Digital Sanity Supper Club No 2 23 October 2017 at Malmaison Belfast
Digital Sanity Supper Club no. 2 took place at the Malmaison Hotel in Belfast on 23 October 2017. Facilitated by Chartered Marketer Christine Watson – Founder of TrainingMatchmaker.com the #DigiSanity concept has been invented in order to:   i Enable peer to peer learning – digital marketing practitioners and trainers focused on the very latest changes in digital platforms – Chartered Marketer and Digital Sanity Supper Club Facilitator Christine Watson attended armed with a list of 40 (and we’re sure this could’ve been added to) compiled just from September Supper Club to our October date. The concept has been created to help Digital Marketing Trainers keep their awareness, knowledge and skills up to date given how fast the changes are coming at everyone   ii Encourage local networking and collaboration for a like minded bunch of professionals in digital marketing and those delivering digital marketing training – a potential support system if you will (or better still professional friendships). They do say if you break bread together … and attendees get to enjoy  a bonus of some very fine Malmaison dining   iii Inspire our Digital marketing practitioners and TrainingMatchmaker.com Trainers to stay ahead of the game. Sharing and hearing stories of real life implementation of the very latest tactical (and sometimes strategic) changes across digital platforms   So, of the 40 changes our Facilitator entered the Supper Club having scribed in advance, given the risk of the conversation ever running dry (is that even likely with a table of diners from our locale?) the Digital Sanity Supper Club diners managed to discuss the below 21 alongside eating supper, supping fruit infused water and/or wine and hearing from Octover Soap Box Slot Speaker Ciaran Connolly of Connolly Cove on Google Maps – which now allows video to be added as well as a brief touch on Pinterest. Ciaran had just returned to Belfast from the Google Local Guides Conference in SF – he was invited to attend as the top contributor from Ireland. As a Local Guide Ciaran has contributed 7,500 photos of Northern Ireland to Google and has between 1 and 1.5 million views per week. Connolly Cove You Tube Channel has also posted more than 500 videos since February 2017.  
  1. Instagram Polls
  2. Facebook Trials of Facebook Explore
  3. Snapchat Context Cards
  4. HTTPS & SEO
  5. Twitter increasing character count to 280 characters
  6. Facebook Authorship for Journalists –  were we aware of it? has it now been ditched?
  7. Getting Verified on Twitter
  8. Google Search Console
  9. Pinterest adds search ads
  10. Instagram shopify tags enabling in-stream purchases
  11. Snapchat Education Courses for Marketers
  12. Snapchat like frames for Events available on LinkedIn
  13. Facebook Workplace – collaborations with other businesses
  14. # Hashtags on Pinterest
  15. 94% of Smartphone users holding the phone vertically and the impact on horizontally filmed video and photos
  16. 150,000 Snapchat Spectacles Sold
  17. Facebook TV – NFL partnership
  18. Twitter TV and commitment to 16 Live Shows
  19. Top Influencers using snapchat 33% less
  20. Instagram hitting 800million active users
  21. Whatsapp for business – piloting ads and its 1 billion regular users
  22. NextDoor App
Digital Marketing Trainers in attendance at the October Digital Sanity Supper Club also learned:
  1. Google Maps now allows users to upload videos from an android device
  2. Google Maps allows businesses to add in an offer that is timed
  3. Google Local Guide growth from 5 million to over 50 million in less than 1 year
  4. Google Maps v Trip Advisor
  5. You can request to loan the Google Street View Trekker
  6. The gamification of Google Maps – Local Guides earn points, points bring rewards such as more storage space etc
  7. The thought leaders our Digital Supper Club Marketing Practitioners and Trainers were following
Additional Discussions:
  1. Google 360 Degree photos
  2. Snapchat Geo Filters for Brands or personal use and the cost variances
  3. The Stickiness of Instagram
  4. User generated content on Instagram
  5. Swipe up to buy on Instagram for 10,000 followers or more
  6. Panoramic Photo uploads to Facebook
  7. Candi Software
  8. Muted Conversations
  9. Ad Blockers
  10. Google Maps being a tool to save you slaving over mileage forms
  11. Video adverts on facebook blasting return on investment results
