Deirdre Breakenridge

As 2009 comes to a close, I thought it would be interesting to share a couple of articles on the music industry, the ups and downs of 2009, and what to expect in 2010. There are so many opportunities through PR 2.0 and collaborative social media communications.   Let’s hope that our outreach, engagement and community building efforts propel us forward in the New Year.

Here are the articles … feel free to share your thoughts about 2009 and how 2010 will be a better year for you.

Music Industry Blog

http://bit.ly/3mC2

Media Shift

http://bit.ly/5iiJgp

To all of my music friends, I hope 2010 is a year of much success and happiness!

My original post about Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) and his book, Crush It, first appeared on my PR 2.0 Strategies blog.  I discussed how when I saw Gary deliver a keynote presentation at the IMS 09 Boston Conference that I was taken by his energy and enthusiasm. As soon as Gary entered the room and took the stage, he sent out one very clear message: Pure PASSION.  You know there’s an old saying that if you could bottle it, then you would make millions.  Well that certainly applied here.  Gary’s energy is contagious and his book is a motivating story of how you can use passion and your own DNA to change your life.

Although this book is a success story of an entrepreneur in the wine business, it’s also a book that is motivating for people in any business, who have passion in their hearts.  The music business is full of passion and that’s why it’s a great read for artists who want to do more with their music and use the social web as a great way to connect with fans and promote their music brands.

Crush It is not just for those who are unhappy in their current careers and feeling unfulfilled in life.  Of course, they should read this book, but it’s also for people who are happy, but just need that extra boost to reignite their passion to experience that useful and meaningful feeling (similar to how you feel when you embark upon a new adventure in life).  Through Gary’s in-depth knowledge of the Internet and social media, as well as how he tackled his own challenges, you can learn to reinvent yourself to find 100% happiness.

Crush It is a really easy read filled with energy, enthusiasm and most of all passion.  The book’s chapters discuss how success is in your DNA, how to build your personal brand and how there’s a whole new world to experience, if you have the passion and the determination.  Gary’s story is amazing and will make you rethink the steps to your own personal and professional music success, especially if you follow his three simple rules:  love your family, work super hard and live your passion. Excellent advice from someone who is living out his dream with passion!

In order to find the relevant conversations that are related to your music and your brand, you need to engage in a daily listening exercise.  Many people find the social media landscape to be overwhelming because of the abundance of conversations that take place. How do you find the relevant conversations and the important influencers who will champion your brand and filter out all of the noise at the same time? Through the use of careful monitoring with either free tools and resources (beyond Google Alerts) which may include,  Backtype, Collecta, Technorati, Techrigy and TweetBeep, or you can invest in software programs (these include Radian6, Dow Jones Insight and BuzzLogic) that allow you to use keywords to receive your relevant information and brand related news.

However, with small budgets and little resources, let’s focus on a few of the free resources when you are listening for focused conversations and identifying important influencers whom you wish to engage:

• Backtype:  a real-time, conversational search engine that allows you to see threads of communication which appear in blog comments. Backtype allows you to conduct individual searches through keywords, profile searches and to set up brand alerts.

• Collecta:  A real-time search engine that provides a steady flow of news and information and has multimedia functionality.  Collecta monitors news sites and blogs, so that you can receive live updates as they happen.

• Technorati:  A blog search engine that allows you to set up individual searches through keywords and also profile searches.  Technorati provides the following monitoring capabilities: blogger influence, blogger demographics, multimedia functionality and reporting functions including charts and share of voice.

• Techrigy:  The Techrigy Freemium service allows you to set up an account for five search words/phrases and you can store up to 1,000 search results.  Techrigy offers real-time individual and profile searches through keywords, as well as the following functions: multimedia, reporting, charts, tone, and topic clouds.

• TweetBeep:  A Twitter application that allows you to search the Twitter tweet stream through keywords.  TweetBeep is used for individual searches and to receive brand mentions in real-time.

