Sblash are pleased to announce that over the next year they will be working with Carmarthenshire Tourism Association (CTA) on the Hwyl Events project. Hwyl Events is aimed at showcasing our Welsh heritage and culture by creating a serious of events across Carmarthenshire aimed at tourists visiting the area. 

Following a successful pilot for Hwyl Events in 2017, this year will see Sblash taking lead on the organising of a series of events aimed at general visitors, the family market and also the Group Travel industry. Slightly different to some of our more traditional social media contracts and marketing contracts, Hwyl Events will bring together our rounded Project Management and Events Management skills as well as combining it with our Marketing and Social Media Strategy and Management experience. 

​Look out for further news on branding launches, new website and of course those all important dates for the events over the next few months. 

Working with Lucy von Weber Ltd we are pleased to be launching a new Social Media service aimed specifically at Events. We are aware of the complexity of organising events and the long list of requirements and task any event organiser has to get through. One of these tasks on the list is managing social media accounts, the importance of raising awareness and updating visitors on the event can be time consuming and is often forgotten due to lack of resources. 

This is where Sblash comes in, we are launching a service which offers live bilingual social media management during your event. Our staff will be there on site capturing all that's going on at your event (using various media including images and video) and ensuring that maximum social media coverage is obtained. A great solution for event organisers needing an extra pair of hands during events. 

Our packages start at as little as just on the event day management (meaning no lengthy contracts or tie in), however as well as social media management during events, we also offer a pre event package, this would be for a specific period of time (e.g 1 month) prior to the event to generate interest and boost ticket sales. Again an extra pair of hands in the lead up to your events.

Our service also includes collating and recording highlights and feedback from social channels that could be used in forward planning and evidencing business cases to supporters/funders/sponsors etc.

So whether you run a sporting event, agricultural show, food festival, music festival (or any other event) and are interested in finding out more, please contact info@sblashpr.co.uk for a chat and to receive our package rates. 

So 2016 is the Year of Adventure for tourism here in Wales. The year of adventure is the first of three thematic years (2017 - Year of Legends, 2018 Year of the Sea) identified by Visit Wales as a coordinated way of marketing Wales and all that we have to offer. The thinking behind the themed years is:

'Thematic years are designed to motivate the people of Wales, galvanise the industry and inspire target markets to think differently and visit Wales now.'

When you first think of the year of adventure, we're sure what comes to mind is high adrenaline adventure such as coasteering, zip lines or mountain biking. However an adventure can be what you interpret it as, a cultural adventure, a family adventure a food adventure. 

So you're probably thinking by now, what has this got to do with me? Well if your business is in the hospitality or tourism industry in Wales then there are ways you can and should get involved. The Year of Adventure is an opportunity for all businesses to promote themselves and what they have to offer visitors to Wales. 

To help you be a part of the Year of Adventure, Visit Wales have produced a guide for businesses which gives you suggestions on how you can become involved in the campaign. Here we cover a snap shot of some of the things you could be doing to become a part of the Visit Wales Year of Adventure 

• Social Media - Use the following #'s on social media and join the conversation 

#findyourepic
#walesadventure 

• Follow Visit Wales' industry account on Twitter for regular updates @visitwalesbiz
  
• Great Weekend of Adventure (2nd and 3rd of April) - The aim of this weekend is to work together and create a critical mass of adventure-themed events, activities, competitions, special offers and discounts in different localities, and across Wales. Think about how you can get involved now and let Visit Wales know what you're doing. 
  
• Keep Visit Wales in the loop - if you have any adventure events, activities or news then let Visit Wales know by contacting them on yearofadventure@wales.gsi.gov.uk

If you are looking at organising any Year of Adventure campaigns and looking for that extra pair of hands, contact us on info@sblashpr.co.uk to see how we can help. 

We have teamed up with W3 Webdesign to bring you some exciting workshops to help you promote your business using Facebook.

We are offering 4 3 hour workshops, from beginners who have never used facebook to advanced, which includes how to use Facebook Advertising.

The sessions will be held in Hywel Dda in Whitland. The workshops will be small with a maximum of 10 people per workshop, allowing for a more personal group.

