Digital Masterclass with Maryrose Lyons

On Wednesday May 13th The Marker Hotel was brimming with over one hundred businesswomen and men attending IMAGE’s Digital Masterclass; Social Media for your Business event. Guests mingled, enjoying some wine and delicious canap’s before they were whisked to their seats. Once guests had settled they were delighted to find gift bags filled with beautiful necklaces from Stella & Dot, a full-size VOYA Seaweed Conditioner and yummy popcorn snacks from Propercorn.

Melanie Morris, IMAGE editor-in-chief welcomed everyone and revealed a second surprise – three lucky people had each won a stunning piece of jewellery courtesy of Loulerie. Melanie also announced a Twitter competition for the best tweet of the event with the winner receiving a lunch for four at the Cliff Townhouse, Dublin.

It was all back to business once Maryrose Lyons from Brightspark Consulting took the stage, with everyone furiously note-taking and tweeting for the next ninety minutes.

Maryrose Lyons is the founder and CEO of Brightspark Consulting, a pioneering Dublin-based digital media company on the cutting edge of social media. Their aim is to empower businesses to harness social media platforms on a budget.

Maryrose spoke about the basics of using Twitter and Facebook, the up-and-comers Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat, as well as the best tools for utilising them in a business sense. The most mind-blowing tool she showed us? Twitonomy, an app that gives you all the statistics of your Twitter account history in neat little diagrams. Maryrose captivated the audience with witty anecdotes, like the benefits of stalking potential influencers, great examples of social media successes, such as Dublin Airport and Tourism Ireland, and she emphasised the importance of planning and processes when taking on social media for your business.

Our minds were buzzing by the end and it seemed everyone wanted to pick Maryrose’s bountiful brain on how they could capitalise on social media for their organisation. Questions thoroughly answered, everyone went home motivated to become what Maryrose termed ‘social media superstars?.

Photographs courtesy of Sorcha Crilly, visit www.sorchacrillyphotography.com

Lauren Heskin