Last night, 35 Clubs from around the province gathered at The RDS to take part in the second of three seminars hosted by Elma Beirne., Domestic Marketing Executive for the Leinster Branch.

Club delegates had the pleasure of learning about Social Media Strategy from Michael Corcoran, Social Content and Media Manager, EightyTwenty. Michael discussed the importance of structure across all social platforms and encouraged clubs to create content schedulers.

Stephen McNamara, Director of Communications with the IRFU next informed Clubs the importance of having a Social Media Policy in place. He suggested that there’s no point on a Club PRO designing a policy unless it fits in with the Clubs overall operational objectives. McNamara added ‘Stakeholder buy in is vital. If a Clubs main stakeholders don’t understand or fully agree with your social media plans, then they may need to be educated on your vision and you also may need to adapt your plan to be aligned with the Clubs overall social needs’.

Next up was Gavin Coffey, Head of Client Services with New Slang. The Newbridge native encouraged Clubs to step their game up when it comes to looking the part. Coffey discussed methods to engage and interact with your audience and provided some tips such as don’t feed the twitter trolls but do bring the banter (in a PG version of course).

The last speaker of the night was Seapoint RFC’s Social Media Manger Cian O’Higgins who also works for BLK Sports as a Digital Marketing Executive. The Leinstertainment founder informed Club delegates about the importance of video content and also shared some useful apps that Club members can use to design graphics for free. O’Higgins also described the importance of evaluating what posts and posting times do and don’t work for club via monitoring Facebook insights.

The last seminar that Leinster Rugby will be running this season will be based solely on Marketing and Sponsorship. The last seminar in the series will take place in the Lansdowne Suite (Player’s Lounge) in The RDS on Tuesday 13th of October. Sign up for free with jacintaorourke@gmail.com.

Leinster Rugby will be running two more seminars based solely on Social Media and Marketing, one kicking off next week. The seminars are free of charge and are open to anyone in a Club or school volunteering in marketing, communications or social media.

The aim of the Marketing seminar

Marketing:
 

  • Marketing Strategy for a rugby club
  • Analysing where your club is at now
  • Seeking sponsorship-where to start-evaluating club assets etc.
  • Sponsorship proposals- how and who should be involved
  • Delivering the sponsors rights-local sponsor activation
  • Fundraising: Preparing to fundraise-creating a case to support, analyse and plan

 
The seminar will be hosted by Elma Beirne, Domestic Marketing and a number of impressive guest speakers including Claire Carroll, Digital Marketing Strategist and Ian Murray, Marketing Manager in The Bank of Ireland.
We would encourage anybody in a club involved in marketing, sponsorship and fundraising to attend this one off free seminar