Posts Tagged ‘Fuzion’

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Flying solo or wearing the team shirt?

April 13, 2013

LinkedIn Posting

“I don’t want them as one of my contacts” he said “why should I?”

I was in the middle of a social media training session with the team from one of our clients and it looks like we stumbled upon an awkward moment!

During these sessions I carefully work with the full team and we determine carefully what the objectives are for their social media activity.

The team had agreed that “raising awareness” for what the organisation does was a big issue and they were going to use social media pro-actively as a vehicle to spread the word.

We were in the middle of a practical session on LinkedIn and we discovered that the person whose account we were using for demonstration purposes had a large number of ignored connection requests.

“But I don’t know them”  he said

“Here you have people wanting to connect with you and you are ignoring them” I explained ..”not only are you losing an opportunity to connect and spread the word but you are giving the organisation a bad reputation by ignoring people”

Hmm … The room was silent, he wasn’t budging!

“How about, accept the requests, thank them for connecting and ask them how their business is going ?” ….. “after all, it’s not a marriage proposal” – I was trying my best!

Nope … nothing doing.

I had done enough talking and cajoling for one session so I left it – at the end of the day it is up to each organisation to set a policy for their use of LinkedIn.

The thing with LinkedIn is that people don’t connect with Greg Canty , they connect with Greg Canty, Partner with Fuzion. You and your role in the organisation are locked together as part of your identity.

The team may argue that their LinkedIn presence is their personal space – while this is true they are also wearing the team shirt and should turn up and play for the team.

What do you think ?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in LinkedIn, PR, Web Marketing | 28 Comments »

Thank crunchy it’s Friday?

April 12, 2013

Friday feelingFriday afternoon and I was in the middle of a social media training session with the team from one of our clients operating in the professional services sector.

One of the directors was in the “hot seat” sitting at the controls of his LinkedIn account, which like most people with a profile he never uses.

He never posts, he never interacts but he does press the “accept” button with some of the connection requests he receives.

I encouraged him to post a status update ..”Go on, be yourself and post something“.

He surprised everyone by posting “Thank crunchy it’s Friday” ..

I asked the group what did they think ..two of his colleagues thought it wasn’t quite in keeping with their business and profession, another said he misspelt the word crunchy and some of the others thought it was a good thing to post..after all they explained it was Friday and that’s what most people at work would be feeling.

My own advice and my own experience would have me agreeing with the guys who felt “thank crunchy it’s Friday” was a good thing to post.

It’s really important that you are true to yourself, that you post something that connects with people, that you allow people to see the lighter side of your personality and that you don’t try to post something “heavy” on a Friday afternoon …the most important thing is that you make some noise and start posting on a regular basis so that you and your business will register on people’s radar.

Thank crunchy it’s Friday …what do you think?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer in-house social media training and consultancy services in Ireland 

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Posted in LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, Staff training, Web Marketing | 12 Comments »

Just a Worker?

April 9, 2013

Cog in a wheel

“Can we go for a coffee?”

Even though I was up the walls it was clear he wanted to have a chat about something, so off we went.

After some small talk he eventually blurts it out “I’ve accepted a job offer“.

“Ah for God’s sake ….you can’t be serious” …..”Why in the name of god would you want to leave?” – after that all the things said just rolled into one and we went back to work.

I can’t help it – I take this stuff personally. I put everything into work and what we are building and I do feel that everyone is part of a Fuzion family, so when this happens I feel cheated, betrayed ..the word “traitor” is the one that comes to mind first. That’s probably a bit harsh but there ya go!

Normally you are battling away together, fighting for business, winning business, dealing with challenges, dealing with disappointments – whatever it is you tackle it with a sense of togetherness. You get to know people, you get close to them, you understand them, the good, the bad and the ugly, a bond forms – you even get to know about their families. It’s your team and you pull together against whatever challenge presents itself.

