Britney Spears and her Twitter Team

Britney Spears is on Twitter, yes the Real Britney Spears. The comeback is on and it will be social medialized. A few weeks back Britney and her new team re-launched BritneySpears.com in a blog/magazine style and honestly, I give the girl her props. She has taken some heat from some Social Media superstars including TechCrunch and Gary Vaynerchuck, yet with all the circumstances, time constraints and events that have occurred in her life in the last 1-2 years, I think her team is doing a great job exploring Social Media.

Her Twitter Account
The domain is twitter.com/therealbritney and the Tweets range from announcements of new videos to pictures of Brit and the kids to Team Britney replying to social media and twitter heavyweights on how to best use the service.


My thoughts
After a rocky start, I think they get it. There is transparency when non-Britney posts a Twitter and when Brit herself decides to use her smart phone of choice, she leaves a line letting us know it is really her. I also like how she is using Twitter as a feature on her website. It is in the header and displays the latest update as shown below.

look at the little cloud in the corner (click image to enlarge)

Businesses using Twitter generally sue Twitter in the same manor. They send out links, press releases and news related to their company and occasionally jump into conversation with replies, questions and other posts. What most of these companies do not do is offer the transparency of who is Twittering.

Southwest Airlines has a corporate twitter account and they are doing it great. They are a part of the conversation with more replies than pushy company information, yet I don't know who from Southwest is talking to me. When The Real Britany sends out a message it is signed by the writer. I think this is an incredible step towards transparency from brands who wish to tweet from one account instead of having multiple accounts for Briteny's Manager, Britney's stylist, etc.

In a post on Chris Brogan's Blog on Monday featuring Brea Grant from Heroes, Brea's Social Media Leader, Laura Roeder steps in and mentions this when the topic of a Twit Team comes up:

it’s unreasonable to expect that Britney Spears (or other celebs) do everything herself. Brea doesn’t do the technical back end stuff, like manage WordPress and all the YouTube stuff. But Brea writes the content and everything. Laura says that it takes people to run the website and the social program, but as the support, not the “talent.”

I think that's a great point. Let the talent handle the content and let the team get that content online, looking good and get it into the hands of as many people as possible. When looking into getting into Twitter, it is important that you as an artist learn about the medium and really jump in, be personable and learn from doing. When your time gets too busy to manage you should look into your team, but still be a key player in the content creation. Remember that your fans are buying you and your music, your lyrics and your personality. If you are letting your team write your thoughts for you, you lose authenticity and the power you have over your audience.

What are your thoughts?

Here is a great post for musicians on and thinking about using Twitter by @CyberPR

-Greg Rollett
(Me on Twitter)

Getting Local Bloggers to Pimp Your Tour

photo by comicbase

Every once in a while you come across one of those no-brainer ideas that can help you exponentially. This is one of them. To all the bands going on tour, looking for free promotions to a built in audience. Bloggers are the journalism that you should be looking for and more specifically, you should be looking for local bloggers, that write about their community and what is going on there.

How do I find these Bloggers?
Google Blog Search- In the screenshot below you can see that I searched for "Orlando Blog" and got 500,000+ results. Not all of these are going to be relevant but there are some diamonds in the rough. The related blogs give you a few options to look at right away including Downtown Orlando Blog, Ultimate Orlando Blog and Living Orlando.

(click image to enlarge)

Placeblogger - This is the MacDaddy of local based blog tools. Once you have your target city or state, just drill down till you find the info you need. Drilling down to Orlando, FL gave me 10 blogs to look into. The other great thing is that knowing an area well, I can also see 1 blog in Sanford, FL, 1 in Altamonte Springs, 2 in Lake Mary and 1 in Lakeland. You can see in the screenshot below the data is represents when you get to your final place destination. Placeblogger is also a community driven site, meaning that if you know of a great location based blog, you can submit it into their directory.