These are only a few of the many free resources that are available for monitoring and identifying key influencers.  A few other resources for identifying influencers include IceRocket, BlogPulse and Alltop.  You can also check out Trendrr and Social Mention for social monitoring.  If you know of any free tools, feel free to share them here!

It’s really important to identify influencers who, once you build a relationship with them, will share your story and your music.  Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) and Julien Smith’s (@julien) book, Trust Agents, used a very good example of how Madonna continued her success by the selection of the right influencers.  In the chapter of the book called, One of Us, the authors pointed out that Madonna kept herself relevant by focusing on the newcomers rather than sucking up to the key industry personalities. Madonna had a great model.   

The title of this principle is “Raising Up versus Sucking Up.”  Of course in the beginning Madonna used some of the bigger names in music to build brand equity for herself and her music.  However, once she made her “climb” the focus became the new names or the up and comers in the industry to leverage their rise to success.  This resulted in the ability for Madonna to keep her own name in the spotlight and relevant with the current culture.  One example cited in the book is how older music artists are teaming up with younger musicians in duets, often reinventing themselves with a younger counterpart.

Using the Madonna model, the same practice will apply to you when it’s time to decide who you want to build a relationship with in the social sphere.  Is there any rule that say’s you have to go after the A-list influencers (the top bloggers with the most followers)?  No such rule exists. Although A-list influencers do have the massive amounts of followers, they often only have a limited amount of time to report on something new.  Then, they move on quickly to the next piece of big news, being courted by many others who offer them products and newsworthy information for their blogs.  Along the same lines, Chris and Julien also state in their book, “Top influencers are less obligated to be helpful. They are inundated with competing offers for their attention.”

It’s important for you to remember that even the less well known bloggers will advance and grow their influence and their careers over time.  If you help them on the way up, then they will reciprocate by sharing your brand and music as they climb their way to the top.  There is no shortage of the up and comers.  Following the Madonna model, you can have many influencers in your camp who are dedicated to a relationship with you vs. a couple of really busy, big names that may show less of a focus on your hard work.

I caught a portion of the 140 The Twitter Conference LA on Ustream a few of weeks ago.  I watched part of panel session:  The Music Panel: Lessons from Engaged Artists. Participating on the panel were Mark Nubar, Curt Smith, Andrew Blair, Jeff Yasuda, and Chamillionaire with moderator, Steve Broback. There were some really good takeaways on how to participate on Twitter.  The panel members were in agreement that you need to be human and personal with fans, so they can get to know you.  I agree and think that there are two ways to do go about sharing yourself, whether you’re on Twitter or on any other social network. 

The most common way to share information is to offer details about your music career, provide downloads of song clips, show videos of your band playing, discuss your music and its meaning, talk about tours and the fun adventures you encounter.  This gives meaning to your music brand and lets your fans learn more about your music personality.  

However, the less frequently approached route is much more meaningful.  It really lets the fan into your world.  Wouldn’t it be great to connect with your fans and share a piece of yourself?  Here are a few tidbits of information that I would love to know about my favorite music artists.  If I was engaged in a conversation with a musician or able to view content that is more personal and shows his/her human side, it would make the bond with that artist even stronger.  What fan wouldn’t want to know the answers to the following questions?

• How did you get started in your career?
• Where did you get your inspiration?  Was it from another musician or was it a close friend or family member?
• What was your first big break?
• Is there anything that you would have done differently if you had to do it all over again?
• What was your happiest moment?
• What is your favorite genre?
• What is your favorite group or who is your favorite artist?
• What is your favorite song and why?

Of course, on the web there’s always a fine line between what you share personally and what should be kept private.  However, if you engage in conversations and share content that let your fans learn more about who you are, then you allow them to experience what it’s like to be a part of your music world.  When you share yourself through social networking, the result is a stronger relationship with your fan base.

