Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

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Social media and nightclubs 

August 6, 2016

social media nighclub

Wow, the young crew discovered a new nightclub, a place like no other with the coolest music and an even cooler crowd.

Word got out and suddenly it was heaving with people but the buzz was still fantastic. It was the place to be, the place to be seen.

The crowd started to get more mainstream, older and older and that sense of exclusivity started to disappear and the nightclub seemed to change things a little to keep everyone happy. You spotted your mums friends there and now the DJ was playing eighties music and even more of the older crew were coming.

A new nightclub opens that was just as cool as the last one when it opened first so the young crew start going there instead. First it’s the very cool crew and then their buddies. They have it to themselves for a while, having the best time ever and then mums sister appears …..Nooooooo!!!

It’s time to find another nightclub that is cool and exclusive and novel.

The first nightclub starts to copy what the newer clubs were doing because they want the cool crowd back and eventually they decide to buy the new cool one because it’s the easiest and quickest way to get that crowd back.

electricrun

Facebook was cool and new but the parents and even the grandparents joined up.

The cool crew went to the Twitter club and in time the old fogies followed them and it was time to move again.

The photo loving cool gang went to the Instagram club and hung out but things started to change when the Facebook chain bought them so we moved on again.

Now Snapchat is the place to be seen at, we’re having fun posting photos and videos and telling stories but here come mums buddies and all of the business types who will end up changing it.

The Facebook chain want us back so they have added an extension to Club Instagram and have painted it exactly the same as Club Snapchat and are playing the same tunes.

The young guns always want a cool place of their own and they always will. Maybe we should follow them but it’s also just as important to have a local where everybody knows your name.

I’m off to Club Twitter, the music is cool and the staff are friendly.

Find your club ..

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Social Media Consultancy and Training  from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

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Posted in Social Media | Leave a Comment »

Your No. 1 Business Tips – Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Business Owners Network

July 27, 2016

Dublin Chamber - Business Owners Network

We had an interesting session last Friday morning with the Business Owners Network at Dublin Chamber of Commerce. We hold these networking sessions every second Friday between 7:30 and 9am (no messing with this gang!).

I was chairing the session and we decided to do some online networking – we asked everyone to tweet their “Number one Business Tip” and use the hashtag #BONTips. A quick search of the hashtag showed everyone who else was in the room and we took it from there, connecting, replying – plenty of interaction and new connections.

Besides having great fun as always the session yielded some very interesting business tips:

@JodhianMorian   Privacy247

“Privacy is a choice but never let anybody dictate your default settings”

@tonyinvest57  Tony O’Reilly

“Prepare to retire in style”

@iPingIT

“Always make sure you have your data backed up!!!!! Ur information is your ammunition”

@borgmanearls  Nick Borgman

“Be willing to go the extra mile for your clients every single time…”

@dee_TPI   Deirdre Dunne

“Put on a big smile when you answer the phone. You may look mad but sound great”

@claudesaulnier  Claude Saulnier

“Always hang out with good guys”

@KylesCatering

“Get up early to make your day productive”

@Colliers_Ire   Colliers Ireland

“Make a plan & engage! Post content that’s not just about your business but of interest to your followers!”

@RoseKer  Rose Kervick

“Be impeccable with your word”

Dublin Chamber - Business Owners Network

@RossONeill_RGON   Ross O’Neill

“You’d be surprised how many obstacles we unknowingly put in our teams way – listen to your team and act fast to remove them!”

@ToxicData   Toxic Data

“Handle toxic waste properly for better PR”

@wandsoft   We Simplify Business

“Want an extra staff for less than €100 a month, that’s what we offer”

@ActNowIreland   Aisling Curtin

“Reflect on which actions take you closer toward who & where you want to be in business & which actions will take you further away”

@KarenADraper   Karen Draper

“Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can leave to the next day”

@soandsodesign  So and So

“Design is so simple that’s why it’s so complicated” – Paul Rand

Dublin Chamber - Business Owners Network

@AR_Escapegames   Adventure Games Dublin

“Try spend €2 on to reach more clients”

@Jen_Appleton   Jen Appleton

“Comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there”

@SuppliesBosMatt  Mathew Dean

“Smile”

@BDComms   Ben Dobbs

“Adjust your level of directness or indirectness based on the culture, personality and context of your partner(s) in an interaction”

@garykealy2  Gary Kealy

“Do what you love and you’ll never work again”

@navenbachani

“Believe in your product and thrive your business with that belief”

@dunneclare   Clare Dunne

“Going on holiday soon? Check your passport now, don’t wait until the night before departure!!”

