Newspapers and Social Media – Parallel Media?

March 7, 2013

Old Man Reading a newspaper

Saturday morning and I’ve just read through the newspaper, The Irish Examiner, which we have delivered with the milk on a Saturday!

From the age of 13 till 21 I delivered enough of them when I had my own newspaper round ..

To be honest I often never get to read it. I pop it on the kitchen table, with every intention of having a peep at it later and often this never happens and it stays there unread.

Today I read it cover to cover including the supplements and it really showed me what I am missing, why we need newspapers so badly, even in a world where we can get news instantly via our social media channels.

I’m a self confessed lover of Twitter and I tell people at my social media courses and our clients how powerful the platform is – even if you never decide to tweet you can follow your favourite newspapers, radio stations, journalists, celebrities, sports stars, friends and other interesting folk.

Fire it up anytime and you will see a constant stream of updates from everyone you are following. You can use the powerful “search” function and track anyone that is tweeting about a subject.

That sounds pretty incredible – it is.

Why would you bother with a newspaper?

Reading the paper today it showed me some really valuable things that Twitter or any of the other social media platform could not bring me:

Emphasis – The editor and the team will decide the stories that are bigger and the ones that are smaller, those that deserve more space and the ones that deserve to be closer to the front of the paper. Twitter will be delivered to me in messages of 140 characters or less, regardless of how important each tweet is. The skill involved in organising and prioritising all of this is so valuable.

Organisation – The newspaper is organised into a particular sequence, which makes it really easy to find the topics that you are interested in. I can organise the twitter accounts I am following into subject matter lists but this still misses the skill delivered by the newspaper team.

Investigation – We badly need teams of journalists who will investigate topics of interest. We need teams of journalists with a great “nose” investigating issues that may not yet be of interest but they have an instinct that something is wrong. Social media definitely helps with all of us having a voice to highlight issues that we feel are important – we need great journalists using their skills to pick up on these.

News – With so much information hitting us via all the various channels it is really important to pick up the newspaper and glance through all of those headlines so that we don’t miss the “important news”. I learnt a lot today quickly by flicking through the paper.

New Stuff – Reading through the paper today I discovered bucket loads of really interesting “stuff” that I would never have stumbled upon. I wouldn’t have been looking for it online so I would not have found it. The team at the newspaper carefully pick through the world of information, new books and new music and deliver what they feel will be of interest to their readers. I also discover new things every day via social media that is equally of interest.

Skill – We need the skills of the journalists, the writers and the editors to deliver us news and stories in a way that grabs our attention and engages with us. We would be lost without these skills.

Look and Feel – While I love my technology and my gadgetry, my iPhone and my iPad there is something very special about the printed material, the paper, the pictures and the layouts. It’s an enjoyable experience to pick up a newspaper with a cuppa and digest all the news and information that’s on offer. Using an App like Flipboard on the iPad to flick through news and information is convenient and enjoyable but it can’t replace the newspaper experience.

While many feel new media will replace traditional media I’m not that sure – both are valuable in quite different ways and we will benefit from both, we need both.

It’s not either or ..it’s Parallel Media.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer social media training and consultancy from our offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Entertainment, Social Media, Twitter | 8 Comments »

Me, my dad and JCB’s

February 23, 2013

 

Me and my dad on a JCB

I heard mum and dad having a fight – she had planned on going shopping with her sisters but dad had to work today so there was no one there to mind me.

“I’ve had this day planned for over two months and I never get to see my sisters” I heard mum say to Dad.

“I’ll just have to take him with me so, I have no choice” Dad said to her.

Wow – I can go to work with my dad, how cool is that!

We had a great day – he took me to the building site and I brought my little digger with me.

He made all of his workmates say “Hi” to me and I was able to play with a pile of rocks next to the office. My jeans got all mucky and I think mum will be cross with me.

Mary, the kind lady in the office brought me out a can of coke and a bag of crisps.

At lunch time me and my dad shared his sandwiches.

Later in the day my dad had to drive a huge JCB to the next yard and I had to go with him – the JCB was like a big yellow monster that was bigger than all of the cars but it couldn’t go very fast.

All the cars were beeping at us to hurry up but we didn’t care because it was the best day ever!

..you know that is all made up and my dad never drove a JCB but he did take me with him to Shannon airport and Dublin airport when he worked with car hire, he took me to a Liverpool match in Dublin, he played football and tennis with me and he showed me how to leap over a wall – I remember all of that.

Do something special with your kids today, even if it is just a ride on a JCB (see below for one of the best father and son songs ever..)

