Took us long enough huh? It did and we are sorry for that. The good news is that we did it for you!
We have made so many friends and fans here on myspace, but we feel as if we are losing you. We have heard your complaints about myspace and know that many of you have now left.
That’s why we have now have a facebook page and twitter!
We are asking all of you to come join us on one or both sites. We don’t want to lose contact with you.
We love all of you! You have always been so close to the band and a major part of our success. We love talking to all of you and don’t want that to end.
We know all of you have a facebook, and a twitter too probably, so come on and join us on both!
www.facebook.com/thirdgradehaters
twitter.com/thirdgradehater
I think our facebook has my name, Andy Jones on it, but all of you know me anyway.
So what are you waiting on, before you delete your myspace come join us on facebook!
See you there!
TGH
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
rock.love.peace.yes.one
Hello All
Close to a month ago now we posted a lot of info about suicide prevention with the promise that we wanted to do our part to help raise awareness about youth and teen suicide.
Since that time we have talked to several established groups to see what they are doing to help raise awareness.
After seeing what so many of them are doing it led us to come up with five words that cover all the things we can do to help raise awareness ourselves. They are: rock.love.peace.yes.one
rock:
Through our music, live shows and tours we can find ways to spread the awareness of suicide prevention.
love:
Love is the most important thing to all of us. We need to love ourselves and each other. Through love we can touch, help and heal those who are hurting.
peace:
We all need to be at peace with ourselves and with each other.
yes:
Yes there is an answer to your problems.
one:
We are all one with ourselves and with each other. We are one world and one people living together.
We are not forming an organization or trying to start our own suicide awareness program or campaign. rock.love.peace.yes.one is just our way of reaching out and helping those who need help the most.
I know it's just a start but if we all join in we can help spread the awareness of what is going on with so many teens around the world.
Let's all have hope and trust that one day suicide is just a memory of the past
Close to a month ago now we posted a lot of info about suicide prevention with the promise that we wanted to do our part to help raise awareness about youth and teen suicide.
Since that time we have talked to several established groups to see what they are doing to help raise awareness.
After seeing what so many of them are doing it led us to come up with five words that cover all the things we can do to help raise awareness ourselves. They are: rock.love.peace.yes.one
rock:
Through our music, live shows and tours we can find ways to spread the awareness of suicide prevention.
love:
Love is the most important thing to all of us. We need to love ourselves and each other. Through love we can touch, help and heal those who are hurting.
peace:
We all need to be at peace with ourselves and with each other.
yes:
Yes there is an answer to your problems.
one:
We are all one with ourselves and with each other. We are one world and one people living together.
We are not forming an organization or trying to start our own suicide awareness program or campaign. rock.love.peace.yes.one is just our way of reaching out and helping those who need help the most.
I know it's just a start but if we all join in we can help spread the awareness of what is going on with so many teens around the world.
Let's all have hope and trust that one day suicide is just a memory of the past
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Rock Love Peace Yes One Update
Hello People!
As many of you know I run a small non-profit called Rock Love Peace Yes One that helps to raise awareness about youth and teenage suicide. I wanted to repost a blog that a friend of mine Denny wrote about what we are trying to do. Denny has given so much of her time and talents to the movement.
She created some custom jewelry that I have been able to give to lots of those that support what we are trying to do. I personally wear a bracelet she made everyday that says simply 'I Choose Life'. The pieces have been a wonderful expression of love and hope to many that are involved.
Denny also runs her own custom jewelry business in her spare time. Make sure to stop by his website and see all the wonderful things she creates. Tell her thank you as well for her support of finding a way to help end suicide.
Help Be the Difference!
http://www.dmachettejewelry.com/index.html
RLPY1 is the acronym for Rock-Love-Peace-Yes-1, a movement that was begun by Andy Jones (bassist for Third Grade Haters), in response to the rising problem of teen suicide in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. Andy is just a young guy with a vision and a purpose. I want you to know that I have never met Andy, but I have been visited by the tragedy of suicide and I have been altered by it. So, when Andy began to post information about his desire to raise awareness about this critical issue, it resonated with me. I wanted to help him.
When I first saw Andy's posts about suicide, I was reading a book by David Lipsky and there was a quote that I could not stop rereading. I felt like Lipsky had plumbed my soul and managed to put into words the wreckage that suicide had deposited there. He had given voice to a fierce truth that I had been unable to articulate. In his book, “Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself : A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace, he wrote, "Suicide is such a powerful end, it reaches back and scrambles the beginning. It has an event gravity: Eventually every memory and impression gets tugged in its direction." Those words and the story of David Wallace Foster stirred the feelings of loss that I have harbored for nearly 30 years.
