I should have written this post ages ago. I kind of take it for granted, but forget that not everyone is fully conversant with things that I just make assumptions about. I often talk about a musician’s or music business’s web presence when public speaking or consulting. By that, I don’t mean your website, although in my opinion, that should be central to the ‘presence’.
I mean the range of services, platforms and conversation going on around the internet about you and what you do. What’s online, and how it connects together. Your web.
It’s an ecology, not a destination
If you have a MySpace page, a Bandcamp page, a Facebook page or any profile on any of the kind of sites we talk about on New Music Ideas, these make up part of your web presence. So too does the conversation that takes place (with or without your involvement) on forums and discussion groups.
This is an interconnected network of related and symbiotic activities.
And while quality is obviously important (especially at those sites where you control both the content and style), sheer weight and size is also of value. Without going too heavily into search-engine optimisation, just having a depth and quality of ongoing conversation around what you do offers opportunities for discovery, connection and engagement with what you do.
There are some great sites out there that I would recommend to most people involved in music. I’ve mentioned some in the past. There are some services that help you manage the sheer volume of work involved in keeping those current. I’ve talked about them too.
But don’t forget the conversation. If there’s a forum about your area or subgenre of music, or a related message board to your area (say, the local live scene, for instance) – don’t forget to feed and nurture that. Whether it’s simple involvement as a discussant, or whether it’s identifying the key players and engaging with them at some level, this all goes toward what I collectively describe as your web-presence.
Ultimately, the days of sticking the online equivalent of a brochure up on the internet and calling it your web strategy are over. It’s about presence – and presence requires ongoing activity. Just like going to work, being at a party, or any other kind of social milieu – just physically being there is not enough.
You have to be doing something.
So – perhaps it might be time for a stocktake. Where is your web-presence? Are you spending the right amount of time on the right bits of it? Could you get away with less in some areas? Could you do to put a bit more effort into others? What parts of your online presence do you manage and which bits are mostly outside of your control?
http://ultrameek.wordpress.com/ is my home base web presence (and I just recently wrote about being productive/active while sitting in front of your screens).
I have spent the last two years (just shortly after re-building my studio after a eight year hiatus), navigating through places like this and MTT, absorbing as much info as possible to try and put a web presence into action.
To much or to little? Not sure yet, I am still figuring it out. But in association with my established contacts it has certainly helped. My blog has more or less become my digital business card that I can send via e-mail to existing and potential clients.
My case is one where I am not really trying to sell music to the public so my strategies are applied with that in mind. My workload comes primarily from soundtracks, scores and cues. Aside from that I just give out my tunes free to DJ friends who want to play them out.
I manage every aspect of my “music business”. I take advantage of my ‘workload’ situation and use free services because I don’t really need to have all the bells and whistles of a dedicated domain. Bonus for me.
I do not claim to have mastered the procedures, processes and skills needed to be effective online. But what I am doing is working for me. (for now)
Good Post Andrew
Recently I presented at a Soundtopia workshop at the University of Toronto. The topic was online marketing for musicians. I spent a fair bit of time researching and aggregating the best of what I found (much of it from New Music Strategies – Thanks Andrew).
I presented to a group of about 25 students. Sadly, the majority of the content was above the heads of the audience. At one point I asked who new what RSS was? One person came close to a definition.
Everyday I try to educate the musicians I work with on how they can leverage the web. How its about building community. I try to entice them by saying its free PR. But so many musicians are still building “Cyber Brochures.”
The problem is that most musicians are not reading blogs like this one. To all the musicians who are…I have to hand it to you for being forward thinking and aware of the world outside of your art.
BTW, what am I supposed to say to the musicians who focus only on their music? I mean, they should focus time and attention on their craft shouldn’t they? How do you tell them that its not enough?
For anyone interested, Part one of my online marketing presentation for musicians is here – http://www.studiomanifesto.ca/WP01/music-presentation-at-soundtopia-part-1/
James
Andrew, thank you so much for using the “C” word – Conversation.
