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MSi9W – Week 6 (2nd ed.) ~ Newsletter and Fan Communication

Aug 052010

Week 5 (1st ed.) Week 6 (2nd ed.)

Week 5 has come around at just the right time! Newsletter time! Click here to check out this month’s issue and please sign up!

To begin I have to make a confession. Bless me Father for I have sinned – the SIN of SINS in marketing and direct mailing: I purged my email list. Yes… I did. I threw it in the trash, right-clicked on my mouse and it was gone. (OK you PR people, you can get up off the floor now…) Let me tell you why I did this and then you may judge me.

My wife and I moved to Connecticut after living in NYC for many years. While in the city, I had been “sort of playing out” as a solo singer-songwriter, playing a lot of trombone in small orchestras, I was active in a composer’s collective that wrote mostly for Indonesian Gamelan, I was writing for theater and I played bass as a sideman in a couple of rock bands. I was not Darryl Gregory the guy that plays “Hard-edged Country, with a soft heart” and I was not promoting myself as myself.

The names I collected for my list were occasional and varied. Some people liked my serious compositions and some liked my acoustic guitar playing and then some liked to come to the bars to see the band I was playing with. It was a mixed up list and when I trashed it I did so thinking that it couldn’t do anything for me. I wanted to start anew. I wanted a list with names of people that had come to see Darryl Gregory and then wanted to be connected to that entity.

A year ago I started on my songwriting and performing path with renewed energy and a more focused plan. The purging of my email list was just a reaction to my symptom of wanting to start all over.

But I didn’t throw everybody off the island. I kept close friends, a few true fans and some family on the list, but I that only added up to about 30 people. In the last 9-months I’ve grown the list to around 125. I know it will grow as I perform more and get better at collecting names, but I feel that I know what to do with those names once I get them because they signed up to be a part of the Darryl Gregory experience – I’m thinking like a business.

So now that I know who is on my list I can talk to them much more directly than before. The main way I communicate with this list is via my newsletter. I’ve put a lot of time into crafting my newsletter and I still feel like it’s a work in progress and I learn something each time I put it out. It goes out once a month whether I feel I have something to say or not, but usually I do (have something to say that is…).

The key to communication with fans, as I’ve learned from Ariel Hyatt and others, is to be a giver, not a getter. You should be a consistent bringer of news and tidbits about yourself and your services. You should also interact with the reader and ask them to do things for you and with you. This last bit is what I’m still working on and it was reinforced by reading Chapter 5 of MSi9W. After reading and re-reading Chapter 5, I decided to ask my readers help me out with my next CD project. I’ve invited them to following my blog postings about the CD process, listen and comment on song demos and help me decide which songs will go on the CD.

I always have my gig schedule and I start off with an introduction that I try to write as if I had that person sitting right in front of me. I always include a blurb about what I’m listening to on my iPod and I recycle my blog posts in my newsletter which is a great way to get readers to go back to my website. One huge piece of advice that I have for newsletter writing is to proofread and rewrite – yes I’m a teacher. I can’t believe all the mistakes I catch when I proof my writing.

One last thing about getting the emails out to your list: management software. I’ve tried several “list management” services to get the letter out and I’m still up in the air about them. Right now I’m using Constant Contact just because it is very easy to use and their templates were simple and direct. CC also has a good name collection system that allows me to give away my mp3’s via email. It’s drawback is the expense. There are cheaper management systems out there like ReverbNation, but they’re not as flexible nor do they have as many analytical tools as Constant Contact or Vertical Response or MailChimp. So you get what you pay for or don’t pay for. Here’s a good site to help you compare services www.email-marketing-options.com

Let me know what you think of this month’s newsletter and I’m off to Chapter 6.

MSi9W – Week 4.3 ~ Blogging, Podcasting, Twitter and Flickr… Oh My!

Music Success in 9 Weeks 2 Responses »

Jul 312010

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!

MSi9W – Week 4.2 ~ Blogging, Podcasting, Twitter and Flickr… Oh My!

Music Success in 9 Weeks No Responses »

Jul 292010

As I said in my previous post, this is going to be a multi-part blog-o-rama on this topic of week 4. Today I spent about 4 hours scouring the web for blogs that do reviews and podcasts that play my genre of music. I then put the findings into a database spreadsheet that was suggested by Chris Bracco on his Tight Mix Blog.

I started out using delicious.com and typing in some keywords. I found a few blogs, but it was slow going. Then I had a light bulb go off over my head and thought about the great newsletters that I get from CyberPR that often (well always) have interviews with podcasters and bloggers. What better way to research than to go to CyberPR’s New Media Interview archives and pillage!

I easily filled my quota of 30 bloggers (20 to go) and podcasters from the list of interviews I found. I also found a reference to a great source for bloggers called the Blog Catalog which allows you to explore the blogosphere using keywords. Blog Catalog is a great resource and very easy to use and capsulises what the blog is all about so you don’t have to waste time.

My next steps with the info I’ve collected:

put the blog URLs into my blogroll
bookmark the blogs into delicious.com
add the blog RSS for each blog into my Google Reader
monitor the blogs and start commenting
follow the ones that are on Twitter and Facebook
get some music up on the Podsafe Network

Next on the agenda:

add more blogs to my list by going to google.blogsearch.com and technorati.com
search for reviews of like sounding indie artists
check out last.fm and thesixtyone
start using my Flickr account – I’ve had an account for a long time, but haven’t used it

To Be Continued…

MSi9W – Week 4.1 ~ Blogging, Podcasting, Twitter and Flickr… Oh My!

