“All the true gangstas know, Nate ain’t ever loved no ‘ho”
Don’t use a PR company.
In a past life I wrote about music for a site called The Cool Hunter. The Cool Hunter gets millions of visitors a month from around the world so it’s a favourite for PR people.
I’d get 10-15 emails a day from PR companies around the world promoting new artists, albums or tours.
They were always unsolicited, text heavy, impersonal and mass mailed. I didn’t write a single article about any of the bands they promoted.
On the other hand, I got to know personally Mark Dodds, the Online Promotions Coordinator at Inertia. He understood my taste and only sent me stuff I liked. Guess which label I used to write about the most?
Do It Yourself.
Bloggers are people. They like interacting with other people. They are bored by press releases and annoyed by large file attachments. They start their blogs to be part of a broader conversation about music. If you are the artist or the manager or the label, then you need to tap into that conversation. Paying someone to be a part of that conversation on your behalf just won’t work.
Chillaxation in the blogosphere, where true bloggers type standing.
Comment regularly.
You can build trust and presence on blogs through intelligent comments. If there are particular blogs you like, start leaving comments with your full name. That way you won’t be a total stranger when you first reach out to the blogger via email.
Be succinct.
Email is a high stress, high turnover environment. People want to get in and out of their inboxes as fast as possible. It’s likely that they’re doing something else at the same time as checking their email (feeding a kid, driving, sitting through a board meeting).
Value time. Don’t send out long emails, with long stories and huge excerpts from reviews. Tell the story in the email title. Keep the email to five lines. Provide links for further discovery (to MySpace for example or to a great online review). Provide your contact details in the email signature. If they like it, they’ll get back to you.
I do not value your time Sir.
If you have a list, update it regularly.
As time goes by, it’s likely that you’ll build up a list of people who might want to write about you and who you’ll want to contact regularly. That’s fine. But make sure you keep that list updated. Blogs die everyday, writers move on, sites change format. Be aware of these changes so you aren’t sending irrelevant content to those same people.
Allow unsubscribes.
Give your list of contacts an easy way to opt out of receiving your correspondence. It’s illegal not to. But it’s also just common courtesy.
Use BCC.
When you’re writing to a lot of people, you need to use BCC. That’s Blank Carbon Copy. That means that the email addresses of all the people you are sending to are hidden from all the other people you are sending to. You will make enemies fast if you don’t understand this.
The world’s baldest uber-blogger.
Ask yourself: is this anticipated, personal and relevant?
Seth Godin – the world’s best marketing blogger – applies this simple rule to all marketing communication: make it anticipated, personal and relevant. If your correspondence doesn’t tick those three boxes, don’t send.
Apply social norms to online PR.
If your task in the real world was to make people like you, how would you go about it?
Would you pay someone to go into a crowded room with a megaphone and shout loudly: “My client’s name is Jane and she is very popular among her peers and an excellent person and incredibly interesting. I hope you will agree!”
Clearly not. You’d pick the people most like you, approach them politely and ask questions. You’d be interested, not interesting. You wouldn’t rush it. You’d let people do things their own way. If they didn’t like you, you wouldn’t persist.
You can apply the EXACT same scenario to online PR. Remember, you are the person in that crowded room regardless of whether we are talking real life or the blogosphere.
Tell me you like me.
If you don’t like the blog or the blogger – don’t reach out.
Simple. Don’t interact with bloggers whose sites you don’t like or whose music taste you don’t trust.
Be human.
If you want to start your online PR campaign today, here’s how to do it. Pick a blog you really like. Find a contact email. Send them an email that says:
“Hi Blogger X, I’ve been reading your blog for a while now. Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your post about Band X. Looking forward to reading more.
Thanks,
Me.”
That’s it. Build a relationship. Maybe it will bear PR fruit. Maybe it won’t. But save the world from your ungodly spam.
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Sophie Benjamin 04.01.09 at 12:14 pm
Couldn’t agree more! Also, there is a difference between being persistent and being pesky - more people should realise it.
Craig 04.01.09 at 1:29 pm
Hey Nick,
Great post. After chating to you a Fuse I devised a bit of a plan to start doing all these things, I will keep you posted as to the results.
Craig
Nick 04.01.09 at 5:34 pm
@Sophie - You would know better than most!
@Craig Be sure to keep me posted, I’d love to hear how you go.
Max 04.01.09 at 5:46 pm
spot on. these are great points - if i know someone’s been reading what i’ve written, i’m more likely to trust their recommendation of a band or track or whatever. it’s definitely all about trust.
Nick 04.01.09 at 5:59 pm
@Max Thanks for the comment. Rose Quartz is awesome.
For anyone who isn’t already a convert check out http://rosequartz.blogspot.com/
Stephen Green 04.01.09 at 10:14 pm
I agree except with the idea that the principles here are about good online PR. The ideas here apply to offline too. A good publicist knows that it’s about the relationship, not the press release. The reason you use an offline publicist is that an artist doesn’t have time to manage 400 media relationships. You admitted that you listened to the Inertia publicist because he knew your tastes. Clearly the issue isn’t that publicists don’t work as you show that they do. The issue is that there are too many crap publicists…..
