Deirdre – When does a business start?

July 8, 2012
Deirdre Waldron - Fuzion PR

Deirdre Waldron – Fuzion PR

Deirdre Waldron or Dee as most of you know her, started the Fuzion journey many moons ago.

She will admit herself that the very last job she had before she started Fuzion was with a newspaper in Kerry and it was literally nearly killing her!

She will tell you quietly that there were days she was feeling so miserable that she wished for a small car crash that would put her out of action for a while (with only minor injuries of course!).

Can you imagine, someone that talented being that miserable in their job – whatever was going on in that newspaper they managed to squeeze the life out of her and she eventually quit.

Even though there was a lot going on in her life Dee decided it was time to try things on her own and Fuzion was borne.

When I met her first towards the end of 2000 I was well impressed by her determination, her tenacity and her willingness to get results for her first clients, which included the Kerryman newspaper and some other businesses in the Kerry region. Within no time she had taken on an assistant and I watched her close hand at events and dealing with the media.

I could see the results she was achieving for her clients as a result of her talent and this incredible work ethic that she had picked up in no small way from her formidable mother Joan, who was quite an able businesswoman herself.

As the Marketing Director of the Rose of Tralee I witnessed her skilfully dealing with the local and national press and I watched her protect the girls and the eventual winner with the media. She worked tirelessly on this project  – and this was a voluntary role!

I clearly remember one day en route to Limerick listening to her on the radio cleverly defending and promoting the merits of the Rose of Tralee to Ray D’Arcy on national radio (in later years he went on to present the event – I think she left a lasting impression on him!) . This Cork boy was very impressed with the Kerry girl who had no idea how good she was.

Deirdre Waldron and Greg Canty - Fuzion PR

Fuzion 10 Year Party!

After some persuasion I convinced Deirdre of the attributes of  Cork and the opportunities that would be available to her and in late 2001 she packed her bags and Fuzion HQ had moved!

Since then I packed up my full time job and joined Deirdre in Fuzion and gradually we went from working from home to opening an office in Cork city and in the last few years one in Dublin. We carefully added more members and skill-set to the team despite it being a tough time for business and each of them have benefited from working with Dee in the same way that I have.

I have had an incredible journey and absolutely love the work we do in Fuzion and for that I have to thank Deirdre for making that decision to go it alone a long time ago ..

Thanks Dee, you’re a star!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a PR firm with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Business Planning, Business Start Ups, Marketing, Positivity, PR | 4 Comments »

Are you doing Laps or going on a Journey?

July 7, 2012
Ballincollig Park, Cork

Laps or a Journey?

Often at weekends we meet our great friends Tommy and Joan Doyle down at the gorgeous Ballincollig Park in Cork.

It’s a huge facility with the River Lee flowing through it, it has football fields, river walks and the ruins from the Gunpowder Mills can be seen as you explore the different spots at the park.

When we go there myself and Dee like to take a full route around the park, moving from the first football field, along the river, exploring the fields further back and coming back via the river letting Bing (our four legged creature) to have a little splash and a drink.

We wander back via the main entrance and have a cuppa and a bun at the fabulous Cafe Chico (Margaret runs a terrific little business there). It’s a nice route and for the most part we don’t revisit any part of the park.

When we meet up with Tommy and Joan we always end up having an argument – Tommy is obsessed with doing laps!! I can’t stand it ….he is happy to do a particular walk at the start of the park and repeat it 10 times.

Tommy is a true Irish GAA legend, winner of 7 senior All Ireland Medals with Kerry, so I guess he spent a lifetime doing laps as part of his training, which is engrained into him (we have a funny friendship as I have zero interest in GAA – we started as workmates).

Sometimes we win the argument and we get  to take our route but often we end up doing his laps routine – it really is mindless repetition, it’s so boring, over and over. I really can’t stand it and only for Tommy’s colourful conversation (he is a great character despite his obsession with laps and routine) we’d never survive it! When we meet them in the evening it’s even a battle to get Tommy to go some place new or try something different.

I get really frustrated and it makes me wonder – why bother doing laps when you can go on a journey?

Isn’t life often like this as we can end up repeating ourselves over and over, the same routine, the same job, the same clients, the same restaurants, the same shops, the same holiday locations, the same walks on a Saturday!

Sometimes routine is safe, comforting and dependable but at times we do have to break out and try something new. In the current climate change was forced on a lot of us and often people will tell you that the change has been a breath of fresh air.

