You Can't Always Get What You Want..You Can't Always Get What You Need Either. But Did You Ever Really Need It In The First Place?

Not much more than a decade ago, the only tools available to a band aching for stardom were a demo tape and getting the right gig.  Nowadays, any given band has a buffet of weapons at their disposal including social media, the still growing festival circuit, more record labels, and small time philanthropy websites like Kickstarter.  To say that it’s hard to know where to begin is a gross understatement.  There’s a jungle of opportunity out there, and if we’ve learned anything from Guns’n’Roses, it’s that jungles can be a pretty rockin’ place to be.  But the trick is to know what you’re doing.  You certainly don’t want to end licking the wrong kind of toad or be swinging from a vine only to realize it’s a giant snake.

This article identifies some of the vines most likely to be snakes and toads most likely to leave you with warts: 

The South By Southwest Festival can a lot of fun and good for some amount of exposure, but chances are it won’t do much for you unless you’re already on the way up. 

Obviously record labels can be helpful but these days indie-cred may actually be worth more than the US dollar, if only it was quantifiable, so there’s something to be said for going it alone. 

Services like ReverbNation can help you get internet exposure but it doesn’t do any of the work for you and is only worth it if you’re prepared to utilize every aspect of the service like it was the job you’re parents want you to get.

Social media is great but it’s not a simple popularity contest.  Using it effectively is about being connected to the appropriate bands, record labels and so forth.  It’s more like ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’.  You could have thousands of followers, but if you’re an indie band and a Modest Mouse fan is more likely to offered a membership with the Free Masons than stumble on your band, you’re in trouble. 

Booking agents can be helpful but only when you actually need one.  In other words, you shouldn’t be hiring a booking agent to get you gigs that you’ll rely on to pay that same booking agent. 

-          Expensive instruments and gear can help sustain your ego and sometimes might help you play better, but they’re not going to turn your mom’s basement into Madison Square Garden.  There are better ways to spend your money. 

      Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are fantastic developments in philanthropy but mostly all they do is get you money which will only guarantee you one trip to the bank, not a high-powered accounting robot to do it for you.  You should already have a fan base ready and waiting with their wallets open, then you can use these sites to expand on your existing success.  

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Why Isn’t Our Facebook Page Growing?

If you’re one of the countless musicians, businesses or organizations that has a Facebook page, you’ve probably noticed something disturbing: growing your fan base/audience is nearly impossible beyond a certain point. Recent studies have shown that only 6% of fans engage with a brand’s Facebook page. Why such a low number, you ask? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why your page has gone stale.

1.     You don’t pay. Facebook uses an algorithm that favors people who pay to advertise.  Facebook is willing to work for their customers, but guess what? You aren’t a customer. Facebook makes 95% of its revenue from advertising, and you aren’t paying up. Paying even as little as $15 for a promoted post can boost your posts’ outreach ten times over.

2.     You aren’t posting consistent, compelling content. Your posts need to have consistent tonality and overall direction, while still being varied enough to remain interesting and engaging. Your posts can either enhance or confuse your identity.

3.     You’re not using mixed media. Facebook allows for the posting of videos, links and pictures. Posts that feature media are much more likely to encourage engagement than posts that don’t.

4.     You don’t focus on community. This is a SOCIAL networking site, so when you use it as an advertising platform, you’re missing the point. Instead of using the page like a soapbox, engage your fans and start conversations.

5.     You aren’t engaging your fans. You’ve posted something that has sparked conversation, but your work’s not done. Re-engaging your audience is just as important as starting the conversation in the first place. Comment on posts, answer questions, and offer your own insights.

6.     You’re ignoring your analytics. Facebook is nice enough to give you detailed analytics on every page you create. See what’s been working and what hasn’t, and make adjustments to keep your fans’ interests high.

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It Used To Be About the Music

Let’s face it, the ultimate goal for the vast majority of musicians, if not all of them, is to make money from their music.  Obviously the dream of a private island and a swimming pool with a fully stocked daiquiri bar is the ideal.  But even if it’s not enough to support yourself, the fact that someone out there is paying for the privilege to listen to your songs, can go a long way for any band’s morale.  But it’s not enough to simply write and record music anymore.  In order to see a substantial return on your art, you must diversify and hone your strategy. 

The best thing you can do is to pair your music with an identity of some kind.  This can be on as large a scale as the “Dead Head” identity is to Grateful Dead fans, or as simple as a universal emotion or a common personality trait.  Think of how many heavy metal bands have made a living off of ‘hate’ and ‘anger’.  Think of how many pop groups have made a fortune from the ‘hopeless romantic’ image, while in reality are enjoying very active personal lives.  Even though you’ll probably never hear Tom Waits on the radio, he makes quite a comfortable living from the ‘drunk and tortured poet’ mystique.    

