Guest Post: Social Media – Like A Good Virus That Never Dies

This week’s guest blog post is from friend and musician Joy Ike. I first met Joy when she was performing in Lancaster in late 2009 and fell in love with her music. I then discovered her blog, Grassrootsy, and began to appreciate her approach to music and Social Media. I then interviewed her for my blog post Indie Music and Social Media: A Match Made in Heaven, and then asked her to write her own thoughts down for this piece. I encourage you to find Joy on both Facebook and Twitter, and give a listen to her wonderful music!.

As an artist (a musician), I’ve always thought of myself as a visionary. I think most artists suffer from so-called delusions of grandeur. We constantly daydream and create these huge ideas that don’t really exist…especially because we don’t have the resources to make them happen. Social media is our solution.

Ahhhh-Choo!
Proper use of social media, as I’ve come to think of it, is passing on the cold (or virus) that everybody wants. You want someone to read, hear, see what you’ve got (sneeze), internalize it (catch), and then pass it on to the next person (spread). And as Ken Mueller wrote in a recent blog post, “You want retweets. You want people “sharing” your items on Facebook. And you want your blog to have legs.” You essentially want to maximum results with minimum effort.

Thinking Ahead
With that said, I think it’s important for anyone striving to be social media savvy to always have the future on their mind. Living in the moment is great and all…but social media is all about making information travel to a large number or people in a little amount of time. And that requires thinking ahead – being prepared. When you post that information on your Facebook Page, what do you hope to accomplish? When you send people a link to your website, what will they find when they get there? Will the available information be what they’re looking for?

The Virus of Vlogging
Everyone’s got their favorite networking site. These days it’s Facebook and Twitter for nearly everyone (myself included). But as an artist, YouTube has recently become a space that compliments my Facebook posts and tweets.

As I began to travel and perform more frequently, I realized that it might be a good idea for fans and curious web surfers to see what I do instead of just hearing what I do. I started putting together video storyboards basically telling the story behind a show – blogging but on camera. Vlogging. Videos usually include a few words from me, clips from each performer in the show’s lineup, and a few words from random people at the show. Here’s one of my favorites.

Here are a few things I noticed after doing this for a while…

1. If you include several people in the video and make them aware, they’ll often forward the video to their followers. This spreads your name (or business) to a series of new networks with little effort on your part. I’ve really seen my network grow through this method over the last 5 months.
2. Videos are just like pictures. They grab attention faster. They keep attention longer.
3. Videos have been the most effective way for people to get to know me…as my personality is a huge part of my music.
4. Videos seal the deal for fans. They like the captured memory. Its like taking a souvenir back from your trip to Disney World.

Social networking from a business perspective is all about being contagious. Make sure what you have to say is worth passing on. Ahhhh-Choo!

Note: if you’re a small business and want to get into video blogging. I highly recommend it. There are much more professional-looking video platforms…like Vimeo.

Note 2: I must give credit to my good friend, Hiram Ring, who first gave me the idea of video blogging. I’m sure he got the idea from someone else who got the idea from someone else. You get the point.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are not necessarily those of Inkling Media.

Tagged as: guest blog, Marketing, music, Social Media