EPISODE 2
Tables of Contents
Kuya Productions discuss the relationship between music and social media
The Youzus Report • Social Media Advice • • Interviews with Social Media Rockstars • • Creative Articles • Your one stop shop for all things social media.
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Creative Driver Feature Of The Month
Guy Kawasaki on Social Media #DoingItRight: How to be a Successful Blogger Jeff Bezos: $250 Million New Clients Letter From The Editor Thank You!
Sonya Gill There is not a day that does not go by that I don’t think about what I can doto make Youzus better than it was yesterday, and sometimes I get extreme anxiety in those moments I don’t feel as though I’m doing enough. And then there comes those moments, just minutes before we are about to execute this magazine for example, that I get goose bumps. To think that I have a team that cares about the vision, mission and passion of this company as much as I do leaves me speechless....no....breathless. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but I say it takes a solid team to raise a good boss. A few days a go a friend of mine said something interesting, “Rather than always trying to ‘manage’, ask to be ‘managed up’. Interesting right? It basically means that your team should be teaching you as much as you are teaching them. Just as a child can teach a parent about humility, your team can also do the same. Thus that being said, I would like to encourage all of you leaders, founders, CEO’s and managers out there to commemorate your team, because without your team there would probably be no business. To my team: You Rock. (Why thank you)
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IN TER VIEW SAMMY AND BOBBY
GERONGCO Grammy nomiated, multi-platinum m u s i c p r o d u c t i o n d u o f r o m To r o n t o
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SAMMY AND BOBBY
GERONGCO Grammy nomiated, multi-platinum m u s i c p r o d u c t i o n d u o f r o m To r o n t o
Q.
When people hit you up, how do you pick and choose who to work with?
When people reach out to you, how do you choose who to work with? There are 2 ways really, I’ve been looking for their commitment. When we get emails through Twitter, Facebook, or direct emails, I look for how much they are investing in their career, we can see the difference between people who have just recorded a couple covers, versus someone who has already gone into the studio recorded their own demos and are already gaining experience on their own and have a thirst for success, ultimately how invested they already are. How far they are in terms of creating their audience, how active they are on twitter, do they have the drive. “I
like to find artists who are hustling already.”
I also like finding raw talent. Artists just getting started, that have a unique tone or interesting songs , that makes a huge difference for me as well. Song writing is especially attractive since it comes across authentic when the songs are an actual expression of their lives.
Q.
What are your major turn offs when it comes to up and coming artists?
1. I hate looking at social media that seems fake, like artists that are constantly bragging, saying they’ve written a smash every day on Facebook or Twitter. If you’re going to spend all this time branding your content online make sure the product is amazing and that you are working on your craft rigorously. 2. If they have a lot of friends but not a lot of material that’s a good sign they are not authentic. Too many artists will spend money to make it look official. 3. People hitting me up all the time, every hour, daily all the time. We do check our emails and messages and we usually get to each of them at our earliest convenience. I know it can be difficult to sit back and be patient, but negative or demanding comments won’t help either. The internet is a fantastic way to meet new artists so good communication is key. 4. Young artists are mentioning us on their page as if we have been friends forever as a way of promoting themselves. This really bothers me, because they falsely use our name to try and promote themselves.
5. People sending friend requests over Facebook with no message.
Q.
What are some qualities you think an artist must have to be successful?
Things are moving so fast, you have to be knowledgeable in everything. There are 2 different types of artist, ones that are exceptional and have undeniable talent that speaks for itself, real vocalists and songwriters... real artists. They don’t need to hustle on social media, because once they have a product to release everyone is already excited. For instance I don’t go online to look for information on Adele. She has great music and really you want to buy her CD and hope to see her one day live in concert. There’s the other type of artists called entertainers. For entertainers social media can do wonders. Artists like PSY that create big videos and new dances for online viewers to watch over and over again because they want to learn the dance moves. Artists now need to be able to do a bit of everything, if they can write and sing, produce and direct their music video, they are already ahead of the game.
“You can really see the success of these younger artists now because of their social media presence.” Soulja Boy is an example of a YouTube sensation. Drake also really capitalized on that, he really embraced social media and put out music that the world could get with a single click.
Q.
What are some out of the box ways to get noticed, and go viral?
It really comes down to the music first, it should really speak for itself. Make sure you have something you are extremely proud of; strong music. And how does your brand connect to the music and vice versa. If it’s a mix tape then you should have some professional visuals that go with it, once you have an online campaign you can use those pictures maybe even create lyric videos. Anything that brings added value. There’s many ways that are effective. If you are an artist who is great live, you can continue to do YouTube videos, if that works for you. Some people are great at putting up videos and can get people to keep coming back. Like Karmin and their Chris Brown Look At Me Now cover. Or like the Weekend was all about mystery, but the music was exceptional. The thing is that its not going to connect if the music isn’t that good. But sometimes you might need a co-sign like Drake and Lil Wayne. But when you have the support the music better be good.
Q.
What are some of your top avenues for the most current information?
Q.