Pairing your music with a video can help make your sound more memorable.  Attaching your music to a smartphone app, or anything phone related can also be extremely effective.  Not only will it be a more constant and interactive reminder that your band exists, but more importantly, getting on someone’s smartphone means getting into their pockets, which brings you that much closer to where their money is.

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Know Your Audience…Hint: They May Know You Already

We’ve probably all heard the phrase “Know Your Audience”, but it’s a little more complicated than that. For starters, that advice assumes that you already have an audience.  If you’re band is struggling to reach the first or second rung of the later, you might want to put some consideration into which hand you use. 

In other words, if you’re going to play a song for someone, play it for the person who is most likely to relate to it, and hence, enjoy it.  If you’re in a punk band, don’t waste your time trying to get on a bill with Kenny G.  Similarly, if you’re a pop-country singe, also, don’t waste your time trying to get on a bill with Kenny G.  You might get to play for thousands of people, but all you’ll be doing is finding thousands more people who hate you.  Below is a detailed explanation of how to discern who might consider marketing yourself towards.  

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7 Apps Every Musician Needs

One of the most important things to be a successful musician is to get your name out there and to be more involved with your audience. And in today's society where the internet is the place to be, it's easy to stay up to date and connected when most people carry their internet in their pocket via smartphones.

Here are some interesting mobile statistics to keep in mind:

    There are 165 million Twitter users, and 50% of them use Twitter Mobile.
    Over 1/3 of Facebook’s 900 million+ users also use Facebook Mobile.
    Mobile internet usage will overtake desktop internet usage by 2014.
    Mobile coupons get 10x the redemption rate of regular coupons.
    3 out of 5 internet searches are done with a mobile device.
    91% of mobile internet access is to socialize.
    In March 2012, Smartphones were in use by 50.4% of consumers in the US.

So how do you know what's best and where you should invest your time? Below is a list of the top 7 apps you should consider to help expose your band to a larger audience, as well as better market to the audience you already have.

1. Square / Cost: FREE

Let’s say you just played a  show, and you’ve got a newly converted fan that absolutely can’t get enough of you. She loves your music so much that she wants to buy 5 CD’s - one for her, and the rest for some family and friends. Awesome, right? One problem, though - she only brought her credit card. Well, that’s a bummer. How are you going to scan her card without some sort of card reader? Oh, wait, do you have a smartphone? Then consider your problem solved!
Square is a fabulous app that allows you to swipe any credit card and deposit the money into your bank account. Once you sign up on the website, they’ll send you your free card reader. Then just download the app and set everything up, and you’ll never have to worry about the “cash-only” dilemma again!

2. Tweetbot  / Cost: $2.99

Twitter is one of the easiest ways to keep up with your network in real time while you’re out on the road. While Twitter does have its own app, many find it somewhat lacking. For a Twitter app with a little personality and some cool features, why don’t you try Tweetbot?
Tweetbot lets you read and create tweets, of course, but there’s more! You can create lists of different types of people, such as co-workers or fans by location, and view timelines of only their tweets. You can also read a whole conversation thread with a single swipe of your finger, and customize the app so you can use it however you’d like best.

3. Facebook / Cost: FREE

You DO have a Facebook fan page, right?! Good!
Make sure you’re staying on top of your page with the Facebook app. Let everyone know what you’re up to, scroll through your news feed, upload your cool photos easily, and check into your favorite coffee shop! You can pretty much do anything you could normally do with Facebook, right on your phone.

4. Instagram / Cost: FREE

Think you’re a good photographer? With Instagram’s effects, you could even wow yourself. And with photos acting as one of the most well-received and popular kinds of Facebook updates, there’s no reason not to post them more often!
Instagram provides a smooth, easy, and great-looking interface to snap pictures with your phone, add different filters to transform them, and share them easily with your social networks. Warning: it can be addictive!

5. Dragon Dictation / Cost: FREE

Okay, so you’re out getting some lunch with your buddies, and suddenly…inspiration hits. You saw or heard something, and you got a cool idea for some new song lyrics. But you’re in the middle of lunch, so what do you do? Quick - just record your voice!
To record your voice and turn it into text with surprising accuracy, give the Dragon Dictation app a shot. You can even use it to write emails, which could be especially helpful if you aren’t the world’s fastest texter.

6. Tonepad / Cost: FREE

If you’ve ever wanted to create musical compositions on the go, then you should start playing around with Tonepad! This nifty app lets you play different notes with a touch of your screen. There’s no limit to the number of songs you can create and save!
If you want to share your creations, you can hit the “Upload” button to get a special code and give it to your friends. If they also have the app, they can input the code and hear what you made. Now, start creating!