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

The JCB song by Nizlopi

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Posted in Family, Parenting, Personal development | 7 Comments »

Are you throwing away the Wow?

February 18, 2013

Fitting Carpets

We were excited as we pulled into the drive after a long day – after work we had to attend an event and eventually we were on the way home ..after midnight!

That day we knew the new carpets that we had ordered were laid and we were nervously looking forward to seeing our home transformed – the old carpets had been there for over 12 years and it was time for a change ..

After picking the carpets in the showroom you can never be quite sure if what you picked out actually does in fact work with the colours in the house – we were nervous but we were hoping that the little investment would be worth it and our home would be transformed for the better.

We opened the front door and switched on the hall lights ….

A wall of upset hit both of us as we saw the mess everywhere – the carpets were installed but the fitters had left the place like a bomb hit it. There were carpet cuttings everywhere, loose pieces of carpet, nails, broken grips. The fitters had stormed through the house moving furniture from one room to the other and returning them randomly, there was a pile of rubbish in the corner of the bedroom and the bedside lockers were stacked in the bathroom.

We couldn’t close the bedroom door because the carpet was a deeper pile – who would leave it without being able to close the door? We felt like the place had been violated, people had been in our home who didn’t give a damn how they left the place – nearly as if robbers had been through the place.

We were raging and really very upset. I wanted to just return all of the carpets  – Dee just wanted to go to bed but I knew I couldn’t face the mess in the morning and carry this horrible feeling into another day.

I started tidying, gathering up the nails, the loose pieces of carpet and I hoovered the whole place with Dee’s help. Miraculously after about 40 minutes the place transformed and we were able to see that the carpet was in fact gorgeous and despite our initial feelings it looked like the carpets were fitted really well!

We didn’t want this crew back in our home so we agreed to ask a friend in the morning to sort the door problem.

With just a little bit of extra care and attention and a quick tidy up, the carpet fitters could have easily delivered us a huge “Wow” but instead they carelessly threw this away and destroyed a great customer experience.

Sometimes when we are operating to tight budgets do we end up throwing away the valuable “wow” that ends up costing us a lot more in real terms?

The “wow” is the most important part of the whole transaction – don’t throw it away? 

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing & PR firm with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Customer Care, Marketing, Retailing, Sales | 24 Comments »

USP – Real People!

February 11, 2013

Businessman on the phone

I was listening to a radio interview this morning on one of those early morning business shows.

When the Managing Director was asked what made his business special one of the things he said was “When our clients ring up they get to speak to a real person who knows what they are talking about..someone who can really help them”

Strangely, it probably is a USP

Hmm…we’ve come a long way!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Graphic Design firm with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Customer Care, Marketing | 9 Comments »

Songs for Grown Ups!

February 3, 2013

Boys at Thin Lizzy concertI remember entering Cork City Hall in 1980 – I was just 14 and I was going to my first concert …Thin Lizzy!

It was the most incredible experience and to this day I still remember the floor bouncing as Phil Lynott and his brilliant band whipped the capacity crowd (and me) into a total frenzy ..what a night.

That was a funny year when everything started to get serious – a few months later I had the Inter Cert (the first of the big, state exams) and after that it was all about figuring out some sort of a path that would take you to a job.

I always worried about getting a job – it could be in my make up that I’m a worrier and maybe it all kicked off when my dad was made redundant from the B&I, a ferry service that operated between Cork and Wales. It was on my mind.

This weekend I found myself back in the City Hall for the annual Cork Chamber dinner – the pinnacle of functions for the Cork business community. This is a huge function that invariably is sold out every year even with tickets at €150 per person.

Cork Chamber - Sold OutI remember when I was younger being in awe of these business functions with all of the men in their black formal suits and here at 47 I find myself as one of them.

We drink our glasses of sparkling at the reception, a band is playing that no one can hear, we have our networking “radar” in operation (who do we want to talk to this year?), we mingle and chat, we stand in for a photo, we take our seats in the Millennium Hall (this is a secondary room as the crowd is so big).

We get a lecture about sitting down from a headmaster type of an MC, we look up at the sponsor logos, we can win an iPad, we rise for the President and other VIP’s, we eat our food, we listen to the speeches (they go on way too long and people just start chatting), we hear about the 5 D’s of business and what to call a Bishop, we see videos and business awards are presented, we hear a good comedian, we eat our beef and drink our wine..