I want to tell you the story of a 15 year old teenage girl. Let’s call her 15Y (15 years old, generation Y).  She loves music and spends a great deal of time listening to new bands and sharing songs with her friends.  Here’s the story that 15Y told me about how she got to know the group, Paramore, from the time she first learned about them on iTunes to how she came upon purchasing tickets for the Paramore concert in her area.

 15Y’s engagement starts with a simple iTunes recommendation, but you can see how Paramore’s PR 2.0 strategies and relationship building (direct connections with their fans) led to long term value (a relationship building process that took about 1 and half years before purchasing Paramore tickets). 

1. 15Y learns about Paramore on iTunes from a recommendation.
2. She listens to the band and thinks she likes them.
3. 15Y decides to check out the bands website.
4. She distinctly remembers what impressed her most was not the clips of the band playing their music, but video footage of the group just talking about different experiences and events. 
5. 15Y sees Paramore as very approachable, great personalities and she begins to feel an emotional connection to them.
6. 15Y signs up on the website and she is able to view photo streams from concerts, comment on the blog and participate in the Paramore community.
7. She gets news updates about concert events and feels closer to them and their music.
8. 15Y starts to follow them more religiously and share information with her friends.
9. 15Y visits the Paramore website and community frequently and she has downloaded songs off of iTunes and Limewire.
10. 15Y learns that Paramore is in her area and she finally splurges for tickets to the concert so she can attend the concert with her friends.

That’s the story of 15Y’s engagement.  It was the interactivity and PR 2.0 relationship building that got her closer to not only the band’s music but their individual personalities.  Today, you can use PR 2.0 to connect directly with your fans.  They want to feel closer to you and see your human side and the emotion and meaning behind your music.  Paramore’s use of blogs, community, photo streams, videos that profile personalities and alerts proved to be successful.  15Y took those extra steps to purchase iTunes songs and get tickets to the Paramore concert with her friends. 

If you connect the right way and give a piece of yourself in every communication, then the result is a long lasting relationship with a loyal fan.

My friend on Twitter, @Aerocles, wrote a blog post the other day that I thought was really good. He focused on social media stunts and what’s next after a company pulls a stunt to get noticed. It’s really important to know that once you make that initial connection or get attention from your audience, there has to be more to build a relationship. PR 2.0 is a great way to build relationships because you can engage in conversations directly with people and the social media content that you share can become viral among their friends.

I’ll give you a personal example on a much smaller scale. The other day I was contacted by a musician who requested me to be his friend on Facebook. He also sent me a personal note saying that he thought my book was really good. The initial connection was there; he definitely had my attention because I immediately wrote him a note back. Now, this musician probably didn’t realize it, but I clicked on a link to a music video of him (it was included in the FB message) and his band performing an instrumental piece. I really enjoyed his music. But, that was it. I didn’t hear from him again and didn’t research him or his band any further.

So what should have happened in a perfect world?

• A return email back engaging me in a discussion to get to know each other better.

• An invitation to check out some of his favorite work and even to get my opinion on a couple of song clips (other bloggers ask me all the time to review their posts and comments so I would do the same for a musician).

• A conversation about other social networks, possibly where else he can connect with me.

• If he continued to listen to me in my communities, then he could have discussed things that I’ve done or said on Twitter or on Facebook.

• An email that said to check out his music community and a schedule of his concerts (there may be one in my area).

It’s really important that once you make that initial connection that you build upon the conversation and turn the discussion into action (and into an ongoing relationship). I would rather focus on 10 influential people who could share information about me and become my brand champions rather then send out blanketed emails that never receive any follow-up (of course, I’m not saying that this was my new Facebook friend’s strategy).

I know that he listened because he knew about my books and I know that he took the time to reach out to me. However, there are a few more steps to go and then I may just buy his music!

I have a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation for Ariel Hyatt, Cyber PR guru, who is well known in the music industry for her work and is the author of Music Success in Nine Weeks, a book I highly recommend for music artists.  Ariel has just posted the second part of our interview on her Music Think Tank blog.  The interview questions in Part II ranged from the differences between DIY style PR today vs. a few years ago to how to know if a publicist or a social media manager is actually doing a good job.

