6 things I learned as a drummer in a marching band. Guest post by Rob Wilmot

When I was nine I joined a marching band. Because I was a strong lad they put me on the tenor drum – a sort of base drum but smaller and you bang it from above. I dressed in the uniform with all the braid, sash, tall hat and white gloves. We dedicated two nights a week to band practice and during summer weekends marched through the streets and performed set pieces on sports fields all around the country. We took it all very seriously. I learned a lot about how individuals come together to work as a team and here’s the six most important lessons my time in the ‘Carefree Jazz’ Marching Band taught me.

1) Preparation

I kept my uniform in pristine condition, including whitening my plimsolls until the gleamed and polishing every bit of the chrome on my drum until it glistened. Then there was the practice. We practiced until we could do it without thinking. We became a unit. I remember one of my proudest moments when staff sergeant Nixon from the airbase down the road shouted at me, ‘Wilmot, that’s the finest marching I’ve ever seen’. I liked the praise. Positive reinforcement sticks.

2) Commitment

Turning up on time and giving 100% to the job in hand: the fundamentals to success in anything that you put your mind and heart to.

3) Synchronicity

One of the core judging criteria during competitions was how well we all marched and played together. I learned how to march in formation, whist keeping the beat and twiddling my drumsticks in the air.

4) Individuality

During competitions, points were actually deducted if you simply copied the beat of the base drum. I learned the art of syncopation, and counterpoint, following the beat of the base drum, but adding my distinct individual contribution that made the whole sound richer. I developed some pretty fantastic drumstick twiddling action that got me noticed by the judges too!

5) Tenacity

We lost – a lot, but we were determined that we one day we would win the team category section and I stuck to my personal ambition of winning the individual tenor drum We learned from our mistakes, tightened up on the marching, and developed ever more original styling for our musical renditions. It took two years of hard work and ploughing on through the disappointments, but we eventually won the nationals and got through to the world championships.

6) Conflict resolution

The base drummer was taller and wider than me and didn’t like me at all. When I look back I think its because she thought I wanted her job. She sniped at me, and bitched about me behind my back. She even made me cry once (hey I was only nine remember), and this made me feel rubbish and doubt myself. So how did I handle this? Well, one hot summer Saturday afternoon we had just finished our signature marching of the field tune ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’ when our base drummer fainted, and I caught her. I could have let her drop, and when she came round, she knew this. We still rubbed each other up the wrong way after from time to time, but we got on a whole lot better after that.

Rob Wilmot

Find Rob on LinkedIn or Twitter

How much faster did these media billionaires make their money

New versus Old Media Billionaires: Mark Zuckerberg versus Rupert Murdoch

We know that new media businesses are growing at a much faster pace than their old media counterparts. I thought it would be interesting to see just how this is affecting these wealthy businessmen in the media industry. How much faster did these new media billionaires make their money?

Check out the comparison on the infographic below.

Ben Martin Infographic New-vs-Old-Billionaires

15 Twitter Facts for 2014 You Need to Know Guest Post by Steven Hughes

The social media network that was never meant to be a social network, Twitter, celebrated its eighth birthday in March, 2014. The now microblogging giant has come a long way since co-founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, “just setting up my twttr” back on March 21, 2006.

It is now a household name, and the favorite network of celebrities and media outlets.

Twitter has become the fastest way to break news. We are seeing more television programs display their Twitter handles and relative hashtags. The power of Twitter was witnessed by millions when Ellen DeGeneres tweeted “the best photo ever” at this years Oscars that has garnered over 3.4 million retweets and counting.

Twitter went public in November 2013. The much ballyhooed IPO was a big hit as TWTR opened at $26.00 and closed at $44.90 in its first day of trading. Today Twitter trades at $44.60 despite a net loss of $34 million in its most recent quarterly report.

While Twitter has become an incredible brand, it must find a way to show profitability in the future. We don’t want the little blue bird to fly away.

15 Fast Twitter Facts

Here are some Twitter facts and figures that are worth a look.

