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02 Dec
Cork beauty blogger and influencer Lisa Jordan is the face of a new campaign backed by Facebook/Meta to boost Cork businesses and encourage shoppers to back local on Leeside this Christmas. The Meta social media platform - formerly known as Facebook - has launched the #DeserveToBeFound campaign and video content series. And Lisa Jordan is one of three influencers who have been tasked with shining a spotlight on smaller Irish businesses like Ballincollig's Baby Boo. They were selected along with three other small Irish businesses in Galway, Dublin and Wicklow, to get the kind of social media boost and advertising package that most operations of their size could only dream about. Lisa has shot a very glossy video with Ballincollig businesswomen Vicki O’Callaghan and Michelle O’Riordan, talking about how their ideas came to life and how they use apps such as Facebook and Instagram to connect with consumers and communities. Throughout the busy festive period, Meta is encouraging consumers to support their favourite businesses - like Baby Boo - by sharing them using the #DeserveToBeFound hashtag and the “Support Small Business” sticker on Instagram. The three other businesses featured alongside Baby Boo in the campaign are Galway-based Paintclub, Wicklow-based Bear Creation, and A Box of My Treasure in Dublin. Over the past three months, people in Ireland have already shown their support for Irish businesses with more than 115,000 posts on Instagram with hashtags such as #BuyIrish #ShopLocal #SupportSmallBusiness. On Facebook, more than 280,000 people in Ireland are members of active groups that support local businesses. Speaking about the campaign, Red FM presenter Lisa Jordan, said: ‘I’m so excited to work with Meta to showcase businesses like the Cork-born BabyBoo, that use social media to maintain and grow their businesses. "This Christmas, it’s as important as ever to support local businesses, and apps like Facebook and Instagram make it easy to buy from independent Irish brands. "I encourage people to get behind the #DeserveToBeFound campaign in order to discover the many businesses who use Meta apps every day.” Vicki O’Callaghan, co-owner of BabyBoo, said: “I’ve worked with online brands for years, and always had a dream to grow my own company online. "Since founding BabyBoo, and particularly over the last 18 months and the challenges of the pandemic, the tools offered by Instagram and Facebook have proven invaluable to our business." "Being able to engage with customers online through platforms like Instagram Shop has been crucial to growing our business and our brand.” The pandemic has had a huge impact on small businesses with many forced to pivot online as traditional retail outlets were forced to close. This had an impact on retail trends, with 42% of people surveyed saying that they have used Meta apps more to browse for products since the start of Covid-19. These trends are supported by the CSO’s recent data showing that 31% of businesses have increased their use of social media due to the pandemic. In its continued support of SMBs, earlier this year Meta launched its Boost with Facebook programme to provide training to over 10,000 small businesses to help support their recovery from the challenges caused by Covid-19. .