It’s been really interesting talking to people about how
they use social media. Interesting because the general view of social media
amongst musicians seems to be a fairly narrow one, which goes a long way
towards explaining how they use it. Or don’t, as the case may be. Now I fully
admit that my research has been fairly ad hoc at this stage but the results so
far seem to suggest a basic assumption:
SOCIAL MEDIA = FACEBOOK (+/- TWITTER) = WASTE OF TIME
But it this really the case?
I would suggest not (well, of course- otherwise we might as
well all pack up and go home!) but this flawed formula and its misapplication
makes for a fascinating study into how musicians (and I would argue especially
classical musicians) are integrating into the 21st century.
By way of example I still have a very strong memory of
standing in a lunch queue with another harpist I had just met at the Australian
Harp Festival in 2012. I told her the topic of my presentation there (similar
to this coming one) to which she replied ‘Who’d be interested in that??!!’ Suitably
chastened I took my lunch roll and got back in my box.
So over the next few weeks I’m going to work my way through
the ‘Waste of time’ formula to see what lies behind it, all the while examining
my own use of social media. Is this really a waste of time?
PS- As an interesting footnote, since really starting to
take this Social Media stuff seriously I’ve picked up several new followers,
and booked a gig through Facebook. Mmmm, maybe there’s something in this after
all…
No comments:
Post a Comment