When social networking, you have to keep in mind the flow of events and what you are trying to accomplish. Here are a few rules of thumb to follow:

- All social networking sites  lead to the main site www.YOURDOMAIN.com. It’s not the other way around. You get more people on social networking sites than at the main site. What you are trying to do is get those people to go to the main site to get the core message. This means the main site contains the core message, information, or happenings and social networking sites present that core message in a personal way … that will connect with people on a friend level. Social networking sites should never be an exact copy of what is contained on the main site.

- Personal stories, tidbits, or other stories found online that contribute to the core message, information, or happenings of the core message found on the main site should be used to make connections on social networking sites – then, use teasers to get people who stumble upon the connection in the social networks to go to the main site to get the full story or information.

- Information between social networking sites should never be a duplicate of each other or the main site’s information. You need to make each site unique. Know your social networking site’s emotions, what the people of that site like, don’t like, and interact in a way that best suites them… not you.

- Main social sites or high activity sites should have a blog updated at least three times a week with personal, mission, and off the wall subject matter

- Minor social sites with little activity should have a new blog posted at least once a week

- Youtube is a social networking site and needs to have updates, blog posts, and comments added weekly

- Each social networking site has an “update status” or “what are you doing now” section or box. This should be updated at least once a day on all social networking sites. For the main, active, sites this should be updated twice a day.

- Social networking is about interaction. This means more than friend requests and comments. You must visit various “friends” profiles often and litter with comments, emails, interaction, and personal thoughts. Remember, we you are trying to make real friends… not just fans.

- Social sites are a great way to get fans/friends involved. Radio interviews, live shows, and other activities  should be announced as follows: create a blog post as soon as activity is confirmed and main site updated with core/complete details. One week prior to event a mass blast or all friend update should be sent to all friends within social network. Three days prior – create another blog talking a bit more detail about event and hype it up a bit by saying other fans are getting excited… blah blah blah. Two days prior – mid day – send a mass blast to all friends again reminding them of event – not a copy of the original blast. One day prior you need to send out three blasts throughout the day – morning-mid day- evening reminding friends of events. This time be sure to include contact, address, or other relevant information. Day of event send three more blasts before event and one blast after event is over requesting friends  thank the radio stations, venue owners, or others involved with the event – include email addy to make it easy on friends to take action. Day after event a new blog should be posted to all sites with links to core information on main site, pictures, video, or other media collected from event. This is also a good time to ask fans/friends to submit any pictures or videos they took at the event.

- Social networking is about getting friends/fans to take small action steps. You are training them to take action when asked. This can be as small and simple as emailing a radio station to thank them for hosting an interview. The goal is to get the people used to taking steps! When fans take steps you reward them by bragging in blogs. If a radio station sends you an email saying people emailed in to the show then by all means create a blog post and thank the fans for emailing. Tell them how it helped, why they need to continue, and how it helped reach success. This is a strong reward. You need fans to take small action steps throughout the campaign as it leads to the large action step of buying CDs and merchandise when it’s available.

Social networking is about action and activity. Main websites are about core information. You use social networking to lead people to the core site so they can take action on what is needed to help the music mission continue.

Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”

Hey Folks,

Been out doing a bit of my own social networking just listening to some music and trying to meet some new people and ran across this really groovy band…Route.44  http://www.myspace.com/route44 Be sure to check them out and let em know you heard about em though I am Music Network! It’s not your norm and that is what makes em sooo cool!

Peace,
Jai

Ok, keeping with the building of your music marketing campaign I have posted the second article int he series “Creating Your Music Marketing Campaign” over at I am Music Network. This article dives deep into selecting a base region and how to keep track of all the research you will need to do to conquer any region you want.

Building A Music Marketing Campaign – Part 1

Building A Music Marketing Campaign – Part 2

Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”

First, I want to say sorry for letting so much time lapse between blog posts. It has gotten crazy busy around here and I let it slip. My bad, won’t happen again….until next time if I am being really honest about the situation.

Ok, I was talking to a client of mine today and we started going over what he needed to do before jumping into marketing strategies and spending money. I asked if he could send me his marketing plan/campaign so I could go over it and see if or where he might need my help. After I asked I got that long, silent, moment I almost always get when I ask this question…. it means he didn’t have one.

What was crazy is I had been talking to this guy for a few days and he was incredibly smart and knew a lot about the music marketing game. I mean he had strategy after strategy memorized, worked out, and knew what resources he would need to take action. But he didn’t have a master campaign or plan figured out. HUGE MISTAKE!

Jumping from one strategy to another simply hoping that by stringing them all together they would all work is not a music marketing plan. It’s not even a goal. It’s a hope, a very thin hope that the money spent will actually earn back some money.

Anyway….

I asked how he could have so much knowledge but not have a plan. He simply stated that he did not know who or where to begin.

So, because of this conversation I realized that there may be a lot of info out there giving specific strategies to the un-informed, but very little information about how to string it all together in to a comprehensive music marketing campaign. Light bulb moment….

Please visit I am Music Network – the parent site to this blog and check out the first article in the series on “Creating Music Marketing Campaigns!”

Hey, and stop being shy! Leave me a comment or two letting me know what you think. If I don’t hear from you I don’t know what it is you want to learn about.

As always…
Peace,
Jai
www.JaiHutcherson.com
“love the music in yourself, not yourself in the MUSIC!”
Create the Ultimate Awareness Campaign on the Internet for your MUSIC!