News
You Can Never Take A Holiday From Social Media…
But You Can Have Some Fun!
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media and Content Specialist at Sage
So we’re off to the Social Media Awards on Thursday 17th May (we are finalists for Best Blog Of A Business) and we thought we would add our own element of fun to the night. Sage have placed a beach ball in everyone’s goodie bag at the awards. One of the beach balls has a special code on it. Inflate your beach ball to see if you have won.
If your ball has the winning code, tweet it to @sageireland to claim your prize of an iPad. The next time you are on holidays you can keep a track of all of your social media channels via your iPad. Unfortunately there can only be one winner, so everyone else can bring their beach ball on holidays instead! You might also be interested in our related post ‘How To Manage Your Social Media While On Holiday’.
Unfortunately you can’t take a holiday from terms and conditions either, so here they are;
- Only the first person that tweets us the special code will win the iPad. Just like in the awards, there can be only one winner!
- We will reply to the winner to confirm they have won and will ask them to DM or email us their address to social.media@sage.com
- We will have the iPad delivered to the winner in the days following the awards.
- Enjoy the awards
Posted under: Sage Customer Wins Blue Book Voucher
By Aisling White, Senior Marketing Specialist at Sage
We ran a competition throughout the month of March where every small to medium size business customer that purchased a Sage product was entered into a draw to win a €500 Blue Book voucher. Ireland’s Blue Book is a collection of Irish Country House Hotels, Manor Houses, Castles and restaurants from across the county.
La Bucca restaurant in Co. Meath won the prize when they purchased an upgrade to Sage 50 Accounts 2012.
Avril McArdle, Digital & Marketing Manager, Sage, Barry Murphy, Sales Manager, Sage and Amanda Francis, La Bucca Restaurant.
Sage Sponsor Building Brics: The IIA Annual Conference 2012
Sage will be exhibiting at the Irish Internet Association Annual Conference which will be held Thursday May 10, 2012 at the Aviva Stadium.
The conference includes 8 interactive workshops running throughout the day with lots expert speakers and case studies at each. This year the theme of the conference is “Enabling Business Expansion” and will focus on social media, localisation and mobile.
The conference is amined at;
- Tech Business Owners strategizing for international growth in BRIC countries
- Business Owners localising their business proposition for international markets
- Business owners selling via mobile and taking advantage of mobile enabled technologies
- Marketing Professionals using Social Media in International markets or for Online PR and Brand Management or to optimise Search
The conference will equip Irish firms waking up to the online opportunity with the know how to target opportunities in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, IIA chief executive Joan Mulvihill explained recently on SiliconRepublic.com.
Using International Connections To Bring Investment To Ireland
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media and Content Specialist at Sage
We spoke to Terry Clune, founder of Connectireland about their recent initiative to bring investment to Ireland.
Terry Clune
Hi Terry, your most recent project is ConnectIreland which was launched in March 2012. What is Connect Ireland?
ConnectIreland is a crowdsourcing inspired initiative asking individuals to use their contacts, family, friends and business connections, to identify and make introductions between ConnectIreland and overseas companies who are considering international expansion. Any individual who introduces a company that subsequently invests in Ireland and creates new jobs will receive a minimum reward from the Irish Government. For each job created the introducer will receive of €1,500 per job, up to a maximum of 100 jobs.
How many people have registered on the site to date?
Almost 15,000 people worldwide have visited the website and over 5,000 people have liked our inspirational YouTube video featuring Irish-American Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley, Hollywood veteran Martin Sheen and emerging young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan. We have received interest from all over the world, but in particular from North American which has traditionally been a good investor in Ireland and its people. Since our launch date on March 8th ConnectIreland has over 40 high end potential investors in its pipeline as a result of introductions made by people in Ireland and overseas. ConnectIreland is also using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to inform audiences worldwide about the initiative but also to communicate good news stories about Ireland.
Sage Is A Finalist In The Social Media Awards 2012
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media and Content Specialist at Sage
It was a nail biting wait but we were very excited this week when we saw that we are a finalist in the Social Media Awards in the Blog Of A Business category. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on May 17th in the Mansion House, Dublin.
The Sage Blog is our social media hub, it holds the content and information that we share via our other social media channels and is also where people can come to find out more about the our various social media initiatives such as our Facebook Lunch ‘n Learn chats and our Facebook Page Takeover Competition.
The blog has grown dramatically in 2011 and 2012. We now have a range of guest bloggers from accountants to Sage Business Partners, entrepreneurs and business experts and over fifteen Sage Ireland employees have written their own posts for the blog in the last six months. The blog was also re-designed in January and is now mobile friendly and the new design combined with rich content from a variety of sources has really increased the repeat traffic on the blog.
Join Sage At The Awards
We ran a competition on the day that the finalist was announced. Everyone that subscribed to our blog by email was entered into a draw for two tickets to the awards so they can join us in all of the fun to be had on the night. The winner was Ian Gibney, congrats Ian. We will also be tweeting live from the awards to keep you all up to date on the winner for each category so keep an eye on @Sageireland on the night of the 17th May.