I wanted to be involved in Andy's efforts. I wanted to lend support in a practical way. He wasn’t asking for money, he wasn’t starting an organization; his purpose was to help raise awareness. As I thought about a way for me to be involved, I thought about using jewelry to make a statement. I floated the idea about donating some silver and some of my time to design some jewelry with a message of hope, as well as a method for getting help. I originally thought he could sell them at shows to raise funds for local organizations or to raise awareness in some way. The message stamped on each piece was: I Choose Life, RLPY1 and 800 SUICIDE (the 24-hour suicide hotline).
Andy has decided to keep his efforts local with his emphasis on the Knoxville area and the youth in his community. That is where his heart is and that is where he has the most influence. If you’d like to find out more about this movement or if you’d like to find a way to support his efforts, I recommend that you contact him at http://twitter.com/thirdgradehater or facebook.com/thirdgradehaters
Denny (Machette) Pizarro
As many of you know I run a small non-profit called Rock Love Peace Yes One that helps to raise awareness about youth and teenage suicide. I wanted to repost a blog that a friend of mine Denny wrote about what we are trying to do. Denny has given so much of her time and talents to the movement.
She created some custom jewelry that I have been able to give to lots of those that support what we are trying to do. I personally wear a bracelet she made everyday that says simply 'I Choose Life'. The pieces have been a wonderful expression of love and hope to many that are involved.
Denny also runs her own custom jewelry business in her spare time. Make sure to stop by his website and see all the wonderful things she creates. Tell her thank you as well for her support of finding a way to help end suicide.
Help Be the Difference!
http://www.dmachettejewelry.com/index.html
RLPY1 is the acronym for Rock-Love-Peace-Yes-1, a movement that was begun by Andy Jones (bassist for Third Grade Haters), in response to the rising problem of teen suicide in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. Andy is just a young guy with a vision and a purpose. I want you to know that I have never met Andy, but I have been visited by the tragedy of suicide and I have been altered by it. So, when Andy began to post information about his desire to raise awareness about this critical issue, it resonated with me. I wanted to help him.
When I first saw Andy's posts about suicide, I was reading a book by David Lipsky and there was a quote that I could not stop rereading. I felt like Lipsky had plumbed my soul and managed to put into words the wreckage that suicide had deposited there. He had given voice to a fierce truth that I had been unable to articulate. In his book, “Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself : A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace, he wrote, "Suicide is such a powerful end, it reaches back and scrambles the beginning. It has an event gravity: Eventually every memory and impression gets tugged in its direction." Those words and the story of David Wallace Foster stirred the feelings of loss that I have harbored for nearly 30 years.
I wanted to be involved in Andy's efforts. I wanted to lend support in a practical way. He wasn’t asking for money, he wasn’t starting an organization; his purpose was to help raise awareness. As I thought about a way for me to be involved, I thought about using jewelry to make a statement. I floated the idea about donating some silver and some of my time to design some jewelry with a message of hope, as well as a method for getting help. I originally thought he could sell them at shows to raise funds for local organizations or to raise awareness in some way. The message stamped on each piece was: I Choose Life, RLPY1 and 800 SUICIDE (the 24-hour suicide hotline).
Andy has decided to keep his efforts local with his emphasis on the Knoxville area and the youth in his community. That is where his heart is and that is where he has the most influence. If you’d like to find out more about this movement or if you’d like to find a way to support his efforts, I recommend that you contact him at http://twitter.com/thirdgradehater or facebook.com/thirdgradehaters
Denny (Machette) Pizarro
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Is the Internet dead or just dead to some of us?
I thought I would go ahead and follow up on the very question I asked myself at the first of my last blog: is the Internet dead or just dead to some of us.
I have been getting a lot of feedback to my recent blogs about the current state of the Internet from an artist’s perspective. Positive feedback, I would like to add, and some really great points to go on top of what I had written. It has become apparent from your comments that many of you see the Internet through the same lens as me.
So my question is, do we all think the Internet is dead from an artist’s perspective? Or are we just looking at it the wrong way?
Let's a take a look at the future of the social media world, maybe our answer lies there.
Just like the past, new technologies start to become apart of our daily lives, soon lose their buzz over time, and we move on to the next big thing. Just like cell phones, email, the Internet itself and many other recent techno-marvels that were all the rage at some point over the last 10 to 15 years. So what makes social media different and thus giving life to the Internet?
