Sometimes when you make your feelings known about others it can end up saying even more about you than it does about them:
Be careful what you say online..
Posts Tagged ‘Fuzion Communications’
Happy New 172!
July 2, 2017
So it’s the beginning of Part Two of 2017.
Maybe, like the car registration system we can now have two starts to the year?
If you think about it the idea of breaking the year into two parts was a really clever one. In previous years there was a huge buzz about the start of the year.
We all wanted a new car but once you had gone past April you probably started to think that it may be worth waiting until the next year as ’17’ was starting to age a little – you definitely did not want to buy something in the latter part of the year.
How about we make it ‘171’ and ‘172’ and get two bites of the cherry?
Great thinking by the motoring sector!
Maybe you can start the second part of your year with all of the buzz, vigour and great intentions that you had on your first day back at work this year?
So, what are you going to do with your ‘172’ ?
Doubters to Believers
June 28, 2017
When Jurgen Klopp took over as manager of Liverpool FC in October 2015 he made a huge statement to the worldwide fan base through the media with a simple message:
“We have to change from doubters to believers“
Jurgen is clever, he quickly picked up on the mood at this famous, previously successful club and he knew that very often it is strangled by the quick loss of faith by the fans if something doesn’t go the team’s way on the pitch during a game.
The fans groan “same old story“, “we’ll throw this one away“, “that fella’s useless” ..when that negativity creeps in it spreads like a virus and before you know it everyone is a doubter.
Fans stop cheering, fans leave early, players get nervous, they choke, fans stop attending, the team starts losing, corporates stop entertaining clients at games, sponsors move on, the best players at the club want to leave and others don’t want to come to the club, success gets further and further away.
Jurgen understood this and from the beginning he sent messages to fans in his press conferences, in the match programmes and during the games he encourages them (by gesturing frantically!) to support and scolds them for not doing so – at a match that wasn’t going according to plan at the very beginning of his reign he scolded the fans who left early in his post message press conference – you can play your vital part in the success of this team.
We are all like Jurgen with the teams that work with us, with our customers (or clients if we are being posh) with those who we would like to be customers and all other stakeholders.
We have to change them from Doubters to Believers.
Are you one of them yet?
June 5, 2017
I met a good friend of mine who has just started a new job and has swapped from the private sector to the public sector.
The particular job he has taken is with an organisation that is renowned as being very political, slow-moving and cautious. As an added bonus the organisation is known to have some “dangerous” ultra political characters within in that have burnt many an enthusiastic person who dared to try something new that might upset the status quo.
We met before he started his new role and while the challenge was clearly exciting, there was huge opportunity to really make a difference but he was also very realistic about the difficulties the culture could pose for him.
We had great fun chatting about “them”, how he would fit in with them, how frustrated he would become with them, who would try to manipulate him and who would genuinely befriend him and act as a valuable ally.
We made a pact that he would text or call whenever he has the “I want to run away” moments and a coffee or a pint after work might be useful medication in those circumstances.
I’m sure that he will survive because he has many gears and is flexible enough to make it work but I am also sure that if he stays the course, there will come a point when “them” becomes “us”.
The most valuable time for him and the organisation is right now and the time in between the “them” and the “us” when he has clear eyes, a fresh perspective and he can bring huge value to his new role.
Eventually, we all become “them” and that special perspective is gone forever!
The most important person to health in Ireland is an IT man!
May 21, 2017
There was huge interest in the Dublin Chamber, morning event hosted by solicitors Mason Hayes Curran because the speaker was Englishman, Richard Corbridge who is the Chief Information Officer with the HSE and CEO of eHealth Ireland.
The very public hacking of the computers of the NHS in the UK brought the Cyber Security topic into focus and this fed an even greater interest than usual in this Dublin Chamber event.
While I was expecting a big talk about Cyber Security from the affable and very engaging Richard I ended up hearing something much more important, I heard about ‘First Dates‘.
Richard used this fantastic ‘first dates‘ analogy to describe how essential it is that the health system in Ireland needs to wake up in 2017 because quite frankly, first dates are no longer acceptable.
This simple point struck a huge chord with me.
Very recently I attended a ‘huge’ and incredibly serious consultation with a senior doctor with a close relative. At this consultation, the topic was of the gravest nature and literally half of the session was spent with the doctor flicking through various papers and asking the most basic of questions in an attempt to bring himself fully up to speed so he could deliver the best medical advice.
