Content.

Is.

King!

We’ve all heard how crucial – royal, indeed – content is to building a strong web presence, especially across social media, so I won’t retread the same old ground on that subject.

Rather, I’d like to zoom in on the preparation and execution of that content, in order to improve its allure for newbie and longstanding visitors alike.

8 Tips To Tailor Your Content

Here are eight tips to tailor your content for a more in depth, satisfying read that elicits return value for your audience:

• Prep your subject matter early, then revisit - Don’t just jump into an idea as you start writing the final post; note it down, expand upon it by brain storming or reading around the subect and adding to your own thoughts. Then leave it and come back when you’re ready to write. Do this for multiple subjects as you prep and you can line up a number of articles in one sitting. This Social Media Examiner article has excellent practical tips for this purpose.

• Define a take-away point for readers before you write – As with brain storming the subject, having a final summary thought that you want your audience to take from you article is key. It not only makes your content more memorable (and likely to be shared) but it helps to guide your final writing, keeping it on point of the final message.

• “Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.” – Okay, that’s four tips in one point… just call it value for your attention. Leo Burnett, an early advertising pioneer, had this to say at the start of the 1900′s and it rings just as true about your content today. Don’t over-complicate the topic and send people off confused, looking for a more understandable source to inform them. Even subjects that are inherently complex can be kept simple to read, assuming a certain level of existing knowledge within your audience. Someone writing about website coding, for example, can reasonably expect their audience to understand the basics if they search for an article on detailed programming. Simplicity also extends into the following concepts of good formatting and entertaining writing, as you won’t get too bogged down in difficult language or detail.

• Vary tone and type - Keep your audience coming back for more by alternating the types of content you post. A series of dry, technical posts, for example, could get monotonous and would benefit from being broken up by something more light-hearted like a poll or amusing takes on your specialist subject. Whether it’s something you create or simply sharing the work of someone else, be sure to offer your readers a variety of content to keep them engaged.

• Involve and engage your reader – Although you’re creating the content, using it to connect to readers across social media is a two way street. Find ways to make your articles interactive, by asking questions through the post and at the end for example, encouraging readers to reflect on their own perspective on the subject matter. You could also ask for links to other articles they’ve read or content they themselves have created, increasing the collaborative nature of your work and making links back to it more likely. Another technique is to leave ideas open-ended, prompting free discussion in your comments sections.

• Find your voice – This may take a number of posts but the more you write your own content, the more your ‘voice’ – your unique combination of style and passion for your subject – will shine through. Solicit plenty of feedback from family, friends, and colleagues of varied personalities to better understand how your content is received. Don’t force it too much, but think about your target audience and how best you can adapt your voice to keep them entertained and informed.

• Write first, keyword later – Although your content will naturally gravitate towards certain keywords and phrases of your subject, avoid getting bogged down with the need to include these terms initially. This will only interrupt your flow and make the task longer. Instead, return to your final draft once you’re finished and put on your search engine optimization (SEO) hat. With a list of your keywords (usually already compiled if you have a website) in hand, aim to sprinkle those that are appropriate equally around 10-15% of the content. More on this aspect to come here in future posts (see next point!)

• Follow up – Rather than simply posting your content and wishing it bon voyage, return regularly to review/reply to comments and add further thoughts or links on the subject. Chris Brogan’s “oldie but a goodie” article on 40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content provides some helpful pointers for this in the ‘Encore’ section.

So in essence this boils down to preparing your topics before you dive into the content creation stage, having a clear direction in mind as you create it, using your own passion to make the subject matter memorable and engaging, and finally checking back to further the conversation surrounding what you have created.

Master these crucial areas and everything else will begin to fall into place. Happy creating!

Have you been able to establish an effective routine for creating your content?

What tips would you offer others just starting out?

Photo Credit: Luciano Zanardo

Mobile.

Mobile Means More

Photo Credit: Johann Larson

It’s no secret that people are demanding exponentially more from their mobile phones than ever before.

Back to Basics

As a first step, it’s high time to ensure that your mobile web presence is at least an accessible version of your main website. Happily, this isn’t too tough to achieve if you’re using the right platforms.

