Dublin port is located in the city center, in close contact with the new “smart district” in the docklands. In order to improve the integration of the port with the city and to educate citizens about the importance of Dublin Port Company (DPC) launched a new social media strategy in 2013. Today, DPC has two active websites (Dublin Port Company, Dublin Port Archive) ) and is active in five social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn), with a combined following of over 37,000. Their Digital Media Work Plan combines annual and monthly content planning with daily social monitoring and community engagement. Dublin Port creates linkages between the Port and the city through the use of tagging and hashtags for example sharing historical photographs. In other cases, they host online photo competitions, with enormous engagement with 1,500 entries and 306k online impressions, concluding in a public photo exhibition. At the same time, DPC has also embraced video content, combining professional and amateur content. On the one hand they invested €150K in three years, on high quality original content, while at the same time also launched whatsapp group to receive and share videos from the staff, showing the “real” daily port. These media channels have been a successful forum for discussion with tangible results measured in surveys.
