an existing image and has it modified or “outcrops” it so the A.I. creates a new world around the image.

How this A.I. software works:

This software uses images and text descriptions downloaded from the Web. Billions of them. This is then put through machine learning/A.I. software that links words to the content of images so that it eventually understands plain english commands e.g. draw me a tree or create a photo of a tree.

Malcolm Gladwell talked about putting 10,000 proper hours into something to get good. A.I. is putting those hours in so you don’t have to. The author of the paper Gladwell cited says he oversimplified and there was also another crucial aspect – having a very good teacher. Who are the good teachers in A.I?

4 main A.I. image systems

Currently there are 4 main image systems but there will be dozens soon.

  • Dall-E from Open A.I. which was the first, is web based and invite only. First few images are free. Then you pay for credits.
  • Crayon – a clone of Dall-E – Free website.
  • Midjourney is in Beta, can be accessed via a Discord web server. First few images are free. Then you subscribe.
  • Stable Diffusion – Open Source, desktop version. Free.

Dangers and Deep Fakes:

Dall-E has checks to prevent the creation of deep fakes and creating violent imagery but many of the others do not. It can be very easy to fake a person, a celebrity or a politician and have them endorse a product or movement or show them in a compromising scenario.

Ethical Issues

As this “tech” is based on billions of images that have been scraped from the web, these images are biased toward the white male gaze of course and with pornography also downloaded, what this software considers to be a woman can be corrupted. The likes of Dall E does error corrections by adding in women so searches to decrease all male images as well as trying to remove violent and racist imagery. Copyrighted images are also in this giant set of images. Read and follow the work of Abeba Birhane.

What comes next:

Video creation and editing e.g. a text command can change the colour of the sky or reorder a city. This is already happening.
In the medium term people will be able to conjure up their own worlds by just telling their VR device. Think will be a jump from Fortnite to a world like in Avatar or any elaborate computer game.

Domain Flash Sale


From now to December 5th 2022

Contra deals will be considered.
You pay the transfer fees which work out at about €70

First to email an offer, gets that domain. dm@43.ie You can pay via a Stripe link on the spot or you don’t get it. I can send the invoice after.

Two letter domain names
2k.ie
zc.ie
c4.ie
oc.ie
52.ie

Countries
Andorra.ie
Luxembourg.ie
Bahamas.ie
Phillippiines.ie

acne.ie

butt.ie

ceos.ie

classroom.ie

cremations.ie

december.ie

drag.ie

entertainmentawards.net
entertainmentawards.tv

hugs.ie

independents.ie

insulin.ie

LifeCoach.ie

Mattresses.ie

mitchelstown.ie

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Irish Social Media Experts – The Present and the Future

I interviewed some people I follow on social media and asked them a few short questions about how they use social, what they like and what’s coming next.

These were the people that got back to me:

What do you think you do well on digital/social?

Val Robus, Magnum Lady: Over the last year or so I’ve run a couple of campaigns to promote the North West of Ireland. It was mainly sharing photos but also bits of news about businesses, people, events, etc. I got a great response from it and I was really pleased with how it all went.

Martin O’Connor, UCC Library: I think we manage to inject personality into our accounts and present the library as an informative, authoritative and fun place to be. Being both of these is important to us. I feel that social media needs to have a personality. Bland corporate accounts are missing a trick I feel.

Cian Corbett, AIB: We use Social Media to humanise the AIB brand to build stronger relationships reminding customers of the positive role that AIB plays in their lives.

Jason Kieran, Houses of the Oireachtas: Our news updates are our bread and butter as such, but we get more traction on lighter content. The Seanad General Elections are always the best content we push out every few years in relation to impressions although it’s to a small number of stakeholders and to a minute audience. We get to be a little free with the type of language used in responses to queries and information requests.

