And… perhaps a final word here about Twitter and Flickr.
It has taken me almost a year of using Twitter to really grasp it. I’m not a social person, I do badly at parties and mixers and schmooze events, but I understand the necessity and I usually can hold my own for a bit. People tell me that I’m quiet, but I prefer to think that I am ‘verbally efficient’. I comment and talk about things that I know something about and things that interest me.
OK, that said, how does it apply to Twitter? Well Twitter is a lot like a cocktail party: a lot of little conversations going on. Some of them are interesting but most of them are silly mutterings that have nothing to do with anything I want to talk about or comment on. That’s OK, I will politely listen. But at some point I have to get in on a conversation and start making relationships. I do this by retweeting peoples’ statements that are relevant to me and commenting on statements that I feel I can add to. I mentioned in the last post (week 4.2) that bloggers just want to be recognized for what they do; so do tweeters. It is ‘micro-blogging’ after all. You get a Tweeter’s attention when you comment or RT and then they follow you and at some point want to know more about you. YOU = MUSIC = GIGS = CD SALES —> or so the story goes.
The other thing that I’ve learned about Twitter is how to automate it. Since I’ve set up my Google Reader I can extract blog posts that are relevant to me and tweet about them. I do this using TwitterFeed.com. Another way to automate tweets is by scheduling them using Hootsuite or TweetDeck. Whenever I write blog post I use excerpts from the post as tweets that I then schedule across the week so that I keep drawing attention to my post.
There is a lot one can do with Twitter just ask @Carlalynnhall author of Twitter For Musicians. I have a gig coming up in Ohio and I’ve intentionally started following some Clevelanders in hopes that they will come to the gig. I’ve only mentioned the gig once and NEVER directly to them. But I’ve struck up a relationship with them and when I really start tweeting about it I hope they will then ask me what’s up and what the details are.
Flickr. I’m still on the fence about it. I’ve set up an account, but it doesn’t excite me. I can post pictures to my Facebook Fan page and to my Tumblr blog. People can also see them and comment on them. So what is the difference? Perhaps you can leave a comment telling me?
OK – on to week 5 and my newsletter. Good timing because it is the first of the month and time for a new issue to roll out!
Not all social media strategies and sites are right for all artists. Where you need to go to target fans and build relationships is unique to you, so do what you think works. The important part is to try things out, and if you don’t see sites like Flickr being beneficial to you, then don’t focus on them and put more into Facebook or Twitter or wherever you get a lot of positive response. This was an amazing post! Relationships are SO important as an independent artist, and you seem to know exactly how to forge and maintain them, keep up the great work!
Ariel – I’m glad you see my non-alignment with Flickr in that light — I wrote a blog post back in February about “Personal Relevance”. If you can’t wrap your head around something – don’t use it – don’t drive yourself crazy because someone tells you that you should use that something… BUT don’t throw the idea out either because it may become relevant later.