Sheer Badness

I HATE when aspiring musicians respond to queries with “Google Me.” Perhaps this is a pet peeve of mine since I have an extensive business background and I tend to view things somewhat differently than other recording artists. One thing is for sure, I know if I have a product to sell and I am face-to-face with or have any direct interaction with a potential customer, I seize the opportunity...and perhaps afterward, I’d call their attention to my website. Under NO circumstances am I directing people to a search engine!

I evaluated this methodology and tried really hard to understand the logic and/or benefit in directing people to Google. After all, there had to be SOME reason so many artists were doing it, some even neglecting to include a biography on their Myspace and/or Twitter pages, instead opting to replace the otherwise useful information with the illustrious “Google Me” catch-phrase. Possibly these artists view it as validation when you can find information about them on Google, I'm not sure why...it isn't exactly a co-sign. Maybe their trying to show their SEO game is on point (I'm sure it's all the rave). I’d chalk it up to utter stupidity, but that would be too harsh – so let’s just call them “uninformed.”

Artists: Don’t be so full of yourself that you lose sight of the BIG PICTURE; arrogance isn’t going to get you anywhere.

Ask yourself, is it really THAT HARD to plug yourself? If the answer is yes, you are in the wrong business. Your music is a part of YOU, it’s YOUR product, if you’re experiencing difficulty selling yourself – it will make your journey to fortune and fame take THAT MUCH LONGER.

Artists: If that person was familiar with you and what you do already, they wouldn’t inquire – take a moment to think about it, seriously. Now that you have this person’s attention, DON’T BLOW IT.

You have no idea how this “potential fan” stumbled into you, they may have seen your photo or heard someone talk about you or noticed one of their friends commented on your page – do yourself a favor, don’t get offended when they ask you basic questions. This industry has no place for the overly emotional. The last thing you want to do is leave a negative first impression. You cannot afford to neglect the relationship building aspect.

Thanks for reading the blog, hopefully you found it informative – its #musicmonday on Twitter and I felt inclined to drop knowledge with the music community. There are lots of entrepreneurs that would sell you this information (which should be common sense) via e-Book, call it something like “Effective Social Media, Online Musician Promotion” and it’ll go for $19.95 via Paypal. Please respect the fact that I am sharing this with you, there aren’t many incentives associated with me giving it away for FREE. Watching artists who make themselves look like idiots only makes me look better, I should let them continue doing what they’re doing *laughing*. Drop me some feedback, if you enjoyed this and think your followers will find this information useful, please RT.