Conversation needs to be the end goal of almost all of your “web presence”. If it’s not initiating or facilitating some sort of conversation with your fans and customers, then it’s a waste of time. I laugh when I see people boasting about having 4 million friends on myspace. I always ask “how many are you actually conversing with?” and the answer is always too low.
Thanks again for a great article.
Good thoughts. I definitely agree that it’s important to make worthwhile connections and have conversations with others. It’s obvious to me that a lot of people still don’t know where to start when it comes to connecting online. Would love to hear more about that.
I work in technology and social media so you would think i would have a leg up…right….wrong!!! Well, previously in any case.
The sheer volume of place to have conversations, the myriad of invites, the push and need to get involved online – is daunting. Recently, I started compiling a list of the various tools and technologies I an involved in and started crafting a more intentional social media strategy.
It involved first cataloging those sites that serve a purpose like posting and hosting content (your music, videos, written content), those that are communities and ranking the vibrancy of those communities, and technology to help me organize mailing list, events/gigs, etc.
I then created a sort of roadmap for what to do as I create content (steps to get it ready, where it gets pubished, where it does not). I also specified the communities where I want to engage with others and schedule a time to do so.
Part of my reason is that I have “people” who want to help – but without a somewhat structured approach – it is difficult for me to turn this over.
I am being fairly ruthless in what I am cutting out or putting off to the side. I have several online profiles but many of them are anemic through their lack of use – I simply cannot “feed” them. The key is learning those places where you add something and where you get something in return.
Finally, I am trying to add useful information to the conversation – like my tutorials on creating more branded performance videos.
I am currently doing a lot more home recording and have started cataloging simple tips that help me quickly get tracks laid down. Most of these are known to sound engineers but many are done more or less automatically by those who know. It is those of us in the midst of development that have no clue.
In any case, that’s my 2 cents plus the lint in my pocket. ;)
Really, Andrew?
Do I really have to participate in forums and discussion groups, too?
I ask because when I talk to other musicians about the points you make here — that the days of brochure websites are gone and that one’s web presence must go deep and wide through social networking, article marketing, press release marketing, etc. — they either roll their eyes or shut down completely.
As James commented, a lot of the musicians I know don’t have the time or inclination to take full advantage of internet marketing. They do what they can to keep up by having a MySpace page, maybe a Facebook page.
BUT I’ve found that if one can fully explain the benefits of an expanded web presence, many musicians will listen and take action. Some, not all.
So, I guess that’s my next question to you. Can you tell me the benefits of being part of the conversation on forums and discussion groups? Does is build audience? increase music sales? How is it different from being an active blogger who posts and comments?
Maybe you’ve already covered this in your e-book. I’ll dig into it further.
“How is it different from being an active blogger who posts and comments?”
It’s pretty much the same. In fact (at least for me) it is easier to have a blog as my web presence home base. Not that my blog is flooded with traffic (at all), but by posting on it and replying to comments I am making ‘conversation’ and building a stronger relationship with those interested in what I do.
Thank You Andrew!
I currently do internet marketing for musicians and they have such a hard time understanding the difference between a MySpace page(not even their website) and web presence. It’s funny because, the best example I have used is SouljaBoyTellem. My current web presence baby (DirtLawRadio.com) has been built in a matter of a few weeks. They have been on RadioandRecords, currently on twitter, utterli, blog sites, and more! It helps when you have a client that understands and is willing to help a project spread virally.
Great article Andrew. Signing up for these social networks is only really a third of the work. The key like you stated is to not forget the conversation. Take on networks where your dialogue can be expressed and relate better to your readers.
I write for for my music marketing blog and enjoy discussing new ways to achieve better marketing results for indie musicians. I will always remember your advice and “feed and nurture” the dialogue
great article!
well I had a good idea: created a band-page and got the BLOG implemented! so it is a homepage not a blog in fact. the blog is the “social decoration” ;-)
myspace purevolume and so on are great! but i only use it to PUSH UP my own page. so i dont wanna update all things in it. it’s not my homepage. and i think myspace isn’t that personal…
Have you seen what we are doing over at http://www.skorinc.com? Creating a place where artists can blog, and blog well.