What is the best social media site to market on?

I decided to research a question that many starting businesses to online marketing ask. What social media site should I use to market my business?

            There are so many social media sites out there today that it is almost hard to keep track of! Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumblr, and Flickr, are only a handful of the social media sites that are available to us. Today, it is almost impossible to be on every single site, and be able to manage your online marketing successfully.

            This particular article explains the main social media sites, and which one is best for you.

            According to the chart available on the article, Facebook is the most dominant social media website that users access. The truth is, Facebook has always been a great way to interact and promote basically anything from business, to hobbies, to staying in contact with loved ones. However, with all the traffic in Facebook, should Facebook be the ONLY website that one uses to promote their business?

NO!

The truth is, before you choose a social media site, you must analyze and understand who the audience is that your business goes to. For example, if you are selling and manufacturing make-up, according to the chart, you would probably want to use Pinterest and Instagram. This is because Pinterest is very popular for women and Instagram, is popular with many different kinds of people. For the purpose of this post, I will leave out Facebook, because one should never not have a Facebook page for their website. This blog is to get more detailed into promoting business to specific target audiences.

So which social media site is right for Frankie P. Studios?!

            For my business, the social media site that would most benefit me (other than Facebook) is Instagram. The reason being for this is because I run a studio for bands, and artists, as well as instrumental lessons. Other than twitter, the site most popular for ages 18-29, is Instagram. Although my target age is higher than ages 18-29, the majority of my clients, and future clients, are in that age group.

            Overall, it is in the best interest of the business to decide the proper social media site to market on. This is also not saying that you only have to pick one or two, but to understand where you will get the most publicity and traffic for your business is crucial to getting new clients, and building your business. 

Resources 

Manafy, M. (2014, July 9). How to Choose the Best Social Media Site for Your Business. Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://www.inc.com/michelle-manafy/how-to-choose-the-best-social-media-sites-to-market-your-business.html

Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites | March 2015. (2015, January 1). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites           

Entertainment Media and Publishing

In this ever-changing world of entertainment publishing, there are countless resources in getting your work published and out to all viewers.  As a musician and studio owner, I try to find the avenue of publishing with the most benefits. From TuneCore, to CDBaby, each website offers different aspects when publishing your work.

Many publishing websites work with streaming media players such as YouTube, Spotify, Rdio, etc. These streaming players are the key to getting your work out to the public. I have found YouTube to be an extremely popular source. In today’s ever changing technology world, YouTube has become one of the prime ways of gaining popularity with your work.

So what makes a bad publishing site?

            Many publishing sites offer free subscriptions, and connect with various streaming sites. However, there are some sites, while they do offer free accounts, you have to pay to get your work out to the popular sites.

            I have found that this is more of a way to go when you have been gaining profit on your work. For example, if someone is just starting out, they may want to find the site like TuneCore and CDBaby, set up free accounts and have them streamed to all the popular websites to see how their work will fair.

In my business, I have a wide range of sites I could choose from. From social media, to iTunes, any work done in my studio can reach endless possibilities. I have found that the most reliable way to publish your work is to market it at the same time. For example, if one publishes a CD on TuneCore, they should share it on every social media site they have to direct everyone to their work. Often times, people publish work and then do not market, or promote it.

Publishing your work is a great way for the public to be in contact with your business, but doing the work in marketing and promoting will only benefit your profit and business.

Industry Blog Post

In the music industry, the most popular type of legal controversy or incident that happens is copyright infringement on songwriting. Of the more recent incidents, the one that hit most of social media would be the Tom Petty and Sam Smith case. Sam Smith wrote a song called Stay With Me, and a few weeks ago there was an article that Tom Petty claimed that Sam Smith’s song sounded too much like his original song, “I Won’t Back Down.” This infringement settled on an agreement where Smith would give Petty songwriting royalties.

            This song was not lyrically the same, but chordally. Many of the incidents I found were songs that sounded the same rather than a conflict of lyrics.

            For example, many, if not everybody remembers the famous copyright incident with Vanilla Ice and Queen. Vanilla Ice made the song “Ice Ice, Baby” which in turn, created a huge controversy because the bass line sounded exactly the same as Queen’s “Under Pressure.” Ultimately, Vanilla Ice got to keep the rights to his song because he claimed that indeed it was similar, but different to where there was one or two notes that made it completely different.

            The last example I found, which I never knew about was an incident with George Harrison. Harrison wrote a song called “My Sweet Lord” and it hit the top of the charts for a while. The incident came when the song was argued to be the same as a song called “He’s So Fine.” The Chiffons recorded this song in 1962. Ultimately, the judge believed Harrison did not intentionally mean to copy the song but he did rule that the two songs sound very similar to which Harrison was found guilty of ‘subconscious plagiarism.”

            These articles really display how one must really protect them and make sure their art is very unique and original in the event a song or product gets publicity. A step I take when I have written a song or created a product is Google different aspects of it. Sometimes people create art and don’t even know that it was created, such as the events of Harrison. The reason to Google the title, a chord progression, is to check to see if it has been done, how many times, and protect the fact that if you decide to sell it, you’re protected.

http://www.fairwagelawyers.com/most-famous-music-copyright-infringment.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/29/us-music-samsmith-tompetty-idUSKBN0L22F620150129

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eV6t8_pOSo

Is "Writer's Block" a fancy term for "Lack of Inspiration"?

