Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Advertising Tips for Using MySpace, Part 3 (Not Just a Blog Entry for Musicians)

This is the third and last part of my three-part blog post about using MySpace effectively in business...The following tips, and much more, are just part of my contribution to Joan Stewart's new e-book, "How to be A Kick-Butt Publicity Hound".

Managing Your Page Once It Is Set Up

"Friends" are really "fans". They are not necessarily anyone that you know or have met personally, but they want to get to know you. Fans want a personal connection, and if they think you are a nice person, they will buy from you, join your mailing list, and support you.

MySpace isn't about the quantity of Friends you have amassed-It is about the quality of fans you have attracted. Just like any famous actor is careful to avoid stalkers and loonies, you also need to do this on MySpace. Here's how to do it....

You MUST reply to every single message and friend request, and comment personally. Yes, I hear you saying, "Aaargh! I don't have the time". Well, make the time or your page on MySpace is totally wasted.

1. When you receive a friend request, check out that person's page.
Find out who they are. If their page is offensive to you in any way, deny the friend request. Otherwise, answer them by saying, "Thank you for contacting me and asking me to add you as a friend. I'll be happy to do so! I'm curious. Please tell me a bit about yourself and what attracted you to my MySpace page..." and then go into a little sales pitch about what might interest them on your website. Free offers available on your official website is a great pitch that gets them
over there. But make the entire message sound like you are so very glad to meet them.

2. If the friend request is from someone who has their profile set to "Private", this means that you cannot view their profile unless you accept them as a friend.
If this is not comfortable for you, then send them a message that you that because their profile is set to "private" you would like to learn more about them before adding them to your friend list. You don't need to add anyone as a Friend if you don't want to.

3. Respond to any comments by writing a friendly comment on that person's page. Always include information about your official website in your comment on their page. Advertise, advertise, advertise.

4. Do not allow comments from friends that contain HTML code or graphics.
Only allow comments from friends that glow about your services or your products. Many people will simply send you comments that say, "Have a nice weekend." Don't post these, because they waste space that could be used for advertising purposes on your MySpace page. But do send a nice comment back to them.

5. Post as many Top Friends as possible on your page, and rotate them from time to time.
Let those people know you have posted them as Top Friends, and they may return the favor on their page. The more exposure you get, the better. Post Top Friends that are colleagues of yours with whom you cross-market, post Friends who are actually associations in which you belong, and post your top "fans". Make those Top Friends those who sing your praises on their MySpace pages.

6. Check your MySpace page at least three times a week.
People think you don't exist if you are not answering their messages in a timely fashion-Just like people think you aren't in business if you don't respond to email regularly.

7. Keep in touch with your "Friends" with a birthday message.
In your profile, you can view upcoming birthdays for the week. Send each of these people a short message that you are just dropping by to wish them a Happy Birthday. You could even send them a special offer. They will thank you, revisit your MySpace page, and perhaps bring you more business.

8. Keep templates of different types of messages you've sent and comments you've posted in a separate word doc.
Simply copy and paste as the occasion arises, substituting the Friend's name in the template. This will greatly cut down on your time spent keeping up with MySpace.

9. If you have an upcoming event that you want to invite Friends to, alas, you cannot broadcast your event in one message to all your Friends.
The interface only allows you to send invitations to individual Friends, which is very time-consuming indeed. It's better to try to get your Friends to visit your official website to sign up for your email newsletter instead. (You can send bulletins to all your Friends at once, but I think most bulletins are ignored).

Simply keep in mind that MySpace is an additional business tool that you can use to reach people who haven't found you elsewhere on the Internet.

Are you a wedding musician or interested in performing at weddings? I also cover the topic of marketing yourself on MySpace in my book "The Musician's Guide to Brides" You can find this book at Amazon.com , SheetMusicPlus.com, and wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold. You can also view pages from the book and purchase it directly from my website at Celtic Harp Music by Anne Roos

Musicians who are in a band or who tour regularly might also like to check out Bob Baker's book, "MySpace Music Marketing", available at Amazon.com

Have additional ideas about successfully managing a MySpace page? Please share them as a comment below.

Cheers,
Anne Roos

Friday, November 21, 2008

Advertising Tips for Using MySpace, Part 2 (Not Just a Blog Entry for Musicians)

Here's a continuation of my last blog post...The following tips, and much more, are just part of my contribution to Joan Stewart's new e-book, "How to Be A Kick-Butt Publicity Hound". To order please visit http://tinyurl.com/5zbjbj

8 Tips to Getting Started:

1. If you are a musician or entertainer, sign up for an Artist Account, which is set up to aid you in reaching your target audience.
Be very specific about the genre of music you play and what you sound like, because people who want to find you will be able to find you. If you say you sound like The Rolling Stones, anyone doing a search for The Rolling Stones on MySpace will also find your page. Similarly, if you are an author, be specific about other authors who write comparable material. If you state that your influence is Stephen King, anyone searching for Stephen King pages on MySpace will find you.

