Each year I speak to thousands of people around the world and at every event I meet very interesting and passionate people. Social media also offers me the opportunity to remain in contact with many of these people and to meet more like-minded people who are passionate about proactively shaping the New World of Work. Their ideas and the conversations we have shaped my views and generate new creative ideas. I feel very honoured to do what I do. Social media allows me to connect with some truly passionate, dedicated and driven people. My take on social media and the people who contribute to the conversations is one of immense generosity. The greatest benefit that I receive from blogging and my social networks like Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook is the invaluable musings, thoughts and ideas that people share. The world is a richer place.

As a small gesture of appreciation to the those who are shaping this new world of work and sharing my journey I am profiling some of the passionate people transforming the status quo in business.

Today’s profile is of Colm Hannon. Colm plays semi pro rugby for Esher in the English Championship and is also the MD of eSocialMedia. TomorrowToday is partnering with Colm to run Think Tanks on subjects shaping and transforming businesses today. For this reason I’m thrilled to be profiling Colm.

Why is Colm Hannon so passionate about Social Media and what motivates you?


Adversity motivates me. In a weird way I am most motivated when challenged. I am motivated by achieving success but for me success is not measured in pound signs alone. I like giving people jobs that they love to do and are passionate about, I like building teams of people that run and complete large and difficult projects. I am motivates by solving problems for businesses. I like beating the competition. I once had a competitor tell me to my face when I was 22 that I was too inexperienced to compete in his market. I was so motivated by that statement that 12 months later I had won 65% of his customers and won his distribution contract.

I am motivated by being a key part of a team and helping everyone in that team, celebrating in their successes and it is important to me to be one of the good guys. I guess I also love the thrill of the chase and I do love winning new business or signing new partnerships.

What is important to you in life?

There are three parts to my life, personal (family and friends), business, and rugby. I love being surrounded by people and buzz and activity in all three parts of my life. I like being at the kitchen table at my parents farm in Galway surrounded by my big, crazy and extended Irish family telling stories and taking the mickey out of each other but you also know that we are all there for each other when things go wrong and they invariably do in life.

Similarly I am part of a pretty special group at eSocialMedia we have people from all walks of life with completely different skill sets and backgrounds but united in our goals and motivation and we all enjoy having a laugh and building friendships with clients that we like, trust and respect professionally.

In rugby one of my favourite memories was playing rugby at London Welsh in the Championship under our then coach; ex Wales Captain Adrian Davies. We had lost 11 games in a row coming up to Christmas and relegation and redundancies for support staff loomed ominously. Many of the games we lost by small margins. It was interesting watching some guys crack under the pressure of failure and one or two started to blame and lose their composure. Those guys didn’t last in the team for long. The majority of us worked hard, stayed positive, pulled together and managed to win 10 games in a row to avoid relegation and stay up in the Championship and save a number of people’s jobs at the club. It was an amazing experience and it taught me that staying positive, keeping your integrity and working hard and smart is critical when things go wrong.

Why are you so passionate about “Social Media”?

Four years ago I was providing Facebook solutions to FTSE 250 companies to help with their hiring. At that time many senior executives were telling me, ‘this will never take off, social media is a fad, it’s just for students and people they will never engage with companies in their social space…’

I think the fact that many of these senior execs didn’t believe at the time that it would help them or that it would ever take off, combined with the fact that I so passionately believed that it would be such a significant channel was key to me starting eSocialMedia.

We recognize that social media represents the latest method of online communication. Better communication invariably leads to better business results. If a company can communicate better with their target audience, be that staff, clients, partners, suppliers etc then their business improves.

I believe in this and I see it working for our clients and see online communications based on real relationships as the next transition for businesses. Helping companies to understand and implement this change in communication behavior is going to be a challenge but I can see a point in the next two years where most employees will connect and communicate as easily through social media as they do through email or the telephone. If you can get them to do that in line with a clear business and social media strategy then the potential of what is possible for businesses is mind blowing.

What are 5 traits those that know you would use to describe you?

• Hard working
• Integrity
• Knowledgeable – in my sector and open to sharing my with my social and professional network
• Passionate
• Entrepreneurial

What traits do you most admire in other?

• Loyalty
• Honesty and Reliability
• Hard Working
• Mental Toughness
• Sense of Humour
• Niche Expertise
• Vocational people do amaze me and I admire them greatly, like nurses, care workers, teachers, charity workers etc

Thanks Colm, it’s great to have a deeper insight into why you are passionate about transforming the lives of people and businesses around you.

TomorrowToday Global