“What did you think of the speeches?” , “How is business?“, “Who do you work for?” “What do you do?“, “Where were you sitting?“, “Here’s my card?“, “Is this your first time?” …we chat at the bar, we buy drinks, we are bought drinks, we tweet that we are there, we chat on the way to the loo, we chat on the way back from the loo, we chat to the people we already know and we meet some new folk.

The hours pass by and a few get a little worse for wear ..one guy falls off his chair, another is stumbling, someone is chatting to me but he’s a little drunk (must get away)  ..someone says something inappropriate to my Dee (the male/female ratio is about 90/10 so the women end up getting a lot of attention!) – time to get the coats. The staff look pleased that a few more are leaving!

“Who’s going to The Clarion for a drink? – Ah come on”  ..Oh God, It’s nearly 4am (you know there’s no point but you still go there).

5am..

I’m in a taxi on the way home. I look at my tux and my shiny shoes and I think, It’s official – I guess I’m all grown up now..

I had a good time but think I prefer the songs when I was 14 !

Greg Canty is a partner at Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing and PR firm with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Entertainment, Personal development | 6 Comments »

Game Changing Interviews

February 3, 2013

job vacanciesJust before the New Year we decided to publicise a vacancy for a Senior PR post in our Dublin office.

We deliberately wanted to leave the job description open so that it would invite interest from  a wide range of people leaving us with the opportunity of shaping the role around the successful “right” candidate instead of letting everything be dictated by a very specific role ..it has been an interesting journey with some really good learnings!

  1. The job vacancy posted on our website and the use of social media alone was enough to generate a huge number of responses and enough quality candidates
  2. From the minute we tweeted and posted the link for the vacancy we could see huge traffic hitting our website
  3. People are really happy to retweet and share news about job vacancies
  4. So many people apply for jobs without reading what the job is about!! – I would say about 40% of the enquiries were totally irrelevant
  5. The role attracted a lot of attention because of the way we described it – avoid cliches (dynamic person…)!
  6. People in really good roles are now prepared to move to new jobs – is that recession fear easing off?
  7. Some people are caught in “fur lined” mouse traps – they are getting no satisfaction from their jobs but are stuck because their packages are too good to leave. We met a few of these!
  8. Many people have taken roles in the recession because they needed the money – most are really unfulfilled now, which is bad for them and their employers.
  9. There are a lot of really talented, hard working people out there – the quality of the people we met was amazing
  10. Employment agencies – I can’t see us ever having to use one..

After just one week of searching we found more than one ideal candidate for the role but we also met a number of quite diverse people all with something unique to offer who we know we will stay in touch with and work together in some way on various projects..

The game of recruiting is changing, the game of looking for a job is changing and hopefully this simple interview process could turn out to be a valuable “game changer” for us.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing & PR firm with offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Irish Economy, LinkedIn, Marketing, Online Advertising, Personal development, Recruitment, Social Media, Web Marketing | 3 Comments »

Social Media – Teach or Preach?

January 28, 2013

Cyberbullying

Like most people I am very concerned about the whole topic of Cyberbullying and the effect it has been having on some of our young people.

After the tragic suicides recently we decided to do our part and we produced a simple info graphic called “safebook” , which is an easy guide for young people. Our objective was to encourage the safe and responsible use of social media and at the same time provide clear advice to people who may be faced with a bullying situation.

Safebook Poster - CyberbullyingOur poster struck a chord with people all over the world – it’s been downloaded in over 100 countries, which I put down to its simplicity and I believe it is helping parents and teachers to have sensible conversations about the responsible use of social media with their children.

Our activity in this area has brought us into contact with many teachers, schools and organisations and I can see the considerable efforts that are being made to control and deal with the issue. I am watching the training programmes, I can see the liaison with the authorities and government agencies and I can see how schools are making attempts to block the use of these platforms and do their best to cope with the situation.

I have also heard presentations from Facebook who are attempting to deal with this huge issue, introduce controls and mechanisms to help people report incidents and inappropriate behaviour.

On one side I’m watching all of the downside – the social media concern, the “control” activity but what about the huge upside?

Social media is now a really valuable life skill that we all should learn – most of our clients would grab job applicants who are social media savvy. Is there a dilemma?

Teaching Social MediaTeach not Preach!

From my considerable exposure to this huge Cyberbullying issue my conclusion is that we need to embrace the social media tools from a sensible, early age and we should encourage the positive use of these platforms in schools (probably the best place to ensure this happens).

