Social Media Starter Moves for Entertainers

March 31, 2008 · Comments

Twitter brought me a really special gift a month or two back, in the shape of Grace Nikae. She’s a concert pianist who is exploring the use of social media to build relationships with her audience and fans of music. In imagining how I’d advise someone who was a professional entertainer to use social media, I doubt that I could find someone more accomplished at reaching into social media than Grace. Let’s explore a bit.

Blog Behind the Scenes

Grace has a great blog called Stretching Intervals, which is a perfect mix of what goes on behind the scenes, as well as information about what it’s like to be a pianist. She writes posts that are worthy of being full fledged journalistic articles, and yet, they’re very approachable and readable.

By blogging what’s on her mind, Grace gives her fans, aspiring pianists, professional women, and anyone else who wants to know what it’s like to be a busy creative and professional a glimpse of what we all want to know.

Share a Little

Grace provides links to her YouTube videos, to photos on Flickr, and to other little tidbits all through her website. It gives you a sense of what she’s about, her style, and a peek at what you’re missing if you don’t go to her concerts. Sure there’s a store and other things you’d expect from a professional musician, but if you fault her for that, you’re crazy. After watching/listening to her YouTube videos, I plan on picking up her debut solo album, Fantasies, myself. : )

Stretch Out

Grace also maintains a presence on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and a few other social sites, and though it’s a bit challenging to maintain it all, I’ve seen her have conversations on Twitter, and have been privy to several thoughtful comments on my blog. So she’s managing to find a little time to cover some thoughts and have conversations with people well outside her typical sphere of the world of a pianist.

Will it be fruitful? I guess Grace will have to tell us in several months whether all this social media brought her a different experience than before she started using it.

For Entertainers

Musicians and comics know that MySpace is a viable place to meet new audiences, build community, and promote your performances. Dane Cook made a good chunk of his career’s launch off MySpace’s mechanisms. Facebook isn’t as effective for performers, but I know that more folks are coming over to try it out. Twitter? It’s not exactly teeming with celebrities, but savvy folks like Grace are trying it out, so we’ll see how that turns out. My advice?

  • Do this social media yourself. Don’t use an assistant.
  • Communicate two-way. Just blurting out your calendar isn’t going to win you friends.
  • Be just as much about other people as you are yourself.
  • Give us peeks behind the scenes.
  • Share a little something.
  • Don’t get lost in all this stuff, as your real product is your performances.

We have lots of talented and upcoming performers and entertainers in our midst, several of whom already use these tools to great effect. Is it having an impact on their career? Will these tools benefit the mainstream stars as much as it does those who have a built-in appeal to the social media set? Time will tell.

What other advice could we give entertainers with regards to social media? What’s your take?

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

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  • I think this is an excellent set of recommendations already. Especially the recommendation to create balance (a.k.a. stretch out). The perfect balance amongst all social media avenues is a great way to find 'new' people. After all, they help keep your content fresh!
  • Chris, thanks for introducing me to Grace with your post.

    I was reminded of the way that singer Christine Kane (www.ChristineKane.com) uses blogging in ways similar to Grace. She writes about her music, yes, but she also writes about her life and weaves funny, insightful stories that echo the stories in her songs.

    But most importantly, when I met Christine in person, I found her to be just like the person in her blog and I appreciated even more that she writes just like she is.
  • Chris, thanks so much for posting this series (is it a series?) of "social media starter moves" articles. After your last one for small businesses, I've made major overhauls to how I market my biz on the web, and now this article has even more suggestions that I will use and pass on to friends.

    PS a music producer I'm collaborating with said that once he put himself on Myspace, his business increased tenfold---so there is proof that it works!
  • And I found it really interesting to press play, listen to her, while reading your post. It is more likely to focus on what you are writing while listening. You should do that more often.
  • Chris,

    Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a thoughtful post. I really feel as though you understand what it is that I'm trying to do - of course, I learned a great deal about social media from reading your blog!:)

    I just started using these social media tools a few months ago, and so far I'm not really sure what the impact will be overall on my career. I'm also waiting to see how traditional and conservative colleagues in my field will react. However, I must say that I am enjoying blogging, Twitter, and these other outlets so very much, especially because of the interesting people that I get to meet. They have provided me with another set of tools to connect with people in a different way.
  • Great post! I would add that stumble and digg also definitely have a lot of scope for promotion of entertainers. The most likely for the above two sites would be a publicity stunt, as these are the types of things that would generate a bundle of digg/stumble traffic and votes.
  • i love all the things shes doing on her blog, the only thing i question is the ads, im curious how much money she is really earning from them and if it helps "the brand"
    david
  • The thing I love about utilizing social media to promote our creative professions is that its free and opens up opportunities to advance compared to the traditional methods. I've recieved opportunities with television, movies, and editors because of places like myspace. Its priceless! I talk about how to utilize social media for artists on the EBSQ art blog.
  • This is great! I've started on Social Media campaign for the City of Akron's summer concert series and this post has given some new things to work with.

    Kevin Lockett, Social Marketing
    Lock 3 Live

    www.lock3live.blogspot.com
  • Thank you for the Stretching Interval pointer :)
  • I came across your site through the blog of a Twitter contact, of all places. Here's the post...

    http://olivestreetfilms.wordpress.com/2008/03/3...)

    I'm fairly new at trying to promote my new website, but definitely have some new things to try after reading your posts. Thanks for the suggestions and ideas. I'm definitely bookmarking this site in my favs!

    If anyone out there is interested in video, them may I shamelessly promote Rootclip.com. We plan on launching our "official" site on the 28th of this month. Check us out at...

    http://rootclip.com
  • Musicians, comics... and many other variety acts such as magicians and hypnotists are making substantial use of social media. Brilliant illusionist Cyril Takayama is a "YouTube star"-- gaining hundreds of thousands of English-speaking fans even as he performs his magic in Japanese! His magic is just as astonishing with no subtitles.

    It's a new American century. Weird Al Yankovic released his "Trapped in the Drive-thru" video exclusively on MySpace.
  • Hi Chris,

    What a great blog. I am trying to find ways to use social media for my contemporary art gallery, starting with the gallery blog and moving through to our website. I was reading something Seth Godin wrote about how technology can level the playing field for small businesses and that applies to people in the arts as well -- look at how many musicians are building up a following and bypassing the mainstream labels.

    I agree with David Usher's comment that the ads can be a bit distracting - not sure I would want too many ads on an artist's site. I am definitely not using ads on my blog.

    --Amrita
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