Posts Tagged ‘Greg Canty’

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Barack Obama and his lesson in Social Media

August 11, 2013

Barack Obama and Michelle

I probably show too many slides when I give my social media courses.

I always try to communicate my points with visuals using as few words as possible. At all times I will try to avoid slides with lots of text – I get bored with them so I’m sure anyone reading will do likewise.

My usual courses run over either two or three sessions and I normally try to leave it at least a week between sessions so that students and clients can practice in between sessions and get the most from the training programme.

The big challenge is when I am asked to cut the course into one session – this is really tricky as I have to do a huge “cull” of my material to come in at the required time and still cover the ground sufficiently.

I hate losing slides as all the material is designed to make a specific point, so inevitably valuable material gets lost.

There is one slide above all in my presentations that is precious and if I had a situation whereby I had the time to show only one this would be it.

I love this particular image because for me it sums up the magic of social media and teaches a huge lesson in how to use it.

I was asked to make a presentation to Dublin Chamber about the use of Twitter for business and it happened to coincide with the results of the last US election. Due to other commitments the night before I had to travel from Cork early in the morning to get to Dublin for the 7:30am presentation.

Like the rest of world I was intrigued about the result so the first thing I did when I woke was to check twitter on my smart phone and this is the tweet I saw.

This Barack Obama tweet was the most retweeted of all time – even at 4:19 am our time, it had been retweeted 475,000 times.

Why do you think I love using this tweet so much?

  1. It demonstrates how Twitter is now the first port of call for breaking news
  2. It demonstrates the shift from Facebook to Twitter – During his first Presidential campaign he was not using Twitter, it was all about Facebook.
  3. This medium was how he chose to communicate to the outside world that he had accepted he had won the presidential race
  4. The message is really simple and concise (often the best way to use social media)
  5. The picture he chose to accompany the tweet demonstrates the biggest social media tip of all, much better than I could ever explain it

The Picture!

Four More Years

Why is this picture so powerful?

Cleverly he didn’t show a picture of himself in a suit with all of his team – he chose a picture of himself, eyes closed, without a jacket, with his sleeves rolled up hugging his wife in a loving embrace.

The President knows instinctively that showing himself as human, as a family man, even slightly vulnerable is the way to connect with the majority of people and this is a winning formula.

A great way to win on social media is by allowing yourself to be human, personal and even vulnerable at times.

People are intrigued by people and even if you are running the most boring business in the world you can bring it alive on-line by interacting and showing people who you are, what you are all about and giving them a chance to get to know you.

Social media provides you with that opportunity – grab it!

Greg Canty is a parter of Fuzion

Fuzion provide Social Media Consultancy and Training in Ireland from offices in Cork and Dublin 

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Posted in Social Media, Training, Twitter | 5 Comments »

The Single Biggest PR Tip – Never Waste a Good Story

August 7, 2013

Great Story

From all of the work we do with clients and our collective experience and expertise we can offer you one simple piece of advice about PR, one Golden Nugget that you need never look past..

“Never waste a Good Story”

This is a really simple guiding principle to apply, no books or no huge science required, just a straight forward case of Never Waste a Good Story.

Bring PR onto your business agenda, into your plans and objectives, into your management meetings – Ask the question “Do you have any good stories that should not be wasted?”

Once you realise you have a good story and you’ve decided you don’t want to waste it, that’s where the process, the science and the fun starts..

Get that story out there!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion 

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

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Posted in PR | Leave a Comment »

Go on – Personalise

August 5, 2013

I Love GregHi there!

Wouldn’t it be a lot better if “Hi Greg” had appeared on the email instead of the words “Hi there”?

Dear Customer,

Wouldn’t it be a lot better if “Dear Greg” appeared on the invitation to attend the launch event instead of “Dear Customer”?

The Manager

Wouldn’t it be a lot better if “Greg Canty” had appeared on the envelope and letter that accompanied the brochure instead of “The Manager”?

Price List

Wouldn’t it be a lot better if  “Fuzion price list” had appeared on the quote instead of a generic price list?

