Artist Blog: Attract Fans, Not Visitors

MP3 Blogs can cause significant music and event ticket sales. If the MP3 blog community embraces the artist, they could potentially have thousands talking about the artist and providing MP3s of their songs to hundreds of thousands of music fans. A great way to get the word out is by a real grass roots campaign of music fans talking about the artist. With the Internet, they have a vehicle to communicate with the world.

MP3 Music Blogs: An Invaluable Medium

Over the past few years, music blogs have become an invaluable medium for new artists to garner positive internet exposure. By establishing personal relationships with blogs that are most relevant to their particular sound/genre, new artists have the opportunity to reach vast, unexpected audiences.

Producing unique and high-quality content is the foremost concern for any artist looking to attract more fans and increase their brand awareness. Artists should take advantage of all available media resources -- YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, blogs, message boards, etc. In a day and age where new acts emerge left and right, it is fundamentally essential that you have your name out in the vast web domain. Otherwise prospective fans outside of your town or inner-circle will not have any reason to know about what you do.

Since artists and bloggers continue to develop a keen professionalism in promotion and content delivery, utilizing the web space and social media tools effectively will allow you to distinguish yourself from other artists. Remember that bloggers with significant traffic are constantly bombarded with all kinds of press materials from bands big and small, and are much more inclined to post about something that comes off as natural and personal, rather than manufactured.

Viral Marketing The Artist's Music

Once a connection with a like-minded blogger is made, the artist's content can spread like wildfire, producing what’s known as a viral effect, where one source with an audience disseminates the information to countless others, much like a virus. And when that happens, it can become a vital and rewarding aspect of your own online media campaign.



Abridged: Gorillavsbear.net

Writing An Artist Press Release

Most artist press releases follow a similar format, and it's easy to learn. First, spend some time defining the Main Message you want to get across. You will need to tell the who, what, when, why, and where in your press release.

First lines to include in your artist press releases

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" (or FOR RELEASE JUNE 30, 2001) and

"For more information, contact:"

followed by your contact information. (Make sure the phone number you give will be answered promptly during the period right after the release is sent out. Editor's who are interested in running your story may need to talk to you.)

Then, write your headline, which looks good in all capital letters. The headline is the single most important sentence of your press release - if the headline sounds interesting, it compels people to read further. If not - your release may be passed over quickly. Spend some time and creative thought on the headline. Read other headlines and notice what makes you read an article. This is the same kind of thing you need to accomplish. Don't be afraid to be dramatic, as bold headlines can draw the reader in. Don't make it too boring. "HELPING STOP DEAFNESS: ONE SONG AT A TIME" is a lot more enticing that "LOCAL BAND PLAYS AT DEAF SCHOOL" if you're doing a show at the Deaf School.

After you have crafted the perfect headline, you need to write the body of your release. Here's where you give all the details of your story. Write it in third person (using "He" or "She" instead of "I") and make it read like a news story. Press releases should be, at maximum, two pages long, and one page is better.

Special mention should be given here to the first paragraph. Just like the headline, the first paragraph needs to grab the reader's interest. In fact, many busy editors will only read past the beginning if you have "hooked" them in the first few lines. Make sure you include ALL pertinent details in this paragraph, since often papers will run releases verbatim. Use full city and state descriptions (Seattle, Washington, not just Seattle), and include the month, day, and year in dates (May 4, 2001, not May 4th).

Describe your news without adding flowery adjectives (it's supposed to be NEWS). You can use quotations to add more interest. ("We always wanted to help deaf kids, and this benefit is how we're doing it", said Johnny about the band's gig at the Deal School.)

At the end of the release, summarize your story and add any "About Us" information that is necessary. Follow it up with a contact for further information.

End your press release with the symbol "###" (without the quotation marks) after your last lines of text. This lets the editor know they have successfully received the entire release.

Artist Press Release Sample Format

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact:

Your Name
Your Street
AddressCity,
State, Zip Code
Phone
Fax
Email

HEADLINE

MONTH DAY#, YEAR (CITY, STATE) -- Important information answering the who, what, where, when, and why. Make sure the first paragraph summarizes your news clearly.
Add additional details here.

About The Artist or Band: blah, blah, blah

For further information, contact Your Name at (xxx) xxx-xxxx.

###

Summary: You can get some great free publicity by learning to write effective press releases. The coverage costs you nothing more than time and the paper to write the release on, and can bring invaluable promotion to your music or business.



Abridged by Music Biz Academy

The Year of Going Social 2009

For years, marketers have talked about 'listening' to the consumer. At the same time, Web 2.0 tools (social media and social networking tools) have been springing up all over the Internet. These social networking tools and widgets enable conversations to take place AMONG consumers. That conversation has evolved into video, picture, text, audio files ... and can be shared and passed on. This is what is called "viral marketing". Blogs, podcasts, YouTube, Twitter, Wikis, and social networks are the social media tools used to engage in conversation with one another. Clearly, a fundamental shift in the way we communicate has occurred. Welcome to the new world of "social media and social networking"!

Tap into the new world of social media marketing

The bad news for business? If you haven't tapped into the new world of social marketing ....You're late. The good news? You're not too late. It's true that many of the innovators and early adopters out there are screaming that you're going to be out of business if you don't hop on the social media bandwagon today. Not true.

If your doors are still open during the current economic conditions, you're doing something right! That said, your customers and clients are online communicating. Tapping into online social media gives you the opportunity to be a part of that conversation.

Social Media is a critical part of marketing

Fact is, most businesses haven't even thought about social media as a viable part of their marketing mix – until now. The adoption curve is a lot like the growth of websites in 1999. Do you remember when having a business Web site was novel, and then suddenly one day became critical? That's what's happening with Social Media. It's just beginning to hit the corporate radar screen as a part of an integrated marketing plan.

