Pleaces to Find Me This Week

It seems like I don't get much time for this blog lately, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been actively writing and getting some thoughts out there about Gen-Y, Music, Social Media and Non-Profits. I'm going to start putting together link lists on Fridays to let you know where I've been and what I've been up to online. Try and catch up!

What's going on with Gen-Y, Non Profits and Technology over at the Rock For Hunger Blog
Amber J. Adams caught up with me to ask about Moving on: New college grads face challenges of relocation.
I chatted about elves at the Orlando JobSpot
Also on the JobSpot I dug deeper into the Social Media and job thing
Photo recap of the Jackson Center Holiday party over at Rock For Hunger

I do have a great video interview that I was apart of from some students at Rollins College going up this weekend.

On a personal knote: Go Knights! Looking for our 1st ever bowl win tomorrow! ESPN here we come!

Who We Are and What We Do

I have really been thinking about the separation of work, my start-up businesses, my music career and my personal life. There has been a great discussion started by Penelope Trunk over at Brazen Careerist about doing what you are and not what you love. Sam Davidson, of Cool People Care, took the discussion into the tune of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs have to do what we love, that’s why we started our start up in the first place. We felt so passionate about something that we stepped outside of corporate culture and made our own rules.

I would say that I do what I like, not what I love. I love making music and performing. Due to outside circumstances, that part of my life has been postponed. So what did I like about the music gig? The marketing part.

I became intrigued with social networking and meeting people in Virginia and NYC without ever stepping a foot in these cities. I was getting them excited about my music and getting them involved with the promotion of my products.

Now that I am working for a large corporation, I am becoming the face of our organization more and more everyday. My name is directly attached to social networks, blog posts, interviews and videos. I have no problem with this, or so I thought.

After my presentation on Tuesday, I was speaking with 2 of the directors over at the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance Scholars. We got into a conversation about how to separate ourselves with their work persona and their personal persona. One of the girls, Rebeca, stated that she doesn’t ever use her real name or reveal any information about her personal life online. While I find this hard to believe with a Myspace and LinkedIn profile, posting nothing about yourself online is not an easy task to ask someone of the Millennial generation to do. We have profiles on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, make videos in YouTube and email photos from camera phones to Flickr pages.

So what do I do? What do you do when you are in a similar situation? I know one of my counterparts who has the same problem as I do. We have to constantly maintain a professional online personally so our corporate careers do not suffer. We both also have outside businesses that we are continuing to grow and are trying hard to build and maintain credibility for.

These lines are crossed everyday. Should I use a persona other than my real name? I already think that I do. I use my music name or persona a lot online, G-Ro. And while it might sound silly to some, it is building a brand for myself and my company, while not compromising my given name.

I do what I like, and would love to do what I love. I must maintain credibility at all ends to continue to do the things I feel are important for myself and my family. I would love to hear form some people who have something to say on this subject and what they are doing in similar situations. I’m signing off to go and do what I love because I love it, not because I get paid for it.

Social Media For the Job Seeker

As promised (only a few hours late) I am posting the slides and notes from yesterday's presentation at the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance.

| View | Upload your own

If you are looking for help, here are my profiles on the mentioned sites:
Myspace
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter

Blogging Platforms
Blogger
WordPress
LiveJournal

Job Board Social Networks
Health Career Web
Jobster
Careers in Gear

If anyone that was at the presentation, or anyone viewing this now, has any questions please put them in the comments or email me directly at rollettmarketing [at] hotmail [dot] com.

-Greg Rollett

G-Ro and POB at 10,000 Villages - Easy To Go

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G-Ro and POB perform at a Night For Music and Peace at 10,000 Villages. The show raised money for Rock For Hunger and 3rd world villages arts and crafts dealers. It was a great night, great fun and a late after party that didn't make for a very productive Friday at the office.

G-Ro and POB at 10,000 Villages - Confidence

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G-Ro and POB rock out for Rock For Hunger at 10,000 Villages.

How Gen-Y Can Use Social Media to their Benefit

Tomorrow I am speaking at the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance Scholars Event. I am talking to a group of individuals interested in maximizing their social media for the job search. As I began writing the power point I just started writing and writing. This is not a 30 minute speed dating topic. I did manage to break it down and fell confident in what I will be telling this group in Tampa tomorrow.

Gen-Y is at such an advantage than any previous generation before them. We grew up on video games, computers in every home and laptops on every lap in college. We used beepers to get across messages in codes that we created and took that into Instant Messaging and now texting. We have lived with the internet our whole lives and have seen it grow from that annoying dial up sound to the iPhone.

So how does this help job seekers? It doesn’t really, if you don’t know how to properly use it. Myspace is great for friends and teens, but that HTML code in a box doesn’t fly in the corporate world. Nor does most of your profile interests or Flickr pages. What does throwing sheep have to do with being an adult (Facebook tries to tell us that its biggest group of new members are over 30)?