Sean Lally, Hotel Woodstock: Express our personality not afraid to stand out from the crowd through our social media and follow the advice from “The Purple Cow” by Seth Godin. Convert sales from our social media strategy in all areas of the business because of the raised profile of the Hotel. Harness the social media to win awards and improve our PR and publicity for the Hotel and customer awareness

Peter Collins, Academy Plaza: We are not focusing a lot on social media and aside from Tick Tok the bits we do are poor-ish. TikTok is gone quite as the staff doing it went to different departments and are kept busy. Our sales person is dabbling in SM but is not expert or great at content generation. Communication on our brand message is consistent

Who do you think is great on digital/social and why?

Cian Corbett: Ryanair have really lead the way on Tik Tok perfectly joining trending conversations while remaining true to their irreverence and brand identity. I love TG4 on Twitter too – the tone and nuance is always perfect.

Val Robus: TG4 – always brightens my day.
Taryn de Vere – her campaign of dressing as household objects was the content that we all needed in January (and I want to be as cool as she is).
Spiderworking – Amanda Webb – her insights into all things social media are great.
Zwartbles – Farming, photos, and more.
Katia (Properfood) – an amazing cheerleader for the Irish food industry.
BrodHiggins – I can never see enough dog photos

Martin O’Connor: I’m going to stick to other library accounts on Twitter (which is where
is much of the library world spends its social media time) @UoYLibrary @OrkneyLibrary
@britishlibrary @RHUL_Library I like these accounts as they are informative and fun – they seem to
have a personality and I can imagine they would be fun to hang out with.

Jason Kiernan: I like companies that can have a bit of humour within their content while keeping it professional. It’s a fine line, it can go wrong! TG4 seems to get it right, but I’m not sure RTÉ would get away with it! The team (or team of one) has got it just right for its audience

Peter Collins + Phelim Connolly: Maldron Hotel Parnell are doing good on Facebook, regular posts and local community engagement catches my eye. @MaldronParnell Love him or hate him Cllr Oisin O’Connor often has clever tweets @OConnorOisin – Gone quite recently but @aaroadwash also had interesting tweets.
Video content- Lovin Dublin is very good,

Sean Lally: Ryanair for constantly pushing the boundaries and been quick to react to current affairs. Tony Robbins for his motivation and positivity

Market trends. Noticing anything?

Martin O’Connor: Trends – we are finding that Facebook is becoming not worth the time. Twitter is still our go to as a Library – librarians and libraries love Twitter. It is our platform. But Instagram engagement is way up for us – our students are really engaging with us there. But still mostly for the more fun posts as opposed to the informative authoritative posts. Instagram is going to be worth more time investment by us – we probably need to tweak our content slightly to make it the best we can. It is definitely worth the effort.

Cian Corbett: In my opinion, Tik Tok has changed the pace of communications on social. This puts the onus on Marketers to get comfortable capturing video content that should compete with the style and tone of native content creators which can be a challenge. I see engagement dropping on Facebook as younger audiences spend their time on Tik Tok so it’s worth having a healthy media mix with a few platforms.

Val Robus: Facebook is dying. My blog page was doing really well but it’s gone very quiet in recent weeks. My tiktok is struggling too. It’s hard to get reach on some of these platforms.
Twitter has always been my favourite for engagement. Instagram is ticking along, but nothing wild.

Jason Kiernan: We use live streaming as part of our strategy to push out Oireachtas TV. Twitter has got it right, they purchased Periscope and have invested in how the backend works and it works very well! Facebook, although trying to give Twitch a run for its money re game streaming their backend platform continues to be problematic!

FB audience is falling for us. The audience has also changed re the type of comments, it really has turned into a middle aged complaints board!

LinkedIn is increasing for us… why I’m not sure!

Peter Collins + Phelim Connolly: Unfortunately not that active on SM for business or pleasure. Would use/read Twitter daily and snack on some facebook groups and use the messaging functions for guests responses. We turned off Google Business Messaging as we weren’t well placed to respond 24/7 and often our user directed queries to email which was a backward step.
Facebook- great interface, easy to upload, easy to create posts, and ads. Instagram- hard to upload stories, tiktok is addictive, easy to create attractive video with limited content

Sean Lally: Constant change in the social media channels all trying to copy each other’s best practice not to lose market share can be hard to keep up with the changes here

Facebook is very positive for us, but we are conscious that it is falling with its popularity and Tik Tok is rapidly gaining market share

LinkedIn has had got a huge reaction on my personal account as the social media strategy is very different for this platform which is usually very business focussed and people seem to like this new approach

Where should we focus?

