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Launch: POCS 2010

Alex — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:14:13 +0000

I have wanted to say this ever since i raised a glass to toast the success of 2009; the nominations for the Pride of Central Somerset 2010 are now open. Last year POCS was a resounding success and i hope with the help of some dedicated colleagues we will be able to do even better this year. I hope this post will either be something new and exciting to you or a refreshing look at what we have changed to make this year more of a success.

The Pride of Central Somerset is looking for those who are special in our lives. Those who make our community an incredible place to live in. Anyone may make a nomination and anyone may nominate anybody with one simple rule, they must be extraordinary. The Pride of Central Somerset covers Glastonbury, Street, Wells and the surrounding villages. We know that there was a bit of confusion about Wells last year but we want to make it very clear that Wells is included. We should also make you aware that this year we have decided to once again go this alone which means that we will not be working in partnership with Mid Somerset News and Media but we wish them every success with their ongoing projects.

Nominations will work in the same manner as last time. Once we receive all the nominations we will personally look at each one and decide who we feel deserves it the most. Some of you may have noticed that nominations have opened a little later than usual. This is because we didn’t receive many nominations in the past over the Christmas period so we have decided to push everything back by several months. The exact date of the ceremony will be announced a little later this year but nominations will be closing on the 28th February.

I am also very excited to announce that the Pride of Central Somerset now has a sister project running on the other side of the Atlantic. It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the Haliwards taking place in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Haliwards works exactly the same as POCS just in a different community. You can find out more about this project by visiting the home page.

Lastly I want to mention how POCS is continuing to keep with the times and we welcome you to connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you to everyone for your continued support.

The Art of Self Promotion : Performers Guide

Alex — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:11:11 +0000

Its true! We all have to start somewhere. Before i begin telling you my advice and lecturing you as some would say, i wanted to start by telling you a success story. About 4 years ago i was living in Weymouth, Dorset. I was only there for the summer to build up some work. Weymouth is right on the coast and in peak season has lots of tourists, so it was a great place to run events and the talent down there was good too. After extensive auditions i was managing 6 people aged between 17-22. I offered my advice to all of them. five of them didn’t listen but one did. One of them toured Europe. I will give you one guess which one did?

We all have to self promote from time to time and its not always the easiest thing to do so i hope by reading this you will pick up some simple but very affective pointers. I don’t plan on going into too much detail but you can always email me or leave comments with your questions and i will do my best to answer them.

Networking: So what is networking? It’s the skill of communicating with people within the same sector of business as you. For most of you this will mean managers, promoters and other performers. So the question is how do you do it? Well there are to many ways to do this but a good start would be to attend any public event that is along the lines of what your after. Send emails out to local people in the same line of business, use a directory to find them. The message will soon go around. Dont make it too obvious. Your trying to build contacts so treat them like friends but remember its business so keep them close but not too close.

Social Networking: Everyday the Internet is getting more powerful so take use of this free power. Look at the trends and register for the most useful social networking sites. Facebook offer a service for artists to make public profiles so people can become fans of your work. This is a superb way of letting people know when your performing or your attending an event. It doesn’t matter if you have 30 fans or 300 fans. Ask people from your personal profile on Facebook to become a fan. Most people have at least 100 friends on Facebook so that’s 100 fans already. Where to go next? Try Twitter. This site is a social networking breakthrough. Register yourself an account with the user-name “YourStageName” and start talking. Over time your followers list will expand. Try to avoid the auto following tools. Its better to follow 300 of your diehard fans and friends than 3000 people trying to sell you Viagra and “Ten tips to improve your sex life.”. I only follow people who make good conversation with me or who interest me. There are many more following me than me following them which works for me and it will work for you too!

Blog: Spend a couple $$ and buy yourself a website.. Make sure its relevant eg. yourstagename.com. Then install WordPress or another blogging platform and start typing. Talk about your latest auditions or events your attending/attended etc. Get yourself a nice theme.. That first impression could see you signing a record deal. If you need some advice on designs or hosting for a site, email me and i will put you in contact with some people who can build you amazing blogs for less than a few hundred dollars and refer you to some great hosters. Remember to connect all your Social Networking sites to your blog. You will be all over google within weeks!

