David Wulf Riordan’s Weblog

Earlier today, I received a Facebook message from an old high school friend, Andrew Hoover, an incredible blues musician who’s career is taking off right now. He remembered my old web design business and wanted to know if I could point him in the right direction for a new site.  I responded with an overview of how to leverage social networking and build a personal brand.

Great to hear from you and fantastic to see that your music career is taking off. I’ve spent so little time in Fairfield recently that I haven’t been able to catch any of your shows.

I’ve moved into the new media space and started a social media strategy consultancy, but I no longer (a) have the design skills or (b) the time to build out a site.

That said, you’ve already laid the groundwork for a killer web presence, not in the least beginning with a great sound and a passion for making incredible music.

To put together a great web strategy you need 3 things:
1. A strong presence on social networking sites (and direct engagement with fans and other artists)
2. Lots of new, continuously generated content
3. A way to make yourself a personality

You’ve already got a pretty good MySpace with over 2000 followers there. That’s huge and a great place to start. Even a lot of signed bands have a total marketing budget of maybe 3 grand a year (if they’re lucky), and they spend that on two things: a publicist and a MySpace. You’re going to have to be your own publicist, getting as much coverage and presence as possible. But as far as the MySpace goes, keep building on top of what you’ve got.

Streamline the MySpace, get rid of any logos that are like “Made by xxx”, but most importantly directly engage with everyone who friends you. Leak them exclusive new songs directly (not posted for everyone – private message them a link to the mp3). Strike up a conversation with them and keep it going. You want each of them to be just as passionate about you as you are about making it, because once they’re that excited, I guarantee you that all they’ll want to talk to their friends about is you and your music. There’s no better place for disparate supporters to become fans and to ultimately become evangelists for your music than on social networks.

In addition to refining your MySpace, you’re definitely going to want to expand your Facebook presence. Most musicians are really MySpace-centric, but you’re in a position to really leverage Facebook in a way that most other artists can’t right now. First, your primary demographic is already all about Facebook, as the success of promoting your shows through it already shows. Build out your Facebook Page, get all your content up there (videos, notes, etc.) and start promoting the hell out of it (offline as well as on). Facebook kicks ass because it lets you leverage viral effects and amplify your message really easily. A page is the easiest way to build that in. We want Andrew Hoover popping up in people’s feeds as much as possible and this is the way to do it. Use Facebook like Myspace to directly engage with your fans – they expect it on MySpace, they don’t expect it on Facebook – and the unexpected is what makes you stand out amongst all the noise. Connect directly: one-to-one, as well as one to many, and do it every single day without fail. Never leave a conversation open – respond to every message and email. You want them to be passionate about you, you’ve got to be just as passionate about every one of them.

Next: You’ve got to get content out there, and lots of it. Put up video of live shows, brainstorms, behind the scenes footage, studio time, traveling to and from events, anything and everything that’s kinda cool or funny. Pictures: same thing. Blog entries – yep. Unreleased songs – absolutely (and give them out as MP3’s, I can’t send all my friends a streamer, I can with an MP3). Use sites like Youtube (or even better: Vimeo – like YouTube but where the Williamsburg set and internet cool people hang out, with a focus on real content from real people).

And finally: Remember – you’re promoting yourself just as much as your music, so you’ve got to be a personality. I want to buy into Andrew Hoover as much as Andre Hoover Music. The best way to do that is to mix an open acknowledgement that you’re promoting yourself (and to go out and promote the hell out of your content – give it to MP3 blogs, which work wonders at building name recognition, remixers – who are often DJ’s and will spin your stuff in new settings and sometimes on air, etc.), as much as being yourself. You’ve got to put yourself out there personally and express what you’re into beyond just your music. Take a look at Kanye West’s blog. For the past few months, he’s been posting nonstop about (mostly) cool things he finds, what makes him passionate, some behind the scenes material, and a bit of new material. He does this EVERY DAY. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t post about new Kanye West stuff, but that he’s out there talking about what he’s passionate about. And so the final piece of the puzzle should be an andrewhoovermusic.com that is really your personal outlet for everything, but in a blog format. Take a look at Tumblr.com – it’s a blogging service that I think would be perfect for what I’ve outlined here (and can be pulled into Facebook and MySpace). Express yourself, because if people are passionate about what you’re passionate about, they’ll become fans overnight. You should hype the blog (which will drive people to the Facebook Page and the MySpace) at every event, because it promotes both you and your music simultaneously.

Take a look at Kevin Kelly’s math on online promotion with the end goal of finding 1000 true fans (http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php) – it’s really eye opening about how much success you can have as a musician with only a few dedicated fans.

I hope this helps you sort out your online strategy. This is all stuff you should be able to do on your own. I’m looking forward to catching up with you in the next couple of weeks when I’m back in Fairfield and New York, and keep on making incredible music.

Best,
Dave Riordan