This team thing is special, it’s the little piece of magic that is fabulous when it clicks into place – you feel when that happens. Everyone together is better than a bunch of separate individuals  – it’s what I work hard at creating and its what I enjoy building and being in the middle of.

For the next few weeks I felt awful working alongside someone who has chosen to be somewhere else – in effect they become just a worker and are no longer part of the team.

The month has passed, we gave him a good send off and we have started a new journey with a great guy who will hopefully be a valuable member of the Fuzion family.

The guys tell me I shouldn’t take the whole thing so personally, maybe they are right?

In truth for me if it wasn’t personal I would become just a worker.

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 Friendship, Motivation, Recruitment, Teamwork | 23 Comments »

Mark Geary, my Grandad and Ghosts

March 29, 2013

Mark Geary - Coughlans Bar

We found ourselves last night squeezed into the most intimate venue ever, Coughlan’s Bar on Douglas Street in Cork to see the fabulous Mark Geary.

This was my first time at Coughlan’s, which is a one of those fabulous old style pubs, a listed building, which has been in the Coughlan and Ellis family for over 200 years. The gig happens in a little room at the very back of the pub, which is no bigger than a large dining room.

Annette who manages the music at the venue maximises every inch of space so that as many people as possible can enjoy the gigs – we were lucky to get in and only for an intervention by Mark himself (yep, we’re one of those “fans” who he knows by name – so many great chats after gigs.. Mark is like that) we would have been home early.

Mark was brilliant as always with his mix of great songs, fabulous guitar work, the very talented backing singer Grainne Hunt, a terrific keyboard player, Mark Penny and of course flavoured with his quick wit and story telling…his “da” was from Charleville (where they eat their children, apparently!!).

Mark launched into song after song including a great track called “Ghosts” , the theme song from one of his superb albums …he spoke to us about his dad and I thought about my own family.

This would have been one of my granddads locals – Jack Burke lived literally 100 feet away from the pub, living at the bottom of High Street. He drank there and apparently my great grandmother had the odd tipple in the snug – women would not have gone into the main bar.

My granddad passed away 47 years ago just after I was born.

Coughlans Bar - Douglas StreetAs we left I looked around the pub at the old bar counter, the old seats, the old pictures on the wall and imagined all of the customers down through years who sat there, sipping on their whiskey and having the banter and I tried to picture Jack Burke sitting on his stool with a family anxiously waiting for him, wondering when he would be home.

..Ghosts

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Entertainment, Family, Hospitality, Music, Personal development | 2 Comments »

What a fantastic day

March 25, 2013
Jan and David Sands

David quite proud that Jan is actually eating his roast potatoes!

We had some special friends, David and Jan over from Aldershot in the UK this weekend.

Today we got up, walked the dog in the park, went to the shop, made breakfast and read the papers.

This evening (Sunday) the men, David and I (how’s that for correct English?), put on a roast – he never cooks!  He peeled the spuds, I prepared the veg and we put the meat in the oven.

Just before dinner we popped down to the local, The White Horse for a quick one (timed to precision – we knew what we were doing) …my folks joined us there.

We all came back, put on some music, tucked into some pate and bread, the roast (we actually managed to do a good job!) accompanied by wine and a fab dessert my mum had made, her rhubarb special pie.

We shared stories, chatted about a little bit of everything, toasted a few times, smiled, laughed and got to know each other a little better. Even the four legged one, Bing seemed to enjoy the chit chat and the leftovers (not too many!).

In many ways it is the simple things that are the best ..a perfect day?

Maybe it was a Fantastic Day (as Julie Feeney would say!).

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Family, Friendship, Personal development | 3 Comments »

Trust, the Restaurant and the customers who forgot to pay

March 20, 2013

Caravan Park

The couple arrived back at the Irish camp site and realised that they had left the restaurant without paying their bill.

They told the camp site manager who rang the restaurant and spoke to the manager of the restaurant – “no problem, thanks for ringing” …the couple could pop in the next day and settle up.