An average person usually says everything on their mind. Artists need to be strategic with what they are putting out. But at the end of the day if an artist wants to put out personal stuff and connect with their audience, there’s nothing wrong with that. I like how Rihanna is out there, it seems real. I feel like I get glimpse of who she really is and as fans you want that.The media grabs every little thing out there so careful what you put out there. In general, you do want to roll out slow and effectively. Little bits of info sent out in an interesting way will definitely make me stop and check out an artist page.
Q.
What sound is viral right now?
House music has been the thing recently, I also feel things are changing and is more of an organic style. Pop music is really big right now, anything that’s pop is going viral, dance has gone pop, and Hip Hop went pop. Disco seems to be in right now also.
Billboard music, that’s me trying to get information on the music industry, Twitter feeds, Facebook feeds, that’s where I get most of it. Various music bloggers.
JRDN
How do you think artists should use social media compared to the average person?
We Believe in Celebrating our Milestones! As a growing company, sometimes it’s hard to see your progress and we highly suggest you take a moment and look back at your achievements. So... mid month, our team took a field trip to Toronto Island and snapped this awesome picture of the city skyline.
Canada’s #1 R&B/pop Artist The first act to be released under the Kuya Productions label.
...stop and smell the roses
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Following Social Media INTERVIEW: How does a social media superstar perfect his profile? Dan Matthews finds out Guy Kawasaki is social media gold dust. In 1984 he was responsible for marketing the Macintosh at Apple and in the 30 years since has published a series of tech-related books, founded a venture capital firm and launched news aggregation service Alltop.com. He has 1.3 million followers on Twitter and 210,000 on Facebook, all glued to his updates. He explains how he organises profiles that connect with large audiences: “When it comes to Twitter, my success stems from providing interesting links that people share. These ‘retweets’ put me in front of new people who follow me too. There is a group of sources that feed my account, including Alltop, a website I founded to aggregate and summarise great stories, linking to the original source. “I also repurpose posts from Google+ and Facebook for tweets and I use Tweetdeck to respond to ‘@-mentions’ of @GuyKawasaki and direct messages; these are always me and never ghost written in my name. “Google+ is the core of my social media existence. I see it as the Macintosh of social media, it’s better, used by fewer people and condemned by ‘experts’. My posts here are diverse and, like Twitter, I call on a range of sources. “I have three main tips for building a community on Google+: only post when you are cogent.
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I wake up in the night and check the ‘What’s Hot’ feed from Alltop, but I don’t post until the next morning when I’m alert and able to write an engaging post. “The second tip is schedule your updates so they are wellspaced. You can do this through ‘Do Share’, an extension for Google Chrome. Lastly, get rid of trolls. Think of your Google+ account as your swimming pool; if people pee in it, throw them out. “I have two personas on Facebook, one is my personal profile and the other is my brand page. I operate them differently. My assistant monitors my Google+ account and manually adds many, but not all, to Facebook. Some are not appropriate for Facebook and there’s no way to tag ones that are. “I monitor comments and respond to them as time permits; my assistant never acts as me so I either respond or there is no response at all. I do the same for LinkedIn, but I rarely respond to comments as there are fewer here. This could be selffulfilling, but I have to draw the line somewhere. “In total, the above plus managing my Pinterest account is the work of one full-time person. In addition, I spend three to four hours per day creating my own posts, commenting and responding. This is how I manage my social presence as of June 2013, but stay tuned because my procedures are ever-changing.”
This article is property of the Raconteur written by Dan Matthews.
They are current and relevant! This is one the golden rules of the marketing industry… actually, scrap that, it is the golden rule. Last year Oreo created a Daily Twist Campaign from June 25th to October 2nd , everyday a cookie would be designed to show the significance of that day.
Oreo’s definitely #DoingitRight! Increasing consumer interaction by 110% is not easy. It’s damn right gold medal worthy if you can pull it off. That’s why for this week’s #DoingItRight list we are highlighting the genius behind Oreo’s Marketing campaign. They have taken their brand to entirely different social level, a powerhouse if you will, with some of the most innovative marketing campaigns in the industry.
Their ability to reach a mass audience demonstrates the simplicity and effectiveness of this campaign. The company states that this campaign alone boosted 5 million likes during its run. Whoa!
They twisted out some fun! The main purpose of social media is to engage, and it’s even more engaging if you’re making people laugh. The deal breaker for us would have to be the sheer enjoyment we get from reading the stuff!
Here are some the reasons why Oreo is #DoingItRight:
Oreo’s campaigns literally made us laugh out loud!
They don’t sleep!
On Twitter, they wouldn’t limit their engagement with just their followers, tweets that would ruffle the competitor’s feathers were also skillfully and tastefully done. You can’t help but giggle at the responses they generated!
Well at least it seems that way. Oreo’s marketing executives took full advantage of the power outage at the Super Bowl this year with a tweet that was recognized globally for its timing and wit. While most of us were bantering about the power outage or gossiping about Beyoncé’s performance, Oreo marketers wasted no time in gathering up the team, and creating a simple yet effective tweet on a dimes notice.
Oreo’s social media mastery should be used as an example of being sharp, timely and engaging. I’m excited to see how they will inspire even more creative runs at tapping into the unlimited potential of the social media landscape.