Job seeking today is a billion dollar business. I work right smack in the middle of it. But yet, the best jobs are not found online on the major job boards, or in papers, or on the radio. They are found through word of mouth, through connections, through networking. This is where our advantage comes into play. By being active in social networks, blogging and being active in joining online conversations we can position ourselves for the best positions and career choices available.

Being online is about creating your personal brand. My blog allows me to express myself and gain business in the process. If you can find a niche and become an industry player, your options will increase and you will become smarter in the process. It is experience that cannot be undervalued. In writing these articles, I read other blogs, newspapers, magazines, talk to industry folks and get an understanding of the topic.

Now I no longer look for clients, they find me. You can position yourself as much or little as you’d like and all the content that is created is yours. Brad yourself everywhere or just in 1 or 2 places. Find what is hot in your industry and start making connections, start researching and getting acknowledged for the work that you put in.

Job hunting is not what it used to be. By combining the efforts of job boards, social networks, blogging and other social media mediums you can begin to create the brand of you. I guarantee that even if you don’t get your dream job today, you will be well on your way to happiness and security within a niche. I know that I am still coming into my own with blogging, social media and the likes but I grow to love it more with every passing day. I have met some great people, look forward to meeting and talking with many more and will continue to build upon the foundation that I have been laying.

Look for a wrap-up tomorrow from Tampa. Hopefully I got it right and will get them on the right path with their own personal branding and teach them some tricks along the way.

-Greg Rollett

Chris Goyzueta at St Andrews for Winter Toy Drive

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Chris Goyzueta, exectuive directorof Rock For Hunger, speaks one early morning about the toy drive being conducted by the Student Council at St Andrews Catholic School. We are very excited to have them partnering for Tutors and Meals to provide toys and presents for our students in need, here in Central Florida.

Orlando should be proud of these kids and what tey are doing for others in the community.

Apologies for cutting you off at the end Chris, the Flip ran out of memory!!

Crazy Anglos Crank Dat Soulja Boy at the Social in Orlando

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Atlanta based rap-rock band Crazy Anglos covers the hit Crank Dat Soulja Boy at the Social in Orlando. They played to a packed house, opening up for Atlanta based Rahab. Big shot out to MC Boze from G-Ro.

Cool People Do Care – The Next Move

I have been doing a lot of work with not-for-profits in the last few months. Most noticeably with an Orlando start-up, Rock For Hunger. I started as a musician playing their shows over a year ago now and have shifted gears and become the head of their Marketing and Communications as well as the Employment and End Homeless Director.

Through working with Chris at Rock For Hunger, I have started to dream bigger than I ever thought I could. We are now embarking on a new journey; writing a book. We are collecting stories that will paint a picture of the poverty situation in this nation and how Generation-Y, aka the Millennials, can get involved. It gets better with a soundtrack I am producing that will highlight the chapters and bring life to the stories told. To top it off, we plan on taking the show on the road with a book and music tour next fall, going though the South and East coasts playing in coffee shops, book stores, universities, churches and street corners until the words of Rock For Hunger have been thoroughly spread. The goal date: August 2008.

I can’t personally say that I came up with this idea on my own though. The great vision of some stellar Gen-Yers have jumped through this hoop before. I have to take my hat off to the bands that come through Orlando, in their vans eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which ironically enough was the first menu item on Rock For Hunger feedings. Last night saw the Crazy Anglos, an Atlanta based rap-rock band that takes a nomination for hardest working band in the underground. Almost 2 years ago they started hitting the road and have had little more than a week off since. I think that it is finally starting to pay off.

Next up is Drew Petrone. He has been busting his tail at a Sign-A-Rama Start-Up franchise, freelance designing (which needs to be a full time career of his), assisting and volunteering for Rock For Hunger and taking his band, Orlando based Union Made, to the top of the local funk-rock scene. He does all of this with total concern for his clients, colleagues, friends and band mates. Drew has never asked for anything in return.

Last in my list today is the cool kids from the Cool People Care crew. I have been following Sam and Stephen since Sam posted an interview on Rebecca’s Modite blog a few months back. Since then, we have made contact and even featured them as a partner for the Rock For Hunger Festival this past November. These Cool People that care have been passing along a message, that Gen-Y, the entitlement Generation, is ready to help where help is needed. Their mission is simple enough, CoolPeopleCare exists to show you how to change the world in whatever time you have. One minute? Five minutes? An entire day? Whatever you have, we'll help you spend it wisely. Sam and Stephen have come together to write the ever impressive, New Day Revolution, a guide to saving the world in 24 hours. They have taken their passion for the better of the world and made a full time business out of it.

