Madalyn's Blog

So I have to vent today. David Hooper’s opinion that “Myspace Is Dead” is one that I don’t agree with. He blogged about it last week. Well actually he didn't really blog about it, he posted a teaser in his blog to get you to his sales page so you'll buy his new eBook on Twitter for Musicians.

I love Twitter. It's a great tool to help you stay in touch with your fans (if you can convince them to sign up for yet another free site!) as well as work it to gain new friends and fans. Can you do this all in seconds as David claims in his sales pitch? No. You have to work this social network like any other. It's not nearly as time consuming as Myspace but it's also something so completely different. You cannot even compare!

And be advised... Twitter is having its issues at the moment. It's been down a lot. I love using Twitter and am a big advocate for it, but it's been quite frustrating.

So Dave's sales pitch goes like this... yes I'm quoting it. See for yourself here if you dare. And yes Dave, you can thank me later for bringing additional traffic to your site and fueling your intentional buzz. ;-)



I'm going to clarify the "seconds" part here. Yes, in seconds you can type up to 140 characters in Twitter. What exactly is Twitter you ask? It's micro-blogging. Plain and simple. It's the same thing as text messaging your fans using Mozes or other related services. Some people jumped on that in the last few years. But Twitter is hot right now because it's a community too, like Myspace and Facebook. Everyone is buzzing about. Well really techies are buzzing about it. I should know, I'm one of them... a techie in the music business.



Yes, you will hear more about how bands can benefit from this service. I've been talking it up in this blog quite a bit lately. I have used it at live shows and recent events such as the Kerrville Folk Festival, ASCAP Expo and various GoGirls showcases. I will be Twittering from several events in NYC and LA this week and weekend. Head over to the GoGirls Twitter page to see this in action: http://twitter.com/gogirlsmusic. You can read my mini-blogs with photos! Again, I'm a techie. If you need help learning about this and setting it up, please get it touch with me.

And check out my article, "What is Twittering? You're always Twittering. Should I be Twittering?"

So let's go back to Myspace NOT being dead. I know, so many of you get frustrated with it. At times it's slow, there's a ton of spam (and stupid sales pitches!) all while you wish you sold more CDs and were able to get more people to your shows. Well I'm here to tell you that Myspace doesn't work unless you know how to use it properly. You cannot simply work it sporadically and get results. You must (ideally) spend time everyday. You must become active and participate. That is the general rule with any social network.

It doesn't work unless you work it.

If you want to learn more about how I help indie artists and music companies take advantage of the social network revolution, visit http://www.socialnetworksformusicians.com/. You won't find long winded sales pitches, just information and lots of articles and blog posts that will help you.

I'll be hosting a really great FREE Teleseminar on June 24th.

“Social Networks for Musicians”
How to get beyond the confusion of web 2.0

Sign up at http://www.indiemusicseminars.com/

Until next time...

Copyright © 2008 Madalyn Sklar, IndieMusicCoach

Madalyn Sklar is a music business coach, consultant and author. She founded IndieMusicCoach and has spent over 12 years working with a wide range of independent musicians all over the world - U.S., Canada, Ireland and Japan thus far. Her goal is to help indie artists achieve greater success in the music business by working smarter not harder. She is also the founder of GoGirlsMusic.com, the oldest and largest online community of indie women musicians, with a vision of bringing together and empowering musicians from around the world.

Madalyn is available for one-on-one consulting and coaching at affordable prices. Check out http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/ for more info.

Labels: myspace, twitter