On The Road
It’s time for the random question of the day. We have no idea where they come from, but they are exciting to answer. Come on, you know you love them. These also seem to pop up when the author of this here blog has been so busy that his eyes are crossing, and he wants to have some fun dialogue on the blog. Enough with the explanation. Let’s get to it.
Living or dead, retired or active, which band would you most want to tour with for a month? You’re not working, your just hanging out…. for one month.
**Please limit the ‘U2′ answers. Let’s try to be creative here peeps**
Ready? Go.
Six Hundred
Yesterday I mentioned that I was about to get 600 followers on my personal Twitter. Well, it barely happened. As it is now we are at 601. However, I did pay attention. Ladies and gentlemen, #600 is Mike. Now, Mike looks like he’s relatively new to Twitter, so make sure you head over and say hi to him, congratulate him on being number six-hundred, and follow him.
Oh yeah, and I told Mike that his prize was that everyone reading this would send him $100 so make sure to send that to him too. Sound good?
Congrats Mike. And if you aren’t following me on Twitter yet, what are you waiting for?
I’ll Be Your Stat Whore
Someone called me a ‘Stat Whore’ the other day. It’s not the first time I have been called that in the internet world and I assume it isn’t always a ‘term of endearment’. Most likely it’s someone thinking that I shouldn’t spend so much time ‘figuring out what works’ on blogs. Someone feeling like I shouldn’t really care about what my Twitter Grade is, or how many hits I am getting on my blog. I shouldn’t care because that’s not what blogging is about. That’s not what social networking is about. It’s about just being yourself and expressing who you really are right? Nope.
Here’s the reason I’m a ‘stat-whore’ and you can say it’s bad if you want. I’m a ‘stat-whore’ because the artists I work for need me to be. They need me to know what’s connecting with people, they need coaching, they need to know if they are doing things right or wrong. They don’t want to turn their blogs into offensive marketing pages and neither do I. They don’t focus on the ‘numbers’ so I need to. And here’s what that does. That enables them to ‘blog well’. Are you seeing a theme?
I don’t see being a ‘stat-whore’ as a bad thing when it comes to doing something well. I don’t see an issue with it when it makes your product better. When it ruins the authenticity of something, that’s when you should maybe step back from the stats.
Thoughts?
SkörInc’s New Badge
So, I touched on this yesterday, but I wanted to give you all the opportunity to grab this here widget for your blog. Isn’t it pretty? Now here’s the thing. With all the new Christian music blogs popping up we really wanted to show folks what sets SkörInc apart from other blogs.
Now most of you might not really notice a huge difference, but what we really want to do is showcase how these artists are ‘blogging well’ and tell others about them. So, here it is. A way to let you readers know which blogs are ‘SkörInc supported’. The next step is making that list as long as possible. Getting the word out about SkörInc artists and what makes them different.
Now Chris over at LightVox.com was kind enough to get this thing working for us, so once you have taken the widget from here and put it on your blog, head over to LightVox.com and say hello. Sound good?
If some of you have issues embedding the widget, just let me know in the comments and hopefully someone smarter than me will answer you. Thanks so much for all your support. Let’s make 2009 massive.
Stats Suck Sunday – In Bullet Points
Welcome to Sunday. Where everyone’s stats will suck. To some who are offended by that word, their stats will ‘stink’ instead, but one thing is for sure. Very few are reading blogs today. Here’s a few bullet points of what’s on my mind today.
- Yes, I am going to say that I was up way too early today. I woke up in the fives. Yeah, the fives. No amount of coffee can cause me to recover from the fives.
- I did, however, play my new guitar for the first time at church today and it sounded better than anything I have ever played.
- Whether or not my actual playing sounded any better is yet to be determined.
- I’m wondering how Twitter is going to respond to the mass spamming thing that is going on.
- Turns out there aren’t hundreds of blogs with a picture of me on it, or a funny post about me.
- If anyone receives a Direct Message from me or SkörInc, I apologize and don’t have a blog with a picture of you on it or a funny post about you.
- I am planning on doing a real post about this tomorrow, but I’d like to draw attention to the new SkörInc badge over on the right. Chris, over at LightVox was kind enough to whip that up for us.
