Posts Tagged ‘Cork’

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Katy Perry and her Twitter Tips

November 26, 2013

Katy Perry - Twitter Tips

“Getting someone to tweet for you is cheesy and desperate” said Katy Perry as she was interviewed on the Red Carpet at the 2103 American Music Awards.

She was asked to comment about her incredible Twitter following, which is just shy of 48 million people.

While she is clearly not like the rest of us mere mortals in terms of popularity online she does have a terrific handle on what works and what doesn’t.

Her off the cuff interview was simple but there was pure gold in what she said:

“I have a huge responsibility with so many followers”

“No one runs my account for me, I do it myself”

“I don’t get my manager or my publicist to tweet for me, it’s always me”

“People want to see the authentic, genuine you”

“People want to see your personality and it gives them a chance to see that you have fun”

“I never try to sell or promote products but I will share ‘stuff’ that I love”

“It’s always obvious when someone else is tweeting for them –  it’s cheesy and desperate”

“It’s best to show people what you love, what you like and things that inspire you”

Katy ..thanks for the simple Twitter masterclass!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion with offices in Cork and Dublin in Ireland offer social media training and consultancy services

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Posted in Entertainment, Social Media, Twitter | 2 Comments »

Are things on the up at last?

November 25, 2013

economic crystal ball

I was really annoyed to hear the coverage that the media gave the latest Ernest & Young downgrading of their Irish Economic Forecast in their Economic Eye Winter 2013 report.

“The latest All Island EY Economic Eye Winter 2013 report has revised its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecast for 2013 downwards in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) from 0.8% to -0.2%“.

The comprehensive report covered more than just this but it was the “downgrading” that seemed to grab the headlines.

I gritted my teeth and shouted “shut the hell up” at the radio when I heard their economic experts being interviewed on air explaining their analysis.

Jesus …we near to hear positive news, we need to hear about those businesses that are seeing growth, we near to hear about the successes and we need to start believing that things are really improving.

ConfidenceIt’s only with confidence that things will start to improve and I firmly believe that this is happening – at least from what we are witnessing in the marketplace.

Giving airtime to such negativity is only going to hold us back as it has done for the last few years. Is market performance all down to facts or is it down to sentiment?

A nice bounce will happen if we start believing ..

While I have every respect for the experts in Ernest & Young I do believe that we have every reason for optimism based on what I am seeing and hearing:

  • We are seeing positivity and real intent by our clients
  • We are seeing competitiveness for staff
  • We are seeing sectors that were dormant such as retail and fashion back engaging for the first time in years
  • Hotels are busier than before – often it’s hard to get a booking
  • The summer for the tourist sector was well up on recent years
  • Restaurants are busier and the corporate market is back in force wining and dining: “Lately Tuesday’s are like Saturday’s” one restaurateur shared with me
  • Christmas party bookings are up on last year
  • The tradesman seem to be busy again
  • New businesses are opening
  • Hotels in NAMA control are being purchased by new operators
  • Solicitors and estate agents are telling me house transactions are happening – not by investors but by genuine buyers
  • Those houses will need furniture, carpets, lighting, painting and decorating
  • Banks are finally making progress with difficult situations and progress is being made
  • Supermarkets are opening new units and fighting a war using a “Support Irish products” agenda
  • The shops seem to be busier than they have been

Of course these are just my observations and the conversations that I am hearing every day.

I genuinely feel things are on the up and I sincerely hope that this is the case – to broaden this conversation can I ask ..

What are you experiencing?

#Positivity

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Ireland, Irish Economy, Motivation, Positivity, Recession | 6 Comments »

Brushing your teeth and Social Media

November 20, 2013

Brushing your teeth - social media tips, FuzionWe have all pretty much figured out that brushing our teeth is a good thing ..well at least I hope so!

While it is a good thing to do it would be a total waste of time if we just brushed them once a month.

To be effective we get into a simple routine of brushing in the morning and before we head to bed at night. If we didn’t do it we just wouldn’t feel right.

The same applies with your social media efforts ..

Having a presence on the different social media platforms is just a waste of time if your don’t find a proper routine for your efforts.