2. Select a name for your MySpace page account that reflects your business name. Keep your exposure on MySpace business-like at all times.

3. Select a photo for your profile that will draw people who are interested in your business to your MySpace page.
I have a creative studio shot instead of a headshot. I can't tell you how many times people have told me that they checked out my MySpace page just because they liked my profile photo. You'll want your photo to stand out when someone runs a search.

4. Security is a major issue to consider when setting up a MySpace page.
You may have heard that there are crazy people roaming around on MySpace. Well, there are crazies roaming around the entire Internet, too. Unlike your official website where your webmaster sets up a force field of security around your site, this is simply not the case on MySpace.

This is one of the reasons why you should avoid including personal information on your page. But you should also take measures to make your page secure. When you set up your page, there are a number of security options you can use for your page. In the Account Settings, you can block certain users that bother you, and you can make custom Spam Presets and Communication Settings.

5. The following are necessary to your sanity on MySpace:

A. Require that you approve all comments before they are posted.

B. Do not allow any comments to contain HTML-otherwise, you will receive all kinds of graphics in the comments that will slow down the download speed of your MySpace page.

C. Don't allow just anyone to send you invitations, or you'll spend a lot of time deleting a bunch of junk.

D. Don't set your page to "Private", otherwise, only your friends will be able view your page. If you are using MySpace as a billboard for your business, why make your advertisement private?

E. Never set an "Away Message". People cannot send you messages or comments if you are in "Away" mode. It's like shutting down your website when you are gone out of town. Who does that?

6. You'll need to know some HTML code to set up your page.
You don't need to take a college extension class to learn this language. I suggest purchasing the book, "MySpace Maxed Out", published by Bottletree Books. It is written primarily for rock bands, but it offers an understandable tutorial for setting up a profile.

7. Use the "skin" that comes with the MySpace page.
It may look plain, but it downloads the quickest. Enhance your page by attaching players from YouTube, links to your products on sale on Amazon.com, CDBaby.com, and elsewhere. And advertise your official website all over your page. Utilize the applications that come with the page set up: Add photos, a blog, a calendar, but like Facebook, avoid the silly additional applications that you can download and send to Friends. The MySpace page is a business advertisement.

8. MySpace is available around the world, so you may receive messages in languages other than your own.
Download an application on your computer that translates verbiage into your language of use. If you have a Mac, download a translator widget. This will allow you to communicate with all your fans, and people in other countries will appreciate it if they don't have to fumble about in your language.

Next time, I'll offer some tips on how to manage your MySpace page once it is up and running.

Are you a wedding musician or interested in performing at weddings? I also cover the topic of marketing yourself on MySpace in my book "The Musician's Guide to Brides" You can find this book at Amazon.com , SheetMusicPlus.com , and wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold. You can also view pages from the book and purchase it directly from my website at Celtic Harp Music by Anne Roos.

Have additional ideas about successfully marketing yourself on MySpace? Please share them as a comment below.

Cheers,
Anne Roos
Celtic Harp Music by Anne Roos
http://www.celticharpmusic.com

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Advertising Tips for Using MySpace (Not Just a Blog Entry for Musicians)

MySpace can be an excellent advertising tool. I have successfully referred MySpace user to my website, iTunes, Amazon.com, and CDBaby.com, where they can buy my Cd's, digital downloads, and my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides". I have seen a marked increase in sales revenue from My Space users. I've also successfully used MySpace to increase my fan base and
network with others in the music business. Does it work for folks who are not in the entertainment business? No reason why it can't.

The following tips, and much more, are just part of my contribution to Joan Stewart's new e-book, "How to Be A Kick-Butt Publicity Hound".

In the meantime, here are some tips to guide you with
MySpace for
commercial use:

1. Consider creating your MySpace page as a billboard
for your
services.
The sole purpose of your page is to convince visitors to purchase your products and services and to visit your official website. Resist the temptation to post anything of any personal nature on your MySpace page. You can set up your Ping and Twitter accounts to post on MySpace, but that is about all the personal information you'll want to include.