Reserved

Wouldn’t it be a lot better to see “Reserved for Fuzion” on the restaurant table instead of a plain “reserved” sign.

It does take time to customise and personalise, it does take a little extra effort but your communication will resonate so much more when you can avoid being generic. (Personalising has never been so easy with the tools that are now available).

Often being generic can even have a negative effect and can have your customer feeling very “not so special“.

  1. If you can’t personalise think twice about communicating
  2. If you can personalise get it right – double check the spelling of people and company names
  3. Where personalising isn’t expected …personalise!

I received a CD in the post from an Amazon affiliate supplier and the docket had “thanks Greg” marked across it in marker – Wow!

Sometimes it’s really easy to stand out by doing just a little thing.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Customer Care, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Retailing, Staff training | 7 Comments »

Is your credit controller losing you business?

July 29, 2013

Dirty Harry

Collecting money from customers must be one of the toughest and most awful jobs that you have to do in business.

I remember when I was in the drinks industry years ago we had a full time credit controller and I really believe that the nature of her role made her age really quickly. She was the one who had to stop deliveries to slow paying accounts (often this meant a battle with the sales reps and the sales manager) and she had to deal with irate customers.

The poor woman was sick quite a lot and I really put this down to the stressful role she had.

In particular in a small business it can be even more difficult when often the person who does the selling is the same person that does the collecting.

We received an email last week from a supplier who was looking for payment. Payment ran a few days over the standard terms because I was on leave and hadn’t left enough signed cheques. This was no bother and we sorted a cheque out immediately, a few days later than usual.

What really bothered me was the nature of the email, the tone, the lack of manners and a total lack of respect for us – after all we are a customer and to be honest a good one who gives them plenty of business and we do adhere to the payment terms.

My gut reaction was to change suppliers, which I did not do. However, a phone call from a similar supplier pitching their wares at the right moment and I would be listening actively.

I Love Credit ControlThis email was a real pity because the supplier is generally great to deal with. My crew are forever praising them and I know would kill me if I dropped them to use someone else.

I sent the credit controller an email and politely took issue with her manner and explained how it does jeopardise the business that they are doing with us and probably other customers of theirs.

I was speaking to another business owner who explained to me that they have an automated “email writing” system to deal with their credit control. He says often people get irate about the emails they receive because the language used is very blunt and to the point.

I received an automated letter from my bank recently more or less telling me to get my accounts in order as a dormant current account had run €2.50 overdrawn as a result of bank charges ..lovely!

How you collect money is an essential  part of your business reputation and while you have to get paid for the work you do it is important that you do this with courtesy and manners, never undermining your good reputation and all of your hard work.

You don’t need to give any customer an excuse to consider moving to a competitor.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Credit Control, Customer Care, PR | 16 Comments »

Looking after your own house ..

July 24, 2013

Dream House

Are you like us with the best of intentions not getting to things you had promised you would do?

One of the things I promised we would do this year was to make sure that we did not neglect our “own house“.

It’s obviously really important that all of our client work comes first but it’s also vital that we don’t neglect Fuzion. Every day we work with our clients following carefully written plans so that they can promote their business through PR, Social Media, Advertising, E-newsletters, through their website, by blogging and with their printed materials.

We stress the importance of “looking the part” ensuring that their branding is consistent, properly reflecting the quality of their business across printed and on-line platforms.

We’ve all heard the expression “the mechanics car” and I’m afraid that we are guilty of this. We are not the worst but there are things that we have been meaning to do for “our house” for quite a while but we always seem to struggle to get to them.

The guys in the design team are doing fabulous work for clients and I’ve been at them to showcase this properly on our website, through communications like this one and even within our own office. We have done some great work that we have been meaning to display on the walls of the office for the last six months. I’m waiting!

I’ve been at the PR team to start blogging more and demonstrate the expertise that we possess in-house. I’ve been at the guys to be more proactive on social media. We’ve had some huge client successes this year that we probably should have publicised. I’ve had the job of making sure we issue our e-newsletter (this one!) regularly – it’s not happening!