7. SendHub / Cost: FREE

Mobile marketing has actually been around for a while, but many still aren’t taking advantage of it because they’re not sure how. One of the reasons it’s so useful is because people tend to have their phones with them all the time. How do you reach out to your fans and let them know you have a surprise show that night? The same way you’d reach out to any of your friends: with a text!
SendHub is a service that allows you to send texts to groups of people, and they’ve just released a mobile app. Just sign up on the website with your mobile number and download the app to use the site easily from your phone. SendHub provides you with a unique number, so your real number can stay private. Anyone can subscribe to your group texts by texting the group’s keyword to your SendHub number, and can unsubscribe by texting “STOP.” The app lets you create your groups right out of your iPhone contact list and manage your account on the go! A free account gets you up to 1000 messages per month and up to three groups, with 50 numbers max per group.




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Advice For Contacting The Industry

As a band or musician you're probably looking to get your music heard (and if you're not, you should be!) but what's the best way to go about doing it? Well, some of the most influential people to contact are those in the music industry already, people who have the power and influence and can share your music with larger crowds, but there are proper ways to do it (spam not being one of them). It's important to personalize your messages, and to make them concise. Below is some advice from Joey Flores, who is Co-founder and CEO of Earbits, an online radio platform designed to help artists, labels and concert promoters market their music and live events.  I've only taken a snippit, but trust me it's worth it to read the whole article.

I would love to take it as a compliment that so many bands send me email asking me to check out their music or come see them live.  It should mean I’m important.  Instead, I disregard most of it as spam.

Mile-long emails telling me about how so-and-so is the next hot artist blowing up all over my face.  New album press releases that assume I have 40 minutes to spend learning all about how some artist “grew up in the poorest regions of such and such area before ‘rising to fame’”.  It’s all hype that makes no sense given that you have only 80 fans on Facebook.

What is most annoying about these emails is that they’re not even addressed to me.  They’re sent to the Earbits customer support email address, and have clearly bcc’d the rest of the world.  Sometimes, they’re not even smart enough to do that, disclosing hundreds of email addresses to everybody else on the list.  These untargeted, long-winded marketing pieces are lazy, in some cases costly, and completely pointless. Stop sending them.


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Your Band Needs A Website!

It's surprising how many bands don't have legitimate websites and no, Facebook and MySpace don't count. Social media IS important, but it's more important to have a central hub to link all your other pages.
Having a website has two main goals for your band:

1. Help you engage with and make new fans.
2. Make you money.

Depending on your budget you can get a website professionally done for a fair price depending on the company you go to and how intricate you're trying to make your site. But for most musicians that don't have the money to spend, you can make yourself a cheap website and host it for a low monthly cost.  Below is some advice about getting your bands website up and running. 

Step 1: You must have a domain name.  
To register a domain name go to godaddy.com (USA)

Register the domain that you would like to use.  I highly suggest a dot com  (.com) if you can get one and no sashes or underscores if you can help it.

TIP: You should also make sure that the YouTube, Twitter and Facebook page names are also available.  You want to make sure your socials match.

Step 2: Choose which option you would like.

Pay As You Go

A pay-as-you-go option with a web site builder, can get you up and running very quickly and you won’t need a designer to build for you.
Here are my favorite 3 in alphabetical order. All 3 have excellent call-in customer service to help ease the confusion.

Bandzoogle – http://bandzoogle.com/

Their lite version starts at $9.95 per month easy to use and the first month is free!

Hostbaby – http://www.hostbaby.com/

Owned by CD Baby, Hostbaby has recently undergone a fabulous face-lift and it’s easy to use. You can store unlimited emails and send newsletters through your custom site. It costs $20 per month or $199 per year.

Nimbit – http://www.nimbit.com/instant-band-site/

You’ll need a Nimbit account (either Free, Indie, or NimbitPro all details on the site). Note: these are real Wordpress sites!  If you want a Wordpress site this is a great pay as you go option.  Easy tutorials too!

Working with a Web designer

I suggest crowdspring.com or LinkedIn for finding affordable Wordpress designers. Make sure you read the designers reviews and see examples of his work before you hire him so you don’t get any unpleasant surprises.

TIP: Don’t pay more than $500 for a basic Wordpress site.

TIP: Don’t work with an “arty” web designer who does not build in Wordpress because he will give you a flash movie intro or a complicated site. If you want artsy, buy a fabulous new outfit, or create a physical piece of merchandise using http://www.MerchLuv.com that’s really cool, and expresses who you are. But please don’t be “artsy” on your website.  On your website be clear and functional.

