Would you buy a car online without seeing pictures or taking
it for a test drive and base your decision purely on word of mouth? The answer
would be no
The same standards apply for musicians and other creatives that
have chosen to go through online platforms to get their name out there and to
sell their work. At the end of the day, how can we find you?
In keeping with the previous discussion in an article from
Erica Sharlette, the BOTS team thought it would be a perfect time to elaborate
on a topic that most times is ignored.
Consistency is key
and with today’s platforms such as the familiar Facebook, Reverbnation, Sound Cloud, iTunes, band camp and personal websites to name but a few, it is easy to
get lost in the world wide web of social communications. The big question is...
how would an interested party find your work online and how would it be simple
and less time consuming for them? We unfortunately live in a world, where it takes a person a
mere 10 seconds to be engaged before they lose interest.
To set the scene: you have just come off stage after a
killer performance and someone who could potentially change the course of your life, approaches you
and asks, ‘where can I find your work?’, 80% of the time you will let them know
of at least 3 different places with 3 different variations of your name, while they are standing there trying to
remember it. The second thing would be, if you have a name that is common online, how
do they know it is you, without spending more than 5 min looking?
The answer is simple, yet we find it on a daily basis, that artists
are trying to sell their work without a clear indication of how to find them. For instance, I was
putting together our monthly newsletter and was looking for new talent to be
put forward. This was a great opportunity as it is a unique crowd, great
exposure and no effort on the said person’s behalf. One of the biggest challenges was finding the correct version of the said persons name. for example; The name Steven can be spelled in a number of ways, from Stephen to Stephan. This could also be dependent of the availability of the username. Imagine that I was a record producer or an
agent that was attracted to your page only to try and google all musicians that go by the name of Steven in London. It is an absolute nightmare.
.
At the moment as Be On The Scene is a small but growing community, you are guaranteed to
be found and be truly the only one – for
example with the name Romy Newman. A Google search alone tells me there are 27,000 other Romy
Newman’s out there, but only one of them is me. I refer back to the previous mention of having the correct spelling or name variations can be detrimental. I'm not implying that you cannot be apart of all the social media channels as it is imperative to have a strong online presence, however, having a direct point of contact that helps channel people to the correct pages. For example, your Be On The Scene Profile acts as a funnel and directs all interested parties to all your other websites, regardless of which ones you choose.
I hope that this has encouraged all to start rethinking your
online approach and should you need any help with how to manage your social
media or your online presence, feel free to drop me an email at romy@beonthescene.com
Good Luck!
Romy
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