Spring has officially sprung! As the Irish countryside become awash with green once more, let’s take a look at the brands which have sprung ahead this spring.

Bubble’s own Keelings have had the largest jump with a total of 15,115 new page-likes since the last count. Both Gino’s Gelato and The Jelly Bean Factory attempted to keep up with Keelings intense growth – and fell not too far behind – with their Facebook audience expanding by 10,387 and 9,991 respectively.

Barry’s Tea still claims the top spot despite only adding 156 new followers, they currently stand at 122,639. Brennan’s Bread continues to hold a strong second, a made a little ground on Barry’s, by adding 1,271 Facebook likes for a total of 111,998. Lily O’Brien’s (85,551), who gained 5,317 during this period, still sits far behind in third place.

Keelings, now at 78,747 likes, has surpassed Club Orange (61,710) & put some daylight between the two brands.  Indeed, Club Orange’s meagre gains of 462 during this period has also seen them fall behind the Jelly Bean Factory (61,832) – only just.

If anyone needs some advice or support, the team at Bubble Digital would love to help.

The modern-world has evolved into an era of online social interactions, so it is only natural that the social media landscape has become a real battle-zone as each company vies for our time and attention. The new kid-on-the-block could also be the next big-thing, so complancency could prove the ultimate death sentence for any company, regardless of their current status in the market.

With all this in mind, we take a look at the current social media landscape in Ireland – who is currently king of the hill & who is making inrodes at the competitions expense?

Firstly, it is no surprise to see Facebook remain as the nation’s number 1 online social destination, with a market penetration of 64%. The battle for second position is much harder to call however, with Twitter, LinkedIn, Google + & Instagram with similar market penetration numbers. The are others showing relatively meagre figures, however as Facebook showed us all those years ago everything can change in the matter of weeks.

With a range of platforms all vying for second, there’s only one way to decipher who the real winner is – active daily users.

Facebook remains the leader in this regard again, with 72% of their userbase logging in on a daily basis. Interestingly, Instagram has the lowest market penetration of the four – at 23% – but their user-base is considerably more active than the 3 others, with 50% of their users logging in on a daily basis. The much documented fail in Twitter’s global following is a trend which has seen their remaining cohort in Ireland unite, there active daily numbers jumped by 4% – they come in just behind Facebook and Instagram with 39% of their overall userbase logging in on a daily basis.

You can see just how everyone stacks up on the infographic below.

 

To see the full Social Media infographic click here.

In what was perhaps the most epic journey since Frodo transcended Mount Doom, Ralph the snail traveled all the way from the Keelings Farm in Dublin to a customer’s home in Co. Meath. This truly was a tale that captured the hearts of the nation.

Keelings customer Mathew Reilly became acquainted to Ralph the snail upon opening his Keelings fruit platter. Ralph, had a very different idea for the platter to Mathew & was using it his as his very own cross-country vehicle. The shocked, yet enamoured, customer turned to social media to notify Keelings of the whereabouts of their want-away pet snail Ralph.

Keelings were all too delighted to hear that Ralph was alive, well and in good company. So responded with thanks rather than with an apologetic tone.

This story pulled on the heart-strings of the nation & soon Ralph had his 15 mins in the limelight – as everyone from the Daily Edge to Joe.ie gave up some valuable column-inches to the story of Ralph and his epic journey the likes a snail has never seen.

#iseebeyond was an awareness campaign, spearheaded by the Bubble Digital team, which utilized social media to spread it’s message. The campaign’s aim to increase public awareness of hidden disabilities – such as epilepsy and fibromyalgia.

The campaign was launched by former Minister for Health Leo Varadkar, at a PR event. #iseebeyond began on February 3rd and continued throughout the month. During the month #iseebeyond reached a wide audience & generated a sizable buzz on the social media landscape. Not only did the campaign hit home with people who were directly affected by the issues raised by #iseebeyond, but the wider public also got on board; while there was also a number of notable celebrity endorsers, such as The Script.

#iseebeyond campaign in numbers:

The number speak for themselves, particularly on Twitter where 2.6 million users were reached throughout the campaign. 290 different users begun Twitter conversations & each mention helped spread the word throughout Ireland and the rest of the world.

While there were peaks and troughs throughout the campaign, #iseebeyond was a constant topic throughout the month. During these peaks it wasn’t uncommon to see #iseebeyond trending country-wide across Twitter.

Campaign reach on Facebook was just as impressive throughout the month. The #iseebeyond Facebook page managed to reach 609k users – through both organic (131k) & paid (478k) posts. Video posts ranked among the most popular for the campaign on Facebook; with one such video managing to generate 69,6k Facebook views, with an impressive 47% completion rate.

 

 

While the campaign has now come to completion, Bubble Digital are confident that we’ll see changes in people’s habits when faced with a person with a hidden disability. We’re proud of the work which was put into the #iseebeyond campaign and have every confidence that our clients at Headway are just as happy with the results as we are.

To get a better understanding of what the campaign was about you can check out the video below, visit the #iseebeyond YouTube page or #iseebeyond website.

The social-media landscape in Ireland is ever-changing, new social media platforms spring-up from nothing in an instant while the already existing staples of the industry diversify. So what does this mean for the user-base in Ireland? Which platforms earn the most attention, which platforms are on the rise and which platforms attract the most new users? Well, the below infographic will outline both the percentage of account owners and daily usage statistics across some of the most popular platforms in the country – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Tinder and Tumblr.