Social Media practitioners would be surprised at what's holding businesses back. Product managers and reputation management executives are worried about policy, privacy, and lack of control. They are puzzled by the openness and the transparency that is the currency of social media. Most of them don't even know what RSS feeds are or how to use them, let alone how to launch a blog.

"Customer Engagement" is the #1 reason to launch social media campaigns.

But, clearly, not everyone is an early adopter. Don't wait too long to get your feet wet and be prepared to catch up fast. Bottom line is that companies will be successful in 'going social' not because they were first, but because they're paying attention. Then, when no one is looking, they'll catch up fast, and could even take the lead.



By Beverly W. Macy and Troy A. Peterson, eMarketing Association Network Group

Find A Legitimate SEO Specialist

Lets face it, between all the social networking, blogging, twittering, linking, and all, online marketing has become extremely confusing to stay on top of. However, most companies have a general understanding that it is more important than ever to have an online presence so that you and your business can be found. You need to be seen, and not by just anyone, but the right audience needs to be viewing your website. When your prospects are online and ready to buy, don't you want your website to be the one they are looking at?

Getting Listed on Page One Of Google

...Enter SEO: the strategy for getting your company listed on Page One of Google and other search engines. Despite what you may have heard, it is a highly technical discipline with hundreds of aspects.
In today's market, anything that can be automated is irrelevant. Things that used to work no longer do, and Google and the other search engines have developed standards to reward websites with good code, content, and relevancy and punish those using “black hat" tactics, intentional or not.

Key steps in gaining online visibility

Keyword research is the most important first step in a successful online marketing campaign. Exhaustive keyword research and selection establishes a bulwark for most of your online marketing efforts. Done properly, the keywords identified in the research process inform organic search, local search, sponsored search, link building campaigns, press releases and more. From there, competitive analysis, website code and content analysis and the subsequent optimization are the key steps in gaining visibility on the major search engines.

While there are simple things you can do on your own to improve the visibility of your website, search engine optimization is technical and it takes time. It is a long term marketing strategy that needs monitoring as the internet constantly evolves.

How to find a legitimate SEO company

1. Do a search. Look up "SEO company (enter city name here)" and see who comes up. If they were good at what they did, they would probably be doing a pretty good job for themselves.

2. If they tell you they can guarantee a #1 ranking, run. No one can guarantee ranking because it is based on some factors out of the company's control. The reason people are interested in being on Page One is because it is a listing that you can't pay for, and therefore, is more trustworthy to consumers.

3. Make sure whoever you are talking to specifies that they are optimizing your website for organic listings. Recently, a prospective client of mine was told that he could be ranked #1 on Google in 15 minutes and sure enough, there he was. The placement was at the top of the page in Sponsored Search, which is Pay-Per-Click Advertising. Of course, if you are willing to spend enough money, you can find yourself at the top of Sponsored Search.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND: Do your research. There are plenty of experienced professionals in the SEO industry, but there are even more "un-professionals".

If you would like to discuss SEO for your online presence, contact a Social Circle Media Specialist today for your free consultation.

Abridged Article: eMarketing Association Network Group

Top Social Media Sites of 2008

In the new world of social media and obtaining an online Internet presence, I often tell my clients about the importance of tying in social media tools, widgets, blogs, and applications to their website. These tools help elevate your online brand and assist in driving qualified relevant traffic to your website (s).

What are the top social media sites of 2008?

ComScore came out with its worldwide traffic stats for 2008 a few days ago. They are a mix of social networks and blogging platforms. Blogger, the orange line in the chart above, still rules the roost with an estimated 222 million unique worldwide visitors in November (up 44 percent from November, 2007). Facebook, the blue line, is on pace to pass it soon with 200 million unique visitors (up 116 percent). (Note, though, that this is more than the 140 million active users Facebook itself reports—go figure). MySpace is pretty steady at 126 million uniques. Wordpress is a close fourth and gaining with 114 million (up 68 percent). And Windows Live Spaces is down 22 percent to 87 million uniques.

ComScore keeps a list of what it calls "social networking" sites, but these include blogging platforms and other social media sites as well. While the audience for blogs is still showing healthy growth overall, Facebook stands out as the social gorilla taking share from not only other social networks but blogs and other social media as well.

Top 20 sites on comScore's social networking list.

Below are the top 20 sites on comScore's social networking list. It is really more of a social media site list, which is what I'm renaming it for this post. It is not definitive, but it gives a good lay of the land. Note on this list the stubborn persistence of Yahoo's Geocities at No. 6, the rise of Yahoo's Flickr at No. 7, Six Apart at No. 10, and the presences of Chinese sites like Baidu Space and 56.com. The real surprise, though, is document-sharing site Scribd at No. 16, with nearly 24 million worldwide uniques.

Top Social Media Sites

(ranked by unique worldwide visitors November, 2008; comScore)

1. Blogger (222 million)
2. Facebook (200 million)
3. MySpace (126 million)
4. Wordpress (114 million)
5. Windows Live Spaces (87 million)
6. Yahoo Geocities (69 million)
7. Flickr (64 million)
8. hi5 (58 million)
9. Orkut (46 million)
10. Six Apart (46 million)
11. Baidu Space (40 million)
12. Friendster (31 million)
13. 56.com (29 million)
14. Webs.com (24 million)
15. Bebo (24 million)
16. Scribd (23 million)
17. Lycos Tripod (23 million)
18. Tagged (22 million)
19. imeem (22 million)
20. Netlog (21 million)

Abridged: TechCrunch.com