I LOVE electronic music, since really getting in to it at University I know that it is very likely that no other genre will have the same appeal to me. I naturally spend hours every day going through blogs, mix tapes, friends recommendations and when I’m not doing this it is very likely I am talking to someone about what I have found etc… So for me writing about music or posting tracks I like comes easy. Doing it on the internet is an extension of what I would do anyway. I know this to be the same for a number of bloggers out there who are friends of mine. For me this is an essential point. One of the key reasons for someone to keep checking your blog is that you can consistently deliver great content in your own unique way. I think to keep successfully writing about something or posting music you have to love what you do because you are probably not going to be making any money out of it. The only other driving force is your passion for what you’re doing, as well as a healthy need for recognition… (this may just be me)

You-tube, myspace, blogspot, wordpress…. expressing your views on anything to a mass audience has never being so easy. Throwing your opinions out there can be an effective way to develop your writing, draw attention to yourself or maybe even get yourself famous. Either way if you get good at it you’ll earn yourself some ‘e-respect’, which, less face it, is pretty much how you get the girls…

So what do I know about girls? Not a lot. But with respect to blogging I run a you tube channel of around 5600 subscribers that gets a good 7000 unique users a day as well as also contributing music articles to an online magazine called ‘Somethinkblue.com’ (give it a look it is honestly a great magazine) as well as of course contributing to the wonderful WEXO blog. Therefore I know from firsthand experience that there is a big difference between deciding to start a blog by using one of the aforementioned sites and services and actually being any good at it.

The great thing about the internet is a billion people use it. The bad thing for a blogger is a billion people now have a blog. Even if your writing is great how do you make sure people actually find it amongst the torrent of blogs out there? This is not just to do with the way you write or the quality of content, although these will inevitably become the most important things if your blog is to have any sort of a life span. It’s about initially capturing people’s attention, choosing the right medium for your content to go out on and putting it about in the right places.



I knew from firsthand experience that a lot of people check you tube for music, I also knew; as you can’t directly download music from you tube, putting up tracks here wouldn’t annoy the original artists (although this is not always the case). I also knew for people to know that the music was posted by me I needed a logo. Lucky for me I knew a chap named Stevie Anderson who made the picture you see at the top of this post. Using this to ‘tag’ my videos was my so called ‘shower moment’. I think for every 10 messages I get asking me about music one will be about someone wanting to print that logo on to a t-shirt or have it tattooed on to their body (I’m not joking this has happened more times than I can count).

I am also reliably informed that blogs should be kept as short as possible so the rest of my advice I’ll give you another time. What I really want to convey is how having a successful blog has helped me.

I went to a number of interviews before getting this job and without fail the blog has come up as a talking point every time. Not only does it show that you have enough drive to do things off your own back but it also highlights your ability to understand some key elements of marketing and be able to write to an internet audience. This will stand you in good stead with respect to a variety of jobs. If you love something I can really recommend getting your thoughts out there. The feedback you will receive will undoubtedly improve your writing and it will open you up to more of what you are already interested in as well as acting as a base to help push yourself in to the career you really want. Blog on WEXO, blog on.

Paul Stewart

Last night saw the first ever British televised debate between the main party leaders vying to win the 2010 British election. While everyone who watched it will admit it didn’t have quite the pizzazz of the US clash between Obama, McCain, Biden and Palin it certainly has everyone talking a bit more about the election, which is no bad thing.

This week’s debate focused on domestic affairs with the debate on foreign affairs coming next to Sky News on the 22nd April and the final debate on the economy appearing on BBC 1 on April 29th.

But how does this affect you? Well last night’s debate isn’t one that particularly concerns graduates or internships; the one that we will all be paying close attention to is the debate on the 29th April when we will really see the issues of graduate rights and graduate unemployment addressed. So why are we blogging about the election debate then? Well, I think last night was a great example of the way in which the internet allows a global discussion to occur almost simultaneously to an event occurring.

If you were on the ITV site while you watched the debate you will have noticed the so called ‘worm’ that mapped everyone’s opinion of the leaders. As the debate continued red, yellow and blue ‘public perception’ curves fluctuated up and down every time Gordon Brown said “I agree with you Nick” and Cameron refused to clarify his stance on national insurance. This is a great example of how the internet and in particular social media applications, such as twitter and facebook, are changing the way we get and use information.