As I sat there I couldn’t help thinking that not only was a lot of valuable time wasted by this ‘paper’ system but the margin for error is just colossal.
When you meet a doctor for the first time (when you are born?) this should be the only first date you ever have to experience. Everyone else along the way should have your full medical history at their fingertips so that they have the full story and all of their valuable time and energy should go into the best possible diagnosis.
Richard spoke about many things including the huge positive changes that have been experienced in some of the maternity hospitals where this IT vision has begun and also some incredible improvements with certain medical conditions such as Epilepsy directly as a result of technology.
He also spoke about his committed team, who pulled out all stops to make sure we didn’t suffer the same fate as the NHS. He needs to bring this team with him and expand it to achieve what is needed.
Richard’s enthusiasm for his vision is infectious but it is clear that he is trying to achieve this vision in a mammoth, understandably slow-moving public sector organisation. My sincere hope is that he receives all the support that he needs and that he digs deep and stays the course because it will be frustrating.
To achieve this vision Richard needs to communicate it over and over as eloquently as he did last week both internally and externally and he must not stop until his vision has been achieved.
The irony in all of this is that the health of Ireland rests in the hands of an Englishman who isn’t even a medical doctor!
Richard…thank you, but please, please, don’t give up, we won’t allow you to!
Writing cheques to make yourself look bad
May 14, 2017
I was doing a review of the marketing activities with a new home improvement client a few years back.
In the previous year, they had spent €15,000 on Google Adwords in the UK bringing the right search traffic to the website of their UK operation.
They weren’t convinced about how successful this investment was and they asked me to review the campaign.
The lack of success was simple to figure out because the €15,000 was being used to drive traffic to their website, which was outdated and made them look like an old fashioned, backwards operation. You could easily understand how this traffic was not converting because, like me, I am fairly sure that the people who looked at the website were not inclined to do business.
Not only were they wasting money but they were damaging their brand – an important and very simple SEO tip is to make sure you have a website that makes people want to do business with you!
My simple recommendation to them was to stop the campaign immediately, upgrade the website and then, and only then, start up the Google campaign again.
I was told that there was no budget for a new website and instead they decided to increase their Google Adwords budget in the hope that bringing, even more traffic would somehow improve the results they were getting from the previous campaign.
Whether it is..
– Advertising when your store is a mess
– Putting a cheap sign over your premises
– Paying for an advert and not designing it properly
– Getting cheap business cards
– Bringing traffic to an outdated website
..the message is always the same.
Never, ever, write a cheque to make yourself look bad.
Why you should change as little as possible in the first 100 Days
April 30, 2017
The first 100 days – there is a lot of talk about this and seemingly it has become a great way of assessing the success of a new President in the United States.
Why?
The media are locked into a frenzy about this “100 Day” thing and we all eagerly join in the conversations and somehow buy into this crude assessment of the new President.
Is this a really great yardstick of success and a good sign of what more is to come from the remainder of that person’s four-year term?
In the earliest days of his Presidency we saw Donald “Chump” Trump buying into this, breaking into a sweat signing as many Executive Orders as he could …”look at me, how great I am, look, look, I really mean business and will change the world and show everyone how a real President does it“.
It was quite awful watching the circus around this crude display of power.
100 days on after a frustrating “birth” poor Mr. Chump is now giving out about the American Constitution and blames it for hindering real progress and as always he turns his anger at the media and accuses them again of fake news.
His popularity has fallen since he took office and he really hates that because this bully still wants people to think he is doing great – sorry Donald, that isn’t happening!
The craziest thing of all is this fascination with “100 days”.
Apparently, the term was coined in a July 24, 1933, radio address by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, although he was, in fact, referring to the 100-day session of the 73rd United States Congress between March 9 and June 17, rather than the first 100 days of his administration.
However, it is a lot sexier if we apply the “100” to the first days of the Presidency so this measurement tool caught on.
A good measurement tool?
Managing a super power nation must be incredibly complicated and no matter who you are, no matter how well briefed you are, and no matter how intelligent you are I can imagine those big decisions should be taken in a very considered manner.
From my career experience of having been in business a long time and having managed many companies and worked for many companies, I shudder at the thought of any boss wanting to make as many changes as possible in this initial period.