Start Up Workshop
8th October - 10.00 - 13.00.

Whether you have never used facebook or if you have tried it, set up a page and been completely lost and never gone back to it, this is the workshop to get you started and keep you going:

We will help you work through the ins and outs of facebook, show you the difference between you private page and your business page, showing you how to create and finish off the set up of a page.

NB: If you do not have a page set up, please arrive 30 minutes beforehand so we can set one up for you.

Novice Workshop
5th November - 10.00 - 13.00

If you attend the above workshop, we suggest you attend this workshop, if you haven’t attended our Start Up Workshop, and have played with Facebook but found it a bit too confusing, we suggest you attend this workshop.

We will spend our morning working on how to use your page, posting to it, adding pictures, creating albums, building VALUEABLE likes, sharing other pages and your comments.

This is about how to use your page once it’s been set up and how to keep customers coming back to your page and ultimately how to build likes and create business from your page.

Advanced Workshop
3rd December - 10.00 - 13.00

Tools & Techniques – this workshop will be about creating relevant content for your facebook page, it will take a look at Facebook Insights (Stats) and maintaining your likes.

By attending this workshop, you will start to understand how people look at your page as a business and how you can keep “selling” to your facebook users.

Facebook Advertising Workshop
14th January 2016 - 10.00 - 13.00

This workshop will go into detail on how Facebook Advertising works, it will also help you create an advert and / or advertising campaign if you wish.

The goal of this workshop will be to:

Promote your page
Reach your Target Audience
Bring your database of clients onto Facebook
Think about advertising budgets
This is an ideal end workshop to our Facebook Workshop series.

Cost: Each workshop is priced at £20.00 per person, tea & coffee is provided. Please ensure that you attend with your own laptop, NOT smartphones or tablets. We do have a limited number of laptops available if required, these will be available on a 1st booked basis.

If you would like to book, please call Lee Ann from W3 Webdesign on: 01994 241454 or email: leeann@w3designs.co.uk

Wow what a first year it's been for Sblash, and at just over a year old it is definitely time I concentrated on my own marketing and let you all know what i've been up to. As a small business I find it as much of a challenge as you all do to get everything done and as my days are filled with writing content and blogs for other people i often neglect my own, but today that changes and while sitting in Cafe Braz in Llandeilo on a Sunday morning (having just enjoyed a full Welsh breakfast) it's time to put pen to paper, the modern way! 

So July has been a busy month which started with me attending the Women in Rural Enterprise (WiRE) joint meeting between the lovely ladies of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire's local networks. Anyone who hasn't heard about WiRE, basically it's a networking group for women in rural parts of the UK. Women of all business sectors come together in local networks to offer support, assist and collaborate with a bunch of like minded people. 

I've been a member of our Carmarthenshire WiRE group for over a year now and a number of fellow members have become clients and more importantly friends. What you men have to realise is that running a business as a women is very different and has added challenges, and our WiRE group has become a lifeline and support to overcome those challenges. 

The event saw over 50 women who all run their own business attend and it was inspiring to meet so many wonderful and motivational women all striving to meet their business goals. We had a thought provoking presentation from Nicola Merriman who spoke about her experiences of working with Prince's Gate Water. It was interesting to here her experience of working to rebrand a large established business but more importantly how the principles and tools can be transferred to smaller businesses to achieve results. 

The busy month of July continued with a number of new clients joining the Sblash portfolio. As a country girl, born and raised in Devil's Bridge, Aberystwyth it is always great to work with businesses who contribute so much to the rural economy of Wales. New clients on board include Agri Advisor Solicitors and Ambassador Training Wales. 

The theme of rural Wales continued in the third week of July with my annual pilgrimage to Builth Wells for the Royal Welsh Agriculture Show. It was to be a week of work and pleasure, and as someone who probably hasn't missed the Royal Welsh since I was born it's great to be able to work at the event. As one of the largest events of its kind in Europe, the Royal Welsh is a hive of business deals and networking. My working days involved assisting Best of Wales on their stand, working to attract new cottage owners to their ever increasing portfolio of quality self catering cottages all across Wales.