I reflect back on my own journey and in many respects it has been colourful with lots of interesting twists and turns both personal and professional and of course I probably have done a few laps too many in some cases!

Tommy Doyle, GAA Star, Kerry - 21st September 1986 v Tyrone

What a Journey!

I think of my buddy Tommy and his obsession with laps and then when I Google him I see him holding up the Sam Maguire cup as Captain of the Kerry team  in 1986 in front of a crowd of 60,000 people! How many have taken that journey?

Today I must do something new …

Are you doing laps or going on a Journey?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion PR

Fuzion are a Marketing and PR Firm with Offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Motivation, Personal development, Self Help | 5 Comments »

The Last Burger !

July 3, 2012
Varadero, Cuba

Close your eye’s and pretend

This holiday could not be complete without one last visit to the burger bar, just off the beach as part of the resort where we were staying in Cuba.

Thankfully I discovered this little gem on the day we arrived and I am ashamed to admit it, pretty much everyday that we were here it was granted a visit …ok, I lie, one day I had a hot dog!

My tough ritual became… relax on a lounger just off the beach (under a canopy of sorts – I just sizzle in the sun), read a book, listen to all sorts of music thanks to Mr Shuffle on the iPod, go for a long walk (very necessary to walk off breakfast, justify the burger and feel better about the dinner buffet!) and then make my way to the little food hut, where a very nice man served hot dogs, burgers and an assortment of fruit.

After that it was back to the sun lounger for more music before heading back to change for the dinner buffet …maybe a drink at the bar before or after or both!

All of 10 paces from the food hut was the beach bar!!!! A full bar serving cocktails including anything with the local speciality rum, other exotic concoctions and of course beer.

Cuba Libre

If only …

The burger was washed down most days with a beer, unless I was feeling more exotic and had a Cuba Libre (rum and coke mainly)… A hard life!

So, the week at the resort is over, my place on the beach will be taken up by some other crew who will take their turn at stepping off their treadmill for a while.

For me it’s back to “real life“, work and all the other fabulous challenges that come our way, and that brief little escape is over until the next time.

All I can say is thank you Cuba, now for that burger ….

P.S. The chef thought I had lost my marbles asking him to pose for a photo with a burger (all for the blog) – he did earn a tip for his trouble, so he got over it!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Holidays, Personal development, Tourism, Travel | Leave a Comment »

Social Media – End of the Auto-Post?

July 2, 2012
Social Media Training - LinkedIn

How often do you post an update on LinkedIn? – thought so !

Over the last few days you may have noticed a message from LinkedIn advising that your “tweets” will no longer appear automatically as status updates on LinkedIn.

If you didn’t have this feature switched on it obviously makes  no difference to you but if you did you need to consider how this affects your social media activity.

Twitter to LinkedIn

I’m not sure what is behind this change but I am suspecting that LinkedIn may want you to post directly from their platform – at least this way you will have to open up your LinkedIn dashboard to make a post and hopefully (for them) notice some adverts that are of interest to you. Clicking these makes them money by the way!

The big problem that I see here is that most people do not consume their social media from LinkedIn – yep, we connect, search for contacts but very very few of us are actually consuming – am I wrong? Is this their effort to make themselves part of the conversation and more relevant?

LinkedIn to Twitter

You can see from the graphic above that it is still possible to push your LinkedIn posts to Twitter once you click the little twitter box at the bottom of the post.

Twitter to Facebook

Another recent development I have noticed is that my Twitter posts are no longer being pushed to Facebook  despite all the connections being switched on. I have disconnected and refreshed the connection but it has made no difference.

I am starting to think that Facebook like LinkedIn want the user to log on directly to their platform to post updates, again in the hope that you will spot some adverts and make them a few bob!

Facebook to Twitter

I’m not sure if it is a coincidence but in line with this lapse in functionality Facebook are promoting their auto posts to Twitter feature quite actively when you log on. Hmmm ..

Robot Using a Computer!

Automation isn’t always good ..

Consequence?

So what does all of this mean to the heavy social media user who is quite active on all platforms and was enjoying the benefit of these time saving applications. Effectively you could post once on Twitter and this post would replicate on both Facebook and LinkedIn. This is what I was doing myself.

Maybe it’s a good thing?

I think you should embrace the change and treat it as a good thing.

