blogs, twitter, facebook and more

Yeah,

I just watched a rather facinating video on twitter, involved Andrew Dubber and Steve Lawson (New Music Strategies Steve Lawson) about twitter and how it can be used essentially as a great marketing tool. Which in many ways supports my theory on how everything is marketing.

But, in a world of millions of people, thousands of musicians, hundreds of communities, does the impersonal twitter really make much difference. Now Steve and Andrew are both very much supporters of Twitter, and while I'm a user, I really find it rather dull (with the exception of the excellent Sockington). I don't follow anyone that twitters unnesesarily, so I don't get the really shit posts, but I still don't give enough of a shit about anyone else to really want to know what they're doing all the time!

My point is, with so many posts, no-one reads them all, and so, just like myspace the quality is drowned in a flood of crap.

Blogs are great, if you want to spend your life reading. Like newspaper columbs for people that can't get printed. Again, there's some amazing stuff out there, but again, a lot of it is shit, totall wastefull shit. I guess in many ways, mine isn't worth reading either :( but my point remains.

Sure, you'd be crazy not to be on every site in the world, it's a great way to spread your name about, but it doesn't sell records, it doesn't make you friends. It opens doors, and lets be honest, there's more than enough open doors for you already.

I've found that one of the best ways to sell tickets to my gigs is to flirt with girls on myspace. It's shameless and rather banal at times, but it comes down to basic one-on-one human interation. These people don't come to see us just on a few flirty messages, I usually have to msn them, maybe meet them at another gig.

Basically, it comes down to real face to face charm! Until you've really got some momentum, your best bet at making real fans, is by making real friends. Admittable these friends should be people that will like your band, but still. Strangers don't meet strangers much, although i expect this is less the case with older generations.

So, now I've totally lsot track of what I was saying...

Yes! Use every avaialble resource to plug you, your band, your product, but if you want true support, make new friends! Friends that love what you do, and will support that, not because they're obligated, but because they want to. These people will get you off the floor. Unfortunately, not much further, but it's a start ;)

So, use what you want, but in the end - make time for real people, you need them!