(click image to enlarge)

Which Blogs Do I Reach Out To?
Not all bogs are created equal and your time is extremely important, espicially if you are contacting sites while on the road. You want to be sure that you are getting in touch with the most relevant writers with the largest audience.

By going to these pages you can assess things like Google PageRank and Compete Traffic for the site to see their reach. Even those PR and Compete Data are not 100% accurate, it gives you a clue as to how many readers and how big their influence is. For instance, Living Orlando has a PageRank of 3 and Compete Traffic at 5,400+. As a small touring band I would attempt to reach the author and give him a reason to write about your show, your band and a story to get people interested.

(click image to enlarge)

*Music Marketing Tip* If you browse with FireFox, there is a plugin called Search Staus that gives you all this data and a whole lot more everytime you visit a page. Download it now!

Musicians using bloggers to their advantage with ultimately spark their total music marketing package. This tactic is time consuming, but getting 3-4 press mentions online, to go along with any street teams, mailing lists and on site promotion will only increase you bottom line and allow you to continue rocking out for fans all around the world.

-Greg Rollett

Will Play For Clothes

In today's music business you are seeing artists make money by doing anything but selling music. The fact is, your music can be a catalyst for your business. Rappers selling drinks, pop stars selling perfume and DJ's rocking shows in mall stores for a few bucks.

You see, it's not just you, the artist who is looking for promotion and a way to stand out from the crowd. Stores, businesses and brands are doing everything that they can to get their message and products across to Gen-Y.

I'll DJ for Some Kicks
The Washington Post had a great article on stores ranging from department stores to traditional mall filler stores having DJ's create an ambiance and style to associate with their brand. The results can be great for the musician. Lord and Taylor can pay in upwards of $1,000 for a gig in their store. Other brands offer trades for clothes, shoes and accessories.

Gen-Y Rock Stars can use this music marketing tactic to reach a defined audience and demographic that they may not see at one of their night gigs. Tie in some promotions of your own and you might have a new game plan to gaining attention.

Not a DJ?
So a lot of you might be saying that there is no way for my band to rock out in a department store. That may be true but there are other live performance opportunities like this that you can begin to take advantage of to put a little cash in your pocket and attention to your faces.

Restaurants and Bars
Look for downtimes in a local restaurant or bar. This may not be the money maker that helps you quit your day job but it will usually get you a free meal and some beers and the admiration of the crew that stops by after work.

Businesses
No, you are not going to rock out during their morning sales meeting, but if you have some selling ability of your own, you may be able to get them to use your music in their next commercial, informational video for clients or YouTube clips. There is normally a marketing budget for these kinds of things. Ask for a credit at the beginning and end of the song with your band name, song title and website address.

Sporting Events
A few of the bands we work for were hired by the local Orlando Predators, an Arena Football League Team and were compensated well for an hour's worth of music. They got to play during the tailgate in front of the main sponsor's booth. It was great awareness and got them into contact with some good partners. Another group that had success here played for the Tampa Bay Lightning at Halftime. They were paid a guarantee and we negotiated that everyone in a winning section won a free sampler from the group. Remember that sporing events are usually family friendly.

Remember to look for events that can use your noize to help them shine above everything else that are hearing. Also be sure to come professional, as most of these businesses are not used to working with Rock Stars, young egos, tattoos and other stereotypes. They are running a business and you are helping them to increase their profit.

-Greg

User Generated Contests

Contests are a great way to get people excited about your band, product, show or promotion. With the advent of Social Media it is extremely easy to get your fans to help spread the word and build that contest for you. All you need to do is pony up some prizes, make up some rules and leverage the tools of Social Media to make it happen.

Some examples of user generated contests would be:

• Make a short video of yourself playing karaoke to one of our songs, upload it to YouTube and tag it with our band name and the name of the contest so we can find it.
• Make your profile picture the flyer for the next show, drop us a comment and we will give away 2 free tickets to that show to a lucky winner.
• Post the craziest song titles you want us to write about on your blog. We'll pick one winner and create a track on our next album with the winner's suggestion.