When you are busy it’s always the same – it’s easy to push your own work down to the bottom of the queue because there is always something to do for a client, which after all does pay the bills.

If Fuzion were our client, I’d have a strong word with them ..

Are you looking after your own house?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Blogging, Business Planning, Customer Care, Marketing, Motivation | 6 Comments »

€20 and the “too good to be true” Dream Client!

July 21, 2013

Too Good to be True

Is it ok if I show this man around your office?” Frank our landlord asked (by the way he hates if we call him that – he prefers to say we are his customer and to be fair that is always how he treats with us).

“No bother at all Frank” – he wanted to see how we had laid out the office space, which had the same footprint as the vacant unit two floors down.

Frank introduced me to this English gentleman, Mr Cooper who was starting an airline, which was to operate from Cork ..interesting!

He would be needing Marketing and PR support and he also would need the services from our graphic design team. We had a quick chat but I had another appointment to get to – he wanted to tie things down quickly so he asked us to meet with him the next day for a full briefing.

This could be a very exciting project to work on.

Just before I ran out the door I did a Google search on this guy to see if there was some evidence of his existence online ..nothing!

On the way to my meeting I rang Frank to make sure I caught the man’s name correctly – I had.

“What do you make of our English gentleman?” Frank asked. He explained to me that he also popped into the accountants on the floor below us who were also going to do work for him. The following day they were to introduce him to one of the banks.

“Frank, is he too good to be be true?”

saab airline

We both agreed that maybe it was wrong to be cynical and there was a chance that this well dressed, well spoken Englishman was the real deal after all.

He arrived the following day, a little later than organised but even more well dressed than the previous day. He apologised for being late – there were some technical financial details he was ironing out with the accountant about licences.

He took me through his project in detail – he was really looking for a marketing partner for this venture. He told us that he really liked and trusted us. He spoke to our really talented head designer, Jonathan about his brand and what he had in mind – we all agreed that while he was on a deadline, the work should be done properly.

Maybe this guy was a dream client after all?

After many years in business and knowing how hard you must work to win a new account, this guy had me suspicious. I was “on guard” for a sign, any sign that this was not going to work out.

He started telling me about the lonely childhood he had and now he was alone and did not have any attachments.. for reasons that we would understand. Hmm..where was this conversation going?

He had a request – he wanted to give us a shareholding in the business!

He wanted to embrace the true spirit of partnership – if this happened everyone would work together. He explained he would make the same offer to everyone that was involved in his project. He was doing this as he had no family and he wanted the business to have a “safe” home if anything happened to him.

While this was an outlandish tale maybe it was true? The alarm bell was ringing in my head at this stage but I was feeling a little sorry for this lonely businessman.

I politely told him that people might think he was “nuts” if he were to have that shareholding conversation with them – I advised him to keep that idea to himself and if he wanted to do something like this down the line, then maybe.

He had another request – until he had office space sorted out could he work from our offices?

He had noticed on the day that there were desks with no one working at them. A louder alarm bell started to ring!

That wouldn’t be practical I explained but maybe he should have a word with Frank who might let him use some of the available space in the building until he had a formal arrangement made.

He told me he understood ..

We had arranged to meet the next day when he wanted to introduce us to some of his team who he had already recruited..that sounds ok I reckoned.

Just as he left the office he patted his pockets ..”Damn, I’m a bit short and the bank is closed. Could I borrow €20?” Even though the alarm bell was shaking the whole building at this stage I found myself handing this guy who we hardly knew €20.

On the way home I bumped into Frank as we left the building.

“Well, what do you make of our friend?” I asked. He had told Frank that he was very impressed with Fuzion and the accountant and he just needed to finalise everything and get cracking. I told him the story (with a red face) about the €20 knowing already how the whole story was going to unfold.

What’s worse I told Dee the story about the €20 – “You big fool” ..she told me.

