Attention Musicians (and all creatives): Your Success is Up to You

Hello there, readers!

I've had a good year with plenty of lessons learned and goals reached, and I want to touch on an important aspect of starting and running a business in any creative industry, with a particular focus on music: it takes hard work, and there are few, if any, shortcuts.

Don't get me wrong, there have been times when it felt like something has fallen into my lap, but the reason that sort of thing happens is because I work hard, I'm dedicated, I'm always researching and learning, and other people see it. I also network, talk about my work with joy, and follow up with potential clients to keep my name and brand in their minds.

I have a very good musician friend who is talented, smart, and extremely capable, but he expects things to happen with little to no effort on his part. While he's dedicated over fifteen years to music, he doesn't actively seek out new venues to play, or market his music across different platforms, or research and try different ways to get his music to new audiences.

I've offered him plenty of advice over the years about steps he can take to increase his online visibility, how to earn income via different revenue streams, and I've provided services and tools that will give him a leg up - if he does the work. Unfortunately, he's not doing any of it. There's always an excuse, never a solution.

If he'd been putting more effort into the business side of his music over even the past five years, he would undoubtedly be in a better financial position and could focus on building upon that. Instead, he's still in the same place and likely won't move forward unless he starts committing to himself by putting in the work.

Here's the thing: you cannot Tom Sawyer your way into success in creative fields. If you're a band leader, you can't expect your side guys to book gigs for you. Clubs and venues aren't going to call you (some won't even call you back), you need to be persistent. If one publication doesn't respond to your album review request or story pitch, you have to keep trying.

Booking agents, managers, and labels all want to work with artists who have proven dedicated to their craft, which means the artist has to do the hard work of running their music business for years before anyone will be willing to shoulder even a tiny part of the burden, and, even then, that burden will be lifted for a chunk of money.

Making money in music has become increasingly difficult over the decades. It takes time, savvy, and sacrifice to build a large enough following to support a solo artist, much less a full-scale band. A booking agent wants to book artists that will sell tickets, which is how they earn their percentage. If you're not willing to build your following, no one is going to do it for you. Even the most dedicated fan will lose interest if you're not regularly engaging and sharing your story with them.

On the other side of all of this, one of the great parts about creative marketing is that most fans are less interested in a constant onslaught of new work than they are in the story of the artist. Want to keep your fans engaged and build your audience with people who legitimately care? Start with the 80%/20% rule: make 80% of your content personal and 20% promotional or professional. Once you figure out your rhythm, you can experiment and adjust those numbers according to your experience.

It's never too late to start promoting yourself and your creative business. While it does take hard work, don't forget to take care of yourself while you're in the building process. Your fans and followers know you're human and will stand by you when you're feeling overwhelmed. In fact, the occasional display of vulnerability can solidify their dedication to you and your brand.

Want more tips and ideas about marketing and promotion? Sign up for my email list to keep up with my ideas, suggestions, and projects.

Getting My First 500 Twitter Followers, and the Value of Organic Growth

I confess: I only have 498 Twitter followers at the writing of this blog. However, the number isn't the most important part of my social media marketing strategy. To me, the quality of the people behind the number is what matters most, especially as I grow my modest business into something larger.

Twitter remained a mystery to me for quite a while. It wasn't until about eight months ago that I decided to start using Twitter in earnest. What, I thought, is the "thing" with Twitter? I know plenty of people who use it, but what do they use it for, and how? It only took a few months for me to really get the hang of it, and I've learned some valuable lessons along the way!

Scheduling Tweets
Tweets have a life cycle of about eighteen minutes. What's the solution to staying as visible on Twitter as you can? Post more often! Of course, I'm not even going to pretend I can post every twenty minutes, nor can I come up with the quality of content needed to do so. But, with the use of my awesome Buffer app, I schedule up to ten Tweets per day for free, and it gives me suggestions about what to post. This makes Buffer a perfect solution for me-I get the quality of content I desire from sources I trust, I can Tweet at both high-traffic times as well as when my target target audience is online, and I still have the flexibility to be able to retweet the people I follow without feeling like I'm clogging the news feed.

Using Lists
I just started using lists, and it's been quite a timesaver. If I want to check in with what some of my favorite social media marketers are doing, I go to my Marketing list. Or I can always zone out for a few moments with my list of Arts and Photography. All in all, I no longer have to sift through the entire list of people I follow, I can find what I need quickly. This is a great resource when I'm gathering content to share, as well.

My Twitter List of Bloggers-I'm still building my lists from the people I follow, but as I follow more people, it's easy to keep everyone organized.

Blocking Other Users
When I have followers who are just glorified advertisers for other shops or people who keep offering to sell me 20,000 followers for $5, I block them. I want to have followers who are engaged with my content, and the spammers don't qualify.

Organic Growth
I tend to only follow people I find really interesting, and I hope the people who follow me feel the same way. You can purchase followers on almost any social media site, but, as I mentioned earlier, I'm not on Twitter for number of followers, I use Twitter as my professional community. When I started following people and building my followers, I stayed away from the crossover of my Facebook social community and focused primarily on people who use social media marketing daily, as well as professional bloggers and designers. Now, in addition to Buffer, I have an entire online community whose content I can share and learn from, and they share my content and learn from what I do, as well.
While some people may think it looks great to have a certain number of followers, I am happy to have grown my list in a slower way-with people who are engaged in the Twitter community and who have a similar professional focus to mine.

All told, Twitter has become a valuable tool for my business in that it has helped me to find some of the true experts in my field, and I've been able to expand my knowledge base and sell myself better because of it. Are you on Twitter? What has your experience been with using it? Share your story in the comments below!