There are countless other ways to get your fans involved in user generated contests. Be creative and make the barrier to entry as easy and fun as possible.

My good friends at Endavo Media have created a great new white paper that outlines some tips to creating these contests, how to promote them and how they can grow your fanbase exponentially. Head on over and grab a copy, its free and filled with great info!

Now I'd like to turn it over to the Rock Stars. Have any of you had a successful user generated contest for your band, music or product? What was the prize? How did you pick the winner?

Let us know, so that we can help other bands see the benefits of a contest!

-Greg Rollett
To learn more about Social Media for Musicians, get our free eBook now!

Take The Conversation Beyond the Show

photo by fiveinchpixie

Your rocked a show. Had the crowd moving and had them so excited that they came to talk to you after the show at your merch booth. Great thing right?

What happens after the show?
What if you don't come back for 6 months, a year, 2 years? What if they were too trashed to remember your band name? No matter the case, you still want this fan to interact with you, check for new tracks, promote your music to their friends and become a lifer. How do you accomplish this?

The List
The first step is to get their email address as fast as possible. This ensures that you can get in touch with your fans when you have something important to say. I know its hard in a bar or venue to bring out your laptop, but its also worthless to get a sheet of paper full of emails you can't read.

Two services that help with emails on the road are FanBridge and Reverbnation. FanBridge allows you to upload an Excel file right into your account. If you can get online, Reverbnation has a great tool as well to collect fans and street team members.

For bands with a larger following, and the need to put out quality newsletters or have multiple groups to send out messages to, a great service is Aweber. It's also the service that I am using for my newsletter, so yes I am a little biased. They haven't let me down yet. With customized forms, autoresponses and open rates, they offer a rock star email service.

Once you get the emails, be sure to send something out. The day after the show, a simple thank you and introduction will do. Be sure to link to your site/blog/Myspace page and give info on upcoming shows/promotions in that area. After that, a once a month newsletter is plenty to remind your fans that you are still grinding it out, recording in the studio or living the lavish life.

Fun Promotions
Beyond the all important mailing list, there are endless ways to get your fans excited about you and your music and get them to continue the buzz of the night. Below are a few examples that we have used with our artists and some that I have heard through the ropes of merch booths and van tours.

Picture Time
Take a picture with YOUR camera of any fan who buys a merch item. Tell them to go to your site sometime tomorrow and you will have a link to a Flickr slideshow with all the fans who supported you the night before. This works well because everyone wants to see pictures of themselves and they love to share that with their friends. By tagging your photos in Flickr with strong keywords, people searching the site for venues, people and more can stumble across your photos as well. Plus it gets you familiar with the people for your next visit into town.

DropCards

DropCards are little Credit Card Looking pieces of plastic that work much like a gift card, excpet it for your music. Instead of or in addition to buying a physicla CD, fans can buy your drop card, go home, enter the website and password found on the back and can download up to 1Gig of material that you have put online in your DropCard folder. This can include music, videos, pictures, lyric files and more! It's up to you!

These cards will run you about $350 for 1,000. Cheaper than CD's and they take up less room in the van. The key to the DropCard campaign is to host your material on your own site and not with DropCards.com, this will ensure that your new fan gets to your site and has every opportunity to join your mailing list, subscribe to your blog, buy merch, or read up on our dates.

Live Tweets

photo by laihiu

Setting up a large screen to Twitter Search with your band name and having your merch guy hitting refresh is a very trendy way to have your fans interact with you during your show. Having them add you on Twitter in real time is a great way to stay in touch after the show.

The trick is remembering to follow up with anyone that @'s you, follow them and stay in touch. The live interaction will get the crowd going as everyone wants to be on stage. This is their opportunity. As Twitter continues to grow, this will become a great tactic for bands of any size.

