Monica D. Hardwick; publicist, playwright and social media strategist.
A digital publicity campaign identifies your individualized story and executes online positioning. This results in features on blogs and views on key sites worldwide.
Publicity creates Exposure, Exposure creates Desire, Desire creates Pursuit, Pursuit creates and causes Prevail in your life!
Showing posts with label Social media publicist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social media publicist. Show all posts
It is that time of the year again. That time when Facebook allows you
to re-share a snapshot of what you have already shared through out the year
with all of your Facebook friends.
Through its actions,
using their "year-end" review slide show, the social media giant is
telling us (without actually telling us) they are keeping track of all
that we report on its website.
Social media has leveled the playing field for the entertainment industry, making it so ALL artists have the ability to build an audience, it has also leveled the playing field for every business within every
industry as well.
In the eyes of the average social media user (your
potential audience), your presence is the same as any and every other audience, company and organization out there… and only those who
establish an effective Brand will be able to keep their attention and
loyalty.
So how do you establish an effective brand? CONSISTENCY!
Create consistency across all platforms.
If
you have a defined look and feel on one platform, it is important that
the look and feel remain the same on other platforms so your current audience (and
new audience) can identify you easily everywhere else.
The stronger your Brand becomes, the easier it will be for your audience to identify you through the social media clutter.
Here are 4 different elements of Digital branding that you must ensure are consistent across all of your platforms:
Fan Page Images: Profiles pictures, timeline banners, logos, album covers, etc. should
all be of the highest quality (i.e. no fuzzy or grainy images taken from
an iPhone) and should be the same on all platforms. Your profile
picture on Facebook Fan Page should be the same as your profile picture on
Twitter, Youtube, Google +, Soundcloud, etc.
Color: Be consistent about color palette.
Bio: Who you are should be on every social media platform you use. There is no better example of a wasted opportunity than one where a
new potential audience stumbles upon your Facebook page (or your website!)
and wants to know more about you but there is no bio available there.Your
bio gives you the opportunity to control YOUR story, telling new and
existing audiences what you want them to know about you.
Content: Social Media is all about content.The look, feel, style
and frequency of the content you publish (images, music, videos, blog
posts, etc.) must be consistent on every platform in order to stay
relevant and keep your existing audience interested. If you change your content
style too often, your audience may grow to not know what to expect and will be
far less likely to come back or look for you on other platforms.
At First Your Commitment to Engagement Will Be Greater Than That Of Your Audience
Let’s face it, it is human nature to avoid disrupting the status quo. Very
few people are willing to put themselves out on a limb, for the fear of being
judged as being too great. It is this simple reason that studies show people fear
public speaking more than death.
Now, let’s take the idea of putting yourself out on a limb, and add in the
fact that through social media you’re now doing this in a VERY public forum
where anyone and everyone can judge you.
If you consider this, it makes all the sense in the world why your blog
posts aren’t being commented on, or your questions on Facebook aren’t being
answered.
People are afraid to be the first to speak up.
Because of this, it is normal that your commitment to
engaging your fans be far greater than their commitment to engaging with you.
It is only once you establish yourself with the trustworthy reputation that
any ideas, comments and responses will be heard, validated and valued,
that your audience will start to match your commitment to engagement.
As an example; I didn’t receive my first comment on my
blog until about 6 months into my blogging.
However, once I started engaging with people through OTHER forums (i.e. other
blogs where I had guest posted that already had an existing, engaged reader
base), by responding to all comments, joining conversations that were good or
bad about my ideas, and simply letting others be heard, the reputation started
to build. It was this that lead to the same level of engagement I was achieving
elsewhere to happen on my own blog, ultimately helping me to establish and
providing credibility to my brand.
However, all the small successes that are discussed previously will, as Malcolm
Gladwell once again famously outlined, help you to reach your ‘Tipping Point’.
That is, the point in which all of these small successes finally barrel over
into your one major moment… in this case it would be the moment that your brand
becomes established.
To use my own experience as the example; after a year or so of
working day-in-and-day-out of blogging, tweeting consistently and building
conversations, my personal brand as a blogger had developed.
I still had the same lingering doubt that I felt from the beginning.
It wasn’t until one day when I was secured to be a judge for Talent Quest
Florida (held position for three years) that I realized my Brand was there and
it had been experienced.
Defining Your Voice Can Take A LONG Time
Whenever branding is discussed, one of the first components to be included
is the idea of establishing a ‘voice’. This ‘voice’ must combine a powerful
mission statement with a unique approach.
It won’t work with just one or the other. This voice may not come to you right away. In fact, it is normal for
this to take a VERY long time to fully realize.