Nick 04.01.09 at 11:15 pm
@Stephen Green Fair point. But there are too many crap publicists, so I stand by my first point, don’t hire someone to do it.
On a side note - if there are any good publicists with online experience, now is the time to speak up.
In Him 04.02.09 at 6:30 am
Hi,
As an independent Christian duo for a few years now, we’ve come to notice and love more and more indie artists!
Not only will we take your suggestions to heart, but we are wondering if anyone can recommend any bloggers that review Christian artists/bands? We’d love to grow our collection of indie material! We may even begin to review fellow indie artists/bands on our blog in the future.
Thanks again, and have a great week!
Andy and Miranda - In Him
Arlene Wszalek 04.02.09 at 6:44 am
Excellent post, Nick. I manage musician Curt Smith (co-founder of Tears for Fears). We did hire a publicist for a few months when his solo album was released last year, who primarily worked traditional/mainstream media, but other than that it’s just us working to get out the word about his music and gigs.
Curt is an active, engaged member of the online community (he’s on Twitter @curtsmith, has FB/MS pages and his own website, etc.). Much of the success we’ve had getting bloggers to review and write about his solo album has come from hand-cultivated relationships such as you suggest. Some have approached one or the other of us after seeing us online; some we’ve gone to after interacting with them. But it’s all been very grass-roots and authentic, and those contacts have (not surprisingly) been the most effective.
Justin Snow 04.02.09 at 6:46 am
Great article! Couldn’t agree more. If someone mentions anything specific from my blog, I immediately give their e-mail a more thorough read. I also am more likely to pay attention to e-mails that are from a specific person or band instead of “prdude@randomlabel.com”
Crunchy Steve 04.02.09 at 7:22 am
Mind you, if you walked into a record industry red carpet night with a megaphone and shouted with a megaphone at everyone in the room about how you’re an unsigned artist and your music craps on any of the “slave-trade” industry pop crap celebrated at the function (managing to avoid security for a few minutes) you’d get your little bum blogged off.
There is no such thing as bad publicity.
Tim 04.02.09 at 8:45 am
Nice article. Very timely for me. Thanks for the tips.
Heather Kitching 04.02.09 at 9:04 am
I have to second Stephen Green’s comment. Any PR person worth their salt builds exactly the relationships you describe having had with the Inertia publicist. I don’t know a single PR professional who doesn’t consider this to be their job.
I’m curious: If you didn’t in fact write anything about the artists promoted by the people that were effectively spamming you, how did you know that they were legitimate PR people and not just amateurs working for their favourite artists?
I’m not about to discourage any artist from doing their own publicity if they have the time and know-how to do it. Plenty of artists do. But similarly, please don’t discourage artists from hiring publicists based on a twisted impression of what professional publicists do. I recommend that artists looking for publicists speak to a couple of the music journalists they’d like to get coverage from. Those people’s recommendations will almost certainly point them toward someone competent.
Nick 04.02.09 at 9:39 am
@In Him - I’d recommend going to http://blogsearch.google.com/ and searching for a few high profile artists in your genre. The blogs mentioning those artists will be a good place to start.
@Arlene Wszalek - Sounds like you’re doing a great job. And I do agree the publicists are still the best way into traditional media. Please keep us posted on Curt’s progress.
@Justin Snow - Thanks!
@Crunchy Steve - I’m not sure I agree but I’d love to see this atempted.
@Tim - You are most welcome.
@ Heather Kitching - Fair point.
“If you didn’t in fact write anything about the artists promoted by the people that were effectively spamming you, how did you know that they were legitimate PR people and not just amateurs working for their favourite artists?”
I checked their websites. They were definitely PR people.
This is a great piece of advice: “I recommend that artists looking for publicists speak to a couple of the music journalists they’d like to get coverage from. Those people’s recommendations will almost certainly point them toward someone competent.”
Kathleen Hore 04.02.09 at 12:00 pm
Hi Nick (and Heather and Stephen),
I am the enemy it seems - the publicist! However it’s pretty known around our office that spamming around press releases is a waste of our time and bloggers’ time… It’s all about the relationship. As you’ve clearly noted, bloggers are around to create conversations about music, so we try to enter into that conversation mainly through listening before opening our mouths. It’s a pretty easy thing to do when we have similar passions - good music. I would never send a press release about a new shiny-pop song to polaroids for example… I know our media.
Sad side note: We still tend to spam around for traditional media - which I think of as a nightmare. The reason for this can be related to Julian Cole’s blog on “institutional dysfunction” (http://bit.ly/1MgIc) - the head-editors are old school and don’t want to make friends, they just want your press release. I’m very keen for the paradigm shift to happen in traditional media, a world where editors realise that “making friends” (used loosely) will save their time and ours is an ideal world for me. It’s slowly taking shape…
Nick 04.02.09 at 2:49 pm
@Kathleen Hore - You know I love Secret Service. Great to hear you are taking that approach. Don’t know if you teed up The Grates on POA but that is an awesome concept.
David Andrew Wiebe 04.04.09 at 3:07 am
Fantastic article. I agree with everything being said here. It’s so important to interact with bloggers on a personal basis.