My responses focus on helping music artists to create a better program for themselves with the right tools and approach, and also how to determine if the people they hire are taking the right steps to PR success on their behalf.  I also pinpoint some easy and quick ways to learn more about PR (what books to read) and what you can do with a $500.00 budget.

Here’s the second part of the interview for you to review.  Once again, I hope that my answers help you to develop your best approach/practices to PR, in an effort to grow your fan base.  I also hope that you are able to weave targeted PR 2.0 strategies into your PR program as a powerful means to connect and build relationships with people.

I was interviewed recently by Ariel Hyatt for the Music Think Tank blog.  Ariel is the author of Music Success in Nine Weeks, a book I highly recommend for music artists.  She is also a well known Cyber PR guru, with a tremendous amount of experience in the music industry.  The interview questions ranged from what is PR 2.0 and how does it differ from regular PR to what’s the best way to use social media effectively.  I really enjoyed the interview with Ariel.  My responses focus on the importance of a good PR program, which if approached the right way, will result in building strong, mutually beneficial relationships with influencers.

Here’s the first part of the interview for you to review and the 2^nd part of the interview will be posted next week.  I hope that my answers help you to develop your best approach/practices to PR in an effort to grow your fan base and to use PR 2.0 as a powerful means to connect with people.

I wrote an article last year for the Public Relations Society of America’s TechConnect Newsletter that discussed the best way to reach wired media.  Today, a great deal of focus is on PR 2.0 and how we are able to reach new influencers and consumers directly in web communities. Yet, it’s still really important to connect with journalists, who are interested in your band or music, because they are reporting to your fan base.  Here’s a brief excerpt from the article:

Although we’re able to engage in conversations with new groups in web communities (that were once difficult to reach), having a conversation with a journalist is still an important daily function in public relations.  Just as the conversations on the web are started by influential bloggers who feed the media, the media also play a large role in feeding the blogosphere with news and stories that are discussed daily in social networking forums.  As a result, you want to keep your media contacts close, have accurate and timely information to provide to them and then be able to follow your contact’s every move. 

As technology changes rapidly with every passing year, it’s a challenge to figure out the best way to reach journalists and to build strong relationships.  I’ve learned over the years that the only way to have a media contact trust you, and want to return your emails or telephone calls is to do your homework on that journalist.  That’s one part of PR that will never change.  Whether it was pre-Internet, or it is PR 2.0 today, you need to make sure you know who you’re speaking to and have a good idea of what interests them and their audiences.             

Let’s focus on the technology for a moment.  There are a couple of great social sites that were not available when I was writing this article, so I want to discuss them now.  Two websites that can help you to find journalists and lets you follow them on Twitter are Media on Twitter and MuckRack.

 Media on Twitter is the most comprehensive media database available.  When you log on, you can find media contacts in more than 10 countries.  There are over 1,200 journalists listed in the U.S. However, they range from technology and politics to food and entertainment. You can also update the Media on Twitter database and share your media contacts with the community.  Media on Twitter allows you to follow those journalists that you think would be interested in your body of work.  You’re also able to hear their perspective on various subjects of interest. 

 MuckRack is another great site.  I think the best place for musicians to find an appropriate media contact is in the “Beat” section under “Arts and Entertainment.”  You can select to follow the journalists of your choice, and similar to Media on Twitter, you are able to recommend a journalist for inclusion into the community.  MuckRack features trending topics so that you can review the most popular conversations.  There’s also an area on MuckRack for you to submit your news releases, so that contacts can find you (this is a paid service).

Technology is great because it allows you to make that connection the right way…through listening and observing.  However, prior to engaging in a conversation, it’s up to you to take the time to research the most appropriate media and how they like to be contacted.  Through these sites, you’re able to find new contacts and really do your homework, which will get you a lot closer to building a long lasting relationship with a journalist.  Good relationships result in good editorial coverage!