Auto posts from Twitter were never the best idea for a number of reasons:

  • You can allow yourself to post more often and repeat posts on Twitter (this frequency could come across as “spam” on Facebook and LinkedIn)
  • If you have posts of a visual nature you are better going to Facebook and posting there directly – when you post from Twitter any link was just appearing as a link.
  • The platforms are quite different and while auto-post can be ok most of the time, often your “tweet” may be inappropriate on LinkedIn and maybe on Facebook
  • I find that if you use the “auto-post” feature you actually start to miss some of the action on the other platforms – they all do a different job for you, don’t forget that.
  • Users of LinkedIn and Facebook may not get all of the @gregcantyfuzion and the hash tag #FF, #Positivity “stuff” and can find it quite annoying and distracting from the actual message

My best advice is to treat each of the social media platforms differently, post separately as appropriate and for ultimate control use tools like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite as time saving devices. Using these you can select the destination for each of your updates (be it to any of your twitter accounts, your facebook personal or business pages).

The schedule facility on these platforms is an extra bonus, which can also be very handy.

LinkedIn

Regarding LinkedIn status updates I don’t see the change making the platform more relevant – If anything it could actually have the opposite effect!

If you wish to make an impact here try:

  • Participating in discussions on Groups you have joined
  • Start discussions in Groups you have joined
  • Start Asking and Answering Questions that have been posted for your industry sector/area of expertise

But I don’t have the time .. (this must be the one thing I hear most from people about social media)

Heh, that’s not my problem …if you have figured out that social media is good for your business then you’ll make the time!

Happy Posting ..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion PR

Note:

If you need a helping hand with your social media effectiveness check out our Social Media Training / Social Media Consultancy services.

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Posted in Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, Training, Twitter | 10 Comments »

Does “July” come once in a lifetime?

July 1, 2012
Mundy - July, The White Horse, Ballincollig

Once in a lifetime?

We were sitting in the fabulous intimate atmosphere of the White Horse in Ballincollig, Cork privileged to be watching another great musician, Mundy (he’s from Birr , County Offaly as it turns out and he knows the Loughnane boys from the County Arm’s Hotel!).

Joe Carey, the owner of the White Horse is a great musician himself. He loves his music and thanks to his passion we are lucky to have regular quality gigs on our doorstep in this fabulous “up close and personal” venue.

I love my music but for some reason Mundy was one of those artists that I had never really come across or seen at a gig but it was clear to see why he had such a great following. This gig was a solo, acoustic gig, which is always tough for an artist but he literally pumped it out, he has a great stage presence and a terrific sense of humour, which had the crowd “warm” and in his hands from start to finish.

I loved his story telling and his tales about his dad who warned him that he “shouldn’t talk to the audience about everything that was in his head” ..class!

His songs are really clever and he’s not afraid to bring in the odd snippet of a popular cover .. the girls standing at the bar were well impressed and bought him a pint of Murphy’s!

He launched into his anthem “July” ….wow, was that his?  I love that incredible, upbeat summer song and am embarrassed to admit not realising whose it was. This was clearly his crowning glory, his signature song as everyone in the audience reacted immediately at the first hint of the song. Everyone in the audience sang along, how couldn’t you? …what a classic!

A few songs and stories later the gig finished and we were more than happy to buy his CD’s 24 Star Hotel, Strawberry Blood and his latest, Shuffle and have a quick chat with the man himself (Edmund Enright – that’s how we found out he knew the Loughnane boys).

I wonder when he wrote “July” did he have any idea how great a song it was, the huge hit it was going to be and the difference it would make to his career. On YouTube I searched for the track and watched him entertain a huge crowd of 10,000 at Oxygen in 2008 who sang their hearts out to this happy, upbeat, memorable and really clever summer anthem.

He’s clearly a really talented musician and song writer and I wondered does he ever get frustrated waiting for the same inspiration and another “July” to come along . Like so many other great artists, often an incredible, defining song comes to them, never to be repeated or surpassed. Does this eventually become a burden?

I thought back to the gig, the anthem he’s clearly played thousands of times to audiences all over the world and I thought about the audience reaction and the huge beaming smile all over his face as he played it.

While “July” might come along once in a lifetime he can enjoy sharing it every day ..

Oh! ma ma ma,oh! ma ma ma,oh! ma ma ma My July …all together now

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion PR

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Posted in Music, Positivity | 6 Comments »

Dove è il bar? (Where’s the bar!)

June 28, 2012
Greg Canty blog - Where's the bar?

Are you tempted ?

8 am, driving to work in Cork and it is grey and miserable. The city has taken a right battering as we witnessed the thunder and lightning during the night as well as the torrential rain pounding against the windows of the house.