Five Of The Best Sage CRM Community Resources In March 2012
By Lucy Callan, Marketing and Communications Officer, Sage CRM
The Sage CRM Community, community.sagecrm.com, is the go-to place for all your Sage CRM knowledge, queries and training. The community provides everyone from everyday Sage CRM users to admin users and partners with up-to-date news and views about the product they’re using and selling. With a highly active community membership, it really is the hub for all your Sage CRM information and the best place to engage with like-minded users and partners.
The User Community and Partner Community Blogs are a great place to start to get all the tips you need for getting the most out of your Sage CRM application. We’ve rounded up the best blogs posted on the community in the past month.
Email Marketing Automation – Content for Automated Campaigns (part 1)
In a series of blog articles about email marketing, David Riordan takes you on a journey to get the most out of your email marketing campaigns. In this installment, David looks at creating different campaign content. Did you know that 70-75% of your email list is inactive? Read on to find out how to tackle this statistic.
3rd Annual Conference Of The Transition Year Teachers’ Professional Network
Sage@Schools will be exhibiting at the 3rd Annual Conference of the Transition Year Teachers’ Professional Network (T.Y.TPN) in the Athlone Springs Hotel this coming Saturday, the 21st April 2012.
The T.Y.TPN was established to assist schools who offer or intend to offer Transition Year to their students, providing them with support, advice and resources in order to make teachers jobs more rewarding in the classroom. The theme of this year’s conference is “Breadth and Balance in the TY Programme” and will be opened by with Michael O’Leary, National Coordinator Transition Year Programme, PDST.
The keynote speech from Dr. Geraldine Mooney Simmie, Academic Coordinator of Teaching Practice & Mentoring at the University of Limerick will address “What can Transition Year Coordinators and Teachers do to retain their Professional Autonomy and Inspiration in an Education World awash with Metrics and Measurements”. This will be followed by a number of talks and workshops including “What works in Transition Year” and “Creative Management of the Transition Year Programme”
2012 Bord Gais Energy Social Media Awards
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media and Content Specialist at Sage
Yeah! Sage are nominated in the 2012 Social Media Awards in three categories; Blog Of A Business, Facebook Page for a Business (owner managed) and Integrated Facebook Campaign: Page, App & Ads.
This is the second year of the Social Media Awards or #sockies as they are otherwise known. They are due to be held in Dublin’s Mansion House on May 17, and we are looking forward to attending whether or not we make it to the next round.
For anyone interested in some good social media case studies from Irish businesses check out the case studies from last years winners of the Social Media awards.
No Frontiers, The Important Details For Startups
By Tim McCarthy, McCarthy Accountants
As explained in a previous post about No Frontiers, Enterprise Ireland are offering financial support of up to €15,000 for entrepreneurs and early stage start-up companies who intend to create or develop an innovative and sustainable business (manufacturing, internationally traded service, or domestic service with potential to trade internationally). The New Frontiers Programme is aimed to assist entrepreneurs/ start-ups in developing their idea from a business proposition to a robust business plan.
McCarthy Accountants have been in touch with Enterprise Ireland and have got more details about this programme which we are sharing here and in the Linkedin Group New Frontiers.
The Programme is split into 3 Phases:
1. Phase 1 – Test the market potential of the business proposition (6/8 Weeks)
- This phase will consist of a series of Workshops, one two one sessions and master classes will be delivered over a 6 or 8 week period.
- Please note this phase is part-time and non-funded.
- Phase 1 is aimed at determining the business case (feasibility)
- Commencing in late March 2012
Help For Ambitious Irish Firms To Grow
As published in the Sunday Business Post on 25th March 2012.
Sage’s success with mid-market companies is based on delivering all the business advantages of an ERP system without the complexity and implementation headaches.
Peter O'Rourke, head of channel and corporate division in Sage
In the 15 years since Sage set up in Ireland, it has built a base of 40,000 customers, many of them midsized businesses regarded as the engine room for economic recovery. It is well documented that the company is the largest provider of accountancy software to small firms in Ireland, but Sage also has the biggest share of companies with more than e1 million in annual turnover and up to 500 employees. ‘‘These companies may well have other businesses springing up around themand there’s a real synergy between what
they do and the national economy,’’ said Peter O’Rourke, head of channel and the corporate division in Sage Ireland.
They are also defined by their complexity. As a company grows, every aspect of the business is affected, and entry-level accountancy software struggles to keep up. They need to think about an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution, according to O’Rourke, because of the typical trajectory that a growing business takes. ‘‘They start adding employees and get into payroll and managing employees. ‘‘They find themselves with a sales team who people want to look after customers and manage the sales cyclemore efficiently,’’ he said.
Follow Sage On Linkedin
SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL
