Ariel Publicity

Here’s the final post in my 3 part series discussing some basic marketing plan elements for independent musicians. So far we’ve gotten Everything In Order (Website is up-and-running, Newsletter plan is in place and Touring and Merchandise steps have been taken) and we’ve also had a successful Album Launch.

What now?

To build off of all this progress that has been made you will now have to keep supplying content to strengthen your relationship and stay relevant with your current fans, while at the same time this content will also help to increase your fanbase. Additional merchandise is one idea, you can make vinyl for the last album or announce new T-shirt designs. You can also create more videos for songs off the last album or videos of you performing covers…..yes the latter of which is copyright infringement. Here’s a tip: Set up a second YouTube channel for all your cover videos to protect your official artist YouTube channel from being shut down (but this hardly ever happens).

Below I’ve gone in to detail for three important content streams: Music, Social Media and Live Shows.

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Happy Friday, everyone!

Marissa from Team CyberPR here.

Ah, infographics…somehow they’re much more fun to read than just plain type. Most people tend to like and remember information much better when it’s presented visually, which is probably one reason why the popularity of infographics exploded in 2011 (they also tend to do well in Google searches).

And since an infographic presents information in a compact format, people like sharing them. I’m in a sharing kind of mood today, so here are 3 helpful social media infographics I’d like to share with you!

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Here is part 2 of my 2 part interview with the inspiring Seth Godin.

Watch Part 2 of the interview:

These are the highlights of our talk. Enjoy!

The First TEN, everyone has 10 people in the world. If you play for them and they walk away you need to change your music, but if those 10 bring 10 more friends tomorrow now you can amplify what you are doing.

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Click the image to download

With social media growing at such a rapid pace, I decided it was a good idea to revisit my social media food pyramid and update it for 2012.

So…

Here’s Your Social Media Food Pyramid

It happens to me all of the time when I teach artists social media.The face goes blank, the frustration begins to settle in and then the artist says it:

“I just don’t have anything interesting to say.”

REALLY?

I’m shocked by this every time.  You are an artist; you do things we mere mortals are totally enamored by: you PLAY MUSIC, you write songs, you perform them in public!

So PUHLEEASE, do not tell me you have nothing interesting to say. I ain’t buying it.

All you are missing is a System for Social Media Success.

Luckily, unlike sheer god-given musical talent, social media is a learnable skill.

The inspiration for this hit me while I was teaching my system to a client in my kitchen…

THE FOOD PYRAMID!

Now, I’ve been told they don’t actually teach this in school anymore… but for those of you old enough to remember, do you remember that chart they brought out when we were in 2nd grade to show us how to eat well-rounded meals? I have re-tooled it for you so you can now participate on Social Media healthily! And you won’t even have to think about it – just follow along…

You wouldn’t eat only bagels all of the time.  They are a treat once in awhile, but they are not healthy to eat every day – and a diet of only bagels would be boring!

Most artists are only serving their audiences bagels all of the time. Plain bagels. Over an over again.

Uninteresting.

We want a burger, or a giant green healthy salad, we want some candy.

We want the protein but you keep serving bagels, bagels, bagels!

These are five things that when used in concert with one another can help you ratchet up your social media effectively and manage it easily.

Use these as a guide to mix and match them to suit your comfort level (just like your diet, eat what feels right for you)

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There’s a fierce rule that I live by that keeps me safe in the music business – it’s simple: Never meet your idols.

I still stand by that … except today I’m changing this to:
Never meet your idols…unless your idol is Seth Godin.

I feel more inspired, calm and clear than I have in a long time.

I was once called the “last enthusiastic person in the music business.” and I prided myself in that.

But lately I’ve been feeling jaded and not quite so enthusiastic.

I think that had something to do with:

1. Being empathic and sometimes feeling like an open receptacle to angry indie artists confronted by the amount of work ahead of them.

2. Reading one too many negative posts about the business and how we are all supposed to feel happy with less in the new model.

3. Traveling the world and hearing the collective gasp as artists scratch their heads and ask – how do we make money doing this??

Turns out Seth Godin has answers….

I’m going to change back into that enthusiastic girl today…

Thanks Seth.

Watch Part 1 of the interview:

Read the Highlights on my Blog:

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