Music Think Tank

I asked 5 of my favorite gods and goddesses of online marketing and Social Media promotion to share with me the top questions they get asked the most by musicians. Then I sent them around for all of us to answer. I’m going to kick off this installment with a question Bobby Owsinski often gets asked.

Here’s the first one: It’s obvious and so simple! Why does social networking take so much time?

Bobby Owsinski Even if you narrow your time spent to just Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, using those networks effectively can take up all of your time and leave nothing left for music. Add a newsletter, blog and website and it’s a recipe for burning your brain to a crisp. The secret is efficiency and the best way to do that is to keep to a schedule and keep things short. If you know that you’re going to post on Facebook every day at noon and on your blog every Thursday at 9:30, and tweet three times a day at 9AM, 1PM and 4PM, it becomes part of your daily life and you’ll always have time to get it done or schedule it in advance (you can use a tool like Tweetdeck). You’ll get better fan response too and they’ll begin to rely on the schedule as well. By keeping every post, video, etc short and to the point, you won’t burn out, you’ll have more variety, and your fans will love it because it will be a quick and easy read.

Corey Denis Socializing doesn’t come easy to most people. High school is particularly awkward, college is whatever you make it, and if you went to graduate school and left with honors, you probably didn’t have an extensive social life. At least I didn’t. Relationships take time. Socializing is a unique part of human existence. While social networks online offer the click of a button instead of those meaningful memories which created social networking before the Internet, the human connections remain similar; time still matters. Effort matters. Translating relationships to the Internet does not subtract from the human element of interactions, it merely makes the introduction process a little simpler. The reduction of time in an introduction is great, but once the connection is made, the relationship requires nurture. All relationships require time. Online or off. The real magic in the time required to use social networks for any purpose, is the relationship perpetuated offline, thanks to the online interaction.

Rick Goetz It does take a great deal of time when you are beginning but it is really like going to the gym – it is much harder to build a foundation level of fitness than it is to maintain that level of fitness. Once you get into a rhythm of creating content and releasing it to your social networking connections the time investment is much less. It’s like building anything else – it just takes time.

Carla Lynne Hall Social networking takes time because relationships take time. If you believe in building a true community of people that dig you and your music, then you understand that relationships happen when you take the time to get to know the other person, and what they’re about. Social networking is no different from networking IRL (in real life). But the number of people you now have the opportunity to meet using social media grows exponentially.

Ariel Hyatt Social networking is just that: Social and It takes time to foster meaningful relationships using social media platforms. Caring about other people and their thoughts and contributions is key and it takes a lot of effort to do this well.

Cassie Petery It takes a lot of time because people spend a lot of time social networking, and you’re competing against both other artists and standard users for a spot on your fan’s social networking news feeds. The average college student spends between 1-2 hours/day on Facebook, which sets the bar really high in terms of the amount of time an artist has to spend using their social media platforms. Stay Tuned – many more answers are coming from these great experts.

Music Marketers FAQ - Contributors:

Corey Denis Corey Denis is Vice President Digital Marketing & Social Media at TAG Strategic. Throughout her career, she’s created & executed digital strategies, built & marketed platforms for numerous distributors, startups labels and artists including What Are Records, IODA, IRIS Distribution, Michael Tilson Thomas, SoundExchange, Todd Fancey, Ning, Loudcaster & Comedian Stephen Lynch. Corey founded San Francisco’s first Musician & Promoter Workshop and has produced numerous music centric fundraisers such as Save Net Radio SF, Barack N’ Roll, Reload: SF. She writes a weekly column about digital music for SF Appeal, San Francisco’s online newspaper, has 2 cats and 8 iPods. Rick Goetz Rick Goetz is a music consultant by way of a ten year career at major record labels, TV & Online Projects. He’s also an avid surfer and blogger. Carla Lynne Hall Carla Lynne Hall is a musician and online music marketing consultant based in New York City. Her mission is to make music and share her knowledge with other musicians. She has released three CDs on her Moxie Entertainment label, and has toured the world as a singer/songwriter, and professional vocalist. In addition, she also has spent a number of years behind the scenes in the music industry, in publishing, management, publicity, and social media. Bobby Owsinski Using his music and recording experience combined with an easy to understand writing style, Bobby Owsinski has become one of the best selling authors in the music recording industry with thirteen books that are now staples in audio recording, music, and music business programs in colleges around the world. Based in Los Angeles, Bobby is also a producer of several music-oriented television shows and can frequently be seen as a moderator, panelist or giving presentations at a variety of industry conferences. Cassie Petery Cassie Petrey is the co-founder of Crowd Surf, which helps fans feel closer to the artists and music that they love. Cassie is one of the most devoted music fans you will ever meet, and this is why she understands the ins and outs of digital marketing and fan relationship management. Crowd Surf has successfully launched and developed digital marketing campaigns for major label, indie, and unsigned artists in a variety of genres.