Media: Well this can be broke down in to several sections so lets start with Samples: Whether your a singer, songwriter, or musician make sure you have some samples of your work online and available to give to people on CDs. Once you get some feedback and you find out if people like it or not you can start considering setting up an online shop on your site for digital downloads of your tracks. Photography: Its all about appearance, if you go to an event make sure you are in the photographs. Don’t bother hiring a photographer unless its totally necessary for promo shots. Lastly try your Local Media: There is no shame in giving your media a kick start. Get a close friend or fake it yourself and send an email to the local newspaper with a report on something interesting like a leak on where you will be performing or that its rumoured you signed a record contract. It doesn’t have to be accurate. You will find once you give them a nudge they will come up with their own ideas. Remember the golden rule. All publicity is good publicity.

So do these tips really help? Well i practice what i preach. These were the steps that i began on. You just need to give the world a nudge in the right direction and the rest will follow. In the past few years the media has pushed me further than i had planned to be pushed. It was reported a few years ago that i was being made head of a National Organisation which was called the Royal Variety Performance which as many of you know is for Her Majesty the Queen.. Well they were kind of right but the organisation was the National Variety Performance and not connected to the queen.. but did i mind? Not at all! It was also once reported that i was working with Simon Cowell. When the reporters asked when i was leaving my seafront apartment in Weymouth i just replied with the best advice i can give you. “No Comment” Leave it to their imagination. The possibilities are endless.

Blue Nose: Pre-Marathon

Alex — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:43:38 +0000

So it’s Friday night. The countdown clock on the Scotiabank Blue Nose site is nearly down to zero and everyone is getting prepared for a manic weekend. What normally for me would be a weekend of mass twittering its sadly not. My iPod is in for servicing so i have to rely on my partners laptop and texting.

This post is part of a 2-piece. I will be posting on Monday/Tuesday and that will be my Post-Marathon article. Now you know where i am coming from its time to fill in the gaps of what is coming your way this weekend.

DOCTORS NOVA SCOTIA YOUTH RUN
ROUTE & SCHEDULE | REGISTER | INTERACTIVE MAP

I will be arriving in Halifax around 9am and have a number of things to attend too. After this i will be located at the World Trade Convention Centre where i will spend most of the morning working with the Volunteer Team. If i get time to i hope to go out and watch the Youth Run. For the rest of the day i will be remain at the WTCC so if you want to come and say hello you are more than welcome too. Its always nice to meet new people from the area especially fellow twitterers.

Sunday is the busy day. I will be in Halifax from around 8am and will be in the city all day and all night. I have no idea whether i will be coming or going in regards to the races. All i know for sure is that i will be at the Post Part at the World trade Convention Centre which starts at 7pm so i hope you will be able to join us.

From myself and the Volunteer Committee enjoy your weekend.
I will be available on my cell if you need me 878-0083.

Blue Nose Marathon – Pre-Mixer Event

Alex — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:10:05 +0000

On the 11th of May the Blue Nose Marathon Pre-Mixer event will be taking place at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax. This event is for all volunteers of the Marathon.

The evening will consist of a few speeches from the organizers of the Marathon, other members of the committee and a few words from myself. Along with some light entertainment See it as a night to mingle with fellow volunteers.

A week or so ago i was contacted by the Marathon Volunteer Chair Amy Wodz who is organising the Pre-Mixer, i offered to give some of my time towards this little event and offer my experience in similar activities. The event starts at 5:30 and continues through till around 7 with speeches starting around 6. So i hope you can join us.

For those of you who are technically savvy, well we have some good news. I am hoping to introduce Twitter to this pre-mixer event so when discussing the Marathon online please use the new hash-tag #bluenose. Thats all folks. I look forward to meeting you all. Make sure you all come say hello.