WordPress, for example, has several plug ins that will do the basic job for you. My picks would be WordPress Mobile Pack or Wapple Architect, but you can explore any of the popular plugins listed under search term “mobile wordpress” to see which results you prefer.

For other platforms:

- Blogger will move you mobile at the flick of a switch. Simply visit your blog home page, click on the ‘Template’ section, then customize the mobile theme to your preferred settings.

- Tumblr offers a similar feature, buried down under Preferences (cog icon) > Customize Your Blog > Advanced > check the box for ‘Use optimized mobile layout’

- For standard hosted websites, you can investigate freemium tools such as Mobify and Onbile. These allow you to create a mobile version of your site based upon pre-defined themes that they provide, albeit with advertising and/or limitations under the free offerings. Be sure to test out any that you choose on a variety of devices to ensure that the look you’re going for has been achieved, especially before you consider a paid upgrade.

The goal here is to have a version of your site that allows mobile users to access the key areas with minimal navigation. This will give you useful practice in road testing your site on your own smart phone and those of others. If you find yourself scrolling all over the place or zooming in and out, it’s back to the drawing board for another try!

Next Steps

One you have this broad base for those surfing to your site on the go, you can begin to explore the more exciting elements of the mobile web.

Just what constitutes exciting for you at this point depends on your art form. Integration with apps, mobile-only content (art as wallpaper for the phone, for example), conversions specific to smartphone users (e.g. one click purchase from their preferred vendor), or many other possibilities exist for your exploration.

To give you some inspiration for each potential creative style,  I recommend investigating the following resources for starters:

The Long Haul

Mainstream smartphone adoption is almost here, yet many of us – the writer included – are lagging behind in making their web presence a user friendly experience for visitors, let alone an outstanding one.

The time to move towards mobile is NOW!

By getting your bearings now you set up for creating a mobile web presence that will get you noticed in the future.

Think about your fans…

• How do they want to access your art on the go?

• What can you add to make this a quick and simple process?

• And how can you capture that all important visitor data that will allow you to communicate with them further, building the fan-artist relationship?

All of these are questions that should be answered sooner rather than later, developing your creator platform to work harder for you as fan habits adapt to the ever more accessible mobile web. We’ve barely even touched upon mobile traffic drivers such as QR codes and app-based access here, by the way, so expect more detail on those areas in the near future. 

Over To You…

Are you already optimized for the mobile web or does the whole thing fill you with dread? What do you most need help with?

And fans, what do you want to see from the artists you follow online? What would make your mobile experience that much better?

As always, your comments are truly valued, either below thanks to the good folks at LiveFyre or over on our slowly developing Facebook page.

Weigh in!

Photo Credit: Gizella

One of the main reasons for this site’s existence is to assist you, the artist and creator, in developing a more effective online platform from which to showcase your art.

So, what better way to do so than to ask some like-minded creative types for their most burning new media questions, then provide as best an answer as I can muster?

This is where new series ‘Artist Answers’ comes into play; a weekly feature that will help to deliver one of my three guide words for this year: Serve.

To kick us off, good friend and songwriter extraordinaire Khaled helped me out with the first query. Khaled is a hard working and social media savvy independent musician (and aspiring chef!) based in NJ/NY. He is in the process of recording his sophomore album, an effort partially funded online by his dedicated fan base, following a successful Kickstarter project.

Khaled asks: “We see plenty of advice on how to engage fans. But what about the opposite? What disengages an audience?”

It’s a good point and important to consider, as a lot of good work can be undone – particularly online – by just one or to behaviors that really bug people. Avoid these off putting habits to maximize the connections you’re building with your audience:

• Add nothing new to a platform. If your Twitter stream is simply a feed from Facebook, why would anyone follow it? If all your blog offers is a rehash of your news page, why bother reading it? Try not to phone in any of your social media efforts in this way.

• Devoid of personality. A formal tone or purely business content leaves out the one factor that can most distinguish you: your unique personality. Fill your posts and content full of what makes you you.

