Yay! I made it to the end!

Nine weeks ago, I signed up for a social media challenge through the Songwriters Association of Canada in conjunction with Ariel Hyatt’s book Music Success in 9 weeks.  Nine weeks ago, I wanted to learn more of how to effectively use my social media to get my music heard and to make some money!  Nine weeks ago, sixty-one participants from across Canada participated in this challenge.  Unfortunately, some had to drop out but I do believe many of us were able to stick it out to the end.  By communicating on our Facebook page – we were able to support one another by providing comments and/or suggestions (especially for ‘what’s your pitch’ chapter), subscribe to other participant’s youtube channels, ‘like’ Facebook pages, follow on Twitter and sign up for fan email lists.  I do believe that some friendships started and even some co-writes!  (By the way Lucy, we still have to finish our song). 

One of the biggest things for me out of this challenge was how to be more effective with my newsletters.  I have been sending out my newsletters on a monthly basis to approximately 650 fans on my email list (which were collected through my Reverbnation profile, people signing up at shows and people signing up through my website).  After I send out my newsletter I wait about a week to check my reports through my newsletter program to see how many were opened, bounced, clicked through and hopefully no unsubscribes.  I was finding that only about 21%, on average of my newsletters were being opened.  And I wondered why?  Well, from this challenge, I found out why.  When I sent out my newsletters, it was all about me (not that there's anything wrong with that) – when my next show was, where you could buy my music, links to my website, Facebook, how to join me on Twitter, etc, etc.  I thought that’s what a newsletter was all about.  Enh, wrong!  What I found out was is that I needed to be offering something to my fans – something of interest to them.  Maybe an interesting article about a musician that was of interest to my demographic (which is 40 – 55 by the way) or how a healthy and tasty green drink can be of benefit to your health.  After that……then!......I can tell them about my next show and all that other stuff.  I have to put out a newsletter this month so I am definitely going to try this new approach and I will see what the results are!  I know I’m not going to see instant results but I’m going to keep working at it – tweeking as I go along and paying attention to what gets the most response.

As we wrap up and I’m reflecting on the past nine weeks, I feel I’m in pretty good shape.  All my social media, my website, my blog, are all cohesive – containing the same photography, same colours, same font for my name (which is all part of my branding). My electronic press kit on my website is easily accessible and contains pictures that can be easily downloaded, a one sheet that provides pull quotes, a bio of what kind of music I play, part of my pitch, where I have played and information about my current CD.  I also provide posters that can be downloaded.  And I have a video press kit.  These will all be updated next month as I prepare to release a new single to radio at the end of April. The producer is still adding the final touches, I’ll have my professional photography done in a few weeks and my consultant will be preparing advertising and promotional material plus promoting and tracking my song to country radio.  And because of some great ideas passed along through this challenge, the wheels are turning as to how I can effectively promote my single called “This Town”.

Thank you to the Songwriters Association of Canada, thank you to Ariel Hyatt for writing Music Success in 9 Weeks and for caring about the independent musician, and thank you to my fellow participants for reading my blogs, becoming a friend on facebook, following me on twitter, signing up for my fan email list and subscribing to my youtube channel.

This has been a great nine weeks and I’m happy to say that I’m looking forward to continuing on down my road to success!  

Its not impossible

Its

     I’m Possible