In just the past few weeks all of the major social media sites have undergone huge revisions, implemented new polices, given their sites face lifts and now shifted towards on demand content and marketing services to reach new potential users and customers. Would they being doing this if they were going out of business or are they doing this to stay in business?
Marketing departments for companies in the past never put a plan into place to develop their email department or their own website departments. These things were just adsorbed into their way of doing business. They never thought about focusing more time on how to email better or how to Google search better, these tools just made their jobs easier. Now though, companies are spending lots of time and resources to build their own social media departments. There are some that believe that social media will become its own stand alone discipline in the marketing world.
That's a lot to take in isn't it? The idea that some college kids got together and created a handful of websites that let people interact with each other, to the idea that these very sites are so influential in our lives, that kids will now be getting college degrees in social media is breath taking! It also answers our question.
Social media is evolving. It's finding its place in our lives, how we work and how we work with it. There are going to be up's and downs. New advancements and technology. Some sites will grow to take on a larger market share then others, while a few will fall by the wayside.
Just like the music industry itself, artists are going to have to wade through all of the progress and turmoil of this social media revolution. Myspace was a successful outlet for many artists in the past, and who knows, it may be again in the future. Right now there is no 'best place to be' for artists trying to find a foothold in the music business. Using social media can be aggravating and difficult to say the least. It can also be rewarding. Don't give up though, keep blogging and tweeting, keep your profiles up to date, post those status updates and maybe, just maybe, success will find you!
I have been getting a lot of feedback to my recent blogs about the current state of the Internet from an artist’s perspective. Positive feedback, I would like to add, and some really great points to go on top of what I had written. It has become apparent from your comments that many of you see the Internet through the same lens as me.
So my question is, do we all think the Internet is dead from an artist’s perspective? Or are we just looking at it the wrong way?
Let's a take a look at the future of the social media world, maybe our answer lies there.
Just like the past, new technologies start to become apart of our daily lives, soon lose their buzz over time, and we move on to the next big thing. Just like cell phones, email, the Internet itself and many other recent techno-marvels that were all the rage at some point over the last 10 to 15 years. So what makes social media different and thus giving life to the Internet?
In just the past few weeks all of the major social media sites have undergone huge revisions, implemented new polices, given their sites face lifts and now shifted towards on demand content and marketing services to reach new potential users and customers. Would they being doing this if they were going out of business or are they doing this to stay in business?
Marketing departments for companies in the past never put a plan into place to develop their email department or their own website departments. These things were just adsorbed into their way of doing business. They never thought about focusing more time on how to email better or how to Google search better, these tools just made their jobs easier. Now though, companies are spending lots of time and resources to build their own social media departments. There are some that believe that social media will become its own stand alone discipline in the marketing world.
That's a lot to take in isn't it? The idea that some college kids got together and created a handful of websites that let people interact with each other, to the idea that these very sites are so influential in our lives, that kids will now be getting college degrees in social media is breath taking! It also answers our question.
Social media is evolving. It's finding its place in our lives, how we work and how we work with it. There are going to be up's and downs. New advancements and technology. Some sites will grow to take on a larger market share then others, while a few will fall by the wayside.
Just like the music industry itself, artists are going to have to wade through all of the progress and turmoil of this social media revolution. Myspace was a successful outlet for many artists in the past, and who knows, it may be again in the future. Right now there is no 'best place to be' for artists trying to find a foothold in the music business. Using social media can be aggravating and difficult to say the least. It can also be rewarding. Don't give up though, keep blogging and tweeting, keep your profiles up to date, post those status updates and maybe, just maybe, success will find you!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tweet Tweet Twitter and Beyond
Now class since we last talked about Myspace and Facebook in great detail it’s time we turn our attention towards Twitter. What, if anything, separates it from the other two? It is fast and easy to use. Micro blogging in 140 characters or less is very appealing to those of us on the go. Yet again though, the same question arises that I have with Facebook, who are you tweeting with? Are you just tweeting with friends and co-workers and how does that help your band?
I admit, when I first heard about Twitter I thought it was a tool for bored people to write about the mundane details of their lives. “Took my dog for a walk” or “Just went to the bathroom” were the things I imagined reading.
Luckily, I was wrong. Okay, I have actually read those things but I think they were posted both in jest and as a way to get attention. Twitter has emerged as a new creative outlet, proving that it matters what the average person writes in 140 words or less. Twitter influenced the outcome of a presidential campaign, made Ashton Kutcher more popular than CNN, has a TV show based off of it, and is currently dominating the PR world as they try to get a grip on it.
Many articles have touted the importance of Twitter and Facebook for businesses, but why does Twitter matter to your band?