• Lack of incentives. Okay, your hardcore fans will follow you through Hellfire, but the rest of us need a little sugar to sweeten the deal of connecting with you, then staying put. It’s so easy to offer a free track, piece of merch, or something small as a reward for that connection. And it’s human nature to seek them out.

• No diversity. Predictable is often a byword for boredom in the social media world. Be consistent in your content delivery, but diverse in what you deliver. Need ideas for fresh content? Another friend of the site, Alejandra O’Leary, offers twelve sources of inspiration in this article.

• Fail to involve others. In the rush to push out communications to fans, many artists forget to also pull them in. Social media are intended to aid interaction, so a good portion of your posts and content should be designed to involve your fans. Most platforms reward such activity with increased visibility of what you post to followers and friends, so the pay off goes further than you may think.

At the heart of connecting with your fans online is empathy; understanding just what they’re expecting from you via social media. Tailor your activities to meet and exceed these expectations, at the same time as avoiding the various self-serving approaches covered herein, for noticeable improvement of your audience size and participation.

Over to you….

What did I glaringly overlook?

What obnoxious social media habits have you seen in yourself or others?

It has been a little while since my last post, but I have a perfectly acceptable reason for this….

And here he is!  :) Benjamin Charles Birkett  > > > >

Yes, I’ve taken my obsession with creativity to the next level and created a new human! Alright, alright, my wife did some of the work too…..but mostly me. 

Though this means that time is now at more of a premium than ever, I shall endeavor to provide more and more regular content to help further your creative careers through new media initiatives.

In fact, my little man has given me a few thoughts on just that subject:

• “Best laid plans… gang aft aglay.” Ben requires attention when he demands it, as do many other elements in our daily lives. This makes getting the  work done even more crucial, in the quiet times that arise for us to operate without distraction. Take care of administrative and new media tasks in those quiet times, between the most important act of creating.

• Motivation is priority one. Things are far more likely to get done when you have a clear objective and motivation towards achieving something. Perhaps nothing so motivates as a new life dependent entirely on your actions, but if we find the factors that motivate us most in other areas, the effect is still very powerful.

• In it for the long haul. Long term planning and action is in short supply nowadays. From creators to finance to government and much more, we focus on the short term. Whatever is next on the list is the biggest priority. This makes us reactionary, failing to employ a wider perspective on which to base decisions. It’s important to plan for the next diaper purchase, but let’s also start a college fund at the same time. The careers of the best artists last not years, but decades.

I’m sure he has plenty more to teach me….but not bad, for a one week old!

Thanks for your various well wishes over the last couple of weeks.

Benjamin and Mum are doing well and the family is getting into a nice routine now, so back to regular programming from tomorrow.

Photo Credit: Dhillan Chandramowli

“Expert” has become almost a dirty word in many corners of social media. It’s not quite on the level of such inherently ludicrous labels as “guru” or “rock star,” but it’s a cause of consternation nonetheless.

In its purest form, expertise refers to a significant base of knowledge in a given field, relative to the comprehension level of those seeking help.

Bold proclamations of unparalleled expertise may be unattractive, but assuredness—a depth of knowledge that many others lack—is both desirable and important in those we hire for advice. And that’s expert advice.

These are 12 crucial characteristics to guide you to an appropriate expert, particularly in the realm of new media:

1. Ability to answer questions

You’re going to be coming to this person with all manner of queries, so you need to know they have the required depth of knowledge. A little probing early on goes a long way to ensuring your hire isn’t all bluster.

2. Testimonials

We always feel better when others have tested the waters before us. The more positive reports of satisfied clients, the better you can feel about your expert. Don’t be afraid to ask about and even call these folks. If they’re genuinely satisfied, they’ll be happy to explain their recommendation.

3. Verifiable portfolio 

As with testimonials, it’s helpful if you can easily dig into an existing body of work for reassurance that your requirements will be met. Look for examples that match your needs and creative approaches that impress you.

4. Jargon-free conversations

Overuse of industry-speak usually means one of two things: Either your expert is trying to blind you with the science of his or her profession, or the person lacks the ability to communicate with you in plain, everyday language. Neither will lead you to positive long-term results. Choose someone with whom you can exchange ideas seamlessly and who explains even complex matters in a clear manner.

