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For any business, export opens the door to opportunity. Thanks to mobile technology, it's never been easier to share your brand, product or service with people anywhere in the world, meaning businesses are no longer constrained by a physical location, large teams or huge overheads.

“Technology and mobile connectivity are not only making it easier for people to connect, they're also making the world a smaller place,” says Helen Smyth, head of small and medium business for Facebook in Ireland. “Today, more than 46 million people are connected to an Irish business on Facebook. That's a huge opportunity for businesses in Ireland to export and promote their products and services overseas.”

Sparkle Across The World

After spending years working in fashion, Chupi Sweetman (pictured above) wanted to create something more meaningful and long lasting. She found this something in jewellery and began designing pieces that mark the special moments in life. In a few short years, Chupi and her 23 talented team members have made the brand a major success story in Ireland, and one that is growing its global reputation daily.

Today, Chupi is on a mission: to bring her bespoke, luxury jewellery, made in Ireland, to the world. And with the help of Facebook and Instagram, her designs have already reached places as far from Ireland as the US, Singapore and Australia.

In Association with

How? According to Chupi, finding the right audience comes down to connecting with your customers on a personal level. “Instead of it just being an anonymous, online store anywhere in the world, Instagram and Facebook let us talk straight to our customers about what matters to us and matters to them,” she says.

For Chupi, Facebook and Instagram have helped her forge personal connections with her customers. Five years since starting the brand, she now has over 150,000 followers.

Opportunity Knocks

In the world of fairies, The Irish Fairy Door Company provides a valuable social service – finding human homes for these tiny creatures. Founded in 2013 by Niamh Sherwin Barry (pictured below) and Aoife Lawler, with their husbands Oisin and Gavin, The Irish Fairy Door Company has found homes for almost 1 million fairies across the world, from the UK to the United States.

Niamh and Aoife used Instagram and Facebook to discover how different cultures respond to fairy-based stories, and were able to reach out to people in ways that were as culturally sensitive as they were commercially effective.

“In Ireland, people are natural storytellers,” explains Niamh. “They understood what we did immediately and we kind of thought that was going to be similar around the world. What we discovered was that every country didn’t necessarily believe in the same things. So with a little bit of research we were able to bring the magic further to lots of different countries around the world.”

Since the beginning, the team has used Facebook and Instagram to connect with customers at home and abroad. Today, as well as fairy doors and accessories, they have a new range focusing on children’s wellness, and recently signed a global animation deal that will bring characters from fairy stories to our screens next year.

• To find out more about how you can grow your business, visit facebook.com/business