Musicians, Songwriters & Branding
I wrote this on my BobSongs Music Blog a while back, but as far as Branding goes, the message of being consistent can and SHOULD be applied everywhere…
Had a conversation with a musician the other day. He said to me that he didn’t need to establish a brand, he just used his name.
“So” I said, “You’ve got your name reserved, for your website domain?”
Well… no. Someone else has that domain reserved.
“But then surely, on your Facebook page…”
Uh, no… I haven’t got around to securing my name as a Facebook nickname, yet.
“Twitter…. ???”
Well, I don’t get Twitter, so I haven’t secured the name…
“Are there any other social media or business networks that someone can find you on ?”
Oh, yeah… I’m on MySpace, YouTube and LinkedIn.
“What name did you use on those ???”
Oh, they’re all different.
*Stunned silence*
Make a name for yourself:
The guy is a great songwriter, and an amazing musician… but not surprisingly, not too many folks have heard of him… because he has a different name, everywhere you look.
One of my teachers used to say, “Whatever you do, try to create a name for yourself.”
A NAME.
Singular.
Not a string of names and clever acronyms that no one but you will understand.
I am my brand.
I am BobSongs.
On my Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook… even, so help me… Flickr… (you know I’m not much of a photographer, right ???) …I am BobSongs.
I have as many variations of BobSongs and Bob Gray web domains sewn up, as are available.
The ones that weren’t available, I keep a list of, and check every few months to see if any of them have become available.
Patrol the Brands you are associated with:
Google Alerts is great for this.
If anything “hits” the web with Bob Gray, BobSongs, or any of a few other keywords I target… I get a weekly update, e-mailed to me.
Usually it is information about other BobSongs/Bob Gray’s, or tracking something from my Twitter feed or Blog…. but every once in a while it is something I want to see, or at least be aware of. Pennywise the Clown, from the Stephen King novel “It”, was one Bob Gray. Another Bob Gray that pops up from time to time is the professional speaker, who talks about how to expand your memory. There are lots of others. But if someone is saying something about my Brand… I want to know it.
Be constant, and consistent:
I’m a bad example here, and am currently unable to follow my own rule, because TOO many of my Blog posts are NOT associated with the music and songwriting of the BobSongs Brand. The reason for this is that I haven’t yet found an alternate Brand that I am comfortable with, that is available as a domain, and on Twitter. As soon as I do… Whoosh… my non-music content will be transferred from this Blog, to the new site. (Note: This was written before www.BobBlahBlah.com came to be, to resolve this issue.)
On Social Media, I try to break down the conversations by category… so I have lists for Hockey Fans, Scotch Drinkers, Musicians, etc… as, many times, the groups with similar interests tend to talk about the same things. If I do a LOT of chatting about a subject, I would consider having a separate account for that “voice.” In my case, with my passion for all things Vancouver Canucks, I created the NucksBob Twitter account, to stop from ticking off my “other” Twitter followers, and so I can focus my tweets, in that account.
You don’t have to do any of this stuff.
Just like you don’t have to get gigs… be successful… or sell your CD’s…
You don’t have to.
But by establishing and maintaining a consistent Brand, you make it easier for people to find and support you, and it makes it that much easier, when you find success, to further establish your Brand, and broaden your support base.
Send Me Your Username And Password
Just got off the phone with a client who had forwarded me an email she got from the “SHAW WEBMAIL TEAM”…
Shaw.ca E-mail Notification
This message is from shaw.ca messaging center to all shaw.ca email account owners.
We are removing access to all our mail clients. Your email account will be upgraded to a new enhanced web mail user interface provided by shaw.ca.
Effective from the moment this email has been received and response received from you. shaw.ca will discontinue the use of our shaw.ca mail and our shaw.ca mail Lite interfaces.
To ensure your e-mail address book is saved in our database.
Please click the reply button and enter your shaw.ca
username here ( )
Password here ( )
City ( )
Country of Residence ( )
And send it back to us, which will enable us to transfer your contacts to our new Web mail client database.
All e-mails will be safe in this transition! All your old email will still be there and you will have new unread messages waiting for you.
We are confident that you will like the new and improved web mail interface.
Failure to comply with this notice immediately will remove your access from our shaw.ca database.
Thank you for using shaw.ca.
Yours Sincerely,
Shaw.ca Web-mail Services
I confirmed with my client that she should NEVER email her info to Shaw (or anyone else) who asks for it.
Shaw already HAS it, and wouldn’t need you to send it to them again.
(As a further tip off, the email reply address is in China… although a more professional hacker would be able to tweak that…)
But I just thought I would quickly write this, as a reminder, that you should NEVER give your password to ANYONE !!!
My wife would ask me to add: Not even to your spouse… (because they will mess with your Facebook and Twitter accounts)
Happy May Day !
PS I contacted Shaw Cable and they became aware of this, first on Sunday.
Up Close And Personable
I’ve spent the last few days playing in the shadows.
Light and shadow, actually…
Taking some very up close pictures of multi-faceted locally made jewelry, for a local designer’s Etsy online store.
Because the pieces are so intricate and small, it has taken some time to balance and properly set up the shoot… but once the pieces are in place, the rest follows naturally.
So, this…
Results in this…
Which makes the client do this…
: )
Say What You Mean And Mean What You Say
“Say what you mean… And mean what you say…” Something my dad said to us as young children, to help us focus our thoughts, when we were trying to communicate difficult or complex thoughts.