If you have a geeky friend, there is a trick you can do with Hashtags and refresh that make it even easier, but it requires some setup and coding.

The next time you are talking to a new fan at a show, remember that the conversation does not stop that night. Find a way to keep it going. It will be worth it and you will be well on your way to becoming a Gen-Y Rock Star!

-Greg Rollett

100 Social Media Resources for Musicians

Boy am I excited for this release. Have you been struggling with your Myspace returns? Are fans just not there like they used to be?

The web is a very big and interesting place and music fans are spread out across many different Social Networks, Internet Radio Stations, Live Streaming Sites, Online Stores, Music Discovery Blogs and a multitude of other places. If you are putting all your eggs into the Myspace basket, you are missing out on the omelets that are being made elsewhere.

That is why I wrote this eBook. I wrote it because my conversations, my friends and the music I was discovering over the last 12 months has dramatically changed. When we first started our band 4 years ago, Myspace was the end all be all of online music marketing. Now it is just the beginning. We all need pages on the mecca of Social Networks, but we also need to see where our fans are.

Through running around the country, speaking at events, talking to bands, interviewing Web 2.0 designers and developers to putting out my own music, I have crafted this report of 100 Social Media sites to get your music into more ears than ever.

To get a copy of this eBook/report all you need to do is put your email in the form below and hit submit and you will be sent the link for your free download immediately!

You are also going to be entering a new world of music promotion. Every month, we will be sending out the Gen-Y Rock Stars Newsletter. This newsletter will be your source for the hottest news in music marketing as well as proven tips and strategies to getting more fans and sales online through the power of conversations and social media.

Our goal is to help every musician become a Gen-Y Rock Star. To do this you must be ready to commit time, effort and open up to communication. You can no longer be a musician that half-ass markets. You need to be a conversationalist machine who makes kick ass music.

Cheers to you for choosing to go in this direction.

Here is what people are saying about '100 Social Media Resources for Musicians'

“Hey indie artists, drop what you are doing and go read 100 Social Media Resources for Musicians for Free. Social Media Marketer Greg Rollett has put together the most comprehensive, most needed indie music resource guide on Social Networks. If you are not utilizing even a handful of these free, YES FREE!, social media sites you are surely missing out.”

-- Madalyn Sklar, founder of GoGirlsMusic.com, IndieMusicCoach and Social Networks for Musicians

Lots of time and hard work went into creating this guide, which covers all kinds of music related social networks, tools, forums, blogs, and other resources which every musician needs to know about. Whether you’re new to social media or a vet like me, you’ll still find some great resources inside 100 Social Media Resources for Musicians (I found some great collaborative sites that I can’t wait to check out!).

--Eric Hebert, founder Evolvor Media, Music Marketer

Sign up right now and start seeing the possibilities that Social Media gives to your music career!

Enjoy and please leave feedback below so that we can update the list and make it better next time!

-Greg
Follow me on Twitter.

Kim Divine | Real Musician Using Twitter

I ran into Kim at Atlantis a few weeks back and we got to chatting on Social Media's use for musicians. Well we talked about Twitter and its power and now I see Kim Twittering all over the place. Instead of hearing me talk, why don't you listen to a real musician using the service and how she uses it to keep fans updated, even on the road!

I also loves Kim's use of video to tell the story of Twitter. Very personal and really connects with her fans as evident by all the comments and interaction with the video. Kim even comes back on comments on the comments and really connects with everyone she comes in contact with.

Check Kim out at her site, on Mypsace and on YouTube.

Oh yea, and follow her updates on Twitter!

-Greg

Let Us Diss Your Myspace Page

Hey Gen-Y Rock Stars. We are launching a new service to get you the feedback you need and the ability to learn form the feedback of others. It will also allow us to test what is working and see how bands are using different strategies.

So what are we doing?
Send us 1 profile page. It can be your page on Myspace, Virb, Facebook, Bebo, YouTube, iMeem or any other music service there is. We will then head on over, take a peek and give some advice on the good, the bad and the ugly.