To be effective you just have to post regularly – At a minimum I’m talking a few posts a day on Facebook, even more on Twitter, a post a day on your personal and business LinkedIn page and if you really want to be a pro at least a new blog post a week!

Are you ready? 

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion with offices in Cork and Dublin in Ireland offer social media training and consultancy services

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Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »

Balancing those debits and credits!

November 11, 2013

Work, Life Balance

Where did that time go?

31 years ago this boy was a raw, innocent 18 year old working as a junior accountant in a mid sized accountancy practice on the South Mall in Cork. At this stage I was two months into my apprentice and I was learning the basics.

Ironically, I had done Economics and Business Organisation in secondary school so Accounting was brand new to me!

For every debit there had to be a corresponding credit was the golden rule – if you got that, your accounts would always balance. If they didn’t balance something was wrong and you had to search for your mistake.

It’s probably easier for everyone now with the computers and the accountancy packages – we had to do it all manually with ledgers in my day. Imagine trying to dig through that lot to find where you went wrong..

I was in practice for 6 years and then went onto industry and eventually swapped the accountancy role for a general management one and that was the official end of my debits and credits (except for my own projects at least).

That debits and credits discipline always stood to me and I do think accountancy and the privilege of working with so many businesses at at a young age was the best business degree anyone I could ever hope for.

You listen and learn from clients, you understand the drivers of their businesses and you use your expertise to help them. In many ways I do exactly the same now except the expertise is quite different and I don’t have to worry about those debits and credits.

The strange thing is that life is full of debits and credits and it too must balance and if it doesn’t something is wrong.

I’ve been working hard all morning …. head out for a nice coffee

My crew work their socks off ….  take them for lunch on Friday

I’ve been stuck in that proposal for hours …. time for a stroll and fresh air

We’ve been working hard all year …. where will we go for our Christmas party?

Work, work, work …. spend time with friends, meet the kids, visit the folks

Busy doing stuff for everyone else …. get tickets for that gig

I’ve been working my socks off all year …. maybe a new car at the start of the year?

Whatever you do today make sure you balance your books!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Accounting, Entertainment, Family, Personal development, PR, Self Help | 19 Comments »

You’ll never know why

November 5, 2013

Word of Mouth

Thanks for the invitation for your event but I just won’t be going.

I don’t want to shop in your store any more and I won’t be recommending that anyone else goes there.

I will probably ever so subtly actually discourage people from going to your store whereas before now I would have done the opposite.

The problem is you will never quite know why ..

The thing is you treated a good friend of someone that I know really well quite badly, which left them really upset. I know they are reasonable people so I trust the stories that I’ve heard and I believe that the poor experience was genuine and not exaggerated.

From my point of view this mightn’t be reasonable or logical but that’s often the way the world works.

Reputation is a funny thing – it takes ages to build a good reputation and it take seconds to destroy it.

Next time you have an issue with a customer consider carefully how you deal with them as it can potentially impact on many more than just them.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Customer Care | 10 Comments »

Can you feel the love?

October 22, 2013

Chefs tasting

“I can taste the love in the food”

I was fascinated as I listened to this restaurateur describe how he knows when the dynamic is right between the team at his restaurant. He reckons having a happy team who enjoy working together is essential to producing great tasting food.

He tells me he can taste “the love” in the food when it exists with the team and even more importantly he tells me he can taste it when the love is not there.

The ingredients are exactly the same, the preparation is exactly the same but when things aren’t 100% with his team the food just doesn’t taste as good as it should.

For this reason he works hard at talking to his team, having fun with them, listening to their issues, eliminating any issues or strains quickly and generally devoting a lot of his energy to making sure the spirit is as good as it can be.

Is it enough that your team turns up and punches in their time, is it enough that they execute their roles efficiently and professionally?

Without love that food just won’t taste as good as it should.

How does your food taste?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are an Irish Marketing, PR and Graphic Design agency with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Customer Care, Motivation, Staff training, Teamwork | 2 Comments »

Thanks for the re-tweet?

October 18, 2013

Pay it forward

“Thanks for the RT”  (thats a re-tweet for those unfamiliar with twitter – whereby you share someone’s tweet/post with your followers)

How long would that have taken …. two seconds?