This, as our ambassadors will remember, is a point that was raised by Paul Harrison from Carve media group the other day and is a point that WEXO would like to share with all its members. It’s getting to a stage now where information is globally available in a matter of seconds. Why wait to read the news from the BBC or some other second or third hand source when you can go on twitter and read a tweet written by someone who is there? This has huge implications for business as well. If someone in Japan buys an mp3 player and is unhappy with it, in the time it takes to make a few key strokes someone in London can read this report and form an opinion of a product before it has even landed on these shores. There is no room for error now; business has to not only make sure it is constantly monitoring this information and adapting its product or service but it also needs to know how to utilise this great resource to its advantage. One example of this is someone tweeting that her phone is rubbish and Vodaphone tweeting back five minutes later with their latest phone contracts. Some may find this a little creepy, but is this future? I think it might just be…..

This is where you come in. To use the business term, you are a ‘digital native’. You have grown up using social media applications and this is something that can really be used to your advantage when you apply for roles. You know how to use this and more importantly how other people your age use it. This is a great bit of information to have and something a business will want.

My advice to you? Use it. Make sure you get this across in interviews or your CV and WEXO believe it could tip the balance in your favour when it comes to bagging that perfect work experience, internship or job. Please feel free to discuss underneath.

Are you not sure how you are going to vote? Give this site a try, votematch, and let us know what you think.

WITH THEIR mere presence the ambassador’s were spoiling us on Friday. We invited all of the WEXO clan down to London for the afternoon – Emanuelle Ronez (at Durham), Ellie Dawkins (Bournemouth), Tiggy Grafton (Bournemouth), George Lumbers (Edinburgh), Philip Leonard (Edinburgh), Nell Fane (Exeter), Rosana Littleton (Exeter), Jack Roberts (UCL), Georgie Humphries (Leeds), Jenny Maguire (LSE), John De Graft Johnson (LSE), Olivia Flatley (Manchester) along with our original WEXO ambassador and organiser of the entire even, Emma Roberts (LSE).


We all met up at East London’s fave members club and were treated to a sort of ‘tomorrow’s world’ (anyone remember that program?!) of the way we communicate online. With plenty of food for thought we then carried our hungry tummies across to Pizza East, Shoreditch House’s sister restaurant to eat, drink and merrily chat about what we all want to do with our lives. Next was the big WEXO competition – they who cometh up with the best idea for WEXO shall inherriteth a bottle of Krug champers!. Very exciting stuff. The winning idea was to have a chat facility on WEXO so that people looking for an internship can have a natter on the site. Well done brainy Jack Roberts and look out for WEXO chat coming very soon!

Please feel free to discuss some of the other brilliant ideas from Friday, were always looking for ways to improve WEXO and who better to tell us that the people who use it!


Jack Receiving his bottle of Krug!

Since we started WEXO it has been really useful to receive your feedback – and particularly from those of you wanting to get involved with what we do here. Over the last few months we have signed some of you up to the WEXO Ambassador Programme. This initiative is designed to give you a bit of virtual work experience whilst helping us spread the word about WEXO.

This Friday we will be hosting the first in a series of Ambassador events where we will bring a bunch of you guys down to meet companies that YOU have expressed interest in. We here at WEXO recognise the importance of that personal touch.

The day will consist of an informal chat over lunch followed by a guest speaker. So after some food to eat we will give you some food for thought. On this occasion the speaker is Paul Harrison from Carve Consulting. Paul is an expert in the area of social media and has consulted for a number of multinational companies. WEXO aims to arm people with all the information they could possibly need to easily find that perfect role.

Following the talk you will then get the chance to meet companies that YOU have expressed an interest in and will be able to discuss what they are looking for and what a career in their respective fields would be like. Armed with this information and having experienced first hand all that WEXO is about these Ambassadors will then go out and fly the WEXO flag at Universities across the UK. Keep an eye out for one near you soon!

WEXO – ‘It’s not who you know, it’s who you are’