There are a lot of artists on twitter, not to say there are not on Myspace or Facebook too, but they seem to be more visible on Twitter then anywhere else. Are you using twitter to keep up with what a band is doing that day, in a way, that you don't use Myspace or Facebook?
So who exactly is on Twitter? Eight percent of American adult Internet users and particularly young adults according to Dec. 9 report from the Pew Research Center. Of those users, 2 percent said they use Twitter on a daily basis.
What they found was that Twitter users make up 10 percent of all female Internet users, versus 7 percent of Internet-using men. Tweeting is also more popular with those in the 18-29 age category—14 percent, versus 7 percent of 30 to 49 year olds, the next most popular category.
Now you may be asking why all of that mumbo jumbo is important. Well, as an artist you have to know who your target audience is. Being in a band is no different then being in any other kind of business. Your music is your product and you need to sell it. But who do you sell it too?
Maybe I should write a piece about niche marketing at some point and talk in more detail about this form of marketing and business practice, but for now let’s just say that not everyone from every age bracket is going to like your music. So you need to decide who is most likely going to buy your music and tweet with them.
If you think your music appeals to a teenage crowd then great! Twitter may be the ideal place to spend your social media time. With every teenager having a cell phone in their pocket, you are only a quick tweet away from their attention. Now, how long you can hold that attention has long been a problem for record labels and their parents alike, but at least you have a platform to reach them with.
On the upside, teens are using their mobile phones to share photos and stories, to arrange get-togethers and to micro-coordinate their schedules; on the downside, they are using them to cheat on tests, wriggle around rules and fire off sexts.
Understanding how youth use mobile phones is vital to creating effective social media plan based on the reality of how the technology is used.
If on the other hand you believe your fan base to be a somewhat older crowd, and by older I mean in their early to late twenties, then Twitter still may be a good way to reach those fans as well.
The problem with Twitter lies in it’s easy to get online and read tweets without every responding to them. Since it’s so fast and easy to use, most users never reply to your tweets. It’s hard to gauge exactly how many people saw or read your tweet, or if it was overlooked.
Just over half of Twitter users retweet posts—18 percent of them on a daily basis—and send direct messages. Forty percent share photos, 28 percent share videos, and 24 percent let others in on their whereabouts.
So where does that leave you as an artist?
An old saying of my Father comes to mind when thinking about Twitter:” If you don’t tell people what’s on your mind how they are suppose to know?” Same goes for a band too. If you have a show coming up, an appearance, heading to the studio, etc why not broadcast it to the world. It takes time, thought and effort to write a blog and then post it on your website, Myspace, Facebook etc. With Twitter in a quick few taps from your cell phone you have just informed everyone with little to know time involved at all.
As we have discussed before time usage is important when thinking about social media. Twitter is so fast and easy to use that it would be hard to get bogged down with it compared to Myspace and Facebook.
Using Twitter shows you are tech savvy, it’s free exposure, it’s an influential tool, it’s growing daily, it can open opportunities, reaches a key audience, provides real-time news, and is easy to use.
My advice to you as an artist is this: If you are taking the time to use Myspace and Facebook to promote your music, why not take a few seconds and post a tweet about it too!
Next time we will take about all of the little known or new social media outlets that are getting attention and starting to transform the way the big boys are doing business.
I admit, when I first heard about Twitter I thought it was a tool for bored people to write about the mundane details of their lives. “Took my dog for a walk” or “Just went to the bathroom” were the things I imagined reading.
Luckily, I was wrong. Okay, I have actually read those things but I think they were posted both in jest and as a way to get attention. Twitter has emerged as a new creative outlet, proving that it matters what the average person writes in 140 words or less. Twitter influenced the outcome of a presidential campaign, made Ashton Kutcher more popular than CNN, has a TV show based off of it, and is currently dominating the PR world as they try to get a grip on it.
Many articles have touted the importance of Twitter and Facebook for businesses, but why does Twitter matter to your band?
There are a lot of artists on twitter, not to say there are not on Myspace or Facebook too, but they seem to be more visible on Twitter then anywhere else. Are you using twitter to keep up with what a band is doing that day, in a way, that you don't use Myspace or Facebook?
So who exactly is on Twitter? Eight percent of American adult Internet users and particularly young adults according to Dec. 9 report from the Pew Research Center. Of those users, 2 percent said they use Twitter on a daily basis.
What they found was that Twitter users make up 10 percent of all female Internet users, versus 7 percent of Internet-using men. Tweeting is also more popular with those in the 18-29 age category—14 percent, versus 7 percent of 30 to 49 year olds, the next most popular category.