If this was going to end up going nowhere I’d prefer to kill it quickly. Before he was to arrive I would prepare a budget and insist on a % payment upfront before we committed any resources to the job – if he was not the real deal then this would flush him out.

20 minutes after he was scheduled to arrive I called him ..nothing.

Another 10 minutes ..nothing.

A few minutes later I received a text from him saying that Fuzion and the people in Cork were the most unprofessional and backward that he had ever come across and he was going to set up in Belfast instead.

Needless to say I haven’t heard anything about the airline but I do wonder about the “dream client, Mr Cooper” who got away.

When it seems too good to be true it probably is ..the tale alone was worth the €20.

Mr Cooper …good luck with your venture!

Greg Canty is a partner Fuzion

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

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Posted in Business Start Ups, Entertainment | 8 Comments »

Celebrity Twitter Etiquette/Power

July 14, 2013

Lucinda Creighton

@LCreighton “well done for standing by your principles – we need more of that and not less in govt. You will be back” 

I don’t know Lucinda Creighton, I don’t have full knowledge of her arguments but I do admire that she stood by her principles on an important, high profile piece of legislation. She didn’t fall in with her political party on a crucial vote and as a result she had to resign.

I sent the above tweet (you can do this once you have her twitter ID, which is easily found by doing a simple search on twitter) just to acknowledge the stand she took – I gave her a public compliment.

A tweet goes a long way ….. or in some cases just an acknowledgement goes an even longer way.

With twitter, when it comes to individual users I guess there are two broadly different types of users:

  • Celebrities and personalties (I would include some politicians in this category) who naturally attract a larger following than they would follow themselves
  • You and me!

You and me are the mere mortals who pick away, follow people and organisations we are interested in and if we want to build a following we need to publish interesting content, we need to be polite, engage in twitter conversations and generally apply a degree of etiquette with our activity.

This might include acknowledging people who have followed you, following people back, thanking people for positive posts and replying to people who have mentioned you in a post.

As part of your “nice guy/gal” routine you might retweet worthy posts and when someone retweets something for you then you thank them.

The actions here tend to be quite reciprocal – if you are good to someone then you tend to get the favour returned (there are always exceptions!)

Celebrity Factor

Stephen FryWhen there is some “celebrity” factor with a twitter user these normal rules do not apply.

This kicks in when this person is popular because of the role they hold (singer, actor, sportsperson, media person or even a politician) – more people will naturally follow them by nature of their “celebrity” factor and as a result popularity (size of following) does not depend on them behaving in the reciprocal way that applies to the rest of us.

A celebrity (using our broad definition) can effectively build a large follower base on twitter without following, interacting or acknowledging anyone.

However there are clever celebrities online (I’m suspecting this reflects their personality) who really get it.

They understand the huge power that they have at their disposal and they know how to utilise it – the good ones will do this naturally with no agenda and as a result they will excel and achieve something most of  the other “celebrities” will waste and over the long run actually do themselves possible reputational damage.

If a celebrity has a huge number of followers who are posting incessantly it is very difficult for them to engage but with smaller numbers of followers they can accelerate their popularity and like-ability by doing a few simple things:

  • Reply to positive posts – “thank you for the kind words” or even “thank you for all the kind words of support I received tonight” . The acknowledgment can be done directly to the individual (this is the best) or a general one – “Guess who came back to me on my post?” you can imagine the person saying to pals when their favourite celebrity replied to them
  • Favourite positive posts – simply click that “favourite” button to acknowledge that the post meant a lot
  • Retweet the positive post – hit that RT button and in a sweep highlight the positive post and deliver a huge acknowledgement to the person who posted it
  • Follow the person –  this is the ultimate compliment to the person who posted positive things
  • Surprise tweet – keep an eye on favourable tweets about you (just do a simple search on your name) and if you have the time thank them or make some comment – this tip is compliments of my son who says it works great with some of the bands he works with

By doing a few simple things the “celebrity” could accelerate their popularity and positive reputation and very easily win a loyal fan for life (most will not do this, which presents an even bigger opportunity for those who do)

Rachel AllenI have noticed online that a few celebrities in particular are quite good.

