There Are No Stupid Questions
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- Published on Tuesday, 15 May 2012 12:30
Stop not making sense!
There are no stupid questions. Or was it Homer (Simpson), who put it more precisely? There are no stupid questions, only stupid people.
At least when it comes to web copy writing and social media marketing.
In sales, asking rhetorical questions is one of the oldest tricks in the book. As soon as you've got people engaged, they're likely to stay that way. So the door to door cleaning guy will go ”you like a clean house right”, and you'll go ”yeah”, and suddenly, it's a lot harder not to by his glorified water. It's a cognitive dissonance, self maintenance theory kind of thing (and why I never talk to facers on the street).
This has been passed on to web copywriters and their current incarnation, social media managers, who will charge you to tell your clients or fans things like ”ask your audience questions – then you'll get a higher response rate!”
Here's some better advice. For free. Ask your audience questions if they're relevant and make sense!
Spamming your audience with whatever you're trying to sell and finish off your post with some random question is just about as elegant as going on a date and remembering you should have payed for dinner right after you had sex. These things require a minimum of social skills.
This is a bit of a pet peeve, so I've collected a couple of examples of awkward questions in social media communication (some translated from danish). This isn't to say the people who wrote these status are stupid or terrible at social media. Just to say these exact examples aren't pretty.
Don't Believe the Hype
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- Published on Wednesday, 25 April 2012 13:03
Or "How Social Media Turns Artists into Midas"
Overconfidentitis: A disease held mostly by artists and social media professionals, spread through virtual tounge-to-ass contact in excessive amounts.
The internet and digitalisation is great. We all agree cheap DAWs and digital distribution has done an amazing job democratising music. And we all agree that's a good thing.
Sure, more people are making boring crap, so it's harder to find those rare great tunes. But all in all, the more music made, the more GREAT music is made. Right?
Well, I'd really like to think so. But lately I've been observing a new breed of mediocrity, and I think it's related to social media hype. It goes a little something like this:
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Hard working and talented musician (or artist, fashion blogger, designer or video hobbyist) with a lot of “cool” friends uploads work to interwebs and posts to Facebook.
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Friends that want to show their appreciation, hangers-on that want to show their affiliation and wannabes that want to show how in-the-know they are give heavy amounts of positive feedback.
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Hard working and talented artist wallows in the intoxicating feeling it is to be accepted by ones peers. Starts sharing even more. Cycle continues.
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Fueled by mindless praise and probably some article written by a random "social media expert", aforementioned artist starts sharing all sorts of stuff, thinking hipstamatized pictures of their morning cup'a'joe is actually newsworthy, interesting and good for their "digital presence".
- Once talented and hard working artist changes criteria for sharing from "this is really great" to "this exists".
There's really nothing wrong with this in itself. People are welcome to share and consume crap if they want to. But it starts going Pete Tong when yay-sayers start affecting good artists' work by giving them the impression that everything they do is great.
I don't think it's a new thing. One thing about the notoriously difficult second album has probably always the fact that when everyone's telling you EVERYTHING you do is amazing, the bar for what constitutes "actually amazing" gets significantly lowered.
New Music Business Models Part 1: A Bit of History
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- Published on Wednesday, 04 January 2012 15:11
The hardest way to make an easy living
Thinkin' of a master plan
Cuz ain't nuthin but sweat inside my hand
So I dig into my pocket, all my money is spent
So I dig deeper but still comin up with lint
So I start my mission- leave my residence
Thinkin how could I get some dead presidents
The past ten years, the music business has had one discussion to rule them all: How do you make cash out of sounds when those sounds won't stick to plastic?
The question of how to make a living from music isn't that new though. Pretty much since the dawn of man, soundbwoys with soft hands have been trying to convince people they should concentrate on their "art" instead of hunting or working in the field.
There are many interesting ideas and services today, but in my opinion, they're all some kind of a continuation of the old “print sound to plastic and sell” way of thinking.
Aren't there other ways? Simply selling downloads and streams seems increasingly unrealistic as free music becomes more and more abundant.
The internet is a great place for marketing music, but it's also becoming increasingly clear that putting up free music isn't a master strategy either. There are simply too many people doing it.
So what is the master plan?
In a series of articles, I'll be looking at different music business models and brainstorming a bit on different ways to promote and distribute yourself and your music in an economically worthwhile way.
But first, a look at times past.
Thoughts and advice on digital video (and a little help from Tom Cruise)
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- Published on Monday, 07 November 2011 20:07
Music marketing with YouTube
If you were to ask me for five easy rules of thumb for success in the digital jungle, I'm pretty sure two of them would be "make interesting content" and "be active on as many platforms as you can".
What that basically means is that if what you're doing in any way can be translated to video, you should start uploading to YouTube.
I can't tell you how to become the next OK GO and get +50 million views and I can't tell you how to make films like Ridley Scott. I can however share some of the things I've learnt doing social media stuff for myself and Denmark's best selling musician.
I hope this is usefull and please do comment if you have anything you want to share. I'm not a film producer or even that huge a film buff, just a guy with a camera phone, some editing software and an interest in digital media.
Mapping Music
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- Published on Tuesday, 01 November 2011 17:13
Visualisation of inspiration!
I found this link to the interactive timeline, "Evolution of Western Dance Music" on The Horrorists blog, Wire to the Ear yesterday. It's a pretty cool and fun way to visualize influence and inspiration.
Notice how the number of lines grows exponentially over time - a factor I'd attribute the mobility of music.
When someone needs to physically relocate from Africa to the Americas and play music themselves, it's gonna take a while before a new style of music permeates the culture. Physical media made it easier to transport sounds overseas, and with digital media, the lines on that graphic are running wild around the globe all the time.
Which is a bit ironic, as it's the travel agency Thomson who made it. "How music travels?" These days, not by plane.
Of course, that graphic reminded me of the oldest site on the internet: Ishkur! Just in case you don't know it yet, here it it is:
I just love that interface.
And for a last one, this is probably the coolest visualisation of genres I've ever seen. Someone showed me the Map of Metal, last year. I've spent a couple of hours in there, learning about genres I didn't know existed and genres I hadn't listened to for 15 years. I love the way it looks.
Who would have thought I'd enjoy Depressive Suicidal Black Metal and Djent?
These days, I don't worry as much about genre as I did when I was DJing. I still think it's interesting though, observing how inspiration evolves. For me, the most interesting thing is that music means something different for everyone, and everyone has their own points of reference and way of understanding.
Where I might hear clear dub og ska influences, someone else might hear and emphasize psych-rock or early German minimalist influences.
In that respect, you could never really map music. That said, it still is pretty fun. And educational!
Know any other cool sites like this? Please let me know in the comments.
