To Join or Not to Join the World of Social Media?

Now I bet there are a lot of people out there who have made a minor attempt at setting up a Twitter account, a blog (ahem), a LinkedIn profile and then have left it sitting there doing nothing, being of no use to anyone.

I talk from experience my fellow reader.  I too am guilty one too many times of seeing something that looks interesting, making an attempt to get started and then forgetting to maintain it.  If it's something you haven't done before then lack of knowledge and the initial lack of a community or following may discourage you from continuing to use social media.  However, I urge you to stick with it!

I recently wrote a blog for work discussing why it's a good idea to set up a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account for networking and job hunting purposes.  Even if you're not an active job hunter, it still enables you to join a network where you will know the latest information about your industry.  Head hunters are very open to sharing this information with those they engage with, so don't be afraid to connect with them.

Within the aforementioned blog, you'll see I've provided you with a few tips for getting up and running on LinkedIn which I hope you'll find useful.

Another link you may find interesting is the following regarding Intel's social media recruitment strategy.  A great example of how companies are now realising that social media has become such a permanent fixture within people's lives, that this is a fantastic platform for engaging with a) the type of people they want to employ and b) their customer base where they can also gain some intelligence and brand awareness for free!

I guess the overall message of this blog is "get stuck in".  If you're going to start using a social networking site then throw yourself into it because that's how you'll get the most out of it!

Two Tickets to Condale Please!

Summer Camp – a band whose sound is truly symbolic of those hazy summer moments. You know the ones: lying on the beach in the sunshine breathing in the salty sea air, the nights of drinking too much strawberry cider, the smell of dew on the grass carried by that gentle evening breeze and the taste of that sweet summer crush on your lips. All of that wrapped up in a strong American 80s vibe with a modern British twist is the brilliance of Summer Camp and what proves them to be so amazingly addictive.

My addiction has grown somewhat within only a few hours as Gemma (the best friend) and I had the joy of watching them perform live last night at The Rainbow in Birmingham. It wasn’t a massive venue with the biggest crowd which to me was an added bonus. Intimate gigs are always the best and you leave buzzing and feeling privileged that you’ve experienced something wonderful with only a small group of others.

The level of talent radiating from the band was immediately obvious as they began their first song Welcome To Condale. The singing duet consists of quirky Jeremy Warmsley and the beautiful Elizabeth Sankey, also an engaged duet off stage who clearly posses a love for one another which cannot be hidden and is shared during their performance. Both own incredible voices; powerful and complementary to one another and when combined creates a sound like no other. This was proved further when performing songs acoustically; walking through the crowd at one point singing Losing My Mind with only Jeremy’s guitar which they dedicated to Spencer- one can only assume someone they hold close to their hearts as the importance of that dedication seemed to overwhelm Elizabeth and the crowd as a soft ambience spread amongst us whilst we softly sang along. That was another fantastic thing about their gig; the raw emotion behind their songs, something which seems easily lost in translation in today’s music as record companies attempt to create that popular song that everyone will love. But they’ve managed to keep it real and have a given their art a meaning which is what music should be about. The reason why this works so well is not only because of their obvious talent but due to their personalities too. Both are confident yet personable and quick witted, with Elizabeth cracking out several lines in response to some hecklers which had the crowd cheering for her.

Now I can’t write about the band without mentioning their session drummer Will Bowerman: the hotty who sits behind that dazzling drum set and got some amazing moments to steal the thunder and explode the songs into overdrive. When Elizabeth introduced him he seemed somewhat modest, in keeping with the band’s seemingly humble personality. The stage set-up was good, featuring a screen in the background playing clips from those 80s classics such as Footloose (a nice emphasis on the retro vibe) which meant the band was pretty much in a line and we could see everyone. I always feel sorry for the drummers who are usually stuck at the back, almost forgotten about when it’s their sound which completely changes the feeling of a song and is an important touch which ties it all together.

To sum up, it was an absolutely amazing gig which has sky- rocketed Summer Camp to the top spot amongst my favourite bands. As they tour around the globe this year I suspect the addiction will spread and we will see them rise to success with the potential to becoming the music scene’s benchmark for breakthrough talent.

My attempt to jump start the brain

Something occurred to me recently which was a little unnerving and just generally a bit sad. Its that mushy brain of mine. To be specific, my memory. It seems to have gaps, massive looming gaps and no I don't just mean from those nights out where one stupidly consumes as many rum and cokes as possible, almost in some sort of fear there is going to be a rum drought. Wow lets not even joke about that...that would be somewhat devastating.

No, I refer to just a normal day where I have a conversation with someone and my brain goes to retrieve a memory as I begin discussing a fantastic film with that brilliant actor...ermm ohh who the hell is it again, or that subject we studied back at school and we looked into....that ...you know...thing.

I grew quite concerned when it actually dawned on me that this was happening a little too regular for comfort. Then a few of my friends told me it was because I wasn't using my brain as much as I was when I was back at school or uni. Which makes sense and thus I'm clinging to this theory in hope it isn't early signs of dementia!!

Yes it would seem the 'use it or loose it' theory is strong at play and so I looked at my day to day activity to see where I could slot in a bit of 'brain training and realised all I'm doing is working! 6:30am- 6:30pm is dedicated to work and that's on a good day. 7pm-8:30pm is gym. Then its dinner if I can be arsed and then time for bed. My god that's sickening to actually write it down!!! That accounts for 5 days of my week. Then the weekend is spent 1/3rd partying, 1/3rd hungover and the other third catching up with people, housework and just generic Sunday behaviour. So in an attempt to break my behaviour of the full time worker and full time loser I decided a good bit of training would be to revive the old blog; use the brain and get writing again. Coincidentally I'm due to start doing this at work from next week. Although I have to be somewhat stricter with myself and actually assign the writing skills to discussing something more 'business like' and steering shy from topics such as how I've rotted most of my brain cells from smoking and drinking too much after a grotty night at Scandals (ok three grotty nights on consecutive weekends).

So there we have it folks. My first blog in almost a year where I've pretty much concluded I'm a forgetful sado. Stay posted for even more self-indulgent whines this week as I'm making myself blog everyday in an attempt to create a habit and break away from solely keeping my nose to the grindstone...and rum bottle.