@gerrycrosbie    DesignYard Awards

“Select an award that makes maximum impact”

@sdg_magee  Samantha Magee

“Management is an art enriched by everyday experiences”

@IanH123   Ian Hannon

“There is NO substitute to hard work. So you might as well get stuck in and enjoy it!”

@CHBCGroup   CHBC Office Group

“Just get started”

@HapiColm   Colm Rowan

“Clear and honest communication is essential to ensuring a team is successful in business. Communication drops, so does teamwork”

Dublin Chamber - Business Owners Network

@briancrowleytip   Brian Crowley

“Passion is everything!”

@PrintDepotIre   Print Depot

“Turn up and get involved”

@Abrivia12   Donal O’Brien

“Hire ok people, have an ok company! Hire great people”

@Kildaredesign   Grainne Slattery

“SEO it’s all about being found”

@eoscott   Eoin Scott

“Always back up the data on your PC. Accidents happen!”

@conorisme   Conor Coyne

“Succeed or learn”

@joebehan7  Joe Behan

“Listen to understand”

BON 7

@kdhampsonkevin   Kevin Hampson

“Hire a great accountant”

@robertwrockwell   Robert Whelan

“Embrace setbacks. Don’t dwell! Learn and move on”

@Alec_Drew   Alec Drew

“Value of the zero invoice”

@Davey_ETE   Dave Murray

“People want to do business with people they like”

@ItsSocialBee   Melissa Curley

“Use to create a twitter background header. It’s free to use and uses exact dimensions”

and of course last but not least is my one….

Dublin Chamber - Business Owners Network@GregCantyFuzion

My number one business tip is “Never waste a good story”

What is your No.1 Business Tip?

If you are a business owner in the Dublin area contact the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and arrange to attend one of the Business Owner Network sessions for free. Even better ‘tweet’ them @DubCham – tell them Greg sent you!!

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Business Planning, Dublin, Events, Social Media | Leave a Comment »

Did you just press the “Accept” button?

July 14, 2016

I accept your connection request

I know, you are busy just like me.

You are burning through your emails and you see those ‘invitations to connect‘ on LinkedIn, emails.

You’ve decided that you are happy to ‘connect‘ so you press the ‘Accept’ button and you continue with your other work.

Pressing the ‘accept’ button is not connecting!!

Next time press ‘accept’ and send that person a message – You might: thank them and ask them how their business is going?

Oh my god ….people actually communicate on this platform, don’t faint!

It might even surprise you that they might reply to you and you find that you are well on the way to nurturing a new connection without even lifting your bum off the seat ..magic.

The worst that can happen as a result of that extra 20 seconds is that you have stood out and they might think that you are a nice person.

So..stop pressing those buttons online and start connecting!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer Social Media Consultancy and Training from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

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Posted in Communications, LinkedIn, Personal Branding, Reputation, Social Media | 2 Comments »

Raising your head above the Parapet

June 27, 2016

Head above the parapet

My buddy Jonathan tipped me off that a particular guy on Twitter was having a right ‘pop’ at the “Power You”, Advanced Social Media Programme that I had recently put together and was promoting.

This guy was careful enough not to name or mention me so I didn’t spot his post initially but eventually I found it as well as the reaction some of his followers had towards it and his interaction with them – he loves me!

My new “friend” was having great fun – he was obviously quite curious about the peer to peer advanced programme that I had put together, which is targeting ambitious individuals who don’t want another social media course but one that can potentially elevate them (they can do it with my help) to the point whereby they could become a ‘Digital Influencer‘ in their field.

