Freetrainingcourse onsocialmediause

CO WICKLOW Partnership are offering a free social media training programme to support Wicklow-based tourism businesses and not-for-profit enterprises.

The training programme will assist tourism businesses build their social media profiles and gain practical skills with the aim of attracting more visitors to Wicklow. Training will be delivered in two stages.

Stage one will focus on basic social media skills and businesses who do not already have a social media presence or whose social media accounts are inactive.

It comprises of four morning sessions in Wicklow Town during March and April 2018. The short online application form can be completed here and is also available at www. wicklowpartnership.ie. The deadline for applications is Thursday, 1st March 2018.

Stage two will include ‘graduates’ from stage one and will be open to other tourism businesses that are active on social media already but are keen to enhance their impact and comprises of four morning sessions during September and October 2018.

Siobhán Mehigan, Rural Development Officer with Co Wicklow Partnership, said: ‘Social media has an important role to play in the marketing and promotion of tourism in Wicklow. We did a consultation with tourism businesses in 2015 and found that many of them were not reaching their customers or potential customers via social media but were still reliant on traditional promotional materials like brochures.

‘Of those that had social media accounts, they felt that they weren’t getting the reach they desired due to lack of confidence using the platforms and generating good content.

‘ This free training course will help participants develop practical skills to use social media with confidence and attract more visitors to Wicklow.’