5. Speaking your language

Beyond avoiding industry jargon, it’s crucial that your expert communicates in a manner that comes naturally to you. Not only does this demonstrate that he or she understands the way you work, it also means the person can communicate with your new-media audience effectively, should that be important to you.

6. Listening more than speaking

A common trait of overblown expertise is the continuation of a sales pitch long after a potential client’s requirements should have been discussed. If the first conversations don’t primarily involve their listening to what you need to achieve, how can they deliver it in the long term?

7. Knowledge about the industry

Sharing relevant articles about you, your industry, and factors that affect you in the social media world should reassure you that you’ve chosen someone who both understands and cares about the success of your project.

8. Customizing of services

Though there’s something to be said for niche specialists, new media is a broad and ever-expanding field of work. Your guide should be ready and willing to tailor services to the areas that best match your needs, whether that means expanding their own knowledge or bringing in additional help to do so.

9. Absence of self-hype

The buzz you feel about your potential consultant should largely be driven by Nos. 2 and 3, not by the expert himself. Genuine client praise and reputed bodies of work should impress. Overenthusiastic self-proclamations of rock stardom should not.

10. Eliciting a positive gut feeling

Often overlooked, that instinctive feeling you get about someone is frequently right. If something feels wrong about your expert in early encounters, chances are it will only get worse.

11. Ongoing support

It’s easy to maintain enthusiasm for a project during the sales process and early days, but the truly valuable advisers will keep that up throughout a project. If you find commitment waning in those you hire, or you hear negative reports from other sources, alarm bells should ring.

12. Follow-up

Sure, this will come in the closing stages of—or perhaps even after—your project, but diligence about check-ins and support remains a valuable characteristic. Not only will you benefit from any last-minute adjustments, late-stage insights could come in handy for future work and hiring.

What do you think constitutes an expert?

What single quality is most important in selecting one?

Several other platforms hold their own in a niche battle but, as Zuckerberg’s baby nears 1 billion global users and over 1/3 of the US population signed up, it’s almost impossible to ignore Facebook if you want to reach your fans online.

What becomes the burning question for you artists, regardless of size, genre, or location, is how to connect with those fans and keep them interested in the contents of your Facebook fan page.

The Burden of Growth

Unfortunately, as Facebook’s user count has grown, so has the number of groups trying to get their message in front of ever-wearying fans. To rise above the static noise of this Facebook update deluge, you need to vary your content, encourage fan likes and comments, and keep your posts engaging enough to continue attracting attention.

“Yes, yes, yes, we know all this…”, I hear you chorus, “But how?”

Well that’s exactly why I probed some of the smarter and socially savvy artistic folks I know – in addition to the depths of my own experience – to bring you these 25 tips for creative Facebook fan page content:

1. Ask fans to comment with their favorite artist, song, genre, or anything that you believe will fire their passions to contribute. You learn about your fan base, as well as gaining traction in their News Feed from their participation.

Threyda's Facebook page often posts art for auction or direct sale, based on bids in the comments.

2. Auction or sell one-off items in the comments section of a post, with the image of what’s up for sale. This real-time selling can create visible demand and prompt further interest in your future posts or other sale items, as fans watch more closely for these specials.

3. “A big thing is cross promotion. For example, the Foo Fighters have a FB page and I cover Everlong in a video. So I can tag and say, “Hey, check out my @FooFighters cover” and it will show up on my page and theirs, increasing clicks and impressions.” ~ Khaled Dajani (NYC singer-songwriter)

4. Produce a few different versions of cover art for your next release. Post each separately to a Facebook album and ask fans to pick the art work that you’ll use by most liked/voted for piece.

5. Be timely in responses. You need not be on 24/7, but the sooner you can respond to developing conversations on your page, the better the discussion and closer your fans will feel. Plugging in via mobile devices and getting into the habit of checking in a few times through the day will help your engagement levels no end.

