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/

AdaptiveBlue: No Boiler Plate Autoresponder

Here's an example about developing loyalty you can apply to the art of building your fan base. A couple of days ago I installed the iTunes Top 25 Albums widget by AdaptiveBlue. Initially, I wasn't that excited about it as I really didn't like any of the music I saw. But, the next day I received an email from someone at AdaptiveBlue stating:

"We also offer the ability to make your own widget, that updates automatically, so that you could save an indie artist while surfing and have it automatically show up in your widget in your sidebar. If you're interested in setting this up, drop me a note and I'll help you out."

Not only was I surprised about the widget's feature, but that someone at AdaptiveBlue actually took the time to read what my blog was about and then sent me a relevant email. It was not a canned auto-response sent upon someone installing their widget. Rather, it was individualized and applicable. The individual even went on to recommend an indie band called, Sunset Rubdown. This kind of customer service is rare these days, and I'm excited to see it in action, as it was the modus operandi for an ISP I use to work for called MindSpring. A lot of companies talk about these kinds of customer service tactics, but are unable to fulfill them because their corporate culture doesn't truly embrace the necessary ethos (a topic for another day).

It goes without saying that I will be replying to this individual's email, and I look forward to learning more about how to use their music widgets, and AdaptiveBlue. I also think it's fair to say that they just acquired a loyal customer for free.

So what can an indie band or musician learn from this example, there are at least three things:

1) Thank your listeners and fans every chance you get, from when they download your music, to watching your live shows, as they are the very reason you even have an audience. This may seem like obvious PR 101, but many musicians do not do this. Just look at your MySpace account and count the number of times you thanked someone for adding your band to their friends page - I think you will see a low number. Letting them know that you truly appreciate their support will help you develop a loyal following, and it's free.

2) Find ways to reach out to your fans and listen to what they have to say about your music. You might learn a couple of things you could benefit from (e.g. your listeners want to hear more acoustic versions). Additionally, it will help you develop a relationship with them, which also translates into loyalty.

3) There are now over 4 million songs available on the Internet, and getting your music noticed in this ever crowding industry is becoming more difficult each day, but developing loyalty with your fans is one way to help you break through, as loyal fans are more inclined to spread the word about your music to people you do not know.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Peace