Hungry For Music...Hungry For Improvement

Hungry For Music is a charitable non-profit organization established in Washington D.C. Its mission is to support music education and cultural enrichment by acquiring and distributing quality musical instruments to underprivileged children with willing instructors and a hunger to play. In the past 15 years they have accomplished a lot of amazing things and changed the lives of plenty of underprivileged youth, groups and schools by distributing thousands of free musical instruments.

The organization acquires income, in part, through the sale of compact discs the organization produces. Other sources of income include conducting raffles, membership sales and concerts. Recently HFM was granted a Resources and Equipment grant from the Nation Education Association. Also, many notable donors, including Vanguard and Hard Rock Café, support HFM.

As you can see an organization like Hungry For Music requires and lot of support and right now the organization is doing a decent job at getting the word out or the support they need. Social Media should be this organization’s bread and butter. As of now, I am impressed that HFM is using a bulk load of social media outlets. They are currently using Facebook, Twitter, LinkIn, Pinterest, and have their own website. Unfortunately, HFM is not using this these social media outlets to the best of their ability. With 15 years in the making of Hungry for Music there is no doubt that the organization should be at a higher level than where it is at now.

I have listed a couple of areas that need some improvement and advise how to improve HFM social performance.

Social Media Profiles. The organization profiles of Facebookand Twitter are not up to date. I feel like the organization is doing the bare minimum on these sites. These profiles are used to campaign their brand and you want to be constant and consistent. Their Facebook page is more updated than their twitter profile. I would want to keep both these profiles update with the same information. This way you are creating a more convenient access to your events or whatever you may have in stored

Personal Website. The personal website is where Hungry For Music does most of their promoting. I can tell because the quality of design is much better than the other pages. The only thing I would improve here is the navigation. Navigation through the site is slightly difficult. There’s a lot of repetition in the home page. Also, I would encourage HFM to in corporate a measuring tool, for example Website Grader, to help measure the effectiveness of their website. This will give an idea to potential sponsor how popular your organization is and help persuade them to commit to a sponsorship.

Blog. Hungry for Music’s blog is a great asset to their website. It is important to mention that this should be not be difficult to find on the website. I would encourage to HFM to relocate there blog to the front of there home page . Their blogs really captures the idea of what this organization want to accomplish by sharing the true story of the children they've helped. The children are the audience and stars of this organization they should be center of attention.

One of my favorite quotes’ mentioned by HFM’s founder was “when you put an instrument in a child’s hand, you have the opportunity to change their life”. Well I am giving you instruments to help promote your brand and make that much more possible.

Keep an Open Mind On Using Twitter

Twitter as we all know is an online social networking service that enables people around the world to express themselves freely; but is Twitter causing a good or bad impact in today’s society? One of the most felicitous uses of Twitter is to promote long-form nonfiction by circulating a blurb leading to the full text; Twitter somehow is forcing us to be clearer, more convincing and smarter. In my opinion this social stream has changed the way people think in many different ways. Even though Twitter can be a good way to keep in touch, a lot of people are starting to feel “too” connected with this social media stream. I believe Twitter has been having a huge impact nowadays; it has been adopted as a communication and learning tool in educational settings mostly in colleges and universities. This is a perfect for students to use twitter in terms of boosting their brand. However, I also see it as something really addicting, and that's when people start getting off track of what the real purpose of this social media help tool can be. As you can see twitter has its pros and cons, but overall twitter is useful and an important medium to social media as most experts imply. I believe most experts are correct because we need to come to terms that this is how the new generates communicates. Without social media, how else can we keep this generation informed with daily news? Twitter.

I cannot believe of saying this, but I actually am pro twitter. I was “anti” twitter for a long while but after messing with it and becoming comfortable with it. I enjoy it more than my Facebook. What I like more about twitter is that there is a lot more news or useful information than you could find on Facebook. Get this, I am actually following President Barrack Obama on twitter!

How neat is that? Also, I am following the white house so its kind of neat to read any information that the president puts on his twitter feed. I enjoyed my experience using twitter and I will continue using twitter until I become an expert on it. All I can say is keep an open mind on using twitter. I need more followers, so follow me Ashley Garcia or username @AshAthenaGarcia. I put interesting things on my twitter. Promise.

Networking's Holy Grail: Networking Online/Offline and Griver's Gain

Having difficulty getting hired? Getting turned down because the employer doesn’t know you? If you answered, “yes” to the following questions, you may want to listen carefully and take notes over the knowledge I am going to share with you. Let me shed some light over you by introducing the idea of networking online and offline.

Why do I need to network with people, you may ask? Well, you can develop deeper relationships that lead to new business opportunities, job openings and even collaborations. This will help brand yourself by putting yourself out and getting in contact with more people or building relationships and trust. People get jobs through people they know. Arlene Schwarts, founder of Personalized Resume Service, shares on her website tips on enhancing your chance on getting a jobs. Guess, which is top of the list. Networking, you guessed it!

Networking can be done either online or offline. Lets take a look at online networking. Most important key thing to remember; be honest. If you are looking to enhance your personal brand, to help you get a job, let your online persona be who you are in real life. Don't try to be someone that other people want you to be. Remember that you are trying to build professional relationship and trust.

Okay, so now that you introduced yourself online and you have establish some sort of relationship with some connections. It is important to try to meet your connections, in person or face to face. As mentioned before, we are about forming relationships, and although you can form a relationship online, they can be fragile and unstable. A personal relationship can go much deeper and that's were trust can be developed.

Lastly, the best way to succeed in networking, use a “Giver’s Gain” technique. Giver’s Gain is the idea that by helping other people others will want to help you in return. Founder Ivan Misner of Business Network International, a network that has grown to more than 5,400 chapters worldwide and an organization built upon the idea of “giver’s gain, espoused the Giver’s Gain philosophy.

Not that you got some new knowledge, I encourage you to get back out and put it to good use. Build up some relationships both online and offline and don't forget the Giver’s Gain idea. Who knows, if the person you help, could know someone who is hiring and cosmopolitan magazine!