Videos Blogs Are Essential If You Want To Connect To Fans

I am currently having my band "The Gypsy Affliction" make some video blogs of themselves hanging out, performing and writing music. I have always thought that it is very important to connect to your fans you should have a way of communicating to them in between shows and tours. The Gypsy Affliction I feel would especially benefit from these blogs because their target market spends majority of their time on the web and enjoys watching videos on youtube.com or other podcast and video sites.

Many artists have found fame through the web, and posting videos of themselves for viewers to watch, Colbie Caillat, Taylor Swift and even Soulja Boy are just some. Although I don't think Colbie Caillat and soulja boy post videos of themselves anymore, Taylor Swift, I feel is a marketing genius because she still, even with her extreme popularity regulary posts videos of herself from backstage at her performances to getting her retainer fitted:


Because she continually posts these types of blogs I feel that that only further helps her popularity with her fans, because they feel in some way connected to their artist. What do you think?

Gypsies Hanging Out

Here are some pictures of Claire and Cassidy of The Gypsy Affliction. More to come soon!

It's CRAZY important to have a media room

I had a meeting with Claire over the weekend regarding the layout and graphics of The Gypsy Afflictions website. I showed her the powerpoint layout I had created for her which included the content that I want on her page (Media Room, Video Blogs, Pictures etc.) She absolutely loved it and was blown away by the media room concept.

I think its an extreme disadvantage if artists don't have a media room on their website. In Applied Marketing we were told that a media room should include the artists one sheet, high resolution pictures, a release, a show calendar and sound clips. I think a lot of us were confused because that pretty much sounds like a website, but what I realized after doing some research and reviewing the lecture, is that it is important to have links to these things on the media room page because this is where the press, radio, TV etc. will go to find out the info they need about your band.

Time is precious and if the media has to look and wait for all types of pages to find what they need they are going to walk away and you will lose the press.

Thank you to my teacher Kimo Williams, for drilling the importance of this specific part of our web pages through our heads.

What are your thoughts on the media room? Is it as important as I think it is??

I wish I had magic powers...a.k.a organizing skills.

It's been a stressful week over here. I don't know about the rest of the world, but trying to market a band while working doubles AND trying to get good grades in your other classes while attempting to make something of yourself at your internship AND trying to have at least SOME of a social life is HARD WORK. (whew..just typing it was stressful enough)

Man, I wish we could go back to the days when senior year meant slacking off. I have unfortunately realized that in college this does not exist. The real world is approaching fast and I need to buckle down. So here is my question, WHO IS A MASTER ORGANIZER?!

I need major help, what do you do to get organized and stay focused when you have a bazillion things on your to do list, that just sits on your computer staring at you all day long and seems to never be getting smaller??

I wish I had magic powers to make this all transform into A pieces of work..and not just a to do list.

Thank god I have great music from The Gypsy Affliction to calm me down. What is it about good music that can turn your mood completely around? I can't imagine life without it...I think the world and myself would probably fall apart.

Networking (or just being friendly) is AWESOME

Before I get in to this next post, let me first explain that my nickname at work is Sunshine. I think that is pretty much self explanatory about my personality.

To start, I have been really nervous about designing this website for Claire and the band. I have great ideas (videos, pictures, sound clips, calendars, fan forum) but wasn't very sure how to actually "create" the whole concept. VERY stressful let me tell you.

So yesterday I was at work, being my normal "Sunshine" self, talking with my coworkers and being friendly, when I remembered that my coworker is a GRAPHIC DESIGNER, who out of no where begins telling me how she is working with a friend on a website for a client. Can I just say FATE!?

To make a story short, she is helping me with the layout and her friend is going to put in all the fancy schmancy codes to make the website actually be a working website and not the power point presentation it is right now! HOW AWESOME is that?

Thank you Courtney Boatwright and friend!!

I am very excited, I think that the first thing any artist needs to market themselves is a website where people can go to learn more about their work and connect with them. I think this is going to end up being great.

Now I just have to figure out what colors and font a gypsy would use? Maybe I should watch Hunchback of Notre Dame again to get some ideas...