It's a pretty simple concept, but we want to see what is out there and help other bands see what is working on these networks and social media sites as it relates to:

• Social music promotion
• Music discovery
• Conversation
• Networking
• Performance
• Plays
• Streams
• Downloads
• Conversions and more!

How do I get down?
Send us your link to your page and a few sentences on what you have accomplished and what you want to accomplish on that site. Send that to greg.rollett@endagon.com. Every week on Gen-Y Rock Stars we will feature one of these sites and share our feedback. The community will also have the opportunity to do the same.

Then what?
Hopefully you take the constructive criticism and apply it to your online and social music promotion. We will try and stay in touch and see how it has affected your results on those sites.

That's it! Start sending us your stuff today.

-Greg

Coming Clean and Transparency

Today I posted a Tweet to the post I wrote last night on 5 Sites for Social Music Promotion. I got a reply thread from Justin Boland, the DIY hip-hop master, author of Audible Hype and founder of World Around Records that went down like this:


I am a firm believer in transparency, just like Social Media Superstar Chris Brogan, so I want to lay it out there. I am creating a social media music promotion course. It is one that I have been working on for a few weeks and probably won't finish until the 1st of the year. It's also a course that I am going to be selling. Yes, marketers need to eat too, and I am working really hard to make the course really useful and informational.

I am putting all of my Internet Marketing knowledge into building this site, including keyword research, PPC, link building, list building, social media tactics and the power of the network I am building. So yes, I am trying to pay my bills off what I have to offer.

With that said, I do have a few more disclaimers. I run a Social Media Agency, Endagon Innovations, where I work with clients all over the board as well as musicians. They are the reason I continue to learn, continue to test and continue to find new ways to reach people that want to hear from you. Nothing on this site reflects the values and thoughts of Endagon Innovations and that of our clients.

There, wanted to come clean and be completely transparent. In the mean time, the blog posts are completely free, as is my first guide that is coming out on Monday. There will be a forum too that will be free to registered users who will be test artists for some tactics.

Here's to becoming a Gen-Y Rock Star and continuing the dreams of being a full time musician!

-Greg
(btw, Audible Hype is a part of the 100 Resources List, so add that to your RSS Reader as well!)

Contact

We love to chat with future and current Gen-Y Rock Stars.

Email: greg.rollett@endagon.com
Twitter: twitter.com/g_ro
GTalk: Greg Rollett
Pownce: pownce.com/g_ro

5 Sites For Social Music Promotion

Every band lives and dies on music promotion. Having people hear your music and then keeping in touch with them to spread the word is an important element in the life of a musician. With the rise in Social Media entrepreneurs focusing on the music industry, there is a vast opportunity for expanded music promotion, well beyond your local gigs and Myspace bulletins.

Marketing and promotion is the epicenter of being a Gen-Y Rock Star.

Below is a sneak peek into the 100 Social Media Resources for Musicians that is being released on Monday. It is comprised of 5 sites that you can start using today to get your music into more ears and headphones to get you into bigger vans and playing better shows.

5 Sites for Social Music Promotion
The Sixty One - It's been dubbed the Digg for indie musicians. A great place to being social music promotion, The Sixty One allows bands to upload songs and have the members of the community bump a song up or down on the quest to tackle the front page. Ultimately its the fans and their promotion that can drive a song into excessive plays, bumps and fame!


Fuzz - Get your music on Fuzz and begin inserting your music and message into a great group of niche indie music fans. Have fans and users add your tracks to mixtapes and playlists and even create your own mixes from other bands on the site. Remember, we are in this together and the more great music you promote, the more fans will trust you when its time to unveil your new tracks!


iMeem - I used to think this was a hidden gem, but the masses have spoken as iMeem is one of the top 5 Social Networks in the U.S. and is build around the playlist principle. Get you music on as many playlists as possible and watch the viral spread as users embed these players everywhere.