6. Hand over control of your Facebook page to one or some of your most passionate fans for a set period, perhaps a few days to a week. Give them room to express their musical and artistic interests, as far as is appropriate for your page.

7. “Let fans vote on new song choices or additions to your set list.” ~ Karlton Utter of The Hazmats

8. Ask for fan stories from your shows that they’ve attended. Many will be happy to share; you’ll remind them of a great time associated with your music and you’ll get more testimonials/comments encouraging those who haven’t yet seen you to catch that next gig.

9. Check your Insights. Your fan page has the ‘Admin Panel’, which offers a look at your most popular posts by date, time, type of content, and much more. Check these every week to see what your fans are reacting well to and what you need to dump.

10. Let another band or artist run your page as administrator for a few days to a week. Give them access to your audience and they’ll likely reciprocate by bringing some of their friends and followers to your page. It will also freshen up content and allow you to see how fans react to the change.

11. “Use your new show or project poster/art as your profile pic. For your fans, it’s an easy visual reminder of what you’re working on and keeps your visual message fresh.” ~ Alejandra O’Leary (Michigan singer-songwriter)

12. Run ongoing competitions that encourage multiple clicks and comments, such as entries to sweepstakes drawings or picture posting/voting contests. Each interaction gives the fan a greater chance to win and gives you a greater number of connections to these fans.

13. Expanding on number 1, make use of the Facebook ‘Question’ function (pictured left). This gives you instant poll-taking on your page and in the fan news feeds, providing an easy opportunity to encourage one click feedback. Questions on topical subjects, favorite artists, or those that give your fans a choice in your creative process are all great ways for you to increase interactions.

14. Post non-profit or cause related content that aligns with your personality and/or music subject matter. People like and share good causes more readily, helping both the message and your page to spread.

15. Make Facebook content feel like bonus material. Share things there that you don’t post elsewhere, including a look into your tastes, interests, and current listening, viewing, or reading habits.

16. Share an insight into one of your songs, preferably something that hasn’t been explained elsewhere. Ask fans to share their own perspectives on the song & encourage discussion around the themes that develop.

17. ”I’ll use Facebook to discover who I know in each city, then communicate with those folks about how to best turn out their friends and their friends’ friends. The best PR is word of mouth.” ~Danny Ross (NYC singer-songwriter & band leader)

18. Give away one-off items by asking fans to like or comment on the post, keeping entry easy & increasing interaction with your page. Draw a winner randomly and offer unique, unexpected prizes to keep interest and participation high. 

19. Weave videos into the tapestry of your page. As YouTube links automatically translate to an embedded video when posted, your fans can watch and listen without leaving the comfort of your page. Remind them to comment or like the post as they watch. 

20. Highlight your most compelling content. The new Timeline based Facebook layout will allow you to pin important posts to the top of the page. Take either your main calls to action (e-mail list sign-up, music downloads etc) and make them one of the first pieces of content that people see. 

21. Work with other bands to exchange page tags. When you’re playing on the same bill as other artists, this helps to encourage each act’s set of fans to check out the other easily, leading to extra visibility and, in the case of complementary acts, more likes of each page.

22. “Pictures, pictures, pictures! Pictures convey so much more than text alone. Keep your page as visual and colorful as possible to create a non-verbal vibe around your music.” ~ Alejandra O’Leary (Michigan singer-songwriter)

23. Err on the side of posts that inspire conversation and feedback, rather than too much promotion of your own links and content. Of course you should highlight new music and important announcements related to your art, but these should be sandwiched between non-promotional content and entertaining posts. Offer more than just another sales pitch. 

24. Request, infrequently, an event or page share. Fans don’t like to feel put upon, yet a certain amount of involvement in sharing your music does help to build a closer bond. When you have an important site on which you need to gain traction, or when you simply need a boost to share your content or a big event, don’t be afraid to explain just how crucial it is and make the ask of your fan base. 

25. Integrate your Facebook presence into other social media and communication channels, especially e-mail newsletters. Go a step further than the simple social buttons that often appear in e-mails and create a special incentive for your subscribers to click over to like your Facebook page. Competitions promoted by newsletter but actually carried out on your fan page are a great example of weaving together your communications lines for those who follow you.

