We had a busy day today with out first meeting starting at 6.45am in the Ashdown Park Hotel as part of the Wexford BNI chapter here in Gorey. Then followed by catch up meetings to dicusss work currently being carried out for our clients.

Then back to the office to go through the snail mail and return a few calls. 12.45 time to go around to the new indian restaurant in gorey called Indiana. It’s upstairs over a tracksuit/sports shop beside the Permanent TSB on the main street. There was a good number of businesses represented including Finance companies, bankers, estate agents and IT people too.

One interesting new comer to the group was a young woman doing sales for a new business directory in Gorey. I thought it would only be fair to introduce myself fully as being the company behind existing business directory for Gorey called  GoreyLinks.com. We had a great chat and was delighted to hear that they are actually charging for a listing on the site. It’s brand spanking new and its great to hear that they are getting companies to sign up each and every week.

Of course this is nothing new to us at Cada Media as we have seen many business directories for gorey come in our 10 years here in Gorey. It does however reafirm a very valid point, that people will buy anything when it comes to the internet. We have been allowing companies to advertise in Gorey for free for years and about a year ago we brought in an administration fee to cover our costs of running the busiest website in Gorey! We’ve written before about Advertising in Gorey before but never really pushed the idea of actually selling advertising space till now.

We’ve actually been thinking of revamping the website for years but never had the motivation to do so as many businesses are still happy enough with whats already out there with WhatsWhat.ie and Ireland-directory only up the road in Arklow. So next week we will be launching our new version of the best website in Gorey! GoreyLinks.com will be reborn and revamped!

The Chamber meeting was short enough as it is always run during lunch time so its up to the business owner themselves to push their business cards around and meet as many people as they can during the short window they get at these types of meetings. I would suggest that more members of the chamber of commerce in Gorey(also a client of ours!) join in and get involved. It’s a great way to keep your business in peoples mind when they are asked “Do you know anyone who can etc etc”

Looking forward to the next meeting, oh by the way the food is top notch in the restaurant!

Is traditional advertising dying?

This questions was on the table this week on Sunday’s edition of the new business program on tv3. Part of the program talked to traditional Advertising Agencies in Dublin who would see digital advertising as a small part of their business. Overall it was great to see that Yes in fact traditional advertising as we know it, TV, Radio and Print are taking a hit, but that “Digital Media” is holding it’s own in an Ireland gripped in recession.

I must say that I was smiling all the way through the show as our ideas of how to help business grow in a recession were confirmed. It was also mentioned that companies who are involved in the Advertising Game still think of the Internet as some sort of fad, or something their kids do on their laptops. It’ true it won’t make the Advertising Companies the profits they are used to. I thought they were totally missing the numbers who are on-line via all sorts of methods, including free wifi for laptops, net books, mobile devices and the list goes on. Sit on a bus from Gorey to Dublin and see how many people are on-line. Please try it, you will be amazed.

Only two weeks ago their was a supplement in a Sunday paper telling use how broadband and the Internet will help get Ireland out of a recession. Using every element it offers can help companies reduce costs and indeed expand their target market.

One item that did catch my attention too was the talk about diversifying your online advertising into niche areas and going to where people are on-line. A quick version of this is facebook, a client of ours is using FaceBook to attract and retain clients for their on-line shop, with in weeks they have over 2,000 fans and are updating their facebook page daily with special offers and news. It has been a great success for them.

Advertising needs to be more specific and more targeted. If you advertising in a magazine for sports then find an on-line edition and make sure you are listed on that. If you are looking for get clients in a certain town then advertise on a website for that town.

Overall the program is very good, Ivan Yates is at the helm I would recommend to sky+ it if you get a chance.

This is a questions we get asked all the time, no matter if it’s on-line, via the office telephone or sitting at a family dinner table. What the hell is twitter and why would anyone be mad enough to upload “I’m having my lunch” as a statement on their twitter page.

Let me explain how we see it.

Twitter came about as a mini type of blog It allows it’s users to publish a short sentence about their feeling, opinions, questions they might have and other users who are linked to their page can view, read and answer them. In the industry we call it starting a conversation. Be it on-line, it’s still a conversation.

Many people also assume that to use twitter you must be sitting starring at a computer all day. Again another myth. You know we are always saying “The Web is Everywhere, Be part of it” the reason we are saying this is that the website is also on mobile phones and has been for some time now. Many users are still afraid to use it because of massive roaming charges whilst abroad and high prices of using the internet via a mobile device.

Blackberry & Internet ready devices

Everyday we see people we assume are “texting” as they stroll along the street, but in actual fact many are updating their Twitter or facebook profile. Some are personal pages telling their friends what they are doing right now and thus inviting them to meet them for lunch etc. Others are maybe business people in a new town looking for help for finding a business or location. It is said that twitter was the first method in announcing the death recently of Michael Jackson, from a person updating their twitter profile and that profile being “followed” by others.