StumbleAudio - It's channel surfing for new music. Get your tunes on StumbleAudio, let music lovers find them, love them and increase the chances of your songs being heard. One of the top music discovery sites there is.


DopeTracks - For my hip-hop peoples, DopeTracks is a collaboration site where artists, producers and DJ's can come together to make great music. Jump on enough collabs and let your new partners promote you on their sites to their network. That's what its all about right? Building your network? You bet it is.


If this list of Social Music Promotion sites got your appetite wet, be sure to get back here Monday at 12:01 am to download the full list of 100 Social Media Resources for Musicians. It's free and it will make an impact on how you promote and market your music to your fans and future advocates.

-Greg Rollett

Pownce + Music Marketing

Admitted I am a Twitter addict. You might now want to get my updates to your phone unless you have an unlimited texting plan. To go along with this major player is another service started by Leah Culver, Mike Malone, Daniel Burka, Kevin Rose, Ariel Waldman, and Shawn Allen that allows you to not only send short messages but files, videos and links, called Pownce.

The great thing is you can choose “who” to send “what.” Have a street team on Pownce, send your new flyer to them. Have a large following on Pownce, send everyone your new single and let them download it for free.

For the Gen-Y Rock Star, I see Pownce as a music distribution platform as well as an information distributor is which you, the band/musician/artist controls the flow.

I recently had the chance to talk to Leah Culver about using Pownce as a music distribution platform:

Pownce is a great way to distribute free or sample tracks to fans. We just added the ability to send files publicly on Pownce which could be used to distribute original content. I think musicians are definitely benefiting from getting their tracks out there on Pownce.

Pownce does currently have an open API, which allows developers to use the data within Pownce and create mash-ups and uses for the service that Pownce may not have available at the moment. I asked Leah about some music applications for Pownce and if any were on the way:

We haven’t seen any specific applications made for musicians or podcasters yet but I know there’s stuff in the works to integrate Pownce into various music players. That’s about all I can say

Now that is something to get excited about.

As musicians look to the future of finding and connecting with fans, engaging into conversations and fans do the same, Pownce is a great tool that more musicians need to look into. Leah mentioned Dinner Party Records and Brad Sucks as 2 music related users that are taking advantage of the services Pownce has to offer.

Pownce is just 1 free service offered to musicians that is included in 100 Social Media Resources for Musicians that is being unveiled on Monday. To get it ASAP, please sign-up to join the mailing list on the sidebar.

-Greg

(connect with me on Pownce at pownce.com/g_ro)

About Gen-Y Rock Stars

A Gen-Y Rock Star is a new breed of musician.
A Gen-Y Rock Star is the offspring of the DIY musicians. Taking punk rock ethos, great ideas, tomorrow's artistic vision and the power of the internet to facilitate a the modern day's rock star lifestlye.

Gen-Y Rock Stars know that a record deal is a dead end.
Gen-Y Rock Stars know that record sales are no longer the statistics that matter.
Gen-Y Rock Stars are new media marketers first, musicians second.
Gen-Y Rock Stars were brought up on Myspace for music discovery.
Gen-Y Rock Stars carry laptops right next to microphones, and cameras next to guitar picks.
Gen-Y Rock Stars know online playlists are more important that offline payola.
Gen-Y Rock Stars read TechCrunch over Rolling Stone and Mashable over Spin.
Gen-Y Rock Stars are building careers AND community.

Welcome to the next generation of musicians.

This site is geared towards THAT musician. The indie rocker with more YouTube videos than recorded songs. The band in the van with no album but thousands of streaming fans on UStream. The rapper recording songs and podcasting them on iTunes every night.

If you want to join this revolution, throw your email address below and sign-up for the newsletter or throw this site in your RSS reader with the buttons on the right side bar.

Gen-Y Rock Star Newsletter

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-Greg Rollett