Phew! Plenty to be working on there….

….BUT, we’re not done!

What would you add?

How have you used Facebook to offer your fans a unique, interactive experience?

Add away in the comments below or on Facebook itself. Include a link to your site or Facebook page so that I can update this post and give due credit with a link back. 

Click to head over to the video interview

The remit to attract new fans of music is a ball that is now almost completely in the court of the artists themselves.

After a decade of digital disruption, even those artists on whom major record labels decide to take a chance, need to have built a significant base of excited, engaged fans following their every move.

The key question in the emerging digital music industry is this:

Where and how do you as an artist attract and engage these fans?

Watch the interview linked from the image above (or start here and watch for just a few minutes, if you want to avoid the awkward interviewer’s preamble).

It features David Hazan of musician-to-fan community service Mobile Backstage and covers some potential solutions to the question above. Although the platform itself is rather new and still to prove itself sustainable as a business, there is a trend towards these types of ‘true fan’ platforms. The reason being that musicians need to connect regularly and deeply with their most passionate core of fans, in order to drive longer term sales of merchandise, concert tickets, and perhaps even (shock) recorded music.

Wide Open Spaces

The intention of this post is not to glorify one specific service in this realm. Rather, I want to focus your attention on the potential online spaces in which you can best attract and engage fans.

Consider questions such as:

• Which platforms (social networks, websites, blogs etc) attract the most new fans to your music?
• Where do you find your fans becoming most passionate?
• How could you combine platforms to deliver a more coherent, interactive space for your fans to gather and interact?
• How could you utilize mobile content to connect with your fans more closely?
• What other media have you not yet tapped to connect with fans? (e.g. video, podcasts, text messaging, crowd funding)

Fan Clubs for the Digital Era

Whatever your answers to the questions above, the overall objective is to find either one highly productive space, or a fusion of many, that in effect becomes the digital fan club for your music and the content, products, and events that surround it.

As outmoded as the notion of a fan club may sound, is it not where the core of your most ardent supporters will gather? Through a combination of interaction with the main event (you!), community with other equally engaged fans, and that intangible ‘inner circle’ feeling that comes of investing oneself in an artist’s work. Furthermore, the excitement that is generated when impassioned fans gather together around a shared interest only furthers the attachment that they feel towards that common denominator. Fans breed further fanaticism.

From this base of hardcore support you can launch all of your future projects, from new music to international tours and other artistic pursuits. And it’s a purer connection in the digital era, as it has been built by you the artist directly, rather than through a convoluted chain of marketing departments and physical retail chains.

Your Two Cents?

Where do you stand on this?

Is it a crucial consideration that needs to now be fully taken up by musicians themselves, or simply another distraction from the true pursuit of making music?

Where do you make the truest connections with your fans?

Records have been broken, talent celebrated, winners heralded…. 

So why do I feel that something is amiss?

Disconnect the Dots

We’ve established that there is a desire for fans to use social media to engage with television events.

From the trending topics on Twitter being dominated by TV shows on any given evening, to Facebook beginning to aggregate status updates into “## people talked about (insert event here)” style summaries, we can see that enthusiastic fans are utilizing social media to share their views on what is being broadcast. The conversation is rampant and swirling like a raging storm around the big events.

So why does the broadcast itself reflect none of this?

Why does watching the show on network television feel like the eye of the storm, so eerily quiet and removed from the passion circling around it? 

To my mind, it represents the substantial disconnect between traditional standards of broadcast media and the emerging concept of social media, of involving your audience in as many ways as possible. The tools and platforms now exist. The channels to your audience are ever-widening. Yet the will to travel up and down, making the show a two-way street is still found wanting. 

The Connection Is Made

To give the Oscars due credit, their web presence offer fans plenty to dig their teeth into. From preview blogs to after-show video, Facebook fan questions to live tweeting the winners, the content is undoubtedly present to lure fans in deeper. The integration is what’s under scrutiny here. The curious relegation of fan passion to a side show, as the restricted Big Top basks in its own glory.