Now you may be asking why all of that mumbo jumbo is important. Well, as an artist you have to know who your target audience is. Being in a band is no different then being in any other kind of business. Your music is your product and you need to sell it. But who do you sell it too?
Maybe I should write a piece about niche marketing at some point and talk in more detail about this form of marketing and business practice, but for now let’s just say that not everyone from every age bracket is going to like your music. So you need to decide who is most likely going to buy your music and tweet with them.
If you think your music appeals to a teenage crowd then great! Twitter may be the ideal place to spend your social media time. With every teenager having a cell phone in their pocket, you are only a quick tweet away from their attention. Now, how long you can hold that attention has long been a problem for record labels and their parents alike, but at least you have a platform to reach them with.
On the upside, teens are using their mobile phones to share photos and stories, to arrange get-togethers and to micro-coordinate their schedules; on the downside, they are using them to cheat on tests, wriggle around rules and fire off sexts.
Understanding how youth use mobile phones is vital to creating effective social media plan based on the reality of how the technology is used.
If on the other hand you believe your fan base to be a somewhat older crowd, and by older I mean in their early to late twenties, then Twitter still may be a good way to reach those fans as well.
The problem with Twitter lies in it’s easy to get online and read tweets without every responding to them. Since it’s so fast and easy to use, most users never reply to your tweets. It’s hard to gauge exactly how many people saw or read your tweet, or if it was overlooked.
Just over half of Twitter users retweet posts—18 percent of them on a daily basis—and send direct messages. Forty percent share photos, 28 percent share videos, and 24 percent let others in on their whereabouts.
So where does that leave you as an artist?
An old saying of my Father comes to mind when thinking about Twitter:” If you don’t tell people what’s on your mind how they are suppose to know?” Same goes for a band too. If you have a show coming up, an appearance, heading to the studio, etc why not broadcast it to the world. It takes time, thought and effort to write a blog and then post it on your website, Myspace, Facebook etc. With Twitter in a quick few taps from your cell phone you have just informed everyone with little to know time involved at all.
As we have discussed before time usage is important when thinking about social media. Twitter is so fast and easy to use that it would be hard to get bogged down with it compared to Myspace and Facebook.
Using Twitter shows you are tech savvy, it’s free exposure, it’s an influential tool, it’s growing daily, it can open opportunities, reaches a key audience, provides real-time news, and is easy to use.
My advice to you as an artist is this: If you are taking the time to use Myspace and Facebook to promote your music, why not take a few seconds and post a tweet about it too!
Next time we will take about all of the little known or new social media outlets that are getting attention and starting to transform the way the big boys are doing business.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Facebook Frenzy!
Hello class and welcome back! As promised I am picking up where we left off last time in our discussion of the three major social media sites that most music artists use. After talking in great detail last time about Myspace, let’s now turn our attention towards Facebook.
Although Facebook may be new to many artists, it has been around since the dawn of the social media revolution. It’s really like the old adage of the chicken and the egg, which can first, Myspace or Facebook? The correct answer is that Friendster came first, then Myspace, Facebook and then Twitter. Now there are even newer sites like Yuniti and Bebo competing for your social media attention, but that’s for another day. To quote Dr Dre, it’s back to the lecture at hand.
So what about Facebook? Is it really any better than Myspace? First off, Facebook was originally only available to college students. You had to have a valid college ID and email to join. The idea was it would give college students a way of meeting each other once they got on campus. So unless you were truly a college indie artist, you could not be a member of Facebook. At the same time Myspace was free to join by all, and it was geared towards artists, which may give reason to why it took so many artists time to join Facebook.
To me Facebook has become the place for friends. Sorry Myspace, even if you hadn’t changed your tune, it's true. If you want to connect with friends or with colleagues it's the place to be. But what if you are an artist or band? Is this the best place to spend your social media time? It is free of content pursay, as in it don't offer or feature entertainment news or otherwise, so what does it offer the user that will attract them to your artist profile? To answer that question let’s examine Facebook a little closer.
Facebook now claims it has hundreds, I repeat hundreds of millions of profile hits a day. That is a staggering number! I have read it was close to 300 million hits a day to be exact. With over 500 million active users these numbers are probably correct. As of 2009 there were only 307,006,550 people living in the USA. That’s like every American logging on to Facebook daily! With that many users’ odds are that artists should be able to use Facebook to gain new fans, but then again maybe not.
Facebook users seem to follow a social media trend and only connect with those people that they directly know. If you are outside of their personal sphere they almost always will ignore you. So what's so social about that? I can already call, email or text these people. Do I need a website to do this for me? No.
