Defending Your Image

Your best asset in creating a favorable image is to realize that your public and private personas are very much intertwined. Transparency is something that is difficult, but required if you are to become an independent artist today.

With the growing number of social networks available to us, successfully managing your image is more important than ever. As an artist, your brand will ultimately determine whether or not people will listen to your records or come to your shows. Fans will judge you on your production quality, web presence and everything else in between. All of your online and offline personalities must work in unison or your fans will get confused about who you really are.

MySpace pages, Facebook profiles, and Twitter accounts need to be well maintained. Text, photo’s, logos and song choices are all very strong indicators of who you are as a person and as a brand. Inappropriate comments and unmonitored spam messages, tell people that you are either too busy to give a shit or too lazy to care.

You should also think long and hard about choosing a name for your band. I’ve worked with groups in the past who have been denied radio play, live shows and press opportunities because of their name. Needless to say, “AssasinNation” & “Black Hitler” never made it to prime time.

Your overall goal is to appear polished and professional at all times. Not an easy task considering how many ways you will be judged. Your image will be much easier to maintain if you take a long hard look in the mirror first. Being true to your own uniqueness will give you a strong foundation to begin forming your brand.

Just remember that everything you do in private will be judged in public. Are you ready to defend yourself?

Kevin English is a marketer and student of the arts, who blogs about the skills and strategies necessary to get the most of your musical career at http://eleetmusic.com and on Twitter @eleetmusic.