Rachel Allen @rachelallen1 has been good to come back on a compliment. Brian Kennedy @kennedysinger came back on a positive post after a gig as well as Mundy @mundyirl, Mark Geary @MG212 (better on Facebook) and Richie Egan (Jape)  @richiejape.

All of these by being respectful and clever are high in my estimation.

I have noticed a few that have been quite poor including the fabulous musician Gemma Hayes @gemma_hayes and the Newstalk breakfast team Chris Donoghue @chrisdonoghue and Norah Casey @norahcasey (this is strange as they always make a big deal of their twitter presence).

I listen to their show every morning and instead of giving themselves the opportunity of building their brand loyalty they are undermining it by ignoring listeners who tweet them. I’m sure if they realised the negative effect and the opportunity missed by not being more proactive they would be more responsive.

Lucinda Creighton had a busy day today and we can excuse her but she does have the power to considerably enhance her reputation by replying to the many people who said positive things about her and those who wished her well.

Celebrities …it’s up to you!

You and me….we have no excuse – we have to do the hard work.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Irish Politics, Marketing, Personal development, Politics, PR, Social Media, Twitter | 4 Comments »

The Palio and the Magic of being part of Something

July 7, 2013

Siena

About six years ago we wandered into the city of Siena in Tuscany while on holiday. To be honest we had no idea what to expect as we entered this gorgeous city with narrow cobble stone streets and old buildings with history in every brick and wooden door.

We noticed that many of the people wandering around the town were wearing scarves and it took a while to realise it was to do with a famous horse race and not a soccer match!

Palio march

Sitting in a cafe on one of these narrow streets doing our share of people watching and soaking up the atmosphere we started to hear some drumming and a crowd chanting …. this chant got louder and louder and a pattern emerged. You could hear males chanting this song, then women, then children and then everyone together and the magical sequence started again.

Louder and louder the chanting seemed to get closer to where we were sitting – eventually the group were led by some flag wavers and a horse with a trainer, followed by hundreds of men, then children and then women all continuously chanting.

The hairs stood up on the back of my neck and this was the moment I fell in love with Siena and the Palio.

Il Palio

Palio Race

The Palio di Siena (known locally simply as Il Palio) is a horse race that is held twice each year, on July 2 and August 16, in Siena, Italy. Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the incredible colours, represent ten of the seventeen contrade, or city districts.

The race itself (after hours of pomp and ceremony, believe me!), in which the jockeys ride bareback, circles the Piazza del Campo, on which a thick layer of dirt has been laid, three times and usually lasts no more than 90 seconds. The race is frantic with jostling between jockeys who are often thrown off their horses while making the treacherous turns in the piazza. The winner is greeted by incredible celebrations from the supporters from that contrade.

This year was the forth time we have come to Siena for both the beautiful place (the city is beautiful and it is located in the middle of Tuscany and the Chianti wine growing region) and the festival and I wonder why do we keep coming back when there are so many other fabulous places to be discovered?

Palio March

Is it the pomp and the ceremony, is it the beautiful city or is it the excitement of the race?

This year I think I finally figured it out … All of the things that I have mentioned make Siena and the Palio very special and if you look at the pictures or the clips on YouTube you will get a sense of it.

What you won’t see online is the incredible sense of togetherness, community and belonging of the people that you will only witness when you experience the event for yourself.

They say in Siena you are baptised twice – once in Siena and then in your Contrade, which is your part of town. This is the part that means everything to you.

Palio meal

During the Palio practically every man, woman and child from each place comes out, participates in the blessing of the horse, the marching and the chanting. And every night (there are a few rehearsal days in advance of the “big” race) the groups get together in their part of town for a feast – you will see thousands of people all gathered, sharing food and drink proudly celebrating their colours and where they are from.

In most other countries the event would be commercialised and sponsored – in Siena it has and will always be untainted.