Many artists already have email mailing lists that they regular use to send email updates to. These same artists have been doing this nonstop since the invention of email with great success. So why has this not translated to the social media world?
So how can an artist best use Facebook then? With Facebook artists are forced to create what is called a group page or fan page where they can post there music, bio, pictures, tour dates, etc. First though, they must create a personal page which is tied together with the other two. Confused yet? So am I. Facebook will not allow you to sign up as an artist, so this is their way of allowing you to do so.
When someone signs in to Facebook to look up your music they must search for your fan page. Not you directly, or the personal page you setup, so it’s important to include your artist name in your Facebook link if you want them to find your personal page as well. i.e. facebook.com/yourbandname not your personal name. I see lots of artists making this mistake.
Also, you can only add up to 5K friends to your personal page. After that you have to get your fans to ‘like’ your group or fan page. This is not as easy as it seems. It’s hard enough to get users to add you as friend on Facebook. Asking them to ‘like’ your fan page too can be a daunting task.
I can see where artists use Facebook to connect in a much more personal way with fans they have met and have built a personal relationship with. It’s easy to have a one on one conversation by posting on each others wall or adding to a users comment. Yet, once, again it’s all about real relationships. This is where social media continues to fail artists who are looking for success through the Internet. Facebook, as helpful as it is with connecting with people on a personal level, does not offer the close personal relationship ties that can be developed outside of the internet in the real world.
I read several weeks ago that more money was spent on online advertising then on print advertising in 2010. The trend is forecasted to continue to grow in that direction over 2011. As more and more people turn to the Internet for things on a daily basis the more likely they will turn to using social media as well. At this point and time Facebook seems to be the hub of a lot, if not all, of that social media activity and a lot of those advertising dollars. Chances are if you are working as hard in the real world on your craft as an artist as you are with your social media presence, then those looking for new music will find you to on Facebook. And with 500 million users it’s for sure a good place to spend your social media time.
Next time we will take up Twitter and several other new social media and micro blogging sites and examine their impact on the social media world and how they affect you as artists. I can already hear you now, “So what’s micro-blogging?” Don’t worry the answer is on the way!
Although Facebook may be new to many artists, it has been around since the dawn of the social media revolution. It’s really like the old adage of the chicken and the egg, which can first, Myspace or Facebook? The correct answer is that Friendster came first, then Myspace, Facebook and then Twitter. Now there are even newer sites like Yuniti and Bebo competing for your social media attention, but that’s for another day. To quote Dr Dre, it’s back to the lecture at hand.
So what about Facebook? Is it really any better than Myspace? First off, Facebook was originally only available to college students. You had to have a valid college ID and email to join. The idea was it would give college students a way of meeting each other once they got on campus. So unless you were truly a college indie artist, you could not be a member of Facebook. At the same time Myspace was free to join by all, and it was geared towards artists, which may give reason to why it took so many artists time to join Facebook.
To me Facebook has become the place for friends. Sorry Myspace, even if you hadn’t changed your tune, it's true. If you want to connect with friends or with colleagues it's the place to be. But what if you are an artist or band? Is this the best place to spend your social media time? It is free of content pursay, as in it don't offer or feature entertainment news or otherwise, so what does it offer the user that will attract them to your artist profile? To answer that question let’s examine Facebook a little closer.
Facebook now claims it has hundreds, I repeat hundreds of millions of profile hits a day. That is a staggering number! I have read it was close to 300 million hits a day to be exact. With over 500 million active users these numbers are probably correct. As of 2009 there were only 307,006,550 people living in the USA. That’s like every American logging on to Facebook daily! With that many users’ odds are that artists should be able to use Facebook to gain new fans, but then again maybe not.
Facebook users seem to follow a social media trend and only connect with those people that they directly know. If you are outside of their personal sphere they almost always will ignore you. So what's so social about that? I can already call, email or text these people. Do I need a website to do this for me? No.
Many artists already have email mailing lists that they regular use to send email updates to. These same artists have been doing this nonstop since the invention of email with great success. So why has this not translated to the social media world?
So how can an artist best use Facebook then? With Facebook artists are forced to create what is called a group page or fan page where they can post there music, bio, pictures, tour dates, etc. First though, they must create a personal page which is tied together with the other two. Confused yet? So am I. Facebook will not allow you to sign up as an artist, so this is their way of allowing you to do so.