Music Success in 9 Weeks No Responses »

Jul 282010

(This post and the consequent chapter 4 posts are a combination of Chapters 4 & 5 of the 2nd edition of Ariel’s book which I did not have at the time of this writing…)

This topic is going to require multiple posts this week, I can feel it. I’ve read through Chapter 4 several times and I’m just starting to map out my strategies and schedule my work.

Let’s start with Blogging and Podcasting. I’m a blogger and I’m a podcaster, so I know a bit about both. The question is how to get MY music on other people’s blogs and podcasts? If the average blogger/podcaster is like me then they are probably a combination of the following:

music-lovers
music-thinkers
musician-helpers

they most likely have:

day jobs
families
not a lot of time

they are also:

independent
somewhat organized but not efficient
happy to help, but don’t like being ‘sold’ or ‘pushed’

bloggers and podcasters don’t always ‘Do it for the Money’, but:

they do like praise
they do like FREE stuff
they do like to be recognized
they do like to be mentioned

While I may have an insight into who a blogger/podcaster may be, I still need to find them and create a relationship with them. Here’s my strategy so far:

Create my Google Reader
Subscribe to and follow blogs and podcasts found on delicious.com
Keep track of podcasters and bloggers from the CyberPR’s newsletter
Schedule weekly times to comment on blogs and listen to podcasts
Create a database spreadsheet of blogs and podcasts
Follow up

It’s all about the relationship and community. I plan to release a CD in the summer of 2011 and now, almost a year in advance, is the time to sow the seeds.

To be continued…

Personal Relevance

Articles 1 Response »

Feb 162010

~ Don’t Use It If It Doesn’t Make Sense To You

I’ve been using a capo on my guitar for what seems like forever. It’s just a tool that’s a part of my kit when I play. over the years I’ve learned to use it for more than just the obvious aspect of changing keys. I use this simple machine to half capo across the neck and to get specific sounds out of my guitar that you can’t get when you strum it open. But when I first was introduced to a capo I didn’t know what to make of it. I understood its capabilities, but not its applications. I was aware of it and when I got to a tipping point in my guitar playing, I saw the personally relevant application of the capo.

I’m beginning to see that a lot these days. I come across a new widget/doo-hickey/whatchacallit thing and while I understand the simple purpose of it, the personal application is not apparent. At least not immediately.

Let’s take this blog for example. I’ve been writing in this medium for about a year, posting songs and ideas, but prior to that I didn’t have one and didn’t really want one. I knew what blogs were and I read them and subscribed, but they didn’t have any practical personal application. But blogs were making my head crazy because I was told that as a musician I should have one. I see why, but why for me? Storm like this swirl around when we come in contact with a new medium. The storm of: You should be doing this because… fill-in-the-blank. Yikes, I have to have a blog and I don’t. I’m yesterday’s news, I’ll never succeed as a songwriter. Rats. of course that’s not true. There are millions of artists out there that don’t have blogs and they’re doing just fine. For me, it just wasn’t relevant; that is until the concept slid into place in my brain like a puzzle piece and I knew what I wanted to write about and share with you my faceless audience.

There are a lot of these storms raging out there. If you don’t have a blog-Twitter-Facebook-Reverbnation-CDBaby-website-Bebo-Flickr-flamalamadingdong, well brother… you’re just shit out of luck. But I say again – If it isn’t personally relevant, then why bother?

This really hit home with me when it was strongly suggested that I should start using a contact management system. I was happy with my calendar and proud of my simple spreadsheet list of names. Well not really. I understood that my system was flawed, but when I started trying to use contact management software I balked. It didn’t make sense to me even though I understood the concept. Then, after I had downloaded the same software for the second time I did something with it that just clicked in my brain and it was like the whole application suddenly snapped into focus. I got it and the software made sense.

The point to all of this is that we do not need to use every new thing that other people scream about. If you understand the social aspect of Twitter and how it can connect you to fans, but just don’t see how you can apply it to your artistic world, then don’t. Everyone screams: Make a video and put it onYouTube. You say – Yeah, I see other musician’s videos, but making a video just doesn’t click with me right now – then don’t do it. You gotta start using a capo. Yeah I see lots of people using them, but I don’t see where it fits in to my playing – then don’t use it.

But, you should walk this path with your eyes and ears wide open. If enough (normal)people are screaming loudly about something, you should at least turn around to see if it’s someone waiting to hug you or an axe murderer. At least take a look at the New Widget On The Block to see if it fits with your world. I would also suggest that if the screaming persists you should revisit the concept to see if that new something has changed or perhaps see if you’ve changed and now that thing that you thought was irrelevant is now the most amazing tool in your kit.

Have you had something laying around for a long time that just recently made sense and became a part of your tool kit? What new thing are you ignoring that you think may become relevant later? Leave a comment!

MSi9W – Week 4.2 ~ Blogging, Podcasting, Twitter and Flickr… Oh My!

MSi9W – Week 4.1 ~ Blogging, Podcasting, Twitter and Flickr… Oh My!

Personal Relevance

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