Following someone on Twitter??

This simply means that you are saying to that person that you will read what they are putting on their profile. As with other social networking website, what you write appears on other people profiles. (can you see why they call it the web now?) This linking from profile to profile or website to website is what makes the internet special. It’s dynamic, it’s evolving, ever changing and like it or hate it it’s where the majority of people both in business or private get their information from.

Broadcast Media?

Noticed over the past few years how TV stations are pushing their website addresses more and move after each program and during shows themselves. It’s because they are loosing viewers. They know people are moving on0line and so they have heavily invested in on-line media in order to try to regain some on their audience.

Advertising on TV? Why bother?

Using Sky+ has changed my life, no longer waiting up to see late night tv programs etc. I can record everything using the record button and then the green series link button. so now when i get home i press play and watch my favourite show (House, lets say). Then its time for an Ad break and we see the show is sponsored by Carpet Right, then what happens?

Fast Forward through the Adverts. . . .

Completely missing all the ads and their clever messages till we see the sponsoring advert again then we press play. Now tell me honestly how many of you do that. Everyone i have spoken to does. Now would you still agree to paying thousands on TV adverts. I wouldnt give them €100 euro

So how does all that relate to Facebook or Twitter. Well basically broadcast media is throwing it our there and see who may or may not be watching. Online publishing allows the audience come to you.  A completely new concept to many business people. Some companies still believe in shouting and telling everyone about themselves, others are now understanding that people can get in touch with you by less formal means, by “Starting a conversaion” with you on-line or via a mobile device. It’s less formal, it’s cheaper and easier to get involved in.

Any size business can use these type of services, from one may bands to multinationals. Their are great benefits to be had by using the power of the internet no matter what shape of form it takes.

To start growing your business, call Dave Jordan on 053 9430748 today.

The Web is Everywhere, Be part of it.

So there I was working late in the office when the at around 8pm the phone rings . . . a mans voice asking for “Gorey Link” and something about a bus for Saturday night? I was confused as he said he was calling from a Koo restaurant. I politly said that in fact this number was “Cada Media, website designers in Gorey“. We said our good byes.

The phone rings again and It was the same voice looking for a bus. I repeated who we were and the call ended!

It then “clicked” to what was happening, so I dialed the number and the same voice answered. I said who I was and asked had he searched online for something and found us. He said he had looked for “Gorey Link”. I explained that we have operated an online business directory for Gorey Town called GoreyLinks.com for the past 3 years and that Google might have brought us up first. He had got our telephone number from there.

Again we said our good byes.

So whats the moral of the story. . . . . . we are great fans of Irony and seeing a business who used the internet as a last option on the “marketing plan list” turning around and using the Internet to find another business.

Classic !

GoreyLinks.com

This is our own business directory for Gorey Town, It was established in 2005 to help new arrivals to the area to find the main businesses in the town. We have around 600 business listed with a more still to be listed. The chamber of commernce in Gorey also have a site thats lists businesses but they they list members, we are a member and are one of the 100 or so businesses that are listed.

There are many new website out there these days like MyTown.ie or YourLocal.ie and these are larger sites covering the entire country. We only list businesses in each town and its surroundings. This has kept the Gods (Google) happy and we are usually listed in the top three for a key search phrase for the town.

We also have directories for other towns in Wexford, Carlow and Wicklow. Some of the main ones are

www.GoreyLinks.com

www.EnniscorthyLinks.com

www.NewRossLinks.com

www.Wexford-Links.com

If you would like to be listed on any of our directories please give me a call on 053-9430748 ( many businesses use our directories as their home page.)

The old expression of “If I had a penny for every time someone said that” is exactly how google are making their money. If you want to be on top of google overnight, it’s simple just pay them. It’s called Pay Per Click Advertising and google will accommodate you and you budget.

It’s also a kind of closed bid method so you won’t know exactly how much it costs to get there, so you will have to make a bid and see it your advert appears, if it doesn’t increase your bid.

That’s how to get on top of google!!

Yet again,  we get in an enquiry this morning clearly stating that the company are making a move away from the traditional advertising of printed adverts in the major directories and now concentrating their efforts on line. I personally saw this happening back in the last 90’s when the newspapers in Ireland started putting their content on-line.

Now it seems that the average SME in Ireland understands that the Internet is actually the better option to go for. You get a more measured account for your spending, it’s actually the opposite of the older methods of just throwing your advert out there in the hope that someone who may be interested see’s it.

Now online marketing is more direct and when an online advert/search engine brings someone to your site they are actively looking for your products and it is then up to you and your content to attract them to make contact and become a customer.