When someone signs in to Facebook to look up your music they must search for your fan page. Not you directly, or the personal page you setup, so it’s important to include your artist name in your Facebook link if you want them to find your personal page as well. i.e. facebook.com/yourbandname not your personal name. I see lots of artists making this mistake.
Also, you can only add up to 5K friends to your personal page. After that you have to get your fans to ‘like’ your group or fan page. This is not as easy as it seems. It’s hard enough to get users to add you as friend on Facebook. Asking them to ‘like’ your fan page too can be a daunting task.
I can see where artists use Facebook to connect in a much more personal way with fans they have met and have built a personal relationship with. It’s easy to have a one on one conversation by posting on each others wall or adding to a users comment. Yet, once, again it’s all about real relationships. This is where social media continues to fail artists who are looking for success through the Internet. Facebook, as helpful as it is with connecting with people on a personal level, does not offer the close personal relationship ties that can be developed outside of the internet in the real world.
I read several weeks ago that more money was spent on online advertising then on print advertising in 2010. The trend is forecasted to continue to grow in that direction over 2011. As more and more people turn to the Internet for things on a daily basis the more likely they will turn to using social media as well. At this point and time Facebook seems to be the hub of a lot, if not all, of that social media activity and a lot of those advertising dollars. Chances are if you are working as hard in the real world on your craft as an artist as you are with your social media presence, then those looking for new music will find you to on Facebook. And with 500 million users it’s for sure a good place to spend your social media time.
Next time we will take up Twitter and several other new social media and micro blogging sites and examine their impact on the social media world and how they affect you as artists. I can already hear you now, “So what’s micro-blogging?” Don’t worry the answer is on the way!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Myspace or Yours?
After stating that the Internet was dead in my last piece, I decided to ask, if it’s not dead then what's next for social media? I thought it was a good follow up question after declaring the Internet dead. Well, then again, I'm not sure if I declared it dead, or just dead to some. Maybe that is the question I should be asking and answering here, but I'm not. Maybe next time.
As far as my discussion for today goes, I decided to talk about the first of the three most well known social media sites that most every artist uses in more detail: Myspace. Don’t be mad at me Facebook and Twitter users your turn is coming. I know lots of you are saying, ‘I don’t use Myspace anymore’. That’s okay, but my question to you is, why not? First up is Myspace. Over the past few weeks Myspace has totally relaunched itself as a place for social entertainment. No longer as the place for friends as it originally billed itself.
Myspace for many artists was the originator of the social media revolution. It in essence gave you a free web page that you could load your music, pictures, tours dates, etc up to for the world to see. The idea was genius and quite revolutionary to say the least. The idea that people looking to connect with artists in such an all encompassing way had never existed before. In turn millions flocked there overnight. As with all good ideas though, competition soon followed.
Myspace, being the giant it was, didn’t really take any of the challenges to its superiority very serious. They did little, if anything, to keep up with or advance the idea of social media. The word complacency comes to mind. As always the case with such a mind set, Myspace began to slip off the radar of all of the new social media fanatics and soon lead way to the birth of the second great social media explosion: Facebook.
At this point it seems Myspace seems to be resting all of its hopes on its ability to draw in entertainment users. Probably because someone at Myspace realized that the only people still using their site was artists. You can still have a band page on myspace, but I don't see the thrust towards being a future leader in the social media realm. What attracts a user to come to Myspace to meet or network with just artists? Nothing.There are already numerous sites across the web that offer users entertainment news, updates, features and access to celebrities. Most of these sites offer you a free membership where you can sign in to get updates direct to your email or mobile device. I don't think having the option of having a personal page on Myspace will make much of a difference or help separate it from other sites that already provide that sort of content.
From an artist’s standpoint, I can see where the thought of music consumers coming to Myspace for entertainment news might help generate traffic for your own profile, but I wouldn’t hold out hope.
The major labels already spend large amounts of money promoting artists signed to their labels on Myspace. i.e. Myspace Music. Also, major label artists are paid for every visit to their page. I bet you didn’t know that. They have a deal setup with Myspace so that their artists are paid based on song plays because of the advertisements that are placed at the top of each page. They also work in conjunction with Amzon.com as a direct link to buy or purchase that artists music direct from their Myspace page.
I thought I should take a moment before you get the idea of contacting Myspace, Amazon, CD Baby or anyone else and asking where your money is, to tell you that’s it’s not coming. Before CD Baby was bought out by Disc Makers, they were trying to negotiate a deal with Myspace to help get a little of that same money for the artists whom they represent. By represent, I mean artists who used them for digital distribution to iTunes and other Internet download music sites. No such luck. Before the deal was in place, Disc Makers had acquired them and the deal hit the preverbal back burner where it has stayed. Such is life for an indie artist.