I would feel an awful lot better if this person would have the sense to listen, learn, take stock and only when they have a full grasp of a situation do they start to make any changes. I have found that even the seemingly obvious things that look wrong can often have very good reasons why they are in place and cannot be changed easily.
I imagine that Donald if he had allowed himself the time and not been a pawn to the media his own bravado persona might have gone about things quite differently.
Next time for the safety and benefit of everyone in the world let’s judge the President positively when he makes no changes in his first 100 days.
Dog Walking therapy
April 23, 2017
It’s Sunday morning and time to walk the dogs.
Bert is the first to get ready – Dee manages to put the harness and lead on him and his excitement can’t stop him yapping continuously until he eventually gets out the door.
Dee then does exactly the same with Honey – I can never manage to get them ready as there is too much wriggling going on.
And off we go, Ballincollig Regional Park is our normal weekend walking destination.
Thankfully the weather is nice so there is no need for coats. We’ve put the call into our buddies Tommy and Joan who will be down there walking their dog, Tammy. Mum and dad will also join us for a stroll and a chat.
As always the dogs are pulling and dragging, the walk is an explosion of the senses for them, sniffing and exploring at every opportunity. The stroll to the park is through a few housing estates, down a road and when they get there it’s even more escalated with lots of activity and many others walking their four-legged ones.
We do a few circuits of the field, the dogs stopping every now and then to do their business (Dee having to do the necessary clean up..yeuch!) and we head to the weir where they get to splash and run in the water and rehydrate after all of their exertions.
We have our chats and enjoy watching the dogs exploring and if we think they are calm enough we head for a coffee and a delicious bun or two from the lovely Margaret at Cafe Chico. Honey won’t settle when we have a coffee and poor Bert believes he is one of us and wants to be sitting at the table sharing the goodies so it’s not always possible.
We all stroll back and if we haven’t had coffee in the park we might buy a few buns or some salad on the way and have it back at ours.
This simple little weekend routine is great for the soul – watching our two four legged ones exploring and having fun is just the tonic to recalibrate ourselves after a busy week.
Dog walking – my favourite time of the week.
p.s. I never wanted a dog!
The same ticket but not the same
April 16, 2017
We were on the North East Corridor train heading out from Penn Station in New York to Metro Park in New Jersey to spend a few days with my brother Colin and his family.
On a commuter train to suburbia it’s hard not to observe the other passengers and wonder about their stories and their lives.
There was a guy sitting across from us, I’m guessing in his twenties dressed all in black with headphones on – every now and then he would sing along in Spanish. Many of the public signs here are in English and Spanish, which surprised me.
There was an African American guy, again in his twenties wearing a green hoodie and a baseball cap under that, also listening to his music.
An older guy sat alongside us wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a grey top and an unusual pair of Crocs on his feet. He also had a crutch so this probably explained the footwear. He looked a little dishevelled so maybe he wasn’t having the best of days.
The ticket collector came around – he takes your ticket, then produces another ticket, punches a hole in this and then clips it behind you under a little metal clip. He does this for each of the people around us.
He comes to the guy next to us, the grey tracksuit guy, who takes his ticket from under his sock and produces it for inspection.
“Tear it in half” the ticket officer tells him. The passenger looks confused.
“Tear it in half” the ticket officer repeats, this time with a little more intent.
He looks confused and asks “Why?”
“I’m not touching that, it’s been in your sock” he says.
The poor guy in the tracksuit never felt better I’m sure. His bad day, week, month, year or decade was confirmed in front of his fellow travellers and he quietly accepted this instruction and tore his ticket in half.
The ticket officer was able to go ahead with his job without having to touch the offensive ticket.
This was an unpleasant and unnecessary exchange between two strangers and at what cost?
Would it have been so hard just to take the piece of paper from this fellow human being and treat it like all those other pieces of paper, equally and with respect?
However, we are not equal.
The Magic of PR
April 6, 2017
Advertising is a way of promoting your business but it is you saying that “we are great, buy from us“.
PR is a way of promoting your business and it is more effective because it is someone else, a trusted third party saying “they are great, buy from them”
Your PR makes your advertising more effective as now people believe what you are saying
Social media (when you do it right!) is a way of you promoting your business by interacting, engaging and gently saying “stop by, you might like what we have to offer”
Your PR makes your social media more effective as now people believe it is worth stopping by and seeing what you have to offer.
Do all three and you have a powerful combination with PR the little piece of magic in the middle.
Greg Canty Fuzion Blog 