Who would of guessed - MC Hammer a Social Media Strategist...? I had to admit that watching this clip made me giggle a bit, although he makes some serious points, I can't help but visualize baggy trousers and some dodgy 90s dance routine. However funny it may seem though, the guy deserves some credit in the Social Media world. He has over one and a half million people following him on Twitter which he updates regularly, he also runs an online community named Dancejam which has grown from strength to strength since the launch in March 2008 and has his own blog. In addition to this he has been a keynote speaker at various events including the Social Media Strategies Conference which took place in San Francisco earlier this month.
As he explains "Other than when it's time to rehearse and perform, there shouldn't be anytime when [young bands] are not involved in social media." And he has a point, any new artist or band trying to break through needs to be active online. In today's world the consumers rely on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and every other platform to not only listen to music but to actually express their appreciation for the artists. To ignore the opportunity to interact with the fan base is simply lazy, after all where would they be without their fans?!
Well this storm has been brewing over the past month or so when it was announced the BNP leader NIck Griffin was to appear on Question Time this evening. Well it's definitely reaching hurricane status with protesters arriving by the coach load.
My own recent fascination with Question Time has somewhat surprised me, especially with my very limited knowledge of politics, yet I find myself consciously clocking it's Thursday......slippery slope. It may be wrong, but I do find it particularly amusing when David Dimbleby reads out the website and email address as if it's some alien invention. When he then goes on to suggest following them on Twitter I must admit I do laugh out loud. He looked truly dumfounded. Had anyone explained twitter to him? Or even email?
Anyway, I will definitely be watching this evening and I am particularly looking forward to Jack Straw giving Mr.Griffin what he deserves. Myself a Burnley girl I am well aware of the party with them winning three seats in the area way back in 2002. I know Jack will have experienced the racial tension and society I grew up in being from neighbouring town Blackburn and know the arguments from every angle.
A few weeks ago I picked up on a quality little video from the very nice people at Defected Records. Now it's time to talk about its last 'Defected in the House' release of the year; Zuok Out - Singapore '10, mixed by djB and Simon Dunmore. Wow... does this remind me of good times in the early days. I think I might need to head to the 1210s tonight and work my way through my whole 1998-2003 collection of 'real' house records. This little gem of a 2CD part mix comp is released on 26th October 2009, but as with all digital downloads, can be pre-ordered by simply clicking the 'Buy' links below. Enjoy the samples [Feedback welcome as always].
Last week the full Rising Digital team met the Rising Music squad for the very first time. Fun was had, the Warehouse Project was amazing and as per usual these days, I was tucked up in bed by 4am, while the kids danced their way into the very early hours of the morning. Instead of talking about the music, I wanted to highlight two other topics which made our purpose and stay all the more fun.
The first was the City Inn Hotel, literally a stone's throw away from the venue. Easy parking round the corner - if you know Manchester ;) Nice friendly staff, a nice bar area etc etc... but Mac geeks, get ready for this. Each room comes with your very own iMac and FREE wireless internet. The bathroom was clean and simple, the bed was huge and the room service at 3am was delicious. And all for.... have a guess? £69/room. Bargain! If you are going to the WHP I think they even do an additional discount - but you may want to give them a buzz to confirm.
Second comes the Mino HD Flip. I've been working on artist tour blogs etc for some time now, but I think everybody has their own style. What they film, what gets said and obviously the key point - what gets edited! Now I'm no professional - with no actual training in filming, but I do love playing with the camera. So, we picked up the aforementioned camera last week on Amazon for £129. It weighs less than a small mobile phone, takes up to 60mins of footage and charging is done through a simple usb drive. The whole product just screams simplicity. People may bitch about the size of the screen, but it really didn't bother me, and again, if you're on Mac and use iMovie, there's no faffing about with file conversions - they just drop neatly in and you can edit to your hearts desire. So, like I said, I'm no pro, but this is what came out of last Friday - feedback welcome:
I love a well worded, entertaining, easy to identify with rant, which is exactly what Mark Sage provided me with.
