Mulley Communications

Hard Working Class Heroes is on again next month. 6th to 8th of October. If you’ve not heard about it then this opportunity is not for you.

We’re looking for an Irish music fan (or a team) to check out unsigned Irish bands that are playing this event and write about them. We especially want your views on Irish bands that could be worth discovering. We will pay your reasonable expenses for the weekend if you need to travel to Dublin for it and we’ll pay for your ticket(s) too.

We’d prefer you too to write on your own website/blog about these bands/artists. The content is yours, we will not own it, you can do what you want with it but we will have the right to use it on one of our own websites now or in the future. Fuck copyright or something.

If you’re interested in this, send an email with exact subjectline: Hardworkingmusic to damien@mulley.ie State your name, your location. You then have one paragraph of four or less sentences (of average length) to say why you want to do this. You must additionally link to writing about bands already, Irish ones are a bonus. We are not looking for any particular style of writing. Loving every band ever just because you went to free gigs won’t cut it however.

Of note:
Exact subjectline as we have a filter set up. Any more than four sentences, we delete your email without reading it properly. Any attachments like Word docs or PDFs, we delete your email without reading it fully. A pattern is emerging isn’t it?

Well it seems the unofficial account of Junior Vice-President Damien Mulley hit 8000 connections a short while ago. As a thank you or a “D’fuck did that happen?” style response, management has decided that he’ll give you a day of his time to consult with you or a chosen company/organisation.

You can choose a day of training on the usual suspects, a day of consultancy or a mix that you choose.

Few simple rules: the company does not work for telcos, political parties or alcohol companies. You can’t resell this to someone else or make this a premium event that you get payment for. Still lots of opportunities there.

I’ve noticed a lot of people asking me on Twitter to retweet Tweets where they are looking for intern positions with marketing or PR companies or looking for digital work in other companies.

Companies have different criteria depending on the work they do. I’d be grateful for some feedback from PR and Marketing companies in particular as to what they want interns schooled in before they start the job.

Are things like the below important?

• How to create and run Facebook Pages
• How to run Facebook Ads
• How to create Facebook Tabs
• Running Twitter accounts
• Creation of content plans for Facebook and Twitter
• Running Google Ad campaigns

What other digital skills are needed?

Facebook Places for Ireland finally launched today. Some of the nerdier types have been waiting for ages to get to play with this. (Some even nerdier ones did all kind of hacks with networks toe be able to check in).

What does it mean for an individual?

More stalkeridge! You can now see where you friends are and with whom, if they wish to share this information. You can tell your friends where you are now, show them pictures from that location etc. As Facebook Places matures you will be able to avail of deals in locations near you or go to the locations based on offers.

What does it mean for a business?

If you claim your Place/location you can merge it with an existing Business Page. When someone checks in, their friends see this, might click on through and see your business details. If people are frequenting your business, why not give them the option of telling their friends? The average Irish person has 160 friends on Facebook. That’s the potential audience every time someone checks in to your location on Facebook. The longterm goal with this is Facebook Deals. Check in, get 20% off, win prizes and so on. Rewards for being loyal.

Right now: As a business, get your physical location created or claim it and enable people to check in. Get some Facebook Stickers made too to encourage people to check in!

Here are some of the frequently asked questions on Facebook Places.

The above pic is me outside Facebook HQ in Dublin with a giant Places icon. Courtesy of Made In Hollywood Props.

They wouldn’t work as business cards but it seems easy enough to put your website address on a slab of chocolate:

You can have some with a cuppa at the Dublin and Cork social media courses or at Measure It!

On the back of the Social Media for Business course in Cork, a 9 week evening course will take place each Monday evening from January 24th until March 21st. Details:

Price: €550
Location: Camden Court Hotel, Dublin
How to book: Email Damien ( at ) mulley.ie
Experience level: Experienced web usage, basic understanding of some online marketing would be beneficial.

Call it social media/digital marketing/online marketing or something else, more and more businesses want their staff up to speed on social media. The course has been designed based on feedback from businesses that have attended previous courses I have done (both day-long and weekly courses) and is quite practical in nature. Bring a laptop if you can, we’ll have desks, power and wifi for you. Detailed documentation will also be provided.

• Overview of current social media trends
• Search Optimisation and Website Structure
• Targeted Advertising (Google and Facebook)
• Blogging and Content Creation
• Facebook for Business
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Mobile marketing, location services, mobile apps
• Devising a Marketing Plan

I’ve been teaching an 8 week social media course split into 3 hour sessions both in Cork and Galway since the start of November. It’s a format that people seem to be liking and I’m getting requests to do another in Galway in the new year. At the same time I’ve been asked to do something along the same lines in Dublin and Cork too.

What each module in the course offers right now is:

• SEO and Website Structure
• Targeted Advertising (Google and Facebook)
• Blogging and Content Creation
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Devising a Marketing Plan

Other Potential other modules:
Email Marketing
Video and Mobile Marketing
Location Marketing – Facebook Places, Foursquare
Online PR/Comms

These modules are based on feedback from some of my clients I work with as well as the hundreds of companies I interact with via training sessions throughout the year.

Price for an 8 week course would be around €600, I don’t see it being much more than that. Group discount if a company sends a few staff. Max class size is 12 people too.

What I’d like though is feedback on what you want from a social media evening course, more topics than above, focusing on certain elements etc.  The more feedback I get from companies, the more focused this course can be.

This course is not confirmed yet as I’m waiting on your feedback

It’s the 12th.

Been an age since this blog was updated. So who wants to come along to the first Measure It! of 2011 and what date do you want?

Vote in the comments for:

• January 5th
• January 12th

How long does it take to form a habit? If you’re into marketing and want people to make your product the default they get, this is good to know.

So one ad agency gets ditched. Is it really the end of agencies? I don’t think so as long as companies don’t have the resources. Some big orgs have half a dozen comms agencies alone.

Alcohol brand or product? See the updated Facebook terms and conditions.

Saatchi and Saatchi celebrate 40 years. Showcase of their best/most known work.

How to present with a PUNCH.

So you may or may not have seen the study we did with the National College of Ireland on Facebook usage. Check it out. It’s good! The main science bits are:

• 71% of users looked at adverts on their Profile pages, 31% of users looked at adverts on the News Feed page (homepage).
• Users pay more attention (53% vs. 31%) to page updates in their News Feed Wall rather than adverts to the right-hand side of the Wall.

So we might have banner ad blindness going on around the web and maybe Google Ads on the right side of results don’t get much love but it seems for Facebook so far, ads work and people pay attention to them.

More importantly in my view is that people are naturally paying attention to information that shows up in their News Feed and a business is allowed to send their updates to this News Feed when someone Likes/Becomes a fan of the Business Page. So set up your Facebook Business Page and update on a regular basis. Tie it into a Marketing Calendar. The only cost is your time.