Power You - Advanced Social Media ProgrammeThis guy took a pop about the price (it’s 10 sessions, one to one mentoring and delivered in a small group), he challenged my qualifications to deliver such a course (I have been delivering training and consultancy in this area since the earliest days of social), he claimed I was using words I didn’t even understand to an audience who would not understand either (I am trying to achieve something quite different through this programme), he wondered about what big clients and campaigns I had worked on to justify my ‘status’ to deliver such a programme (unlike him I’m guessing)…and there was lots more!

I obviously stood on a sore toe with this fella and Power You upset him for some big reason – was he sorry he wasn’t running a programme like this himself (he works in the area) or maybe he thought what I was doing was pure rubbish!!

I was hurt and angry to see someone having a right go at me and my creation. I put a lot of time and attention into this and from my experience there is a real training gap in the social media market, which no one is addressing.

I was about to put on the boxing gloves and jump into the ring ..come on, “lets be having ya, Mr Smart Ass“..bang, bang, wallop..take that!! I felt like it, I promise you..

Before pressing ‘fire‘ I took a deep breath..

Do I ever criticise things that I don’t agree with? ..Yes.

Do I ever criticise new initiatives that I think are silly..Probably?

Do I criticise in a personal, nasty way – I hope not, but any criticism of you ends up feeling personal.

I put my head above the parapet with Power You but I have to accept that when any of us do that it is fair game.

When you do something new it will be judged, it will be criticised, those who compete against you will take a “pop” but then again some will hopefully like it and buy into what you are trying to do. Some might even buy!

This “new thing” of yours may or may not work but it’s important that you keep trying, keep doing new things and let yourself open to that criticism – it’s all part of it so don’t be getting upset!

And most importantly keep “Raising your head above the Parapet“

The Power You Programme is starting in Dublin in the middle of July – click here for details!

p.s. This blog is for Daragh – Instead of boxing gloves I tweeted him “Thanks for giving my programme a plug”

Thank you for reading!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer Social Media Consultancy and Training from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Marketing, Personal Branding, Personal development, Personal Marketing, Positivity, Social Media | 4 Comments »

“Power User” Social Media Programme

June 20, 2016

Power You - Advanced Social Media ProgrammeAfter years and years of delivering social media courses for business I have realised that most of these are just scratching the surface and for the seriously ambitious individual, something much more is needed.

For this reason I have developed a “Power You” programme, which is geared specifically towards ambitious individuals who want to realise their full potential by building a powerful, digital brand for themselves.

“Power You” is for those who want to become Digital Influencer’s in their field of expertise.

In today’s fast-paced world where subject matter experts seemingly emerge overnight via social media, it’s critical that everyone leverages their own point of distinction.

Be so good that they can’t ignore you – Steve Martin

Be so good they can't ignore you - Steve Martin

With my programme, as well as learning extensive social media skills you will learn how to build a powerful network and be recognised as an Influencer by your peers and target audience.

Peer to peer interaction (this is not a classroom!) with a small group of like minded individuals is a strong dimension of the “Power You” programme, which will help you to establish and build your own powerful brand online and make you stand out as a thought-leader.

On this programme you will capitalise your personal awareness, highlight your knowledge, passion, values and expertise, and accelerate your career and business success.

This extensive programme will run over three months, will include 10 group evening training sessions, peer to peer reviews as well as one to one sessions.

The first “Power You” programme is commencing in Dublin on the 14th July and will be limited to a small group.

For full details click here and download the “Power You” brochure.

Thank you for reading!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer Social Media Consultancy and Training from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

If you need more information about the programme please feel free to contact me:
Email: greg@fuzion.ie
Phone: (086) 8311156

Power You Mailchimp footer

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The best tweets come first – Simply not the best!

May 15, 2016

Simply the best

Now that was a little sneaky as Twitter rolled in a little “helpful” new feature that shows the ‘best‘ tweets first in your timeline.

The big issue is that we never knew about this change happening and most of you still don’t – the good news is that you can do something about it.

What exactly is a ‘best’ tweet?

Good question! – Well a machine, a computer programme with ‘god knows what criteria‘ is now generating an algorithm which is determining what these ‘best‘ tweets are and it is these that appear first in your feed.