- The instructions for the badge are simple. Get it everywhere. Spread the heck out of it and let’s see how many blogs we can get it on.
- The Chipmunks singing “Bad Day” makes me laugh every time I hear it.
- I’m wondering if it’s time to get glasses. It’s hard read anything more than about ten feet away. I think computer screens have messed me up for good. Now Kristin gets to read me the guide on TV.
- Speaking of going blind, there are 41 (yes, forty-one) days until I say goodbye to my twenties.
- I’ve heard that thirty is the new twenty so I’m cool with it.
Alright folks, whatcha’ got? What’s randomly floating in your head today?
Dear Christian Music Industry (Part 9)
Dear Christian Music Industry,
It’s been a while since we have talked. You have kept me busy, but also I have been watching you. I’ve been watching how you are responding to this ‘new’ way of communicating with your fans/listeners/followers or whatever else you want to call them. I’ve been watching you test things out and figure things out and move forward rapidly this past year. I’m proud of you.
I’ve noticed that aside from a handful of ‘mainstream’ artists, Christian musicians seem to be leading the charge on Twitter with thousands of followers and connecting to their fans. Twitter has become a regular term used in management and label meetings. This all happened this year. Funny because when I made my first phone call introducing Twitter to an artist, the response was something along the lines of , ‘I have no idea what you are talking about’.
A couple weeks ago The Wall Street Journal published an article talking about the ‘Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World‘. Sounds exciting doesn’t it? And here’s the funny part about that article. It’s exactly what SkörInc has been saying for a year. It’s exactly what we have been trying to tell you way back in our first letter to you. In fact, I think someone even mentioned it far before that. However, it does look like The Wall Street Journal has now given us a name.
A ‘MARKETING TECHNOPOLOGIST.’
So who should direct a company’s forays into Web 2.0 marketing? A number of managers identified an ideal set of skills for an executive that go beyond those of a typical M.B.A. holder or tech expert. We coined the ‘term marketing technopologist’ for a person who brings together strengths in marketing, technology and social interaction.
Here’s what I am excited about, Christian Music Industry. There’s a chance we are at the forefront of something here. There’s a chance that we have been doing something an entire year before even The Wall Street Journal even mentions it. Doesn’t that excite you? Or does it make you nervous?
The downside? Yes, there is one. The downside is simply that since we are on the forefront of something, we need to stay there. We need to blog and blog well. We need to interact with people more than ever and we need someone’s help doing that. We need someone who has been living this way for long enough to know what they are talking about, and we need to ask for help. And for clarification, when I say ‘we’, I mean ‘you’, Christian Music Industry. You can’t do it yourself. Your artists can’t do it themselves. The Wall Street Journal is making up names for people that can help you.
And if you are going to do it, you better make sure you are doing it well. After all, people are watching.
Your Friend,
Brody
MYNH – Bon Iver
Alright folks, I think it’s time for a little music you’ve never heard? This is Bon Iver. It’s acoustic. It’s mellow. And it feels right for a day like today. Enjoy.
What record are you hooked on today?
The Beginning
Well, it’s begun. The first day of the new year. Not much has changed from yesterday, but I’m excited. I’m still trying to figure out if I’m more excited about last year ending, or if I’m more excited about what this year might hold.
Neither Kristin or I are big on ‘resolutions’, but the beginning of a year always brings some reflection and assessment of your life. I think it’s good to have realistic goals and work hard to attain them and that’s how I am looking at this year.
I think one thing I really want to focus on this year is being a person of integrity. If there’s one thing that I want to hold up as a high importance in my life, it would be to be a person of integrity. In business, in friendship and in life. It’s a harder road some of the time, but in the end I think it’s worth the trouble to not be the guy that lies, steals and cheats his way to the ‘top’, whatever that ‘top’ may be. It might take longer and we may never attain every goal, but at the end of the day, I want the people around me to see someone they can trust. Wow, that sounds a little dramatic, but it’s not. Just something I think we should all strive for.
So that’s about it for me as far as ‘resolutions’ of sorts. Well, that and have an awesome mustache again.
Everyone has got a few goals laid out for the beginning of the year. Today is the first day of that. What’s yours?