B&Q - You broke my heart is a story that could be applied to many large stores across the UK with the cost-cutting, 'time saving' automated tills popping up in everyone's daily lives. They nearly pushed me to the brink in Asda and I daren't even ask my dear old grandma what she makes of these devices, the concept of mobile phones still defies belief. I'll pop this on the list of subjects to avoid discussing when visiting, along with the Japanese, Gordon Brown and the cost of goat's milk.
This all quite nicely leads me into a subject that has been shrouding my mind of late with both foreboding dread and ridicule. After watching Eagle Eye on Sunday night (the computer's will take over the world theme) alongside I, Robot, The Terminator and other such films, I flippantly voiced, if I were a computer, how I would defeat the human race.
Based upon apps and sat navs and all these technological devices to make everyday easy - when it comes to the next generation (of humans) will they have basic map reading skills, or come to think about it even a map? In these blockbuster films the story has to include, to truly send the world into kaos, is the taking down of the mobile phone network. Well that's my Grandma as the next heroine then, she will teach the world to once again survive without it. In fact, break open the Shreddies factory and those computers will be quaking in their boots.
Wait a minute, I did have a point. So you dump humans in the middle of nowhere, no food, no water (no maps!) and they merely perish. Job done.
Hang on, is that a mobile phone I hear ringing? Ah yes, it's Hollywood. How can they get in touch with Shreddies? They don't seem to have an email address or phone........
Bonjour! I
have just returned from ‘Gay Paris’ what an amazingly beautiful city, it's safe to say all true
tourist duties were completed! However, it wouldn’t have been a ‘real’ trip
without hitting a club now would it? So, not only was I in Paris but I had also
managed to grab some tickets to see Cobblestone jazz at Un Reve (roughly
translated ‘a dream’), at the renowned Rex Club.
The night
warmed up with some long awaited French housethanks to Mike Shannon and despite having only slept for 2 hours, having
bags under my eyes that Touche éclat couldn’t fix and being slightly dazed from
drinking beer in the sun all afternoon, I instantly felt vivacious, something
told me it was going to be a good night.
After a few
drinks and attempting to speak French to the locals I took pride of place right
at the front of the crowd awaiting a performance from the almighty legends that
are;Mathew Jonson,Tyger Dhule & Danuel Tate. After dropping some new tunes they
threw in one or two oldies for good measure, it was when they played ‘Dump
Truck’ that I’m pretty sure the club came to a holt in amazement. I too found
myself at a standstill as I watched the improvising pianist with my mouth wide
open. The realisation of how talented these guys were started to sink further
and further in when they, mid-set looked as if they could have been taking a
walk through a park, effortlessly brilliant - is there anything more annoying?
There was
no denying that thejaw droppingly good trioabsolutely destroyed it, Rex went
off, there were overpriced drinks spilling everywhere! It was completely
different to any set I have ever witnessed, looped riffs and irregular chords thrown
together with techno beats was a perfectly synchronised recipe that completely
took my breath away. In one word...Genius!
The
night/morning was rounded up by French DJ Yakine with some more, good solid techno
followed by a spot more house, the perfect end to a perfect evening. There was
one more thing left to do before returning to the hotel...breakfast at a French
bakery, oui s'il vous plait!
There is just one burning
question on my mind... where on earth can I find other Cobblestone Jazz - esque acts or
are they one of a kind? Answers on the back of a postcard please! :)
Missed the gig? Check out their awesome set here!!
"US regulators will for the first time crack down on bloggers who fail to disclose fees or freebies they get from companies for reviewing products.
The Federal Trade Commission, FTC, decided to update its nearly 30 year old guidelines to clarify the law for the vast world of blogging."
Apparently offenders could"face fines of up to $11,000 (£6,900) per violation"- ouch! Read the piece, it's all pretty straight forward, but I just love how once again transparency and honesty in this area of comms shines through as the clear way to operate. Bloggers... don't take bribes, they under-value the words you write... and if you do get some great products, just tell it how it is!
This Windows Vista case study is one of my absolute favourites; check out the updates at the end of the post, to see how in real time this blogger reacted to being sent such a high value product.