This is a real pity as Twitter have now in their eternal wisdom decided that they should sacrifice the purity of their platform and copy what Facebook have done a long time ago – someone there must think this is good for users.

Unfortunately most of your posts on Facebook will never be seen by your followers and this change by Twitter will have the same effect.

For me the big issue with Twitter doing this is that you really don’t want to respond to a tweet that isn’t totally fresh – speed has been part of the magic of this great platform.

As I mentioned earlier you can shut this ‘show best tweets first‘ feature ‘off‘ by doing the following:

PC/Laptop

  • Click on your ‘settings‘ tab (you will find this under your thumbnail on the top right corner)
  • In the ‘account‘ menu scroll down to the ‘content‘ section and go to the ‘show me the best Tweets first‘ option
  • Unclick this and you are in business!

best tweets first featureMobile device

  • Go to your ‘home‘ page by clicking on the ‘Me‘ button
  • Click on the little ‘wheel‘ symbol next to your thumbnail
  • Click on ‘settings‘ and then click on the ‘timeline‘ option
  • Unclick the ‘show me the best Tweets first‘ button (if you can’t see this option it means you have an old version of the APP and need to update)

I can’t see any good reason for leaving the ‘show me best Tweets first‘ feature on as I don’t trust it so I advise that you do the same. Let me know if you think otherwise.

Happy tweeting!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer Social Media Consultancy and Training from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

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The “nice” Twitter Tip

May 14, 2016

twitter

What is the right thing to do when someone mentions you or your business/organisation in a complimentary, “nice” manner on Twitter?

Let’s take a simple example:

“Well done to @FuzionPRIreland for helping us above and beyond with our product launch” … a nice tweet by a client (it does happen!) that makes us look good in front of their followers and anyone who might spot the tweet.

Take a second before answering and forget about Twitter and think about what you would do in the real world if this happened?

Would you ignore the person who complimented you? Nope!

Would you thank the person who gave you the compliment? Probably

Would you like as many people as possible to know that a client was happy to go “public” with their satisfaction about your service? Probably

Now let’s look at Twitter and the do’s and don’ts in this scenario and consider how the ‘tweeter’ feels in each case.

Don’t ..

Ignore the positive tweet – “I said something nice and Fuzion didn’t even acknowledge me. I’m sorry I tweeted them!”

Or

Retweet the positive tweet adding no comment – “Fuzion never acknowledged me but just retweeted the nice thing I said to make themselves look good”

(From my experience this is what most people do)

Do …

Thank the person/organisation who tweeted Fuzion by replying to their tweet “thank you so much for the kind words, it’s great to work with great people” – this way you have acknowledged them publicly and now all your followers will see a tweet that had some positive element at its source

And 

Retweet their tweet but this time add a comment that both acknowledges the tweeter but also shows you are not being self serving: “It’s great to work with special people” – this way everyone sees that you are nice but also they get to see the original ‘complimentary‘ tweet

There you go … That’s my “nice” twitter tip!

You can tweet me at @GregCantyFuzion and thank me and see what happens!!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer Social Media Consultancy and Training from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Social Media Tips – Infographic

April 12, 2016

We have put together some simple social media tips for business in this infographic … we hope you find it useful!

If you ever need to chat about social media you know where we are..

Fuzion - Social Media Tips Inforgraphic

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Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »

Snapchat and feeling like a dinosaur

April 7, 2016

feeling like a dinosaur

My two buddies were all excited about Snapchat and insisted on enthusiastically showing me how it works.

You take a picture of your face you press this button and then you choose an effect … Open your mouth and a tongue flies out, raise your eyebrows and water gushes out of your eyes, click here and you are wearing shades and a cop uniform. This is very strange ..

Ok …..What then?

Well you can put that out as a story for “all your fans” to see or you can send it directly to a chosen few.

How do I find people to follow, how do they find me…?

They show me posts by people they are following and it all seems a bit odd.. Most people seem to be messing around with nothing at all decent going on. Some of the people that I followed seem to be convinced that they are celebrities and keep talking to the camera about their day. You are not a celebrity!!