His words came flooding back to me today, as I encountered a circumstance of someone posting a picture on Facebook that had a slur in it, and, when a few of us called them on it, the reply was that it “…was okay, because I didn’t create it.”
Similarly, I have noticed a rash of Twitter accounts, where, in the 160 character bio, they make special note that “…any retweets do not imply endorsement.”
We are in a time where Facebook is all about liking… Twitter is all about tweeting… and Pinterest is all about pinning… yet despite the multitude of images, messages and captions we process every day, there seems to be a growing sense, that each of us are somehow an arms length away from “owning” what we are saying.
If I post something on my Facebook wall, I “endorse” that item.
If I retweet something on Twitter, I do so because I found it informative, funny or helpful. I have read and understood it, and want to share the value I found in it.
If I pin something on my Pinterest boards, the same thing… I am sharing something that I thought had value.
If I find something rude or offensive, I will not share it unless I do so to educate or draw attention to it, as in the case of my “Not Okay To Use The ‘R’ Word” blog post.
What I won’t do is slough it off, and say… “Well, I didn’t read it” or “I thought it was funny, despite the obvious flaws or slurs.”
Everything that is part of my social media… or on my websites… is an extension of me and my thoughts, and I stand behind them.
I’m not saying that I’m infallible. I sometimes trip up on words, and have to edit myself, or tweak a post after someone points out something, about which I mis-spoke.
But I look at everything I do, and run a filter, and ask, “Am I okay with this message?”
Maybe it is because I help a number of charities and organizations with their Social Media accounts, but I just do this automatically.
Some things I tweet from one account, would be entirely inappropriate for another… but that is part of Branding.
And I am proud of my BobSongs Brand, and would never think to post content to it, that I don’t PERSONALLY endorse.
And so, tonight, it got me wondering: Why is it that SO many people don’t feel that way about THEIR brands ?
???
“Say what you mean, and mean what you say.”
Thanks, Dad !!!
Spammers and Phishing and Bots… Oh My !!!
On Twitter there have been a number of folk who have been bewildered by their account suddenly spewing spam and apparently being hacked.
There are hackers out there who will, through “brute force” hack into an account. These hackers usually attack people like Ashton Kutcher, Eric Stonestreet, and other high profile celebs.
For those of us not having to dodge papparazzi, tabloid reporters and entertainment television, we just have to take a few simple precautions, and be aware of a few steps and take a few precautions, in order to prevent MOST problems.
First thing, before anything else, follow @TwitterSupport twitter account, so that you receive updates and suggestions from Twitter, on best practices and account security.
On Twitter, when you discover a spammer, phisher or a bot… you can block them, report them, or both. (Because different Twitter interfaces have different instructions, you’ll have to learn “how” on your own.)
1) If you find you are mentioned in an @ message, from someone you don’t follow, with the enticement of a free IKEA Gift Certificate/Starbucks Card/IPad2/iPhone/whatever… Don’t click on it. Just report the sender for spam, and block them.
2) If you get a DM (direct message) from a legitimate follower, who says to you: “Have you seen this bad blog/post/picture that mentions you ?” and a link… Don’t click on it. It will cause your account to be hacked. To address this… first, note the twitter handle of the person sending the message… then, delete the message… and finally, send that person an @ message, telling them their account has been hacked, their password was compromised, and they need to change their password. A good rule of thumb is: Unless someone sends you an @ message, telling you they are sending a DM message, NEVER CLICK ON A LINK IN A DM !!!
3) If you get a new follower who has few or no followers, often with a suggestive photo of a woman, often with a nonsensical user name (Michelle9f75n00()(), and often having a bio that says something like: “My parents don’t know I’ve had sex, but I like it a lot. Please follow me” and a link. Don’t click on the link… just block and report the account for spam.
By following these few precautions, hopefully folks can use Twitter with less problems, and without the frustration and embarrassment of having to let everyone know their account has been hacked.
See you on Twitter !!!
Branding 101
Branding in business, is critical.
Whether “you” are your brand, or you work under a brand name, it is important to (as much as possible) retain control of the messages that come from your brand… or SEEM to come from your brand.
That may sound confusing, but for example, when I was starting, I knew I wanted to “work” under a name that I could obtain and control the .com and .ca domains, the Linked In user name, as well as the Twitter handle. (At that time, you couldn’t reserve a Facebook URL.)
BobGray.com was (at that point) being held by someone from the “Committee to Elect Bob Gray as Governor“, so that wasn’t an option, although I DID pick up the BobGray.ca domain. (More on that, in another post.)
You can find out whether a domain is available, by doing a free WHOIS search: https://www.tucowsdomains.com/whois-search/
After much debate, deliberation, and seeing what options were available, I settled on BobSongs as my brand, and went about reserving all the domains and social media user names.
Everyone has different preferences, but I like and use Hover.com for reserving ALL domains, including the .ca (Canadian) domains... because they are Canadian too!
(I believe that everyone should, as a matter of course, “protect” themselves, by reserving the domains associated with their name, their Brand and their children’s names. If you don’t use them right away, you can “keep” a domain reserved, (it is called parking a domain,) so it is there when you want it.)
Once you have reserved the names, and you are ready to have a website or blog… you can either go about finding a webhost, switching the name servers, and designing your site… or hire someone to do this for you..