I turn on the news to hear that Blackpool, Douglas and Clonakilty have been badly flooded with the rivers unable to cope after a month of record rainfall and excess rain during the night. Newstalk radio have residents from Blackpool and my old buddy Peter Collins from Barry’s pub in Douglas on telling their flood stories.

Next up there is some depressing “crap” about EU bailouts .. too much!

I drop Deirdre off at the office and head to the Airport Hotel to give a social media business session to a new client.

Time to switch over to the iPod and lets see what Mr Shuffle brings ..

First it brings me the gorgeous “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver – I pass a couple kissing goodbye as he drops her off to work. That’s nice.

Next it brings me the incredible voice of Tina Dico singing “Warm Sand“, what a great song …we couldn’t be further away from warm sand I’m thinking!

Just as I pull into the hotel an Italian lesson I had uploaded on the iPod before a holiday many moons ago comes on, repeat after me the voice says “Dove  è il bar?” … where is the bar?

Not a bad idea !!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Holidays, Ireland, Irish Economy, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Ignoring the Carrot!

June 27, 2012
Ignoring the Carrot

Ignoring the Carrot

There I sat, new job, GM of quite a large drink’s wholesale company and my new boss, the MD of one of Ireland’s largest drink companies outlined my “objectives” for the year.

Hit these objectives and you got your bonus at the end of the year …simple.

One of these was really unrealistic – he wanted me to raise the Gross Margin % from it’s current level to a higher figure. I explained clearly that this would be impossible as the business volume was shifting from pub products (higher margin) to off licence products (much lower margin) due to lifestyle trends which pretty much everyone in the industry had accepted.

This led to a really lengthy discussion where we both made our case and fought our corner with no real resolution. I explained that the “money” margin on these off licence products could actually be higher and the target should be a money one and not a % one.  At the end of the discussion he insisted that my “target” stood and I quite politely told him that it was impossible.

I left the meeting knowing this target could not be achieved but determined to drive the business forward in the most profitable way possible.

“I’m not very happy with your performance, you missed your objective and as a result you won’t be getting your bonus!”  he said to me across the desk, a year later as we had my review. He waited for my reaction, expecting me to fight my case or get all offended.

“I know, and I told you that a year ago” I responded “and to be honest I don’t really care about a bonus if it’s based on the wrong criteria. I care about doing a good job” …. silence.

After that , we never really got on too well. I guess it was because I didn’t behave like the others he was used to dealing with and the “Carrot” didn’t matter to me one way or the other.

You don’t always need a carrot to force good work and if you’re making targets for your team make sure they are realistic and they believe in them.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Accounting, Business Planning, Motivation, Personal development | 4 Comments »

Facebook – It’s all about Timing!

June 25, 2012

After the major changes that we saw with Facebook Business Pages (for me they converted these pages into mini-websites) at the end of March and after the global social media giant went public shortly after, we have now seen a few more little but quite significant changes that have improved the functionality for all business users.

Facebook - scheduling your postsTiming!

Now it is possible to schedule your posts on your business page – the next time you start to post click on the little “clock” button below the window, which opens up a range of options that will allow you to schedule a post by year/month/date/hour/minute.

This is an excellent function that allows a busy business owner to schedule posts when they get a chance. It’s clearly best to be on-line so you can respond quickly to  comments but at times this may not be possible.

Hierarchy for Administrators

adding administrators on facebookWhen we work with clients and students at our social media training sessions I used always give them the “Admin Warning” – basically all administrators are created equal. Effectively someone you make an Administrator of your business page on Facebook immediately had the same power as you and could actually remove you if they wished.

This “feature” always petrified business owners – a disgruntled employee could cause a lot of damage with a few key strokes and some novel content!

Facebook have now created a hierarchy so it is now possible for you to give users Admin access but you can limit each users power. At the top of the tree there is the Administrator who has the power to allow and remove users.

Below this there are a number of different levels, each with decreasing powers using the headings; Content Creator, Moderator, Advertiser and Insights Analyst. This improved functionality allows a page owner to allow access to various individuals to work on the page but only to a level that they need to.

No doubt we will continue to see more changes that will make Facebook better and more relevant for business users … It’s all about Timing!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Posted in Facebook, Social Media | Leave a Comment »

I’m more important than you!

June 23, 2012

I must put down my towel for the morning !

Will I move their towels I wonder?

A few years ago we were holidaying in Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast in Italy and had treated ourselves to a really nice boutique hotel spectacularly located looking out to sea.