Jason Kiernan: If you are not using reels, stories or short videos you are not listening to your audience! Video still continues to lead the way. Twitter should have spent time and effort on Fleets… I miss them!

Cian Corbett: I know it’s not the most exciting answer but I always recommend research and measurement. Learn what your audience wants, what role can your brand play in their timeline. And then measure the impact – do you audience like seeing your content or are you just shouting into the void?

Val Robus: Twitter. For sure.
People say they don’t know how to use it. I always treat it as a coffee shop. If someone talks to you, reply (unless they are bots).
Join in with conversations and make connections.
You don’t know who is watching.

Martin O’Connor: Our focus for now will really remain on Twitter and Instagram. But we are scanning the social media horizon to see what else would work well for us. I’m curious to see how other libraries and other educational institutions use TikTok. I’m watching that space carefully.

Peter Collins/ Phelim Connolly: Helping business with organic engagement and posts v’s pure Look at our product aren’t we great type posts which are not that interesting.
Strong interface API allows for quick answer and reduces time wasting

Sean Lally: Video is so important in getting your message across and we see this area growing which is where we are strong and we work with an excellent videographer Dom McCarthy who brings so much to the table with his skillset

Get your personality across on the video as people buy people in business and sales and this has really worked for us at Hotel Woodstock

What else should I have asked?

Peter Collins/Phelim Connolly: Do you see a good ROI on Social Media posts & engagement, which channels do you use and what is the frequency of use.

How long is the attention span of the youth of tomorrow? Answer-less than that of a goldfish !!

Cian Corbett: Does your social media strategy actually do what you want it to do? Take time to think about what objective you want to achieve. Social Media is great at completing a task so you should think carefully about what task you are giving it. Are you Driving Awareness, Building Engagement, Increasing Conversion, Driving Traffic, Generating Leads? Choose your objective and then build your strategy and resist ‘doing social on the fly’. Map out your destination and then plan your route to get there.

Martin O’Connor: Why do you invest the time in social media that you do? And is it worth it? Where do you plan to go next with your social media? Would you have any advice for those looking to tweak their social media game?

Jason Kiernan: What is the next new thing? Can there be something new? There are only so much affordances within platforms as they are, what will be the next BIG thing? I really don’t know.

Sean Lally: Where do you see the future of digital for the hospitality industry ?

At the moment we see the most important medium been videos across all social channels and we feel Tik Tok has been the main driver of this and companies need to embrace this as in the Hotel industry you see very few Hotels really working this platform as it is not the normal type of marketing but you need to constantly push the boundaries when it comes to digital marketing and stand out from the crowd.

LinkedIn Updates – How many Words Before the Text Disappears? 25ish

You have 25 words/140 characters to get your message across on here before “See More” needs to be pressed. The space of an old school tweet.

Use the inverted pyramid. Headline and takeaway first and then go into more detail. An update for all screen sizes that includes an image, video or link preview will be seen if it is about 140 characters.

This 140 character rule is a simplification because this all depends on the size of a screen. You have more words/characters for desktop users compared to mobile. Blank spaces/blank lines are also counted.

And so if you are the type that spaces out sentences

so they read like this, the spaces and line breaks seem to be counted too.

Doing it this way you might actually only have 10-15 words to get your takeaway/exec summary across.

I prefer adding a video, image or link to updates as you get more real estate on a timeline and capture more of the gaze of a scroller. Keeping it to 140 characters gets my text and image/video/link preview seen too.

So choose your intro text very carefully.