2. If you are short of cash and are just beginning to
establish
an online presence, never ever use MySpace
(or pages on any other
social networking sites) as your
"official" web page
.
Buy your own domain name," as my good friend David Jackson says, who hosts the podcast, "The Musician's Cooler-Where Musicians Go to Trade Advice" He goes on to say, "Your MySpace page is a great additional tool for your website, but don't use it as your sole website. You don't own MySpace, they can change it at any time, and you can do nothing about it. You could lose your page on MySpace tomorrow."

3. Consider MySpace as a way to reach customers who may not be
using Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
So, it's okay to allow your MySpace page to mirror your business pages on other social networking sites. MySpace was originally set up by a bandleader, so its interface is best used for musicians and entertainers. But increasingly, politicians, authors, and anyone who has videos
or audios to share are creating pages.

4. Search around on MySpace before signing up for an account.
Check out how your competition uses MySpace. If you are a musician or entertainer, look up similar acts. If you are an author, look up other authors. You can easily do a search without setting up an account.

5. Make a list of the pages you like and why.
Are they using media players to load audio or video on their pages? Which players? Do they play easily without a long wait for downloading?

6. In your quick research, you'll soon discover that pages with
"skins" and lots of flashing doodads take forever to download.
Just like when building a website, strange fonts and graphics make your information difficult to read. And on MySpace, this stuff greatly increases download time for any visitor to your page.

These tips are just a start. In a future blog entry, I'll include some simple idea for getting started with MySpace.

And by the way, for musicians interested in performing at weddings, I also cover the topic of marketing yourself on MySpace in my book "The Musician's Guide to Brides" You can find this
book at Amazon.com , SheetMusicPlus.com and wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold. You can also view pages from the book and purchase it directly from my website at www.celticharpmusic.com.

Have additional ideas about successfully marketing yourself on MySpace? Please add them as a comment below.

My best to you, Anne Roos Celtic Harp Music by Anne Roos http://www.celticharpmusic.com/

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The FREE STUFF List Just Keeps Growing

Corey and Liam, the great folks at the Irish Fireside travel podcast and the Irish Fireside website included my CDs in their great gift ideas for their Irish Fireside Holiday
Gift Guide. The suggestions just keep coming in. Better yet,
there's been a steady stream of samples getting sent their way, and
they're giving them ALL away to folks like you!

To enter their holiday drawing, you'll need to sign up at
www.irishfireside.wordpress.com/free-stuff. Winners will be
choosen at various times in December...just in time for the
Holidays.

Here's a list of FREEBIES that have arrived so far:

My CDs:

Mermaids & Mariners CD & Book from Celtic Harpist Anne Roos
www.celticharpmusic.com

Haste to the Wedding CD & Book from Celtic Harpist Anne Roos
www.celticharpmusic.com

A Light in the Forest CD & Book from Celtic Harpist Anne Roos
www.celticharpmusic.com

Plus more Irish and Celtic goodies:

Irish Shard Jewelry from Lamplighter Studio
www.LamplighterStudio.com

Irish Stout T-Shirt from Boulevard Brewing Company
www.blvdbeer.com

Abramo's Gift novel from Donald Greco
www.bookpros.com

Irish Turf Incense and Burner from The Gifted Hand
www.turfpeat.com

Black Coffee CD from Anne Davis
www.annedavisjazz.com

Irish and Celtic Notecards from Custom Silhouettes
www.customsilhouettes.com

Ultimate Ireland Vacation Kit from IrelandYes
www.IrelandYes.com

Burren Smokehouse Giftbox from County Clare's Burren Smokehouse
www.burrensmokehouse

SIGN UP TO WIN FREE STUFF HERE

And give my regards to Corey and Liam at the Irish Fireside!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Celtic Myth Podshow Episode 19

My music is featured once again on the Celtic Myth Podshow!

in the October 25, 2008 episode, Episode 19: You’ll hear “Bridget Cruise” from my album Haste to the Wedding, “The Seas Are Deep” from my album Mermaids & Mariners, and “The Golden Castle” from my album A Light in the Forest. More details about me and my albums can be found on my Contributor Page.

The Celtic Myth Podshow tells of ancient tales and legends of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Mann, bringing you the bravery of heroes and heroines, the magnificent pantheon of gods and goddesses and the magic and wonder of druids, faeries and folklore. It weaves together the high, beautiful tapestry of mythological history, battles and sagas of the Celts. Join Gary and Ruth and their friends as they tell you the great stories from Celtic legend.

Episode 019 - The Hawk of Achill

In this story, which is part 2 of the 2 part story of Fintan, we hear how the oldest and greatest Seanachi or Story-teller of Ireland, Fintan meets his end. Before he does however, he meets the world's oldest Hawk, an old friend never before seen, and they share their life histories.