1. A mind blowing 300 billion tweets have been sent since inception

2. Tweets with image links have 5 times the engagement rate

3. Over 20 million fake Twitter users

4. Over 241 million monthly active Twitter users

5. 184 million monthly active users using mobile

6. The cost of a 24 hour promoted trend runs about $200 thousand

7. China is the country with the most users with over 35 million

8. Katy Perry is the queen of Twitter over 51 million followers surpassing Justin

9, Number of employees at Twitter has increased to 2000+

10. 170 minutes – The average time per month spent by users on Twitter

11. 63% of brands have multiple Twitter accounts

12. YouTube is the most followed brand with over 40 million followers

13. Twitter has a market cap of about 27 billion

14. Average number of followers per twitter user is 208

15. Ellen’s photo of Hollywood stars at Oscars with an incredible 3.4 million retweets

Follow Steven Hughes on Twitter @sbhsbh

Director of Marketing http://dashburst.com 

Stand Out on LinkedIn with Rich Media

LinkedIn profiles can be so more than just a boring online version of your résumé.

Use LinkedIn profile like Coke, Ford and many others do: to promote themselves. Company websites and commercials contain customer testimonials, product demonstrations, and visual proof of their products. They use video, presentations and images to convey their message.

So can you! It just takes a little creativity…

What Media Can You Add?

LinkedIn now supports  images, video, audio, presentations and documents by certain providers listed here; others may work too. You have the choice to upload a file or use a URL if already published to the web.

These nifty media clips can be placed in various places in your profile. They can be part of your summary, incorporated into each position listed in your experience section, and in your education section. Just go to edit your profile and look for the little blue box. See image below.

LinkedIn Summary Ben Martin

What to Showcase?

Think about the problems or challenges of the audience you want to do business with. Does you company already have assets you can use, perhaps on YouTube  or perhaps they have material available on Slideshare. What value can you provide that differentiates you from the hundreds and thousands of other people who have the same job title as you?

LinkedIn is one of the first stops your client will make when they look you up. Why not go one step further and create you own original content. You can create a PowerPoint highlighting your knowledge or accomplishments and publish it to SlideShare. This is fairly simple to do. The most difficult part is figuring out what you will put into your PowerPoint presentation. Search around SlideShare and get ideas from other people who have created online content in your area of expertise. If you are interested in creating something a bit jazzier than PowerPoint, you may want to test Prezi.

Think of your profile as you window of credibility, what would you want someone to find if they were searching for you on the web?

Make your LinkedIn profile rock… with a media rich profile!

Build Your Personal Brand in Just 9 Minutes a Day

9 Minutes a day translates into three hours a month. Can you imagine the impact on your career if you focused on the brand called you for three full hours every month?

But don’t save it up for a month. Here’s why you need to embark on deliberate, daily career management and why 9 Minutes a day is all you need.

Did you know that 9 minutes a day, 5 days a week, adds up to nearly 40 hours — one workweek — over the course of a year? Nine minutes is not very much time, but that’s all the time you need to make a significant difference in your life.

Source: DitchDareDo

 

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/07/03/linkedin-social-network-watch-not-facebook-says-possible-s-global-ceo

How LinkedIn Has Turned Your Resume Into A Cash Machine

via Little #LinkedIn Changes you’ll want to Ignore — Integrated Alliances.

Everyone now has “Skills and Expertise”, which is a much more data-rich section full of keywords that can be compared, measured, and analyzed

– No one told people they should list skills in order of importance. Instead, like I first did, you likely listed them in the order you thought of them.

– LinkedIn didn’t tell anyone when they started Skills and Expertise that they would soon be listed in order of the number of endorsements (with the most endorsed skills being at the top).

– The way Skills are offered to people to endorse is a) how they are related to you and then b) how they already rank in your profile. And they even nicely list the “Top Ten Skills” based on the number of endorsements.

LinkedIn doesn’t care if the method is not the most accurate, it just keeps pushing to gather the data of YOU so that it has more value to offer those who purchase that data: subscribers, marketers and advertisers, and of course, recruiters (who will want to search for endorsed skills!).

 

Why it pays to be a patient blogger

Focus on creating the best possible content. Insanely great content.

When you get a reader, love them like crazy.

Help others, Support other new bloggers.

Take risks. Try it and see what happens.

Handle criticism with grace. It’s a sign of success. A reason to smile, in fact.

Be yourself. Really yourself. That’s your competitive advantage.

Be consistent. Just keep writing.

Have the courage to hit that publish button, even when you know it’s not perfect.

And yes … be patient. It will happen. It will happen. It will happen.

via Why it pays to be a patient blogger. by @markwschaefer

 

Have you or are you wanting to start blogging? What advice would you like?