The Grammys made some effort towards this integration with separate performance areas for sets by Foo Fighters, David Guetta, Deadmau5 and the like, but it still amounted to a select few. The floodgates weren’t opened to the enthusiastic masses tweeting and sharing around the event in cyberspace. Even the live television broadcast was restricted in certain markets, leaving certain sections of music fans left out and frustrated.

The challenge to broadcasters is now to integrate as many of these media, as seamlessly as possible, for a diverse and two-way fan experience. 

Transmedia Momentum

This may seem like a pedantic moan, based on the fact that both broadcast and social media elements of these events were booming. Though I agree that progress is being made, is it not the remit of leading broadcast events like the Oscars and Grammys to push boundaries, to lead the way in engaging their enormous fan base and show other industries what can be achieved?

Shows like Bravo’s Last Chance Kitchen show what can be achieved when social media are smartly weaved into the fabric of a television program. Fans feel more connected, invested in the developments of the show, and return value is increased as a result of this investment. This trend towards transmedia – telling your story across multiple platforms, involving those who gather along the way – is gathering momentum among more niche programming and holds a lucrative future for those broadcaster that begin to explore and experiment with it in these early stages.

The passion of fans around the entertainment industry – or, at least, the creative talent that it supports – already exists. It is the envy of many other industries who find it much harder to fire up their audiences. Let’s use that to challenge the traditional one-way thinking of artist to fan, instead focusing on a more inclusive model in which fan passion fuels creativity in real time and their involvement breeds an ever-greater connection.

Photo Credit: T. Buchtele

Takeaways:

- Your fans are having a conversation with or without you. Jump in and be a part of it!

- Lasting connections and greater fan loyalty are built when you involve your audience in the creative process.

- Use the strengths of individual platforms to build an integrated experience across all channels. 

What are YOUR feelings on the Oscars and Grammys as an inclusive fan experience? Am I way off the mark here or do they need to involve fans to put on a better show?

How can you improve your web presence for fans through blending in more media?

Minni Kemp is a Midwest freelance editor and writer. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, running, and reading cheesy romance novels. You can check out her writing at Professional Intern.

I admit that I’m addicted to Twitter.

It’s like the world’s largest custom-built chat room—and as long as you cultivate a good list of people to follow, Twitter can be loads of fun. For me, it’s the easiest way to keep up on what’s going on in the world; my timeline is a busy flow of tweets from friends, coworkers, journalists, and almost all of my favorite TV shows.

Even though I rely on my DVR for about half the TV shows I watch on a regular basis, there are a few shows I insist on watching live, just so I can watch with the other folks in my Twitter feed. The real-time conversations about certain shows are often just as good as the show itself.

Now that Twitter is becoming a part of mainstream media, television shows of all types are using Twitter as another way to interact with hardcore fans and to attract new ones.

The Vanishing Fourth Wall

For some shows, Twitter can carry the action and drama beyond the small screen. Twitter accounts often do more than just offer information about the show.

There are feed for a show’s fictional characters (like Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother and his @broslife account), for its actors (Neil Patrick Harris’s @ActuallyNPH), or even for a show’s production staff (@HIMYM_CBS). Giving fans a chance to interact with each other—as well as stars or show producers—can create an interactive and personalized television experience.

Absence Makes the Viewer Grow Fonder

Waiting for True Blood to return to HBO  sucked, but in a good way. With @truebloodhbo, the folks behind the show keep viewers hooked with contests and sneak peeks of the upcoming fourth season.

They’ve also used Twitter to build anticipation for the new season among diehard fans and Trubie newbies. For fans of the show, it’s become part of the True Blood experience—and it eases the pain until the show comes back on the air.

Community Service

Twittizens have created online communities to tweet about their TV shows in real time. And networks have taken notice: now, several shows offer Twitter feeds for their shows, featuring some of their favorite tweets onscreen during a first-run or rerun broadcast of a show. Using tweets written by real fans is a great form of advertising for a TV show, and is sure to be cheap and more effective than network commercials or e-mail marketing. The line between interaction and advertising continues to blur, but both fans and TV shows benefit.