Josh Gardiner 04.06.09 at 5:30 pm
Hey Nick,
Another good read.
It’s true, with a bit of time and patience you tend to build these relationships with people who have similar tastes, better to offer it than sell it. Though in saying that, I’m sure I’ve been guilty of the latter before. I have to admit.
I agree with Kathleen, the conventional ways of disseminating info on releases and tours et al are definitely in flux. I like the idea of more direct conversation with some of the ‘old guard’. Let’s hope it doesn’t devolve into some kind of idle, insincere Twitter chat, though!
Ultimately, publicists are people too, who generally (hopefully!) believe in what and who they are talking about - and I for one very much enjoy the banter back and forth about new music of ours, and beyond, with others online.
I mean, sending out one way emails to people is a bit like eating dinner on your own, or hitting a tennis ball against a wall instead of a partner. Lonely!
Megan 04.07.09 at 5:39 am
This is a great article. Many things I had not yet considered as I plan a marketing/PR campaign. Thanks for posting this!
journo 04.09.09 at 3:29 am
Oh, isn’t that sweet. Every little blogger posting about that oh-so-cool mp3 in her pajamas wants that personal attention from the publicist whose entire mission in life is to understand and massage her personal tastes, as well as the personal tastes of all the other little bloggers in their own solipsistic pajamas.
Friend to the world, always sincere, the ultimate publicist.
Get a clue, bloggers. You’re still being manipulated. The publicist is humoring you to get the mention. It isn’t personal–it’s business. And when the publicist convinces you that it’s all about friendship, you’ve been pwned.
Nick 04.15.09 at 3:49 pm
@David Andrew Wiebe - Thanks!
@Josh Gardiner - Josh, you and I have spoken about this before and I thinkyou do a great job. Nice little tennis insight there.
@Megan - My pleasure.
@journo - Thanks for dropping by. All I’d add is that by paying attention to taste, publicists actually save time and effort. Better not to waste the email if you know it’s not going to hit the mark.
Matt Hickey 04.18.09 at 12:30 pm
Amen to that, Nick.
Matt Sheaks 05.05.09 at 5:49 am
Hi Nick,
I stumbled onto this site just today, but I’ve really been super digging all the articles you’ve got on here about blogs and the future of music. That’s sort of how I ended up here in the first place…trying to figure out how to untangle this knot of all these great sites and writers out there now (and also the probably separating them from the not-so-great ones).
I’m a musician, but I used to write online early in the decade. Then, I sort of fell into a black hole for the past couple of years of not really paying much attention to things…and just now finally crawled out of said hole and also got together the band I should have had a decade ago… The problem is that we’re based out of a city that doesn’t have nearly as much going on as it could, so I just now recently turned back to the net to start finding different avenues…and yowsa…I feel like Tom Cruise in Interview With A Vampire…eating rats and trying to figure out how everything changed around me…in just the last five years…
Anyway, my personal comment to this article was just that, in finding some of these music blogs and getting to know some of the really good writers out there, I almost feel shady getting to know (and genuinely like) someone and then suddenly throwing in that “Hey, can you take a look at our cd?” wrench…when we actually get it done, that is. I love what we’re doing 100%, but I’ve never been a salesman… And I’m totally understanding of the fact that music nerds (of which I am one) and music writers always love to get their hands on something new that’s worthwhile…but it still feels like that moment you have to ask a friend for a loan when you’ve never asked somebody for a loan…know what I mean? Is that just crazy talk? I guess maybe I just need to get over it…but I’ve always wondered if people who do PR and such for a living ever have those feelings…either initially or otherwise…
Brent 05.14.09 at 2:40 pm
Hey Journo,
You make it sound like publicists are villains in a bond film.
I mean we are, but still…
Robin Seamer 08.21.09 at 4:40 am
An interesting article, but not all bloggers work this way ! I write a blog ( http://www.breakingmorewaves.blogspot.com ) and the vast majority of music I write about I find out myself from seeing bands live often as support acts, reading other blogs, hearing stuff on the radio, trawling through Myspace page after Myspace page etc etc. I would say only 10% of the things I write are because of artists or PR companies emailing me directly. My tip to artists would be to ensure that when you contact a blogger you have read their blog and think that your music may suit their taste. Then in your email explain WHY you think the blogger would like your music. Bloggers tend to get lots of emails and if someone has explained why that particular blogger may like a particular artists music (rather than just a general ‘Hey I think you would like our stuff’) they are more likley to get a fair listen.
Lindsey 09.02.09 at 7:33 pm
Hi
As an indie artist myself I found this blog interesting and timely for me. I set up a project called ‘Pick an Orange Project’ and used it to raise over £12k for my first album. I’m due to release said album in October and looking for ways to publicise this. Obviously, as with most indie artists, money is often the problem and how to get pr and marketing without this money. Blogging an getting in to this online community seems a cost free way which is great. But it also takes a lot of time. It adds to the long list of other things that the ‘one man band set up’ an indie artist has going on. Takes even more time away from the creating of music etc. But I guess its about weighing up the priority. An independent artist’s work is never done and all that.
Thanks for the blog, its good to keep an eye open.