I must admit I quite admire the guy who records himself jogging…try taking a selfie mini movie while running! I’d like to see that on the claim form – how exactly did you fall into that pothole?

One woman I know quite well keeps posting from her bed, telling us how tired and sick she is (this is done with full make up by the way!) and moaning about all the married men who are coming on to her. Really (I feel like calling her and having a quiet word)??

snapchat-headphones

I find one US politician, Cory Booker who seems to be using it in a semi intelligent way and of course Kim Kardashian is offering us another version of her reality TV life. Social media guru and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk has effectively become an actor and this is another platform for him to do his thing – he likes eating bananas, I’ve discovered!

When you open up Snapchat the camera on your phone is automatically looking at you….Ok, you can take a picture or film yourself. What do you say?

Is it like Facebook…not really, Twitter….Definitely not, Instagram…The most like it but the posts just stay for 24 hours.

I don’t like it, it seems incredibly egotistical and I’m really uncomfortable because I don’t really know what I’m doing and I haven’t quite figured out how to use it..but I will!

This is good … I train and advise people on using social media all of the time so this is a really great learning for me.

I now know how they feel – I had forgotten what it was like to feel like a dinosaur!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer Social Media Consultancy and Training from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

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Posted in Communications, Personal Marketing, Social Media | 4 Comments »

But what if someone says something wrong?

October 29, 2015

old way

I was in the middle of a social media training session with the senior team of a client and Mick, who was one of the elder statesmen in the group asked a question.

This brand new world is a scary place for Mick who has been doing his own thing in his own way for a long time and now that day has come. The company believe that they are missing out by not fully embracing technologies that might deliver them business and LinkedIn is the platform they chose for me to run a training session for them.

I’m guessing that Mick and probably some of the other guys have been hoping that this day wouldn’t come but eventually it has arrived and I was the ‘scary monster‘ who was standing up at the top of the room talking about this dreaded LinkedIn, the thing that they feared could possibly render all of their skills, crafted over many years out of date and useless.

His body language, disguised with a little bit of humour screamed “I am choking, please let me out of here!“.

He sat there during the session saying very little.

At the beginning of these sessions I spend a lot of time with the team figuring out what ‘stories‘ they want to tell about their organisation.

“We are an experienced team, we have our own R&D department, our technology is ahead of everything else in the marketplace, how the company came about is very compelling, we work with some of the biggest companies, we are successful, we are expanding, there is a genuine 24/7 service and the culture is very strong.”

This is a company you would want to do business with.

We explored how we could communicate some of these things on an ongoing basis with a combination of blog posts, published posts, company and personal status updates on LinkedIn.

I always stress that you must be clear what your objectives are and the messages that you want to communicate. I talk about developing a ‘message board‘ that is built into the organisation social media strategy for the company and this should be shared with all team members to ensure they understand what the content guidelines are.

Out of the blue Mick popped up with a question: “But what if someone says something wrong?“.

I think he had accepted that it was time to face his fear and now he threw out his real fear that in ways has been fuelled by media reports about damage that has been done to organisations by stupid things being posted by people working there.

What could we possibly do to prevent that from happening?

Ironically he made this comment right in the middle of that part of the training where I am setting the content guidelines with the team.

On the phone, chats with team members, meetings with clients, conversations at conferences… we all have the potential to say something stupid or damaging but we are trained and trusted to do our jobs and represent the places we work for properly.

Social media is no different and you do have to trust your teams but you must give them clear guidelines and explain what is expected of them.

Unfortunately those ‘stupid’ mistakes happen when this is not done and when someone inexperienced (typically when someone is “good” on Facebook) and lacking in knowledge about the organisation is given free rein to post for the organisation. It can also happen when an outside agency is appointed to post on behalf of the company without proper briefing and controls.

Mick, you are right but we will make sure this won’t happen here!

p.s. Mick knows his customers and his organisation better than anyone and will fly once he loses his fear.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer Social Media Consultancy and Training in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

 

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Posted in Communications, LinkedIn, Marketing, Personal development, Social Media, Staff training | Leave a Comment »

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