How to Use Blogs and to Promote Your Music Online (IV)

Continuing from last week’s article;

Using your own blog

If you already publish a blog or are about to start one, congratulations. That’s a smart move. Here are a few ways you can turn your blog into a marketing machine:

Deliver the facts. The most basic thing you can do with an artist blog is to announce stuff: gigs you’re about to play, new tracks you’ve released, awards you’ve won, media coverage you’ve just landed, etc. Let people know about all of your music-related activities. But there are other things you should do with your blog too. So read on…

Share your journey. This blog style is part personal diary, part rock documentary. Invite fans to follow along as you log reports about adventures through the music world. Publish daily dispatches from the road, keep fans updated on your creative process in the recording studio, or tell them about the great show you had the night before. Share yourself with your fans and they’ll feel more of a connection with you.

Post often. Some bloggers publish something every day; others post entries once or twice a

week. Choose a frequency that works for you and do your best to stick with it. I suggest at least one post a week; more if you can swing it. What you want to avoid is DBS (Dead Blog Syndrome) – where weeks or months go by between posts. Lifeless blogs don’t get read.

Report on your genre. Here’s an idea that could bring you a lot of targeted traffic. Instead of publishing a blog that promotes your music only, create one that acts as a one-stop resource for your entire genre. If you play children’s music, start the Children’s Music and Family Fun Blog. Publish reviews and links to other artists who create music for kids. You’ll attract a lot of incoming traffic from people searching for your musical category. Of course, you’ll include lots of plugs for your own music, which will make it well worth not having the complete focus of the blog on you.

Extend link love. As I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of cross-referencing that takes place in the blog world. You should regularly scour the web for news and online resources that would be of interest to your fans. Then write about (and link to) those other blogs, sites, artists, etc. After you publish a new post, send a quick email to the person whose site you plugged. This will often lead to a return link when that webmaster or blogger writes about the exposure they got on your blog. The best way to get link love is to give it unconditionally in the first place.

Using your own podcast

If you have the editing software and technical chops to produce your own podcast, go for it. Here are some ways to give your podcasts more promotional strength:

Introduce new songs. Obviously, the thing that sets a podcast apart from a blog is the audio aspect. Use that to your advantage by using your podcast to share the most important asset you have: your songs. But don’t limit your choices to what’s available on your latest studio CD. Use your podcast to share stripped-down demo recordings, live versions of your older songs, alternate studio takes, and more. And you don’t have to give away the store. One or two such such tracks a month would be plenty to keep your fans happy and coming back for more.

Reveal your personality. Artist podcasts don’t have to be all about music. Your speaking voice can also be a powerful connection device. Look over the tips I offered earlier on using your own blog – especially the “Share your journey” and “Report on your genre” sections. Consider doing spoken-word versions of these topics. Each episode could feature you talking about your latest experiences interspersed with a song or two. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Use an interview format. Ask a friend or a journalist to do an audio interview with you. Or simply have fellow band members ask each other questions while the mic is on. Conversations are often more interesting than a solitary voice.

Write attention-getting show titles. Make sure the name you name you give each episode is riveting and filled with rich keywords. I’m not talking about how you describe it on the recording. I’m referring to the headline you use on the episode’s podcast web page. For example, “What a Week It’s Been” is not a strong headline. “How I Ended Up in Handcuffs in the Back of a Police Car” would grab a lot more attention. Be specific, mysterious, outrageous or funny with your titles… just don’t be dull.

Edit your ID3 tags. These tags supply the information in an MP3 file that is displayed when your audio is played on an iPod or other digital media player. The most important tags are Title, Artist and Album. Don’t leave these blank. You want people to know what they’re listening to long after they’ve downloaded your podcast episode.

If your show is called the Pocket Rocket Podcast, your Title tag should be something like “PRP 10 – New Live Tracks from Detroit.” Include a standard abbreviation and show number, followed by the episode title. For the Artist tag, put your name and website: “Steve Rooney Band – SteveRooney.com.” In the Album tag slot, spell out the full name of the podcast. Taking these steps will ensure that fans are able to store and find your files quickly, and can get back in touch with you when they want.

Note: Another growing trend is the use of video blogs (also known as vlogs or videocasts). The video iPod and other multimedia devices make it possible for consumers to subscribe to sites that offer video content as well – using the same RSS technology that powers traditional blogs and podcasts.

We’ll cover more on video in the next chapter. But before you turn the page, let me ask you…

Are you squeezing all of the marketing opportunities you can out of music blogs and podcasts? If not, use the ideas in this series of articles to tap into this progressive form of online communication.