Quick personal note, a special thanks to everyone who has wished me a Happy Birthday today. It’s not everyday you turn 21! Sad that i couldnt spend it with my family but lifes presses on. A special thanks to Tara for all her support recently. Shes a star ^^

AFTER EVENT POST HERE

Twouble with Twitters

Alex — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 10:37:45 +0000

Stephen Fry Tweeted this video and its pretty damn funny. Its really well made actually and its stupidly accurate. Its about a guy who is a twitter addict and finds out his friend doesn’t even know what twitter is. If you havent seen this before then you have to watch it. Make sure you retweet. A follow in my direction would also be nice Will post either Monday or when i touch down in Canada.

Tweet Tweet

Alex — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:54:41 +0000

Okay, how do i put this. I have become a little obsessed with Twitter. Funny to think i was mocking it a few months ago. So over the last month i have twittered over 200 times which is quite alot i think. It has even made me want to get a new iPod touch. When the touches first came out me and Tara bought two of them. They had so much potential but you couldn’t install any apps that were not made by apple without ‘jailbreaking’ them. Took them back in the end. Funny story actually.

When we took them back after about 24hrs of having them, i told the sales rep that you couldnt do anything with them and it was a little misleading and that i didn’t want it. She then picked it out of the box and said “i don’t think we can seel this now as its opened” as she continued to talk the clumbsy cow dropped the $400 ipod and smacked it against the counter. She basically said cant help you. Obviously i was like “If you think i am taking it home after you slammed it one you must be of your head” anyway to cut along story short i got a refund and bought nanos instead. Now i want a touch, so many apps, so many possibilities. Anyway back to the point. Here are just a few people that i am following that you may want to follow. If your not using twitter. Well i don’t know why! You should be!

Tweets below are the latest as of when i posted this.

WossyI am going to bed. Jane is reading a new horror novel. I will now spoil it by chatting inanely at her while she tries to finish chapter.

sophietonksmust remember t is okay not to answer my phone sometimes. I don’t have to be there for everyone all the time!

stephenfryTo be honest, not sure if I buy the whole reflexology shtick, but I do love a damned good footrub..

onthefringeCEO Working the system tip: Interesting. And it looked so good on paper.

Sam_Symons$200 worth of gift vouchers just showed up in the mail. Thanks, Microsoft!

i_heart_charlieshutthefuckup DDWARN nobody likes you, not even Salvadore Maglione thw white kid.

TaraMacPheeTired, Me and Alex cooked Lamb roast today, Was much more work then what i thought. but turned out very yummy.

Just a handful of wonderful users. I also came across a new site that has been launched called. http://wefollow.com/ make sure you check it out. Its a great way of finding more people to follow and get depressed over how many more followers they have than you. Anyway i have had a long day after producing all the DVD orders and cooking a roast dinner so i will catch up with you all later in the week. Wont be posting much to my blog as i have alot of packing to do for Canada. (Unless something comes up that i have to post) Cya.

What are you doing?

Alex — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:22:20 +0000

When i first heard of twiiter my first reaction was “What sad bastard would use that” i mean why would you want to know when someone is brushing there teeth etc. Well i admit it. I was wrong the concept is so simple it actually works. I decided to give it a shot a few weeks ago and for anyone who is on my facebook or look to the right and you will see i have been using it quite a bit. I first registered my Twitter then installed the Twitter application for facebook and voila everytime i update twitter it updates my facebook. So far so good. Its a little buggy this app for facebook but does the job. I then connected my phone to twitter and i was flying high. Its quite a thrill to be able to update such stupid things.

Off to the shop. Time to pick up todays newspapers. If its anything like the journal i am in for a blinding day. Ha! 9:23 AM Feb 26th from TweetDeck

Okay so maybe i got a bit carried away but when everything is connected together it gets quite funky. If you havent tried twitter then dont knock it till you have tried it. Dont do what i did and say bollocks before yougive it a go. When you have had a play with Twitter consider using TweetDeck is a little adobe air application which works beautifully and sits on your desktop so its easy to update what your up to. Maybe a little to easy lol. So if you do try it make sure you give me a follow and i will return the gesture. Tweet Tweet.