The Advance Guard's take on DIY, Social Media, Marketing, Podcasts and more

Recently, The Advance Guard worked with scores of key music bloggers to promote the New American Music Union, a music festival sponsored by  American Eagle Outfitters (our ticket give away was here). I thought this was a clever way of promoting an event, so I reached out to C.C. Chapman, Co-Founder of The Advance Guard and founder of Accident Hash, a Boston based music podshow to get his thoughts on DIY marketing for indie musicians and bands.

Here's what C.C. had to say:

Question: 1) With all of the free DIY marketing/promotional content, and music being generated by indie artists, what are some examples of online tactics an artist and/or band can deploy to rise above the noise?

While the phrase "word of mouth" gets thrown around constantly these days, when it comes to music I still think it is the #1 way people discover new music. The key thing is to leverage your fan base whenever possible. Give them tools to help spread the word. Constantly contact them and talk WITH them and never AT them. Encourage them to share and reward the really passionate ones.

Podcasts and other online media are other great ways as well. Work with content producers so that they know they can use your music. If your song gets played in a video that becomes popular that can help you out in amazing ways. Always ask for links and attribution so that people can find you and get more.

And insure you have a solid website with contact information and lots of links on it. You want it to be as easy as possible for people to learn more about you and instantly listen to the music. Don't make it hard or required to purchase a track in order for someone to check out your music.

Question: 2) Are paid music promotions via Facebook or Izea for example, an effective way at marketing music? If so, why? If not, why? What are the pros and cons? What are the challenges?

It depends on if the promotion is a good one or not. I recently saw an ad pop up on Facebook for an indie artist. I'm assuming it showed up based on my self identified favorite artists. I clicked on it and ended up listening to a couple of tracks. It wasn't right for me, but I bet it will be for some others.

Music is a tough thing because while everyone loves it, you never know who is going to love what you are promoting. So you have to cast a very wide net and a focused one at the same time. What I mean is that you obviously want to focus on the people or groups that you think would be most interested in what you are promoting. But, then you've also got to cast it out to a more general audience as well because you don't know what might click with someone.

The thing to keep in mind is that you can have the biggest budget in the world and if the program isn't solid and appropriate it will fail. People have to realize that throwing money at something doesn't automatically make it a success. Take the time up front to really plan it out and realistically think about the goals and outcomes.

Every day more people are competing for all of our attention online and you've got to figure out a way to rise above the rest to get noticed.

Question: 3) Most indie artists will connect with anyone on MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, etc. to promote their music, regardless of who is requesting the connection. Is the quantity of connections proving to be a more effective marketing strategy than the quality of connections?

Quality is always better then quantity. But, with that being said I also think that anyone that friends a band on any social network site they should gladly accept. You never know who might be a connection to someone else or how that individual may be able to help them. Connect with them and then get to know them if possible. If they are just a bot or a spammer then get rid of them and move on, but perhaps they have a skill, know someone at a club or can provide the artist with something else. Why in the world would you want to miss that?

Question: 4) In your opinion, what are the top 5 social media and technology tools a band must not only have in its marketing toolkit, but master as well?

1. Ego Searches - Learn how to put yourself into Technorati, Summize (now owned by Twitter) and Google Alerts and how to get those every day so you can stay on top of who is talking about you, what they are saying and how you can connect with them.

2. Video - People love to consume video. Even if it is rough footage of your practice sessions or grainy footage from the crowd at a show. It doesn't matter. Figure out how to get video footage up on the web and on multiple systems so people can find it and consume it.

3. Podcasting - Become familiar with the music podcasting community and how you can get your music out there for people to play. Become friends with podcasters or engage with a digital PR firm that specializes in music and work with them to get your music out there and played on the variety of shows that exist.

4. Marketing - YOU are your biggest fan and thus have to be your marketing department as well. Set up an e-mail newsletter and encourage fans to sign up at shows. Put your URL on everything you do from t-shirts, to posters, to every e-mail you send out. Embrace the web fully and when you are curious if a new service is right for you ask your fans or someone you trust.

5. Communications - Don't let fan letters go unanswered. Take some time every day to engage with your fan base wherever they roam. Reply to e-mails, comment on their walls and answer their questions. This will build a deeper connection with them.

Many thanks C.C. for your time and great feedback! The Advance Guard is focused on smartly and strategically creating radical marketing through branded entertainment, social media and emerging technology. It's led by award-winning Podcaster C.C. Chapman, and digital advertising veteran, Steve Coulson. Clients include Verizon FiOS, Coca-Cola, HBO, mDialog and American Eagle Outfitters. For more information, please visit their web site at: http://theadvanceguard.com/

Comments

[Gavoche]

This is some good advice! I really appreciate that your blog is all about arming the DIY musicians with knowledge about tools offered to help them succeed! Viva DIY music!