Albert Quay was a hive of activity on Friday 26th May as representatives from over 400 SMEs from across the Munster region arrived for Boost Your Business, an event co-hosted by Facebook and Cork Chamber which aimed to provide SMEs with greater insight into how digital solutions like Facebook can be used to connect with new customers, grow brand awareness and drive new sales.

Local businesses Huckleberry’s Doughnuts and babyboo.ie both entertained and informed at the event as the explained how they have grown their businesses through social media. At Cork Chamber we use social media to connect with our members and also support companies on their Digital Journey with training courses, expert speakers in the area and of course the Cork Digital Marketing Awards which allow you showcase your success - so be sure to submit an entry over the summer months!

We all know the way people connect has changed drastically in the last decade, but did you know one in every four minutes of internet usage in Ireland is spent on social media websites and 2.3 million Irish people log in to Facebook alone every day. It’s clear that businesses of all sizes need to engage and communicate with their customers where they are and if you weren’t able to make the Boost Your Business event here are some of the top tips we learned:

Business Pages on Facebook area free digital storefront which works in addition to your own website and offers some great tools including -

• Messenger - A personal, private and instant way to interact with your customers in the way that they like, 53% of people say they are more likely to do business with companies they can message.
• Facebook Live – Show the behind the scenes personality of your people, how a product gets made or host a live Q&A. Get into your customers home and let them get to know and trust your business.
• Page Insights – An incredibly powerful and intuitive analytics system that lets you understand who you are connecting with and how they spend their time on your business page. You can see the age and gender of your audience and what time of day they engage with you which is invaluable is designing and planning promotional content.

Advertising on Facebook is also really easy to plan and manage allowing you to target your audience in a cost effective way. You can -

• Specify the goal for your advertising whether that’s to drive people to your website or collect leads.
• Choose your target audience by demographic, interests, behaviours or even a ‘Lookalike’ audience who are similar to people who have engaged with you previously.
• Utilise Ad Insights, a tool similar to Page Insights which lets you review the results of your advertising and see exactly how cost effective it is and then make changes according to what is working best.

Instagram is a platform for visual storytelling that gives people the power to connect to diverse interests and moments. But why should your business care? 60% of users have found out about a new product or service on the site and 75% of users have visited a business website from their Instagram account.

Instagram allows your business to create a community among your customers and tell the story of your brand. With the same full suite of tools as Facebook it is just as easy to manage your Instagram account and make the most of the information you gather about the people you connect with.

Useful links:

• Find videos, tutorials, FAQs and success stories to help you design your social media marketing plan - read more
• 50 e-learning modules to show you how to use Facebook to grow your business - read more
• Instagram for business