It is the drive of Gen-Yers like this that I come to work everyday inspired. It is why I work the 9-5 hard to get noticed, then go home and put on more hats than the Village People. It is why I have dreams, and why our generation has the hope to do bigger things than any other generation before us. The communication gap is non-existent; you can get in touch with anyone in our generation faster than ever before and more efficiently. Bands can have fans before a record deal and before their busted van stops in front of a whole in the wall bar. And companies can be made with friends who have a passion to make a change in the world. Amen.

Universal / NBC Lost Its “Cool”

Universal has lost its “cool.” They have lost sight of the core of their business, the fans. This isn’t breaking news, but it is disturbing to me and the way that I consult my musician clients.

The facts:

Universal now enforces that everyone on their music roster, limit streaming songs to 90 seconds. These include Myspace pages.

Universal has pulled all of its content from iTunes including hit NBC TV shows and all artists.

Universal/NBC has removed all content from YouTube and replaced it with behind the time Hulu.com.

The real facts.

The next generation of music fans get their music online. Whether this be finding new bands on Myspace, Purevolume, or whatever. They also buy music digitally so they can play them with the white ear buds on an iPod. They buy their music with iTunes, like it or not.

YouTube plays and streams more videos per day than you could even imagine in your wet dreams. They find out about movies, tv shows, bands and celebs through this little time waster. Like it or not, this is the future of video.

Much like the tv, kids like to have 1 box give them loads of choices. That is why iTunes, Myspace and YouTube are the major players in the entertainment market. I can log into Myspace and get hit from every direction by any band that I want, all without leaving the site. With iTunes, a customer can browse through an infinite number of artists, tv shows and movies and put them all into 1 shopping cart and pay with 1 pre-established account. With YouTube, they can watch whatever they damn well please and be redirected to other clips from the same genre. This generates their interest to go see a movie, DVR a tv show or check out a band live.

What they did and how they could have avoided the screw-up:

All of their music is available at other online sites, most noticeably Amazon Music. So are their hit TV shows. The problem is that no one knows this outside of tech circles and bloggers. Hulu.com and NBC Direct have been ripped apart by bloggers and media industry since its launch and the fact remains that everyone on YouTube, stayed in YouTube. They are now just watching other networks shows and then turning on the tube to their advertisers on prime time.

The Myspace thing is just ridiculous. It took Colbie Caillat apologizing to her fans via a Myspace blog to discover this bizarre finding. What now? Fans will listen to someone else on Myspace and buy their songs via iTunes. How ironic.

Conclusion

Universal, you had the fans in the palms of your hands. You were greedy and looked for more money. Who is going to pay close to $10 for one episode of Heroes when I can get the whole season on DVD for $25 in a few weeks. Oh and I have DVR too, so I can watch it whenever I want on my big screen.

Sorry Universal, you are not going to survive this new media age with actions like this. Call me I got some solutions.

Speak out and let Universal know how they snubbed the most important people in their organization, their fans and customers.

-g-ro

Why Your Company Needs to Hire an SEO

I came across this article today by Ashley Graham in my RSS. Most of the time, I simply scan and move on. This article just put it out there so plain and simple. This is why you need to SEO your site.

Here's my favorite line:

With the right site this is like handing in a job application with a reference from the President or Donald Trump. Without having other important webpages linking to your various webpages your website is sitting in the cafeteria by itself and Google is the popular kid who won’t make eye contact.

Thanks Ashley. Visit E-Marketing Performance for more great SEO and Link related articles.

Why, SEO

The Future of MP3 Downloads. Food For Thought Major Labels.

Tonight I had the pleasure of being interview by Mark Jigarjian, a Media Production major at Rollins College in Winter Park. The talks ranged from the general Myspace Marketing of bands, to viral videos on YouTube to how social media and technology has changed the game and leveled the playing field to anyone with music as a passion.

The interview will air early next week after they talk to a few more people in the industry, and edit the piece down from all my ramblings.

One point that I came up with towards the end of the interview was that of merging media distribution. I brought up the point of Blip.tv distributing my videos with one click to my Myspace Blog, Myspace Bulleting, Facebook application, Twitter account and Blogger Blog.

I then motioned that MP3’s can and should be distributed in the same way. When you upload a song, why couldn’t it be virtually sent out to Myspace, Facebook pages, SnoCaP, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, CD Baby and the countless number of indie sites offering music downloads and streaming capability?

I then took it a step further and said that it would possibly take the power of the major labels to make such a deal or process happen. With their resources and power, the majors could make it possible for musicians to aggregate their downloadable music through a bevy of platforms with a single upload. And they could even take a cut of the sales. How about that major labels?

I call this the G-Ro Music Aggregation Theory. Put it in the books.

-g-ro