Twenty minutes later the restaurant owner (no stranger to dodging bills himself) arrived at the camp site accompanied by three Gardai looking for his money from the couple.

The whole incident was highly embarrassing for everyone … the couple handed over the money (I’m guessing they didn’t tip!).

The camp site manager never recommended that restaurant to his customers again, he still operates a good business and lives to tell this incredible little story and the restaurant has long shut down..mostly PR and your reputation is about what you do yourself.

Must be a lesson in all of that somewhere!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Customer Care, Holidays, PR | 1 Comment »

Chris, Seth, Mitch, Wisdom and the Power of Reply

March 17, 2013

Chris Brogan

It’s Sunday morning and I’m waiting for my weekly email from Chris Brogan, CEO of Human Business Works and co-author of the excellent books Trust Agents and Impact Equation about online and human behaviour.

Every Sunday he writes to me and shares some experience or learning, which is nearly always enriching and really valuable. He does this without fail and incredibly this costs me nothing. I really appreciate his generous spirit and openness and the fact that he does take time to write to me.

Of course he doesn’t write to just me – he has a huge “fan” (he’d never call us that but I’m going to use the word) base and we are all privileged to get his Sunday best!

The other amazing thing about Chris is that he has mastered the art of “reply”. If you send him a simple reply to his Sunday email telling you enjoyed it, he’ll actually come back to you and say thanks.

There is an actual person at the other end of that email who is quite happy to interact with you as well as just broadcast his message ..he’s genuinely interested in what I have to say.

I do appreciate that if he has to reply to thousands of emails he won’t have a life and we do need him to be bright and rested and able to send us those nuggets of wisdom – thanks Chris for your valuable time.

We’re really lucky to have so many really clever and quite brilliant people sharing their insights, experience and very often genius with us online.

I’m talking about bloggers who quite freely share their gems of wisdom on a regular basis with us including people like Chris, Seth Godin and Mitch Joel.

ReplyThe big difference with Chris is that he replies and interacts.

This in my view is the most powerful thing that he does and it’s this that sets him apart from the others..

Click here to sign up for his Sunday Service.

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 Blogging, Brand Loyalty, Marketing, Motivation, Positivity, Publishing | 10 Comments »

Jane Maas, Mass and the miracle of twitter!

March 10, 2013

Mad Women - Jane MaasThis woman was determined …is that any surprise to any of us?

Jane Maas, advertising legend from New York, author of Mad Women and the creator of the famous “I Love New York” campaign announced over dinner on Friday evening that on Sunday she wanted to go to mass and preferably one with a good choir!

We had spent a few days with this very special lady, who at the age of 82 would teach us all so much with her energy and determination.

She stole the show at the Network event in Cork for International Women’s Day enchanting the audience with her tales from an incredible career and how she sparkled in an industry, which was dominated by men.

It’s easy to see how she has had such a terrific career – every time myself and Deirdre had a work conversation while we were in her company she sprang into life with interest, words of wisdom and encouragement.

So …our dilemma – a church with a choir on Sunday in Cork?

I called my mother first and she wasn’t sure – the choir in her church weren’t up to much she reckoned!

I wasn’t feeling very optimistic but I decided to put the question out on twitter ..

To my huge surprise within minutes I found myself back and forth on twitter with Saint Fin Barres Cathedral – not only was there mass at 11:15 on Sunday but they sent me a link to their website with information about the choir!

There we were, on a wet and miserable Sunday morning with our special American friend being greeted warmly by the priest and we were treated with a really lovely service and a fabulous choir at Saint Fin Barres Cathedral ..how did I end up here – its a miracle !

Jane ..you are some woman

Twitter ..you are some resource

Saint Fin barres ..you are on the ball!!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion PR

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

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Posted in Marketing, Personal development, Positivity, Social Media, Twitter | 1 Comment »

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 »

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