Posted by Ann Bernard

Do this right now, Google yourself and find out if you’re having one way or two way conversations.

If the first few pages of results are all write-ups about you, your album, cd, book and shows…more than likely you’re engage in one way conversations.  Particularly if you click on the links and guess what…you’ve never left a comment on the review, engaged with the people who read the review or listened to your interview.  Worst yet, you’ve never linked back to those reviews or interviews…you didn’t even get involved in a communication with the person who promoted you.

On the other hand, if there’s a healthy dose of your own online profiles, your website and blog(s) than you’re also engaging in two way conversations.  Your name is linked to comments, your own reviews of others and things other than self-promotion.

As an entertainer you probably get really, really excited when someone agrees to interview you, review your work or take the time to interact with you in some way.  You got through the interview and than you sit back and wait for your sales to increase and for new fans to show up at your door steps…you wait, you wait and you wait.  Hmmm…but wait – only a few show up, if any at all.  So what do you next?  Line up more interviews??

STOP.  Start interacting and communicating.  Start building a community.

Guess what those folks who are interviewing you and reviewing your work are doing?  They are building and nurturing their community by featuring you.  They are communicating with their community.  What are you doing?  How are you interacting and engaging your fans?

STOP having one way conversations – Start having two way conversations

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Posted by Ann Bernard

What we’ve been discussing thus far is something I’m going to coin as “loose-leaf -social-media.”  That is to say, we’ve been doing some talking about having a presence on a variety of social networks.  I call it “loose-leaf” because hanging out on social networks and creating content without a plan is like having loose leaf papers with writing on them blowing in the wind…you don’t know what’s going to come of them and who is going to read the pages. 

Don’t get me wrong, some amazing things can and will still happen; particularly the ability to build some great relationships with your fans.  But, what we want to eventually get into is creating a social media campaign.  Having an understanding of your landing points and extensions is NOT a social media campaign.

A social media campaign is about leveraging your  loose-leaf-social-media together around a plan to accomplish a specific  purpose.  A social media campaign requires having 1. a plan 2. a purpose 3. a desired outcome and 4. a method to track its effectiveness.  It’s also called a campaign for a reason – it doesn’t happen overnight (even if it did happen overnight…it required a lot of planning and prep-work) and it will require continuous work.

You would launch a social media campaign for:

• The release of a new album, book, movie…etc.
• An upcoming tour
• A special show or event
• Recruit new talent

…just to name a few

First Step of a Social Media Campaign: Establishing Strategic Loose-Leaf-Social-Media Presence.
Having an established, strategic loose-leaf-social-media presence prior to initiating a social media campaign is advantageous.  It means you have some, even if meager, presence on the web and within a few communities. 

If you aren’t involved in loose-leaf-social-media and you engage in a social media campaign; you run a higher risk of coming off has only promoting, marketing and selling to the communities you belong to.  On the other hand, if you’ve been involved in loose-leaf-social-media than you have a greater chance of having the communities and relationships you’ve developed work in support of your campaign.

Communities and Relationships
It’s time to get into the importance of properly establishing yourself on the web and in your communities.  We’re going to explore social networks, blogs, websites and talk about the keys to being a successful, contributing member of a community.

It’s going to be awhile before we talk about creating a social media campaign again, so if you feel you have a well established loose-leaf-social-media presence and you’re ready to launch a campaign – contact me and we can discuss it.

Otherwise, since this blog is in its infancy and from what I’ve gathered of my readers you’ve been hanging out on MySpace and not venturing out too much; I’m going to take the time to explore with you.

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