Another COVID Christmas song!

The Brits LOVE quirky, witty Christmas songs.  Over the years they’ve shared songs such as “I wish it could be Christmas every day”, “Hey Mr Christmas” ,”Don’t Stop Me Eatin”, “Last Christmas”, “Merry Christmas Everybody”, “Someone Kissed Santa”, “Rockin around the Xmas tree” etc you get the idea. Some songs were recorded and shared to raise funds for charity such as Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas and this year’s LadBaby’s “I love sausage rolls“. Many other songs were recorded just for fun. Nevertheless, it’s big business as only Slade know who still receive huge royalty cheques of $1 Million each Christmas from their 1973 hit “Merry Xmas Everybody”.

I challenged my Canadian husband, Richard Arthur, to write a Canadian Xmas song – for fun!  This year he responded with this news-worthy song, “Another COVID Christmas: that I hope you enjoy.

Thanks to the magic of band in the box software, PC video and editing as well as studio recording material and his talent to play various instruments he took up the challenge.

He composed, played and performed this original song. He ran out of time making his video and had to scale back his original, complex video skit to the fun video shared below. It makes you appreciate all the hard work artists do to deliver their songs.

Do share and see if we can get this played on Canadian radio!

ANOTHER COVID CHRISTMAS

What is a Thought Leader?

Are you a thought leader?  Do you want to be a thought leader?  Yes, I thought so – walk this way and read on:

 

One way to describe a thought leader is that they are knowledgeable people whom we trust to share information on a given subject.

Some of the key attributes that are required to be a successful thought leader include:

 

• Original – meaningful /new content
• New ideas/approach
• Innovative ideas
• Create and present content that inspires, challenges or moves the reader/audience

People like hearing about new things.  By adopting a new approach to a given subject, if you challenge the way people consider or learn about a topic, you’ll stand out from the herd.  Work on developing material that is timely, accurate and meaningful to your audience.

Get this right and the final element of a successful thought leader is that you will acquire a following of supporters.  People will seek out your knowledge, request your comment or ask for your guidance because you are a trusted source.  You will be known for having your finger on the pulse at any given time.

There are some easy steps you can take to commence your Thought leader program.  It is not simple to achieve and success does not come to you over night.  It might take 6 months or even 18 months to receive concrete feedback but if you are consistent and contribute to the following model you will win.

Define your goals.

Who do you want to reach/communicate with – who is your target audience?

What topic(s)/issues are you an expert on?

Why do you wish to influence?

 

It may be just a small platform of people or a large global group.  It clearly is simple to commence with a smaller number or group as success will be easy to define.

What method of communication does your target audience use (some may only prefer email, others social media, for some groups newsletters via mail or email is still a valid way to communicate or for others face to face meetings or conference or industry events is important).

The key point is that you need to get your word out.

You need to be consistent and develop information that can be sent out on a regular basis to your target audience.  Choose your mix carefully.

Blogs – better to write one thought provoking/informative article per month than ten badly composed articles each week.  Remember it takes time to build up readership.   Even if you do not usually write articles, it is important to write down your thoughts.  Think of this as an extension of you speaking.  If you do not place material online, your chance at becoming a thought leader will be limited.  If you do not have a blog, submit suitable articles/viewpoints or comment via your company website or via industry online sites.

Like minded.  Seek out other thought leaders in the same industry.  Exchange comment on social media sites and offer links to your articles.   Offer to write articles for online and printed publications.  Contact key editors and let them know about your talent and knowledge.

In the Flesh.  You need to be offline as well as online.  Seek out speaking opportunities at key industry events.   Offer you expertise to conference producers seeking expert speakers or panelists.  Attend key conference and meet as many movers and shakers as possible.

 

 

2010 blog review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,800 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 22 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 38 posts. There were 38 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 52mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was March 23rd with 111 views. The most popular post that day was How not to do Social Media – Orangutans 1-0 Nestle..

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, reddit.com, arena.powa.fr, mail.yahoo.com, and youtube.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for rainforest music festival, u2, sarawak rainforest music festival, u2 360, and stage lighting.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

How not to do Social Media – Orangutans 1-0 Nestle. March 2010
8 comments

2

Why technology is important to the world May 2010
2 comments

3

U2 360° tour, Nice, France July 2009 July 2009
1 comment

4

Sarawak Rainforest World Music Festival, July 2010 March 2010

5

30th anniversary concert – Original Blues Brothers live in Cannes September 2010
2 comments

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BT Digital Music Awards

With just two days left for voting, now is the time to check out BT’s digital music awards site. It’s certainly worthwhile to spend two minutes to vote and stand the chance to win one of the many prizes on offer. The site is definitely keen to beef up social media participation. Voters can win additional points (giving you a higher chance to win a prize) every time they vote, tweet, share on FaceBook or every time one of your friend’s tweet etc.

The BT Digital Music Awards returns to London’s Roundhouse for its third time – the scene of many music milestones including legendary performances by Jimi Hendrix and The Clash.

The line up for this year’s event is shaping up to be a memorable evening:

* Live performances by major established acts and up and coming talent
* A top celebrity line-up, with industry exclusive tickets
* Awards voted for by the industry and the public
* The entire event broadcast on TV

In the last BT Digital Music Awards, around 300,000 music fans voted to see their favourite bands get up on stage to accept the awards they deserved.

The short list reflects the up and coming new stars – if you over 30 you may never have heard of them! Meanwhile, you’ll still find one or two familiar names: Robbie Williams and so on.

If you’re a fan of U2 you might enjoy reviewing content on their dedicated site. There you’ll find lots of news, updates, video and exclusive content about U2. If you like what you find, you might like to vote for them in the BT Digital Music Awards – so it’s up to you to choose. Technology makes its easy than ever – no more expensive phone voting, SMS or back in the dark ages, voting by snail mail…

Palm Oil shake-up

Wow, what a past few days. Since the outbreak of the Nestlé faux pas via their FaceBook Fan page, publicity that rainforest/orang utan charities could only dream of has taken place.

Nestlé ‘s share price dropped. Nestlé issued a variety of statements including their commitment to use sustainable palm oil by 2015. The producers of palm oil have threatened to stop supplies to US /Europe (would they seriously risk losing 20% of their income?) and thousands of consumers have become informed about deforestation, loss of orang utan habitat and most important palm oil.

With social media users now nudging 500 billion with expected growth , it is a serious force to challenge.

Watch this space as the story unfolds further.

Welcome World

Consultant, writer, singer, campaigner, mother and wife

I’m passionate about events – whether they are in the business realm – from high tech in the telecom or mobile markets to social entertainment: music, theatre or sporting events. I equally have a strong interest in our environment, in particular, saving our rainforests. And finally children who develop a love of reading at an early age get a head start with language skills which are invaluable for their future. In that respect, my early learning books are hoping to address that challenge.

This blog sets out to be a “fly on the wall” reporter at leading global communication and media events.  Over the coming months, I plan to provide feedback from key events including reports, soundbites, gossip and video coverage.  There are of course, more than sufficient journals and reporters out in the market covering these activities BUT I hope to offer a different viewpoint – an unbiased observational platform that will offer other “bloggers” the chance to contribute, debate and disseminate.

Today there is an increase use of technology in how we learn, enjoy and participate at events.  This has been spurred by ubiquitous mobile connectivity and social web 2.0 (Facebook, MySpace, You Tube etc) capabilities.

Now attendees can share feedback in almost real time and these comments can be searched out and found by interested readers.  So let’s get started!