August 2022 Briefing note: What’s happening with Instagram

Briefing note: What’s happening with Instagram

Exec Summary:

Facebook/Meta sees Tiktok as an existential threat and are doing their best to make Instagram work exactly like TikTok. They will happily force this on their users and turn their back on their photo app roots. Facebook and Instagram have lost the younger demographic to TikTok and these changes will not have an impact.

Facebook is now the clown car

Mark Zuckerberg once called Twitter a clown car that fell down a goldmine. Facebook/Meta have taken their eye off the ball for their Facebook and Instagram offerings while trying to pivot their company to become the main provider of VR/AR virtual worlds (metaverse), wasting billions so far on this quest. In the meantime Tiktok’s numbers are growing and they are the main social app for those under 25 with Instagram Reels failing to gain popularity with younger people. (see Irish data further down)

Facebook/Meta’s Identity Crisis

Tiktok has pointed out that they are an entertainment platform not a social network. Facebook is a social network, there was even a movie about them called The Social Network. Their Mission Statement is: Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.

For decades they’ve talked about their mission of connecting people but now they want to be Tiktok and that means a full DNA transplant. While at the same time wanting to be TikTok they want to be a metaverse first company too. Instagram has always been the vehicle to counter outside threats to the Meta/Facebook business but this time it might damage it.

Instagram timeline:

    • 2010 Instagram launches.
    • April 2012 Bought by Facebook.
    • August 2016 Instagram rips off Snapchat Stories with Instagram Stories.
    • June 2018 IGTV launched as YouTube competitor
    • August 2020 Instagram rips off Tiktok with Instagram Reels.
    • Mid 2021 Instagram starts adding posts from accounts you don’t follow into timelines.
    • October 2021 IGTV stepped down as a long-form video offering.
    • Early 2022 Instagram Reels videos from non-followed accounts forced into timelines.
    • July IGTV videos and existing videos converted to Instagram Reels
    • July 26th 2022 Instagram changes algorithm to push even more Reels videos into timeline and announces this will be the default.
    • July 29th 2022 Instagram announces they’ve paused this feature for now.

Data Manipulation as justification for changes

In their July 26th announcement Instagram used data to argue people wanted more video (Reels) in their timelines as this was the content they were watching more. However, Instagram changed their algorithm to give videos more priority so the data was of course going to show this. Facebook/Meta’s data can never be trusted, they have a lot of history with their “data”.

What comes next for Instagram and Facebook/Meta?

Facebook/Meta’s recent earnings and commentary show a company that’s in panic mode. Their big bet on a Metaverse with them having a monopoly on it seems to be a very expensive future for them and the coveted youth market they once had is lost to them. They’ve tried to clone TikTok and this is not working and they’ve tried to stoke fears and get it curtailed and this has failed too.

The latest announcement and climb back has been a giant misstep. When Instagram cloned Snapchat Stories, Snapchat redesigned their app and made their most popular features hard to use, pushing more people to Instagram Stories and hampered their own growth and dominance. It now seems Instagram is doing something similar by turning a beloved app into something else.

Opportunity for others

While Facebook/Meta said they’ll hold off on the timeline changes for now, they will bring them back and force them through. Tiktok is all they can think of now. Instagram was better at photos than Facebook and Facebook bought them and they used their resources to get them over a billion users. With Facebook/Meta now turning their back on the photo sharing element of Instagram, there are opportunities for other apps to pull in these audiences that Instagram seems not to want anymore.

TikTok, Instagram and Instagram Reels numbers

Monthly usage of apps/social apps in Ireland. These numbers are generated from the as systems of these platforms.

Tiktok in Ireland
2.26M users
13-18 not measured (the ad tool doesn’t allow you advertise to those under 19)
18-24 1.058M
24-34 562k
35-44 318k
45-54 184k
55+ 107k

Instagram in Ireland
2.6M overall
13-18 192k
18-24 653k
24-34 814k
35-44 560k
45-54 322k
55+ 231k

Reels overall 1.2M
13-18 70k
18-24 268k
24-34 394k
35-44 246k

Instagram Reels growth
August 2021 – 540,000
January 2022 – 930,000
August 2022 – 1.2M
(algorithm changes contributed to this growth too)

Instagram Stories 2.1M

This briefing document is from Mulley Communications – dm@mulley.ie – 086 8258586

Metaverse Briefing Document July 2022

The Metaverse Executive Summary

The Metaverse does not exist. Pure hype. 5-10 years away. Observe and wait for mass market adoption. Consider VR/AR for high value clients such as building walkthroughs, training or 3D models of your products.