For a genre that was once threatened by the rise of online entertainment, television has been quick to adapt and to use the Internet to its advantage.

With social media platforms like Twitter, television has become a collaborative experience. What the future of Twitter holds for more interactive television is still up in the air, but with tweeting becoming an integral part of watching TV, the future of entertainment could become more hands-on for viewers.

Your Two Cents:

Do you combine your television watching with tweeting? What does it add to your experience?

How do you see social media further developing and integrating with traditional broadcast media?

Your insights are what make the difference, so please weigh in below in the comments or over on Facebook.

Expect more on the social TV phenomenon as I delve deeper into the subjects of last week’s panel. 

Recently I posted more in depth explanations of  the first points 1,2 and point 3 on my original 12 point check list for developing your web presence.

Today, we’ll look more at the fourth and fifth points on the list: the touch points of your platforms and using them to form two way conversation with your fans.

Photo Credit: David JW Bailey

These considerations follow on logically from the previous task of selecting your key platforms. Knowing where you’re going to be expending most of your efforts, you can now decide the ways in which you’ll communicate with fans on those platforms, as well as how to involve them in the process.

In short, this is engagement and interaction time!

Compelling. Concise. Content.

Content is anything from a sub-140 character tweet to an in-depth blog post on your site. To start on the long road to fan engagement, each piece of content needs to be of interest to your target audience. Be it informative, amusing, or something that stirs their passion, hitting the mark consistently (another ‘C’!) is where your content becomes compelling.

Content lies at the core of your web presence. It is the factor that decides whether visitors keep coming back for more, or are uninterested and leave, never to return. The other adjectives really only serve to emphasize key factors in making sure your content achieves the return value that you’re looking for.

Although a given platform will determine the depth of your content (try getting complex in a tweet….ouch!), conciseness will serve you well in almost every piece you post. By all means, explore the intricacies of a topic beyond 500 words in a blog post. Just don’t use a paragraph when a sentence would suffice. Attention spans are short on the web and the average visitor decides in under ten seconds whether or not they will stay.

Having eye catching headlines and visuals to draw people in, followed by the quality content that will keep them interested, is a sure fire way to keep your visitors engaged and coming back for more.

Join The Conversation?

The cacophony encouraging us to “join the conversation” grows ever louder by the day. In reality, this is a catch all phrase that wants a more general response from us: interaction.

Once engaged by your content and creations, the next objective is to draw a visitor deeper into your creative world. This extends beyond mere discussion, delving into the realms of building emotional connections to your art, gathering feedback, involving visitors in the creative process, adding game mechanics to content, or any number of new and emerging techniques to develop a stronger bond. A bond that, as it builds, turns uncommitted visitors into excited fans of your work.

Although the application of these concepts has the potential to become quite complex, the core idea is simple: offer your fans a compelling, two-way experience with your art, in addition to the traditonal one-way consumption.

How to do this?

Think about what your most passionate fans say about your creations. What do they love about what you do?

For a writer, it could be the characters of your stories that pulls readers into the world you’ve created. How can you give those characters a new lease of life across social media? Furthermore, how can you weave your readers into the story, so that their experience moves from passive to interactive?

For a musician, perhaps your listeners have certain songs that really speak to them. Ask for their interpretations, or comparisons to other artists. Bring to the fore their thoughts and opinions about the subjects of your songs, valuing their additions to the discussion. Fans now create videos and other spin-0ff art in response to their favorite music, so embrace these creations and encourage visitors to pursue their own answers to the questions posed by your songs.

The more that your fans become involved and invested in what you create, the more they’ll support you for the long haul. Sharing as they go, the power of social networks can begin to work for you as your creations are spread far and wide, offering opportunities to repeat the process of engaging and interacting with new fans.

Over To You…

 How have you geared your web presence to keep new visitors interested? 

Once you have their interest, what steps have you taken to interact with people and turn them into fans of your work? 

Your insights are the truly valuable element here. The real world examples are where we really gain an idea of how to put all this into practice, so please feel free to share your own brilliant successes here in the comments or on Facebook.

Leave links so I can visit and put your fan-making process to the test!