  12. Keyword Ranking
  13. Url Click through website links and their impact on facebook reach
  14. The significance of online reviews and the importance of responding to all reviews – positive with brand keywords and negative (but without brand keywords) as organisation responses are visible as well as the review
  15. The week of Digital by BBC in Belfast 11-17 November
  16. The launch of Fascinating Company by Rosemary and Ashleigh
  17. The implications of staff faces being within video content uploaded to Google Maps
  18. The frequency of the Google Street Car
During the Digital Sanity Supper Club both Emma Gribben and Chris Love contributed as Local Guides to Malmaison hotel – Emma got 10 points and level 1 and Chris achieved 16 points! The next Digital Sanity Supper Club takes place in the private dining room of Malmaison Hotel in Belfast on 27 November. £25 ticket includes a 2 course meal and a cocktail. The Soap Box Slot will be by TrainingMatchmaker.com Trainer: Emma Gribben who trains for Google Digital Garage amongst other clients across Europe and her focus will be on Google Search Console and Snapchat Context Cards. Indeed our TrainingMatchmaker.com Facilitator – Christine committed to bringing along a pair of SnapChat Spectacles to the session – maybe Ardmore might loan us them? If anyone in Ardmore sees this blog – that would be really very kind of you and your Digital Marketing Practitioners would be very welcome to become #DigiSanity Supper Club members too. In December Digital Sanity Supper Club does Festive Afternoon Tea on 18th at the Malmaison Hotel from 3.30pm-5pm and TrainingMatchmaker.com aims to co-create a round up of the year from Digital Sanity Supper Club members. In January Digital Sanity Supper Club member Paul McGarrity will  take the Soap Box Slot and chat to local Digital Marketing Trainers and Practitioners about all things Pinterest.   What the Digital Sanity Supper Club diners didn’t have time to cover in ‘over dinner’ discussions from the scribed talking points list of Trainingmatchmaker.com Facilitator – Chartered Marketer Christine Watson:
  1. Facebook Stories now being open to Brand pages on facebook
  2. Making branded custom frames in facebook
  3. Polyvore
  4. Shapr – LinkedIn meets Tinder apparently!
  5. Twitter – new bookmark feature
  6. Twitter lifespan – apparently just 18 minutes lifespan on average per tweet
  7. Twitter Tweetstorm feature
  8. Ads on YouTube
  9. You Tube Channels
  10. Facebook testing new subscription option in instant articles
  11. Facebook testing our image based search for related products
  12. Messenger Lite which takes up less and 10MB on your phone and can run on 2G
  13. New Creative Dynamic Tool on Facebook (A/B Split Testing)
  14. LinkedIn Business – Company Pages
  15. Facebook – paypal within messenger
  16. New SEO tool: SiteBulb
  17. Chat and Chat Bots
  18. Google new editing tools – a business can now edit how it appears in search results from within the search results
  The Trusted Thought Leaders of the Digital Sanity Supper Club Diners:
  1. Daniel Rowles
  2. WatsonmyDear (Janet that really was very kind of you!)
  3. Joanne Sweeney Burke
  4. Niamh Taylor (another local marketer)
  5. Smart insights
  6. EConsultancy
  7. Gary Vaynerchuk
  8. Professor Mark Ritson
  9. Marketing Week
  10. Inc.com
  11. Forbes
Feedly was again mentioned in terms of keeping abreast of the very latest changes and best practice in Digital marketing. With thanks to every single Digital Sanity Supper Club delegate for all contributions and a special thanks to Ciaran Connolly for being the Digital Sanity Supper Club Soap Box Slot Speaker for October and of course training venue hosts Malmaison hotel for going the extra mile with fruit infused water and chocolate gift surprises – not to mention the fine dining, service and private venue. ‘Til next time Blog scribed by Digital Sanity Supper Club facilitator: Chartered Marketer Christine Watson Digital Sanity Supper Club is a Trainingmatchmaker.com initiative
0

You may also like

Learning log of Erasmus Trainee Anna-Lena from Austria after an awesome time working and living in Northern Ireland
Learning Plan of Erasmus Trainee Johanna Zettel from Austria
Welcome to my last blog about learning log from one month abroad in Northern Ireland
Learning log of Erasmus Trainee Romana from Austria after an awesome time in Northern Ireland