I think going forward it will be even harder now for indie artists to find and get exposure on Myspace. One bright spot to Myspace though, in a recent survey, 80% of people said Myspace was the first site they visited to hear new music and find new artists. Don’t delete that band page just yet!
Ok, I have rattled on enough about Myspace. In the end I think having a presence there is important. When thinking about the Internet you have to think about your overall web foot print. The larger it is, the easier it is to drive traffic to your own webpage. (We will talk about your own web page very soon!) Using Myspace as a part of that foot print is worth a little of your time. If nothing else, Myspace still gives you a cheap easy way to get your music out so everyone can hear it. Most venues even request a link to your Myspace page when you approach them about booking a gig. So it’s good to have, just don’t put all of you eggs in one basket.
Next time we will talk about Facebook and Twitter. They are both are very different from Myspace and each other. It’s going to be interesting!
As far as my discussion for today goes, I decided to talk about the first of the three most well known social media sites that most every artist uses in more detail: Myspace. Don’t be mad at me Facebook and Twitter users your turn is coming. I know lots of you are saying, ‘I don’t use Myspace anymore’. That’s okay, but my question to you is, why not? First up is Myspace. Over the past few weeks Myspace has totally relaunched itself as a place for social entertainment. No longer as the place for friends as it originally billed itself.
Myspace for many artists was the originator of the social media revolution. It in essence gave you a free web page that you could load your music, pictures, tours dates, etc up to for the world to see. The idea was genius and quite revolutionary to say the least. The idea that people looking to connect with artists in such an all encompassing way had never existed before. In turn millions flocked there overnight. As with all good ideas though, competition soon followed.
Myspace, being the giant it was, didn’t really take any of the challenges to its superiority very serious. They did little, if anything, to keep up with or advance the idea of social media. The word complacency comes to mind. As always the case with such a mind set, Myspace began to slip off the radar of all of the new social media fanatics and soon lead way to the birth of the second great social media explosion: Facebook.
At this point it seems Myspace seems to be resting all of its hopes on its ability to draw in entertainment users. Probably because someone at Myspace realized that the only people still using their site was artists. You can still have a band page on myspace, but I don't see the thrust towards being a future leader in the social media realm. What attracts a user to come to Myspace to meet or network with just artists? Nothing.There are already numerous sites across the web that offer users entertainment news, updates, features and access to celebrities. Most of these sites offer you a free membership where you can sign in to get updates direct to your email or mobile device. I don't think having the option of having a personal page on Myspace will make much of a difference or help separate it from other sites that already provide that sort of content.
From an artist’s standpoint, I can see where the thought of music consumers coming to Myspace for entertainment news might help generate traffic for your own profile, but I wouldn’t hold out hope.
The major labels already spend large amounts of money promoting artists signed to their labels on Myspace. i.e. Myspace Music. Also, major label artists are paid for every visit to their page. I bet you didn’t know that. They have a deal setup with Myspace so that their artists are paid based on song plays because of the advertisements that are placed at the top of each page. They also work in conjunction with Amzon.com as a direct link to buy or purchase that artists music direct from their Myspace page.
I thought I should take a moment before you get the idea of contacting Myspace, Amazon, CD Baby or anyone else and asking where your money is, to tell you that’s it’s not coming. Before CD Baby was bought out by Disc Makers, they were trying to negotiate a deal with Myspace to help get a little of that same money for the artists whom they represent. By represent, I mean artists who used them for digital distribution to iTunes and other Internet download music sites. No such luck. Before the deal was in place, Disc Makers had acquired them and the deal hit the preverbal back burner where it has stayed. Such is life for an indie artist.
I think going forward it will be even harder now for indie artists to find and get exposure on Myspace. One bright spot to Myspace though, in a recent survey, 80% of people said Myspace was the first site they visited to hear new music and find new artists. Don’t delete that band page just yet!
Ok, I have rattled on enough about Myspace. In the end I think having a presence there is important. When thinking about the Internet you have to think about your overall web foot print. The larger it is, the easier it is to drive traffic to your own webpage. (We will talk about your own web page very soon!) Using Myspace as a part of that foot print is worth a little of your time. If nothing else, Myspace still gives you a cheap easy way to get your music out so everyone can hear it. Most venues even request a link to your Myspace page when you approach them about booking a gig. So it’s good to have, just don’t put all of you eggs in one basket.
Next time we will talk about Facebook and Twitter. They are both are very different from Myspace and each other. It’s going to be interesting!
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