Brands And Social Media

As I've posted here before, your brand is important is to your success as an artist. So what is a brand exactly? It's a combination of your image and your sound. Stray too far from either and you lose your brand identity.

Assuming that you maintain your brand integrity, here are few interesting facts from Atym Marketing Reseach about how social media plays into building that brand.

• 29% of Twitter users follow a brand.

• 39% have tweeted about a brand.

• 29% have retweeted about a brand.

• 58% of Facebook users have liked a brand.

• 42% have mentioned a brand in a status update.

• 41% have shared a link, video or story about a brand.

• 66% of people who have liked a brand have 100 or more Facebook friends.

• 84% are active daily.

How do your followers prefer to be communicated with?

• 32% prefer to get short updates from the brand they follow.

• 27% prefer emails.

• 5% prefer blogs or press releases.

• 5% videos

• 1% audio podcasts.

The point of the stats above is that people who like brands are very active on social media and greatly influence others. That's why social media should always be a main part of your overall marketing strategy.

-----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

5 Questions To Ask Your Fanbase

In Music 3.0, your fanbase is a living, breathing thing that needs your attention not only in order to grow, but to keep from dissipating. Marketing guru Seth Godin calls your core fans your "tribe," which needs a leader to keep the group active. The leader can either be the artist himself, someone designated by the artist, or even someone very vocal within the group. Either way, it's the leader's job to constantly check the pulse of the tribe to keep it healthy. Here's an excerpt from the Music 3.0 Guidebook that explains that process, as well as 5 things to ask your fans to gauge their interest.
------------------------------

"The leader must constantly check the pulse of the tribe to hear what the members are feeling and thinking. This can be helpful in determining just what the tribe likes and dislikes about you and your music. Maybe there’s a direction that you briefly touched upon on your last record that drove the tribe wild, or maybe one that they hated? You might choose to follow your musical instincts instead of listening to tribal feedback, but at least you won’t be surprised by the resulting reaction. 

Taking the tribe’s pulse also lifts the mood of its members, since interaction with the leader is always appreciated and results in more participation. Showing your appreciation for their participation fosters even greater loyalty and participation and gets them invested emotionally and intellectually.

So how do you take the tribe’s pulse? You ask them questions or ask them to help you. For instance, you can:

1. Ask them which piece of merch they prefer. 

2. Ask them about the best venues in their area, why they like them, and if they’d prefer to see you there. 

3. Ask them what song they’d love to hear you cover. 

4. Ask them who their favorite artists are (this answer is great for other elements of social marketing as well).  

5. Ask them to judge the artwork on your next release. Then, when they respond, reward them. Give a free T-shirt to the first ten people who respond. Send them a secret link to download a track that’s available only to them. Give a personal shout out to some of the best responses. 

All of the above makes them feel special and great about belonging, and keeps the interest in the tribe high."

You can read more excerpts from Music 3.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age, or my other books at bobbyowsinski.com.

-----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Entertainment Sky Is Rising

If you read this blog with any kind of regularity, you know that I'm one who is quite optimistic about the entertainment business, and the music business in particular. You hear a lot of doom and gloom and rather bold "sky is falling" statements in the media, but most of them are from the old guard of the business who's business is under attack.

It's quite true that things are different fiscally than they've ever been before, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. All it means is that the entertainment world as we know it is morphing, shifting and evolving to a new model. If you're part of the old school, the last thing you want is this change because things were so comfortable as they were, but it's too late - we're in the middle of something completely new. It's Music 3.0.

Here's a great inforgraphic from Techdirt by way of the great Hypebot blog that explains how the entertainment sky is rising rather than falling.

You can find a nice presentation of the full report over at Hypbot.

-----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Royalty And Fee Sources For Songwriters

Here's a great post from the Songtrust blog that comes by way of Ariel Hyatt's Cyber PR. It lists 30 possible sources of income for songwriters. Here are just two of the categories:

Performance Royalties

1. TV (royalties are paid by the TV station for the broadcast of a show, film or commercial with your music on it. This is not to be confused with the actual placement of your songs in TV, film or commercials which is a sync royalty.)

2. Radio

3. Live venues

4. Restaurants

5. Bars

6. Movie theaters

7. Elevator music services

8. Supermarkets

9. Clothing stores

10. Gyms

11. When your music is sampled 

12. Jukebox

Mechanical Royalties

13. Ringtones / ringbacks

14. Recorded cover songs

15. Record sales

16. Film soundtracks

17. Karaoke recordings 

18. Greeting cards

You can see the other 3 categories of songwriter income by going directly to the article on the Songtrust blog.

-----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Fun Twitter Facts

Here are some fun Twitter facts that go to show just how powerful the platform has become, and it's future potential. The stats come from Mashable and cover to the end of 2011.

• 81% of users follow less than 100 people

• 42.3% of users are between 30 and 49.

• 47% of Twitter users have children.

• 30% have an annual household income of over $100,000.

• Males are most likely to use Twitter for work-related research and news.

• Females are most likely to use Twitter to keep in touch with friends and post status updates.

• 1 billion tweets post every 5 days.

• 5 percent of the users create 75% of the content.

• 20% of Twitter accounts are empty and unused.

• Tweets on Hurricane Irene outnumbered the war in Libya by 36 to 1.

• The 10 most followed Twitter accounts are mainstream celebrities. They are:

1. Lady Gaga - 13.8 million followers 

2. Justin Beiber - 12.9 million 

3. Barack Obama - 10.3 million 

4. Katy Perry - 10.1 million 

5. Kim Kardashian - 10 million 

6. Britney Spears - 9.7 million 

7. Shakira - 8.7 million 

8. Taylor Swift - 8.1 million 

9. Ashton Kutcher - 7.7 million 

10. Rhianna - 7.6 million

As you can see, Twitter is a platform that's still growing and can be an extremely powerful promotional tool. Overlook it at your own social peril.

-----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.