This post is heavily inspired by (read ripped off) James Whatley and watch this metaverse talk he gave.

PDF version.

What is the Metaverse?

Broad Definition: The Metaverse is an always-on set of immersive 3D virtual worlds that are all connected to each other creating a single 3D virtual universe of destinations.
(Most companies are making up their own definitions of what the Metaverse is to suit their own interests, most of these are existing online games or VR platforms.)

Is the Metaverse owned by Facebook?

No. Facebook/Meta announced they’re building the metaverse but what they are building is an immersive 3D world at some point in the future which will not have interoperability with other online VR spaces. They are calling this the Metaverse, so are 100s of others.

The Trouble with the Metaverse – Consoles wars x10

Everyone appears to be building The Metaverse. The trouble is that all these “metaverses” are like game console war except there are now 250+ game console companies and none are compatible. Facebook/Meta, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD, Roblox, Samsung and Sony to name but a few are talking about making a Metaverse. To use their proprietary version you will need a specific piece of hardware to access each one of these.

Unlike the Internet and the World Wide Web where you build a website and every device with an Internet connection can access it, for the Metaverse hype you will need to build an individual presence using different standards in each “Metaverse” and each metaverse will have their own technology (e.g. headsets and glasses) that you’ll need to use.

Technology for “the Metaverse” is many years away from becoming a reality. Both the hardware and the software are not good enough to be used for now.

What about Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft?
These are online games, not the Metaverse.

You cannot trust Meta/Facebook

Facebook/Meta has a history of luring in companies to go all-in on their offerings before then chopping off their legs. They did this before by promising Facebook Apps would make companies rich and then killed off Facebook Apps, they then lured companies especially media companies to go all-in on video creation on Facebook and then changed their algorithm to downplay video, destroying many media companies. They did the same with news organisations encouraging them to make Facebook specific content and have now shuttered their Facebook News programme. Most recently they have decided to turn Instagram into a TikTok clone by pushing Instagram Reels of strangers into your main timeline and de-prioritise photos and posts, turning their back on people that helped build the app. Do not trust them.

Observe and Wait

For now companies large and small should consider waiting to see what happens with the various Metaverse projects out there. When Apple launches their VR headset and eventually VR/AR glasses, this will bring stability and also mass market numbers to VR/AR and this will create a clearer picture of where things are headed.

Where the Metaverse money is: VR and AR as a gateway to the Metaverse

The VR and AR space is growing
Companies should consider using VR for high value clients such as building walkthroughs, high end simulation programmes or 3D models of your products. If just a few hundred people seeing your work in VR is enough for a high value sale, then VR can be worth it.

IP and innovation
Those working on VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) will be the ones who will do well when The Metaverse becomes more standardised. They’ll do this by licensing the IP they create or by being acquired or by creating content for clients. Many already successful Irish VR/AR companies will be ready for the Metaverse and will do well from it.

Cynically using the Metaverse hype
If you cynically look at the Metaverse then there are a few ways to have success:

Using the Metaverse for PR
A business could announce they’re setting up in the Metaverse and they could get media coverage for this. Many are already doing this.

Launching a client in the Metaverse
Many companies have plenty of resources to spend money building a space in a virtual world. These companies will spend 10s of 1000s to 100s of 1000s to millions to have their space in “the Metaverse” and there is no way to convince them otherwise. Take their money. Build VR/AR apps for them.

Questions to ask when there’s a Metaverse announcement

How do I access the Metaverse now?
What hardware do I need?
Is your Metaverse offering just a space in an online game like Minecraft/Roblox?
How many daily users are in your Metaverse?