How about:
– students publishing their essays on their own personal blogs
– classes that show the children how to set up their social media accounts including their privacy settings
– setting up Facebook groups for use by each of the classes
– setting up Twitter accounts for the Economics, History, Science and Geography classes and following and interacting with other relevant accounts to facilitate learning and staying up to date with current issues

At the same time I do feel that the social media providers must self regulate, put in the controls and aids, be proactive around privacy settings and act sensibly – however, the main solution is in the users hands.

While I know it won’t be easy, while I know it will require a lot of training, I know social media is a valuable skill, which will be critical to every young person in the future.

Why not concentrate on teaching and forget the preaching?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion.

Fuzion provide social media consultancy and training services from the offices in Dublin and Cork.

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Posted in Bullying, Parenting, Personal development, Self Help, Staff training | 6 Comments »

Crisps!

January 28, 2013

Tayto crispsI love crisps, I think I always have ..

I remember when a bag of  Tayto crisps was 3 pence and you could buy Perri for 2 pence …that was a lot of money back then and to me they were a total luxury and only bought on very special occasions.

Back in Primary school I remember watching our schoolmate Barry Coffey eat a bag of crisps so quickly during lunch – how could he?

He was the luckiest kid ever – he was the only one in the class who came to school with a bag of crisps and he had the audacity to eat them quickly with no reverence whatsoever!

Eating Crisps

I remember the Sunday afternoon spins with mum and dad and my sister Laura.

Like most brothers and sisters (there were two and a half years between us) we had our share of fights. My lasting memory of those days was my sisters ability to make that packet of crisps last forever…I would have eaten my packet of crisps as slowly as possible and with total respect and my sister would still have 90% of her packet left.

She would crush her packet up and for the rest of that journey she would tease me silly.. one crumb at a time.

I know we are in tough economic times and that things are really tight but then I think of crisps and I wonder ..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Graphic Design firm with offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Family, Ireland, Irish Economy, Recession | 13 Comments »

Can you teach someone to Speak like you?

January 28, 2013
His Masters Voice

Learning to speak like you?

That penny has finally dropped and businesses seem to be embracing social media – judging from the level of enquiries we have for consultancy and training and judging by the new social media agencies that are setting up it looks like that moment is here.

Social media is a huge opportunity to communicate, to interact, to make new connections and to build genuine rapport with customers, prospects and other people in business.

Have a peep at a lot of the adverts by some of the large companies and notice how they are all including their Facebook address prominently – why are they pushing this instead of their website?

They want to bring people to a place where they can interact with their brand, bring their unique personality to life and have the opportunity to build genuine “followers” instead of taking to them to their website.

Getting there ..

While this penny seems to have dropped many businesses while realising the importance of social media believe they do not have the skills to execute it properly. Often the solution to this dilemma is to outsource their social media activity to an agency, which is creating opportunities for all of us working in this space.

While this may seem like a solution it really isn’t – I’m probably shooting myself in both feet by saying this but it is our genuine belief that your voice should not be outsourced.

Expertise - Einstein

It’s really simple – no one will have your knowledge, your passion and your insights and this is what you need to fuel and maximise your social media activity.

Passing your voice to an agency, who will never understand your business the same way that you do is giving away the magic that brings social media to life. Not only will you miss the magic but you will also miss the valuable learnings that social media interactions will bring you about your business, your products, services, sector and your competition.

My only exception here might be during an interim period or during a busy campaign where you might require an extra pair of hands and eyes to support your own teams efforts.

Instead of paying someone to speak on your behalf (in a way that will never be as good as you) why not you or some member of your team spend the time and budget to learn how to use these social media platforms properly – once you know how, you will fly!.

You can never teach someone to speak with your voice – it’s impossible.

It’s your voice they want to hear ..

Greg Canty is a parter in Fuzion

Fuzion provide social media training and consultancy from our offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Web Marketing | 7 Comments »

Are you ready to Leapfrog?

January 28, 2013

Can you Leapfrog - Fuzion PRAccording to Wikipedia “Leapfrog” is a children’s game in which players vault over each others stooped backs.

I’m not sure about you but I certainly played it loads of times as a kid!

In Fuzion, Leapfrog is a real business game where you try to identify something you can do or some move you can make that will help your business jump to another level or even better to a new place.

Apple is a great example of this with iTunes or the iPhone.

At times progress can be small and steady and sometimes hardly noticeable – maybe at your next management meeting think hard and spend time with your team looking for that thing that will help you Leapfrog your competition or take you somewhere totally new.

Is it time to start leapfrogging?

Greg Canty is a partner in Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing and PR firm with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Business Planning, Marketing, Motivation, Positivity | Leave a Comment »

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