Often times, whether you're a writer, musician, artist, or any other profession, we all experience something we like to call "Writer's Block."

What is Writer's Block?

As we work on a project, or an assignment, maybe a new song for an upcoming album, we sometimes get stuck. We're not sure where to go on. We ask, "why can I not all of a sudden complete this?" This can go on for an hour, a day, a week, even a year or more!

This has happened to me recently with an album I'm writing. Why can't we move forward?  

We need new, and fresh inspiration!

I recently watched the entire HBO documentary of the Foo Fighters new album. Basically their album is right songs where each song was recorded at a different city in the United States. Each episode is a different city explaining culture and history each city has to offer. Lead singer and guitarist/drummer, Dave Grohl explains this process as, "finding inspiration through the lives of others." 

Amazing!

As I am watching this amazing series, I get so inspired, I wrote two songs in about an hour. I didn't just write words to write words, I wrote words because they came to me. Instantly! 

Are my songs about the Foo Fighters and their amazing album? No! Of course not! 

Whether you're a Foo Foghters fan or not, ANY musician can appreciate this documentary. It catches every aspect of music, from sad, to happy, to inspirational. It's a true work of art. 

We don't get writers block, we lose inspiration. Sometimes it takes something special to feel like all of a sudden a switch has been hit. I encourage everyone to open their eyes and realize what's around them. Inspiration is not hard to find. 

Successful Negotiation Techniques

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhZ8CqOjS2s - William McCormick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXFpOWDAhvM - Margaret Neale

http://www.lynda.com/Business-Business-Skills-tutorials/six-steps-preparing-successful-negotiation/101504/111528-4.html - Lisa Gates

The three videos that are listed above give great insight to what constitutes a good negotiation. The first video is a Lynda.com course I watched by Lisa Gates called, The Six Steps In Preparing For A Successful Negotiation. Lisa talks about the importance of BATNA, or The Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. In her vide, she calls this one’s resentment insurance number. In order for a successful negotiation, you must prepare and research your counterpart. Gates describes this as the most important step because she explains to not rely on your whit or creativeness to “get by” in a negotiation.

This will segue into the next video by Margaret Neale in her video, Negotiation: Getting What You Want. She as well, talks about how research is extremely important. She gives an example about when she was asked to teach six classes at her university rather than five. The reason was to create more contact hours as much as credit hours. She did research and realized that the majority of specialty classes that she taught, are classes that not many professors teach. She used this to her advantage and instead got her specialty classes lengthened to match contact hours.  I felt that she use positional bargaining because she was negotiating her job and realized how valuable she was in the majority of the courses she taught. Although her other classes were MBA business classes, many professors teach those types of classes. She used leverage in her position as a special educator.

The final video I watched was an online negotiation class conducted by William McCormick, about what the best negotiators do. He talks about how all people negotiate, but not all people negotiate well. His four points that negotiators do wrong are people concede too much, too fast, they don’t plan effectively, they respond poorly to adversarial tactics, and they don’t understand what win-win really means. This was an interesting session because McCormick explained negotiation somewhat differently than the two videos I previously explained. McCormick talks about being tactful and asking all the right questions.

These were fantastic videos and I was pleased that the three were different I their own way. Combining all of these videos for me could result in myself being a skilled negotiator. I must first and most importantly, prepare well. Then I must be able to prepare myself for my opponent’s tactics in the negotiation process. One of the best quote from all three came from Margaret Neale, who stated, “the goal of a negotiation is not to get a deal, it’s about getting a good deal.”

The Beauty of Online Learning

             As many of you know, I am involved in the online masters program at Full Sail University in Entertainment Business. I chose to go the online route instead of moving to Florida and attending live because having just graduated from Rowan University in music education, I was looking for a job in New Jersey but also established myself in the New Jersey/Philadelphia area where my family and friends are.

Attending Full Sail online is a fantastic experience. I am able to attend live sessions online and complete all my course work on my own schedule.

Online education is becoming popular more and more every year!

As schools provide education for online students, companies are providing many meetings, conventions, as well as education, online.

I wanted to talk about a site I visited a week ago that has me going back to it every week to see new updates. I am talking about CreativeLive.

What is CreativeLive?

CreativeLive is a sight, much like Lynda.com where you can learn about anything you can possibly think of. The difference between Creative and Lynda is the fact that Creative has special guests and professionals to go to their studio, live, and hold sessions to a live classroom as well as online students that cannot attend live. The session is also completely FREE to attend! Just create a username and password and you are part of the CreativeLive community. Where CreativeLive makes their money is you can chose to pay a subscription and those are the students that have a chance to attend these sessions live. You can also buy “On Demand” which is a complete rewind of the session you attended where you can stop, play, and rewind to catch any parts that you may have missed in the live session.

What do they teach?

Teachers at CreativeLive come from all different backgrounds. I recently attended a session on mixing music where I tuned into both sessions on Monday and Tuesday. Monday was a session from 12pm-7pm focusing all on compression. Tuesday’s session was the same time but all about EQ. You can also have Creative cater to your needs. I am in music so I have the setting set to notify me when any music sessions are coming up.

CreavtiveLive is a fantastic site because not only can you tune in virtually, but also you are in the chat room and you can actually ask questions to the presenter or educator and he or she will answer your questions.

I advise everyone to check out CreativeLive because online learning is so popular now and it has gotten to the point where learning online is just as real as being in the classroom.