Industry Insider: Ariel Hyatt (Part 1)

Dec 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Jason Feehan and Randy Chertkow

           
 

HOW MUSICIANS CAN USE TWITTER FOR SELF-PROMOTION

Ariel Hyatt, founder of Ariel Publicity, is an expert on social media.

Social-media Websites have changed the world, and with their power to spread the word faster than any other media, they have profoundly affected the way musicians promote themselves. It's no longer a question of whether you should take part in the movement, it's a question of how many fans you can make by doing so. To get the scoop on the best social-networking techniques for musicians, we turned to Ariel Hyatt, the founder of Ariel Publicity. In addition to being a publicist, Hyatt is a social-media expert and author of Music Success in 9 Weeks, a nine-step program that helps artists implement social-media and Internet marketing to increase their fan bases. This interview is split into two parts; in this issue, Hyatt discusses the best ways for musicians to use Twitter. Next month, she tackles Facebook.

Why are Twitter, Facebook and other social-media sites so important to musicians?

They amplify word of mouth. For example, if I'm on your blog and I start conversing with you, I might promote that conversation to others in my social network. From there, someone in my community may share and discuss it and so on until it goes viral. For musicians, we've been trained to think in terms of a one-way conversation — an idea promoted by old publicity and marketing techniques. But we need to break out of this thinking. Social media forces us into a two-way conversation. It peels back the curtain and allows you to build relationships with your fans and followers.

Does social media provide other benefits?

Yes. It also provides, to quote The New York Times, “ambient awareness.” To try to stay in touch on a macro level with hundreds and potentially thousands of people would be impossible in real life. But about 9,000 people know that I recently traveled to Australia and they followed my journey. I would never have called them all to tell them what I was doing. With Twitter, my followers can know a little bit about what I've been up to. Not intimately like my mom followed it, but with an ambient awareness that I was out of the country. And tweeting makes me feel more connected to my community. This is especially important for musicians because everyone now gets 3,000 marketing messages shot at us every day. With that much information to sift through, brand recognition and staying in people's minds is going to take something more than a single message or two. It takes community and participation.

Describe how Twitter works.

Twitter is nothing but a giant status update in the sky. You can say anything, but it has to be less than 140 characters. Short and sweet. Twitter not only allows for amplified word-of-mouth and ambient awareness, but also community. Some people think Twitter is all about tweeting about some tasty tuna sandwich you just ate. But the sandwich is not the point. It's the fact you shared this information and bonded with your followers and fan base. You let them behind the scenes. Yes, it would be boring if you only shared what you ate — although that might be kind of funny — but when you also share your thoughts, blog posts, opinions and your music, it helps form a bond with people. It builds the relationship.

How would you recommend that a musician get started with Twitter?

Observe first before jumping in. Sign up for an account and start following some famous people — maybe not even musicians at first. My recommendations would be to follow Lance Armstrong (@lancearm strong), John Mayer (@johncmayer), Amanda Palmer (@amandapalmer), Derek Sivers (@sivers), me (@cyberpr) and Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake). These are all people using Twitter in really effective and brilliant ways. Look at their Twitter streams and see how they're using it. How much is sharing funny things? Blog links? How much is just updating what they're up to? Then, when you're ready, jump in. My first few tweets, I didn't know what I was doing, but I kept answering the Twitter question, “What are you doing?” and I got the hang of it.

When you start a new account, you don't have any followers. What should you do?

First of all, tell everyone you already know that you're on Twitter. Put it on your blog, Website, Facebook. Tell people at shows. Then start following people. They'll follow you back. Talk to and acknowledge other people; retweet people. If you're only in it for yourself, you're not going to get many followers interested in what you're tweeting. Once you kick-start your base, let it grow organically.

What should a musician tweet about?

One of the things that makes it difficult for musicians to jump onto the Twitter platform is that most usually spend a lot of time thinking before they write. It takes time to write lyrics, come up with a song and produce it so it's ready for the world to hear. But for Twitter, and social media in general, the idea is not to overthink, just jump! Social media is all about being good enough. So don't get tripped up about every single communication having to be genius. Use caution though: Don't tweet when you're drunk or mad, and don't be inappropriate — unless that works for you because you're a gritty punk rocker. When you tweet, think about what your fans don't get to see.