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coMMS Support
In the last few months the Skillnets’ Communications
team has continued to support networks with advice
on promotion and brand awareness.
Based on the success of last year’s trial corporate
Facebook ad, the team has also run a number of targeted
campaigns to promote the networks and their courses
through this medium. All ads were linked to the relevant
page on the Skillnets website www.skillnets.ie and were
funded by Skillnets Ltd.
FACEBOOK ADVERTISING
SMe ad campaign
From February to March of this year, a new type of advertising
campaign was run through Facebook. These advertisements
targeted small business owners throughout Ireland. The results
of the campaign were very positive, generating an increase of
186% in traffic to the ‘Find a Course’ page for companies. The
campaign is due to be repeated in the coming months.
Job-seeker ad campaign
In October/November 2011 a four week campaign was run
targeting job-seekers who were interested in benefiting from
free training and getting the skills that Irish companies are
looking for. Traffic was increased to our job-seeker ‘Find a
Course’ page by 200%.
This campaign will run again shortly.
JSSp ad campaign
A pilot campaign specifically targeting potential trainees for
the Job-seekers Support Programme will be run in the coming
months. It is envisaged that the campaign will run for 4 weeks
initially. The key benefits of industry-specific training and
relevant work placements will be emphasised in the ads for
this campaign.
Career Zoo
Skillnets was one of a number of sponsors for the Career Zoo
event (www.careerzoo.ie) that took place on the 11th and 12th
of February in the Mansion House in Dublin. The exhibition
targeted experienced professionals and graduates (employed
and unemployed) who are exploring new career opportunities.
Leading employers, top education providers, enterprise
agencies and career-related services were in attendance. An
estimated 10,000 people visited the event over the two days.
As one of the event sponsors, Skillnets was extensively
promoted throughout the media, both in the run-up to and
during the event. The Skillnets logo featured on all advertising
(print and outdoor) and Skillnets-branded bookmarks were
included in all delegates’ bags. A Skillnets micro site was
included on the Career Zoo website which directed people
to our training search facility, as well as general information
for companies, employees and job-seekers. Traffic to our ‘Find
A Course’ page for job-seekers increased by 192% that week.
The Skillnets stand was prominently located and attracted a
lot of interest, predominantly from job-seekers. Two areas that
were of particular interest to job-seekers at the event were the
Job-seekers Support Programme (JSSP) and conversion courses.
On the opening day of the event, Alan Nuzum, Skillnets CEO,
delivered a two-handed workshop with Ericssons on ‘Conversion
Courses for Tomorrow’s Skills’. Alan spoke of the benefits
of conversion courses in general and detailed several of the
networks’ success stories with these types of programmes.
Joanna Piechota, Skillnets
with a Career Zoo delegate
Overview of event
Skillnets News • March 2012
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