But if you are too busy and have no real interest in interacting with others then what does it matter if you “thank” or not?

You may have saved two seconds but it did cost you:

  • You are viewed as unappreciative by the person who valued you enough to RT you in the first place
  • You may not be re-tweeted again by that person (you will miss out on the visibility with their followers)
  • You miss the opportunity to engage with someone who was interested in your post
  • Someone else will benefit by the re-tweets you used to get

Big social media tip ….say thanks!

PS: ironically you will be the one who benefits most by doing that

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion with offices in Cork and Dublin in Ireland offer social media training and consultancy services

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Posted in Social Media, Twitter | 2 Comments »

Can great customer service be up to the customer?

October 9, 2013

Grumpy customer

“Table of Death” was the expression he used ..

I had the most interesting conversation with an experienced restaurateur yesterday – our conversations are refreshing as he always has a different way of looking  at things.

Yesterday we were chatting about the importance of great customer service and how now, more than ever, it needs to tip top as the decisions about how someone spends their disposable income are much bigger than before.

He gave me an interesting perspective about how the customer can play a huge role in the service they experience.

In particular he spoke about the “Table of Death”, which is an expression his team uses when they spot a bunch of customers who just should not be on a night out. They arrive grumpy, every interaction with the service staff is curt and unpleasant and their whole demeanour is negative.

The staff pick up on this immediately and tense up and then as sure as night follows day “Murphy’s Law” kicks in – that will be the table where something gets spilled, someone gets bumped into, something gets overcooked and there will always be something wrong with the bill.

The tension that is created by the negative vibe of that group of customer’s just infects everything and everyone they touch – a good night guaranteed!

He reckons they get at least one group like that every second night and they can spot them nearly the minute they walk in the door.

I notice myself that the pleasant client will get more from our team. The really mannerly and appreciative client will get somersaults from our guys. When you hear our team saying “I love working on that account” or “they are my favourite client” you know that client will get the very best from us and will enjoy the best results from their investment.

For some reason some people have decided that the best approach to business is by being “nasty” – it might make people jump but it will never get the best from them.

Next time you go for a meal ask the waiting staff how their day was!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are an Irish Marketing, PR and Graphic Design agency with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Customer Care, Hospitality, Motivation, Positivity | 5 Comments »

Taking a Fountain Pen to your Social Media

October 7, 2013

fountain pen & social media

I was presenting to the team of one of our clients this week about how they could use social media best for their business.

At my sessions before we look at any of the social media tools I do this simple exercise by asking the group a question “What are the characteristics of  people you like to do business with?”

The group give me a list of characteristics – Now, take all of that into account and apply it to your online behaviour and you will be really effective.

During this part of the session I noticed the younger members of the team had glazed looks across their faces ….what is he talking about, I thought this was a training session about social media?

Social media isn’t about technology, it’s about how you use it to connect and interact with people.

The older experienced members of the team got what I was saying immediately and one of the most senior in the group gave me an incredible example of how you apply old world values to new world technology:

“When I spot online that a company has won an award or has experienced some other good news or when I see someone has been appointed to a new role, I congratulate them”

“How do you congratulate them” I asked.

“I write them a personalised handwritten note on my own notepaper using a special fountain pen and I post it to them”

Wow, that’s so simple but it’s genius – what a way to stand out

Making social media work?…..take all the stuff you are great at already and apply it online

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion with offices in Cork and Dublin in Ireland offer social media training and consultancy services

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media, Training | 15 Comments »

Two weeks, one match

September 29, 2013

Clare v Cork, All Ireland hurling final 2013

He wasn’t in pain but hadn’t been eating and the large lump on his side was a concern.

Someone suggested a visit to the doctor and after a visit and a few tests last week the dreaded news was delivered – he was riddled with cancer, to the point of no return and he has about two weeks to live.

He was to go to the All Ireland hurling final with his son to watch his beloved Clare play Cork in the replay but he wasn’t well enough to travel.

Everyone in Cork is bitterly disappointed with the result but as they say “there is always next year”

For one man, I’m really glad Clare won.

For the rest of us, treasure every single day even the ones when our team lose.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion 

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Posted in Cork, Family, Parenting | 4 Comments »

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