As Malcolm Gladwell has said in his book ‘Outliers’, it takes 10,000 hours
of practice to master a craft. Once you do fully realize this voice, your focus and ability to create
compelling content will be likely to become prolific. When I created Bay Area Studios Foundation Blog, it took me over a year’s
worth of daily blogging before I found my voice. I was all over the place under
my company name. It was tragic.
I knew I wanted my mission to launch young people’s careers and help kids to
advance their careers through performing. But it wasn’t until I found the right
approach of creating quick and actionable posts inspired by social media
marketing tactics, that my voice became truly defined.
The key to establishing yourself online is building a strong brand. It is easier
said than done. The method of designing, building and nurturing a new brand
means you have established:
A unique
voice
Consistent
convincing content
A
trustworthy reputation
The challenge for most comes down to the fact that there is no single path
to achieving any one of these things. And yet, you need to achieve them all in
order for your brand to flourish. What works for some, may not work for others. What seems to be an obvious indicator of success for some, it may be hidden
for others. A ‘brand’ is such an elusive, flexible concept and it may be difficult to
know if you’re heading on the right track. In fact, it is often wearisome.
Brand builders and creators have several puzzles to solve when presented with a new project. One of the main considerations to deal with is to understand what the subject's vision, goals and plans are.
When I partner with someone, I often ask:
“What qualities do you or your business want to be known for?”
The answer might be from an independent health professional for instance, “I want to be known in my community as someone trusted.” So the question is:
“How does the Brand builder and creator portray trust in the brand strategy?”
Experts have been studying the way we respond to colors for many
years. Certain colors make us feel a certain way about things. As
long as a Brand builder and creator know what these colors and emotions are, the builder and creator can use that information as a connector to help present the person, book, event or business the best. These are not confined principles, but, smart Brand builders and creators use the
information to their clients advantage.
Before you begin a branding strategy, make
sure they have a good understanding of the psychology of color. It´s so
easy to fall into the trap of portraying the wrong qualities and sending
out the wrong message if the colors don´t work. That mistake could cost
you a lot of time and money in re-branding, just a short time down the line.
Below is a fun info-graphic that lays out the emotions and qualities that well established brands want to be known for. The color psychology is only one part of the puzzle but a very important part of it and it is one of my favorites.
Since YouTube is the second most searched engine in the world (and
by the way: owned by the #1—Google), there is good reason to be smart! Make the MOST of each
upload.
Here are the 7 tasks vloggers (bloggers) should do whenever you upload a YouTube video to your YouTube channel.
Add an SEO-optimized title: The title is key in helping your video to be found, so use appropriate keywords.
Add an SEO description: Add a description that isn’t keyword stuffed, but has your main keywords.
Add your blog/website link to the description: Be sure to provide a link back to that. You can also include links to
all of your social media platforms. When posting links, be sure to
include the “http” or the “https,” as that’s the only way YouTube can
automatically hyperlink it. What?! No website/blog? Get one!
Maximize your tags
Create A Facebook Company/Fan page
Share it on other social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn (if appropriate), Pinterest etc
Create video responses: Search for videos that are similar to yours, and instead ofwriting a
comment about it, create a video response that will attract the audience
you want back to your videos. Be sure to provide links to your blog/website too.
Anytime you become a detractor, you end up causing criticisms for yourself. Keyshia Cole discovered that via social media earlier this year. Not only should you be aware of your rants on social media, you should not be a detractor and only under certain circumstances should you make headlines for performing outside of your job.
Artists must be conscious of their platform and who they are on that platform. Many agreed with Keyshia. However, they have the public platform to vocalize their opinion; radio/TV talk show hosts, etc. Keyshia is an artist, a singer not commentator or panelist.
Not only should Rick Ross' rhyme: “Put molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it,”
Have NEVER been recorded in first place, his initial statement (probably not written by him) called the lyrics a: “ misunderstanding”
Artists must be careful and should communicate clearly when there is a misstep
After his crisis, Jay-Z released a new song, titled “Open
Letter,” that expresses his disgust at the political nitpicking
about his trip. In doing so, Jay-Z took control of the situation and turned the
entire episode into a branding opportunity.
His response to his critics provides a
valuable lesson for artists because he responded to his critics through the medium that
made him golden. A written statement from Jay-Z would NOT have had nearly the
impact—pop culture or media hook—that his new song has.
Artists should know: when it comes to getting your
messaging across and neutralizing your detractors, always play to your PR strengths, tap into your art while using the traditional medium that best suits your brand. You can never social-media yourself out of a crisis. Instead, use social media to direct audiences to the art.
