Group120: streetwise

My year with Labsome at RMIT University has finally come to an end. It has been bittersweet to say the least. At more than one point I questioned myself: “what the fuck are you doing with yourself?” Sure, admittedly, I resented having to go to classes and doing the work, convinced that I could be doing so much more by myself in ‘the real world’. In retrospect, I do think that it was a good experience that sneakily taught me some vital skills without me even realising it. While I wouldn’t be signing up for another year any time soon, I would not discourage others from going through this route – whether or not you are heading towards a PhD.

My year was spent studying and researching social media marketing, particularly in the area of independent music marketing. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with Group120 and use them as the group as my subject of study. In this project, I looked very closely at specific case studies and developed and executed some proven strategies for the group. I was also involved in social media training: having group members familiarise themselves with the various tools and platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reverbnation and Tumblr. My study and findings have all been collated in a full cohesive project.

Read the full report HERE

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New project: Group120

I’ve been absolutely horrible at keeping this space updated with news lately – I really must apologise. Work has been insane, with two essays due at uni, one documentary project and job interviews galore! I know, I probably should have been a little bit smarter with my interview scheduling, but I get antsy when things are left hanging for too long.. know what I mean?

So, latest happenings: I’ve recently accepted a volunteer position with Group 120, a community project headed by Doutta Galla Community Health Service. From their MySpace page:

“Group 120 is a multicultural Hip Hop collective based at the Flemington high rise Estate. We incorporate mc’s, beatboxers, dancers and beat makers. We have played a few big shows including the Sydney Road Street Party and we are currently writing tracks for a three part SBS documentary called “community cops”. The aim of Group 120 is to showcase the talent of Flemington youth and to counter some of the negative press that they have received in the mainstream media recently.”

Group120

Group120

My role in Group120 will be as a social media manager, helping them create an active and interactive web presence. We will work together to tell people and make them care about Group120. In this process, I will be managing Group120′s presence on various social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Last.fm, Vimeo and Flickr. I will also be training group members the basic functions of these tools, and teach them how to effectively market themselves by using them.

I’m very excited to get started on this project, mainly because I think it’s a fantastic cause. Music is something that has always inspired me (gah, cliche attack!), and while hiphop is definitely not my usual listening genre of choice, I find its history and people very fascinating. I can’t wait to see what I can learn about hiphop culture and what it means to the members of Group120 in the coming months. I think that it’s absolutely fantastic that I can learn from them as much as they will be learning from me.

Here’s to an awesome ride!

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