Laughing Squid wrote: "As I mentioned in myoriginal post on the laptop, the only communication I received about this was an email from Edelman (I have never been contacted by Microsoft regarding this laptop). The email stated that Microsoft was sending me a “present” with “no strings attached” (those were the exact words used in the email). They did not include any instructions at all regarding what to do with the laptop. Also, I did not receive the same email as the other bloggers, including the follow-up email that was sent by Microsoft toMarshall Kirkpatrickasking him to return or give away the laptop. I have asked Edelman for an explanation regarding this inconstancy, but have not yet received one. So just to be clear, I was never sent any kind of instructions on what to do with the laptop and I did not sign anything, including an NDA."
Again... ouch...! And talk about screwing up what could have been such a cool way to communicate to technology bloggers.
"Any digital PRs have a comment on last week's analysis in PRWeek? http://bit.ly/2Ul7if Get in touch asap if you do"
I quickly responded with "Totally agree with Dominic. The UK is miles behind the US in this area of mkt & for some reason people don't want to 'get it'", but knew full well 140 characters wouldn't be enough for this one. A few things just niggled in my mind all afternoon, and now with most of today's to-do list firmly nailed, it's time to get a big mug of tea and have a little crack at this.
Really? Can you imagine an IT trained professional spending his/her day working on social media accounts.... I don't want to take anything away from what we do, but come on... they'd be bored out of their minds! Second up... why are PR people's technical skills usually low? And when we're talking about technical skills... what does that even mean? I'd say the best way to crack all this is to have the comms and marketing teams working with the web-developers. Give each other clear briefs, be to the point, honest and opened minded about internal teams collaborating.
In my humble opinion the days of the IT people being stuck in the basement and only allowed out at Christmas are well and truly over - are any of my PR mates driving flash cars and taking their ladies to Paris for romantic weekends... ur.... no.... but ask me about my mates working in the world of web-technology... TVRs, last minute flights to Vegas... just for the "hell of it"... the times have changed that's for sure!
But anyway, really I just wanted to give anther case study example in line with another two snippets taken from this piece:
During the summer I spent a few hours talking to friends about the genuine use of social media in most industries, not just the world of music. Fashion came up. One of my friends works at a fashion house in the smoke and proceeded to tell me a genius story that had me in stitches. OK, so the senior whatever of this place had instructed an intern... that's right... not even someone on the payroll, to communicate on behalf of the company to the entire twittersphere.... does that make you just think.... you daft muppet? As you can imagine it didn't end well... after three or so hours, the spritely less-than-junior work experience girl had entered into some sort of "yeh whatever" cat-fight with one of the industries top online journalists... end of... lesson learned I reckon.
So what's the future? If you're in the corporate world, get yourself a couple of hours with someone who actually knows what they're on about. It's all about the theory, if you can crack that, you're more than half way there.
This summer has seen the Swedish trio take on Ibiza in a whole new light. As individuals, as a two and a one or all together, their sets have been filling tents and arenas like you wouldn't believe. They've created a brand and in doing so, built a true foundation on which to grow. Like all of the big hitters, they have their critics, but the beauty of these three lads is they just don't care. As well as their weekly Dark Forest show at Pacha, the summer has seen them play countries from the Middle East to the Americas and back again, take front cover of DJ Mag and with the help of friend and film producer Christian, introduce a series of online videos that have captured the attention of dance music fans across the globe. I know this may sound like the biggest pitch in the world, but just this once I'm leaving sarcasm at the door, and just telling it how it is. Well done to the lads and the rest of the team, it's been a pleasure working with you lot on this. "The Swedish House Mafia would like to thank everyone across the world who shared the summer of 2009 with us. We had a blast!" /Axwell, Seb, Steve
Client Steve Angello has mixed this year's Subliminal 'Sessions Winter 2009'. What looks set to be an absolute blinder! Have a listen below, and if you're a totally crazed fan, then you can even grab the code for your online spaces - just click here for more info.
Rising Digital Ltd is a social media and word of mouth marketing consultancy. Our mission is to help and support artists, both emerging and discovered to capitalise on the use of new technologies.
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