It has taken on a life of its own, the LaoisToday Snapchat account.
It was the last social media platform for us to properly embrace as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were the obvious ones and Snapchat was newer and less formal.
But we found that when we started doing video snaps that we got an incredible reaction and our audience began to grow significantly.
Then we started handing it over to people to do it for us, if they were at an event that we couldn’t make for example.
The first ‘Takeover’ that we did was the Rose of Tralee night in August when Jenny McEvoy brought us some great footage from inside the dome and some even better behind the scenes moments with the Laois entourage.
After that we had people provide coverage of matches and events, often a combination of video, photos and general good-humoured banter.
The Ploughing Championship takeover with BMan and Mary Phelan went down a storm, as did what we thought was a routine junior football championship game. It turned into an epic and by chance we had nabbed two biased O’Dempsey’s senior players who did a wonderful job documenting the game – all with a great sense of humour.
They’ve all been wonderful entertainment but among the most popular have been the Portarlington duo of Aisling ‘Nailers’ O’Neill and Janet Bennett.
The two fanatical Portarlington GAA supporters who are at every game going have been sensations on social media long before LaoisToday arrived on the scene but we’ve teamed up with relative success in recent times. And they’ve gone down an absolute treat every time.
Last Friday they took charge of the account for the third time in the last number of weeks, this time for the Laois U-21 football championship quarter-final between their club and Sarsfields.
And they delivered in style again. Proudly donning their new LaoisToday hats – which are reserved exclusively for those who do a Snapchat takeover for us – they were in great form once more, referring to themselves as ‘influencers’ and giving a good-humoured shoutout to many of the players.
And as well as footage of the game, score updates and commentary, they also did interviews – with other supporters, fellow LaoisToday snapchatter ‘Hatch’ Finlay (also wearing his new hat) and well-known Portarlington referee Darren Bracken, who was given the job of picking man-of-the-match. There was also the obligatory mention of the Ballyragget saga!
Afterwards, the messages came into us thick and fast, letting us know how much they enjoyed the coverage and that the two women should have their own show.
Portarlington play Stradbally Parish Gaels this Thursday night in the semi-final when another takeover could be on the cards.
In the meantime, you can watch back on their escapades here!
