ProjekBrunei.com - Social Media Posts

Dear e-journal,

I am new to you. I have known you existed from way back but have never bothered to give you any attention. However, due to the influence of a certain fellow xanga-ian, I find myself now typing this. I must be honest though. I do not know how long I will be able to keep up with this for I know that, deep down, I find it hard to keep a 'real' journal - what more, an e-journal.

Ah well. I am ready and willing to try new and different things. So, teach me and learn from me.

For now,
Del

That was my first ever blog entry dated 25th August 2004 on Xanga. I wrote sporadically. I wrote about everything and anything. I wrote about stuff I used. I wrote about Britney Spears (it was 2004 remember?). I wrote about relationships I was in (and out of). Back then, the term ‘emo’ had not yet been invented, but gosh there were some emo entries. About a year later, I moved on to Wordpress and there I stayed until 2009. Across 4 years, I submitted (a very measly) 53 posts.

It is now 2012 and over the last seven years I have learnt a few things about blogging from trial and error. I practice these seven principles and since the launch of Projek Brunei, traffic has increased by over 500%. This post is more so a reflective post and a reminder to myself about the art and craft of blogging, something which is now part of my day-to-day brand. May it be of some help to you too.

Here are my seven tips for outstanding blogging.

                                                                                               Source: ErikBrillo.com

Build the brand, not the Blog

This has been, is and will continue to be my mantra for this blog. Do I want to give my readers a great experience on my blog? Of course I do, but equally if not more important to me is the blog’s branding. This means putting myself out there to initiate things, to collaborate, to push for change, to keep lifting the quality of content, to support the underdog, to embrace failure.

I was contacted just over two weeks ago by the a consultant from Media Consulta based in Berlin, Germany and it went along the lines of "we would like to invite you to participate in a dialogue session in Jakarta". I was like "spam! scam!" but after a number of emails, an intercontinental Skype video call and a few calls to the local German Embassy (yea, I am thorough like that) I found that it was legit.

In exactly a week's time, I will be in Manila for the ASEAN 100 Leadership Forum. The annual event is a "flagship regional event" by Asia Inc Forum and it gathers "the most outstanding next wave of leaders from the region who will shape the future of ASEAN". Previous Forums were graced by leaders such as Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia (2003), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore (2005) and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia (2006). This year, President Benigno Aquino III of the Philippines will be present and dialogue throughout the Forum will revolve around the theme "One ASEAN".

I have been to a number of conferences and forums across the last 10 years or so, and I have learnt a few things along the way. Here are seven conference survival tips I will surely be exercising in Manila at the ASEAN 100 Leadership Forum.

1. Take a Step Back

Strange things happen when you put hundreds of people in the same room at the same time. The energy levels rise, introverts become alpha sanguines, vision becomes telescopic and it is easy to get lost in a crowd. Take a step back, collect yourself and plan your next moves. Are there people in specific you want to meet? The keynote speaker perhaps? A famous author? Most likely there will be a group of other fans around him or her. If so, take a step back, put on a thick face, and make your move. You need to be very deliberate.

Don't get stuck in a moment

Happy Tuesday y'all! This morning I received a tweet from @BaziDamit about a Cover Song Face-Off by Mashable. Mashable claims to be "the top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture". I believe them. Mashable welcomes over 50 million monthly pageviews and 14 million unique monthly visitors so they are a big deal. They uploaded a post today entitled: YouTube Cover Song Face-Off: Cee Lo’s “Forget You” and the following is an excerpt from that post.

Each week, Mashable picks a popular song, finds 10 covers of it and asks you to vote for your favorite.

Gwyneth Paltrow snagged an Emmy on Sunday for her recurring guest spot on Glee, in which she plays a substitute teacher who sings Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You.”

Cee Lo’s hit single — even the uncensored version, “F*** You” — spawned many more covers on YouTube...Vote for your favorite version in the poll.

I wondered why @BaziDamit shared the link and read on. Read read read. I soon figured it out. There is an option to vote for "Tharwana and Aziz" in the poll. I did a quick YouTube search on "Forget You Tharwana and Aziz" and (Cee) Lo and Behold, I found the following video...already viewed over 17 thousand times.

Forget You Cover by local Bruneian talents Tharwana & Aziz

Click on the link here to vote for Tharwana and Aziz.

Tharwana and Aziz, keep up the great work and well done on being mentioned on Mashable! That is a big deal.

Shout out to Bazi for sharing the link too.

Big Love!

In this day and age, gone are the days when musicians were unreachable deities who seemed to live on a world completely different to our own. With the advent of the internet and - consequently - social networking, many have embraced to spouting their thoughts to their fans at a click of a mouse.

While there is still that element of inapproachability for the superstars, many musicians now seem more human and more relatable than ever, tweeting about their dependence on that morning serving of coffee or posting a photo on Facebook of their cat snuggling inside a box.

Seriously, don't go to GetOutOfThereCat.tumblr.com. You'll be stuck in your room for day.

Keeping this in mind, I have compiled a list of mistakes musicians make when using social networking as tool. While all the advice here applies generally to all musicians, I wrote this with regards to the Brunei music scene, using my modest experience in being involved with the UK music scene as a writer (for both my music site It’s Raining Planes & Helicopters, and Leeds-based publication Musical Mathematics) and a remixer.