This kind of real time marketing is what makes their strategy hard to beat. Exceptional. v
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Why “Just Knowing Your Stuff” Won’t Make You Blogger
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t’s an old belief that by studying every book, paper and post-it written about one particular topic will catapult you into success. It’s the reason why people spend years in school to master one particular subject, in hopes of a job waiting for them on the other side. It doesn’t usually happen that way. In the world of social media, just knowing one thing won’t guarantee you success in reaching the masses. It’s frustrating, we know. But you have to take a step back and honestly ask yourself “am I able to adapt quickly and with ease” most will answer yes, but are not ready. Here are some tips for those of us with an academic background and are itching to share it with the masses!
1. You’re Not Writing A Paper One key thing in academia is the ability to write what you know. The hardest part about getting into blogging is to adopt a particular style of writing that will draw in a bigger variety of readers. We’re not saying to write your blog in a conversational fashion, like most. However, you want to keep your language borderline academic but not chaotic with complex language. For example, you see the difference: The epitome of deep sea diving and its psychological weight OR How Deep sea diving effects a diver’s ability to mentally function?
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successful
2. Keep It Short And To The Point I know you’re passionate about what you’re writing about and everyone has to know every detail and blah blah blah blah blah! STOP! LOOK and DELETE! The average attention span of today’s generation of computer users is 8 seconds, and if they use that 8 seconds to figure out what the blog is about, there’s a fat chance that they will read it. Sadly, it could be the best written, clearly articulated and thought provoking blog ever, but if you can’t get people to read it, it might as well be a banner ad that no one pays attention to. Keep it under 500 words MAXIMUM, but 300 is better (ain’t no body got time for’dat!)
3. You’re Not Competing Don’t think of blogging as a competition, and don’t treat your readers as such. Don’t be ice cold. Invite your followers for a beer (figuratively speaking), talk about their lives, gossip a bit, and make them feel welcome. You want them to feel as if they are interacting with a real person, not many people get turned on by a textbook. Do all of this virtually and you will grow your following organically.
new clients
Jeff bezos “$250 Million...in Cash”
That’s how much American internet entrepreneur Jeff Bezos paid for the Washington post. Cold. Hard. Cash. And that’s the way to do it. But why the Washington post? It’s not surprise that with the rise of the internet came the fall of the once “conventional” methods of information transmission, more notably Newspapers. Newspapers fell to the backside when it came to providing the most up to the minute information compared to the internet. Therefore it’s not surprising that newspapers are lacking when it comes to addressing the constant shift in audience needs. The Washington post, and newsrooms around the world have been described by journalist Robert J. Samuelson as “job graveyards”, newspaper revenue has been on the sharp decline since 2003, falling v from 44.9 billion from print advertising to 18.9 billion in 2012, according to Pew Research Centre.
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Hence why this shocking move to buy out the Washington post could be seen as an act of mental instability to most. However, Bezos is no stranger to marketing techniques that capture audiences, Amazon.com does it beautifully. Amazon was able to develop a culture of e-books, they strategically moved with the customer when book sales were suffering. Re-inventing how we consume literature electronically. As Bezos puts it, “you are planting the seeds” that is to say that some will sprout with proper nurturing, did the Kindle.
Omar Borkan Al Gala Kicked out of Saudi Arabia for being too sexy... we’re proud to add him to the Youzus lineup.
KPMG Enterprise One of the biggest accounting firms in Canada. Helping entrepreneurs and small business owners grow their business.
So the question is, how will this experienced internet conglomerate turn around the Washington post? As speculation builds, it will be interesting to monitor the changes to come in the Post, as they will be imperative to the papers survival in this digital age. With increased competition, perhaps a new innovative way to relate to the news content is hiding under Jeff Bezos’s blazer sleeve.
Derrick Rutledge Make Up Artist of Oprah Winfrey is proud to annouce his new line of salon care product, called OOH Lifestyle
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Courtny Vaz Editor-in-Chief
Apps That Make Your Life Easier Mint.com CardMunch Airdroid Jott Instapaper
The wonderful thing about being surrounded by creative people is that your mind is always blown! It has been an incredible experience working with the team to stay up to date on all the latest trends in social media. Many think that social media skills are universal, well one th ing you should get from this issue is that like everything, success takes time, hard work, and persistence; this includes social media. We are here to offer you all the tools and tricks to be successful, ones that work for us.
"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Ghandi We are diligent in scoping out the most current and effective ways to grow your social media and become successful. We are on the way to becoming the go-to resource for personal and business development. This issue has grown from the last and will continue to grow, we are happy to v have you along for the ride. Success is a state of mind, get on that and ride it out to the stars.
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It’s Chris better th an tm it’s ju as for us s a corne t around nd the gent r! Ladies s a Wee , Social M nd and w k! We’re e edia xc e hop e to s ited ee yo there u :)
Editor-in-Chief Courtny Vaz
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Creative Director Lisa Tyldesley
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Publishers Sonya Gill Kristen Rubisch Special thank you to Sammy and Bobby Gerongco for being our feature this month. v
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