On the night of the Palio this year after the race was over we found ourselves walking in the middle of the crowd from a particular contrade who happened to be heading in the same direction – we listened to the chanting and we watched as people waved from the windows, even a nun was hanging out her window frantically waving her flag and cheering!

The hairs stood up on the back of my neck once again – I love Siena because for a moment you feel the power of community, you see people who are proud to march and show their colours, you feel part of something and sense the power of being together.

Do we have to go to Siena to feel like that?

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Entertainment, Family, Friendship, Holidays, Tourism | 4 Comments »

Stand for something

June 25, 2013

Ethics

What a day ….I had popped in just to get a few last bits out of the way before we went on leave and I received a text. I knew something was up.

“I need to have a quick chat with you“. Our new guy who had only joined us (3 weeks!) was insistent it had to be today ..

We had the chat, which was fairly disappointing on a number of fronts but what can you do. He had decided to accept a job offer with a competitor who as it turned out had been talking to him for quite some time.

Apparently they had made an offer around the same time that we had.

I thought we deserved a lot more than what was being dished out from both parties. I stupidly expected a little more from either.

Why accept a job and not stick to your decision?  Why go along with this charade, meeting our clients while all the time talking to a competitor.

Why not accept someone’s decision instead of pursuing them over and over?

This is the probably the chat that happened after ..

PK: “Well …Did you break the news?”

CC: “I did yeah, didn’t go down too well”

PK: “So, when are you finishing up?”

CC: “Pretty much straight away”

PK: “Great”

How about ..

When you start something stick with it.

When someone says they have started somewhere else leave them to it.

Pretty poor ethics boys – what do you stand for?

Anything?

At the end of it all we have to stand for something …

#WinHappy

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Friendship, Personal development, Recruitment | 4 Comments »

Can Win Happy work?

June 23, 2013

Fuzion team

It was a gorgeous summer Saturday in Cork and I was strolling around the city with Dee and my two kids.

Everyone was in great form and I knew I should have been but I was miserable and my head was bursting – work was killing me. I had been caught in the middle of a corporate crossfire for over two years between the joint owners and unfortunately this was a no win situation for me.

I was the General Manager and I could have had an easy life if I toed the line, kept my head down, settled for the status quo, played the politics and enjoyed the benefits. This wasn’t me ….I was miserable!

On that Saturday afternoon, 10 years ago I decided I was handing in my notice (handing back my new Saab and turning my back on a hefty salary) and it was the day Win Happy was born.

Win Happy

Fuzion teamThis has been my goal ever since – never again did I want to spend a minute feeling miserable about my work.

It is really important to me that happiness is at the heart of what I do every single day.

Happiness for me is working in a place that I love, doing work that I enjoy, with great people and for clients that I respect.

Utopia?

I guess in a way it is Utopian but why not have that as a goal?

I will be the first to admit that it isn’t always that way but mostly we get pretty close.

Happy..

I do love what I do (except for some horrible admin work every now and then), we work for who we want (we don’t answer to any head office or anything like that, we can accept or even reject work if we choose) and we have carefully chosen a group of really good people to work with.

Every Friday we break bread together as part of a sacred lunch routine we have, which we call Fuzion Friday.

I believe that if you get all of that right you end up with an atmosphere that creates the perfect conditions for great work ..for winning.

Win?

Kerrie & DeeHappy is the first part of my philosophy. I am very driven and while I am not motivated by money I do want to be successful in our profession and this is where the satisfaction from Winning comes into it.

We work extremely hard and we keep ourselves up to date with trends and developments. We carefully choose talented people for our team and we make sure they understand the Fuzion way.

Together we work hard to get results for our clients even if this means us doing more than we are contracted for.

If a talented team, in a happy environment, work hard for clients then you should get lots of wins. Winning leads to more business – simple!

This philosophy has stood us well since the business started and in the 10 years that I have been with Fuzion we have continued to grow our business and our team, mostly with a smile.

#WinHappy

Can it work? – Tell me what you think?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Motivation, Personal development, Positivity, Self Help, Teamwork | 7 Comments »

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