Step 3: Build Your Homepage

Your entire website should be easy to navigate with a nav bar across the very top of each page or down the left hand side (at the top) so visitors can see it, (not buried where they have to scroll down).

A. Be branded with your look, your colors, and your logo (if you have a logo) and of course a stunning photo of you / your band.

TIP: your socials should all match your site colors.

B. Should feature your name, and your pitch, or specifically what you sound like in a few words.  If you feel weird creating a “pitch” use one killer press quote or fan quote, which sums up the way you sound.



Good luck!


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Managing Your Digital PR & Social Media

One of the biggest problems with digital marketing and social media are the unrealistic expectations it can bring. You have to realize you're not going to get one million page views in a matter of months. Here's some great advice from digital marketing professional about realistic goals to have when you're working on your PR campaigns. 

This is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

As cliche as this sounds, it couldn’t be more true. The idea of going ‘viral’ has poisoned the general understanding of how social media works. While a video here and there may go viral, meaning it garners massive visibility in a very short time, social media is NOT a quick solution for success.  A consistent, compelling content strategy must be put into place over the long term in order for you to see any significant results.

Note that this is precisely the reason why we here at Cyber PR® wont work for less than a 3 month period. We don’t believe it is worth your time or our effort to execute a strategy for a shorter time period.

Understanding the Purpose of Digital PR & Social Media Marketing

Any time a potential client approaches us and says ‘I’m hoping to gain an additional X number of sales from this campaign’, or even asks ‘What sort of sales should I expect to see from this campaign?’, we immediately understand that there is a disconnect between what the client THINKS PR / Social Media Marketing does, and what it actually does.

It is incredibly important to understand the following:

The sole purpose of digital PR is to expand visibility and brand awareness, and to spark new conversations about you that can lead to new fans funneling back to your social media accounts or website.

The sole purpose of social media marketing is to engage in conversations with existing and new fans, to build increased loyalty which can ultimately be converted to mailing list sign ups (aka long-term super fans).

Digital PR and social media marketing are only PART of the funnel that will convert ‘fans’ into ‘customers’, and alone don’t have a direct correlation to sales. 

Understanding the Industry to Frame Your Tangible Goals

As someone who is about to hire a team to run a digital PR or social media marketing campaign, it is important to understand your target industry as a whole so that you know what the realm of possibility, in a best case scenario, actually is. This will be an immense help in creating goals for yourself.

For example, knowing that with VERY few exception, in today’s music industry only the top 1% of musicians, with multi-million dollar ad budgets and a global influence and reach are capable of achieving 1 Million units sold for a SINGLE, let alone a full album. You need to be realistic about your expectations to sell your upcoming album, EP or single.

Understanding the Scope of Work

We can’t stress enough how critical it is to understand the scope of work of any digital PR or social media marketing team that you hire. 

Not all digital PR and social media marketing is the same, and in fact there are SEVERAL ways that it can be executed with a wide variety of focuses.

For example, Cyber PR® very specifically focuses on long-tail and niche PR, and thought-leadership marketing, helping our clients to tell unique stories that weave their passions and their backgrounds that reach into OTHER markets (such as yoga, entrepreneurship, parenting, etc.). 

It is NOT our specialty to only run location specific PR campaigns to support tour dates. 

It is important that you understand this before you approach us for a campaign, and the same can be said for understanding this scope of ANY firm before you approach them as well.

Accepting That Digital PR / Social Media Marketing Doesn’t Have ‘Typical’ Results

This must be the most common question we get asked when approached by any type of new client… 

“What are the typical results that I can expect from a digital PR campaign?”

There is no way to answer this, because truthfully every client and every campaign is different.

There are a lot of factors that a digital marketer or publicist can control, such as how well the pitch is developed, how good of a target media maker list is and how strong the relationship with media makers within a given niche are, that can really determine the effectiveness of a campaign.

However, there are a lot of outside factors that digital marketers CAN’T control such as demand for new stories within your specific niche, how much opportunity in that niche exists (i.e. the number of blog actively covering the niche) and how well your story resonates with the niche, that will ultimately be the deciding factors in how strong the results of your campaign will be.

Open Dialog with Your Team

In order to make sure your goals are on point, and to further make sure that WE are working effectively to achieve these goals, we need to be communicating! 

If you come to the table with a goal, and then disappear for a month, it becomes incredibly difficult for us to manage your goal as we continue to work on your behalf. If you are going to run a digital PR or social media marketing campaign, you MUST understand that your involvement and ability to stay proactive throughout the process will be the KEY to your success. 

From our personal experience, a client who checks in, who follows up and follows through, and develops a relationship with US, the people executing the strategy, the campaign is FAR more likely to succeed than someone who pays for the campaign, and then shows up at the end wondering what happened.


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