The hotel had a small private swimming pool that was surrounded by a number of comfortable sun loungers. While this was great the problem was that there was never enough sun loungers and you had to be quite sharp about securing your space.

On our first day we realised that if we wanted a space by the pool then we would have to get there early – first come, first served , which was fair enough , in particular if you wanted a good spot.

With some relaxation in mind we made sure we got to the poolside early the next morning to discover we were one of first there but the best sun loungers already had towels on them, clearly reserved by some hotel guests who no doubt would be down in a minute.

We took two of the remaining loungers and started to relax and I was shocked to see the “pre-bookers” only arriving two hours later to take their spots by the pool. That’s not very fair I thought and we weren’t the only ones to notice as others seemed to look up disapprovingly from under their sunglasses.

Amalfi CoastThe following day exactly the same thing happened with exactly the same people and everyone just put up with it allowing this couple to get away with thinking they were effectively better than the rest of us.

Not only were they taking an advantage for themselves but they were taking an entitlement away from everyone else … I was really cross but yet did nothing. Who was going to be the one to have a word or merely just shift their towels onto the ground risking an unwanted argument with a stranger when you on holidays trying to relax?

I’m writing this from a KLM 10 hour flight on route to Cuba with a very stiff backside and I just had a similar scenario with seat space. At 6 ft tall it’s hard to get comfortable and it gets a little worse when the person in front of you pushes their chair back to relax. They are well entitled but it does squeeze up your own space.

This time as I struggled to get comfortable I decided I would recline my seat a little … No sooner than I did this, I felt someone from behind hitting the back of my seat. At first I thought maybe my seat went back too fast and it ended up spilling a drink over the guy behind. I looked behind and made an “apology” gesture and thought that would have looked after it.

No such luck …. this wasn’t enough for my new friend who kept aggressively hitting the back of my seat. I thought quickly about getting into one and decided in the end that it was cramped for everyone and I would give him a break and pull my seat back up!

There was no way this guy was going to let someone invade his space. I thought about my friend and his “no messing” and yes, very aggressive way of dealing with a situation …. It’s a pity he wasn’t in Sorrento I thought !

Why do some people feel that they are just better than the rest of us, and why do the rest of us put up with it?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Air travel, Holidays, Personal development, Tourism | 4 Comments »

A Silicon Valley “State of Mind”

June 20, 2012
John Hartnett - ITLG

A Silicon Valley “State of Mind”

I am just back from a really uplifting Cork Chamber breakfast where the attendees had the pleasure of listening to John Hartnett, a Limerick man who is now working and living in Silicon Valley.

He was speaking about an initiative he is involved in called ITLG (Irish Technology Leadership Group), which is all about facilitating the Irish to succeed in Silicon Valley.

While the topic was absolutely fascinating what was even more interesting was his observations about Ireland and the Irish, which he can now do quite well “as an outsider, looking in” as he put it and the differences with Silicon Valley.

He spoke about Silicon Valley not being a place but being a “State of  Mind” and after listening to him speak for half an hour you get to understand exactly what he meant even by the language he chose in his presentation and in the Q&A afterwards.

The people in Silicon Valley work with a focused intensity, everything is possible, failure is often considered as a natural step on the ladder to success, mega opportunity is better than “niche”, we need to change the game and it’s all about “out of the park” ideas ….I was enthralled!

OK, we can see the big American influence but the language, both tone and content was totally infectious.

John spoke of the Irish having natural advantages such as being smart and sociable with great story telling ability but not being so great when it came to pitching and selling – “our kids should be presenting regularly at school so standing up in front of an audience and pitching your idea should be the most natural thing in the world when it matters”  he commented.

Silicon ValleyHe spoke about the very tangible “Negativity Bubble” in Ireland that we need to lose as quick as possible .. we need to get aggressive and go after it, we need to shake things up and make positive things happen. He spoke about getting more of the successful ex-pat Irish community in the US involved in the right organisations in Ireland such as the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the Science Council.

Not only did John make perfect sense but he gave everyone in the room a huge injection of positivity – Thank you John.

Cancel all flights …don’t let him leave the country!

What’s your State of Mind?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Note:

Colm Healy from Skelligs Chocolate gave me a great link to a “Ted” talk by Cameron Herold about “raising kids to be entrepreneurs“.

 

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Posted in Business Start Ups, Ireland, Irish Economy, Marketing, Personal development, Positivity, Recession | 11 Comments »

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