Social Media Part 6- The Problem of Likes

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“How can there be a problem with likes?” I hear you ask. And well may you ask.

Everything from common sense to that article on blogging you read will tell you that the way to measure success is through lots of likes. And every time you get a new follower you do a little fist pump in the air. So what’s wrong with that?

Admittedly everyone needs likes. Not just because it makes you feel good but because likes do tend to generate likes. It’s a bit like walking past one restaurant that is crowded with happy eaters and then passing by another that is populated only by idle waiters. You’re going to eat at the busy restaurant. Likewise when you are looking at a Facebook page or blog and there are only 10 followers you will probably keep going. The content will have to be really amazing to make you stay and possibly follow, or it has to be really clear that this is a new enterprise and the low numbers are understandable.

But the number of likes will not tell the full story. For instance, I have loads more followers on Twitter than on Facebook. But I have zero interaction with any of them. As a measure of quantifiable success my Twitter account is up there. But as a measure of experiential success as defined in my last post it’s way down.

The other factor that is really obvious to me as a classical musician is one of target market. My live concerts and my CD sales are driven by a certain demographic (namely the over 50s) whose interaction with social media is decidedly less than those in their 20s. So when you look at my Facebook account you won’t see a complete representation of those who are interested in what I do. A good old-fashioned mailing list fills that space.

Likewise as a freelance classical harpist my collegial demographic is also limited. There are only so many freelance classical harpists in the world. Certainly far fewer of them than there are, for example, Justin Bieber fans. Let’s not dwell too long on that point. But again my target audience is small. And not everyone is interested in social media, so the numbers reduce still further.

So the upshot is that in some circumstances 50 followers can be a really good number. Especially if they are 50 good followers who are not just along for the ride, but are really engaging with you and what you do.

If that is the case, then I would say yes, it’s worth it.

Social Media Part 5- Is it worth it?

After spending the last few weeks working through some of the complexities of social media we reach the all-important question: is it worth it?

And just as we had to break down the definition of social media, we’ll have to break down just what is worth what. Rather than providing us with a straight forward answer, this little question of worth becomes more of a ‘how long is a piece of string’ matter.

Because what social media can provide and produce can vary significantly depending upon an individual’s use and expectations.

We’ve already established that the only real cost of social media is time. That’s our input. What its output is and what we can gain from it is generally measured in the quantifiable terms of ‘likes’, ‘follows’, ‘shares’ etc. From a sales perspective, musicians look for CDs sold and/or tickets sold.

But there is also a non-quantifiable result. From a business perspective it can be about raising awareness of your brand name and identity. From a collegial perspective it can be about establishing connections with musicians you might not otherwise get to meet, and sharing ideas and experiences.

As a harpist in Australia, which has a rather small harp world, this is one thing I really appreciate about social media. I have sat at home in my jim-jams eating breakfast while watching a live stream of a concert in America and exchanging on line comments with other participants. This is amazing.

Bearing this in mind it’s generally best not to approach social media as strictly a marketing or promotion tool. Absolutely you can do that, but this is a form of communication that prides itself on connection and authenticity. So perhaps the question of worth is one which needs to be measured experientially (do I feel that I am making and benefitting from good connections?) as well as quantifiably (do I have lots of likes and is that flowing through to a tangible (financial) reward?).

And here we might take a little side step to explore the problems of ‘likes’.

Social Media Part 4- Social Media Defined (Unofficially)

In the previous post I spent some time working through an academic definition of ‘social media’ with the hope that any readers out there would still be awake at the end of it.

Having concluded with a fairly broad definition I was still left scratching my head as to why so many of my esteemed colleagues hold a more narrow view namely that SOCIAL MEDIA = FACEBOOK (+/- TWITTER)

Admittedly it’s a bit hard to get past Facebook whenever social media is mentioned. It’s not at all unusual to encounter the word ‘behemoth’ whenever reading about it. The current number of users stands at well over 1 billion, 28% of whom check in with it before even getting out of bed. And it’s a really good way of connecting with people. After some initial reluctance (I had an account for about a year before actually using it) I readily admit that it’s my favourite form of social media both personally and professionally.

Twitter isn’t far behind, though I find that I tend to get lost in the sea of hashtags, meaningless retweets and in jokes that I seem to encounter.

But what else can be ‘social media’?

Well, this thing for a start ie this blog. And Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr, YouTube and Vimeo, Foursquare, Google+, LinkedIn, forums, wikis, podcasts, vlogs, and basically any site that allows feedback and interaction between the denizens of the web.

Suffice to say the potential for finding and using social media is huge-about as endless as the web is big.

Do I use of all these forms of social media? Not by a long shot. And in the first post of this series I explained why-it's about time. Social media is free except for time, so to master and engage with all these forums is a full time job. The average freelance musician, especially if you have anything vaguely resembling a life outside music, simply can’t do it. Hence the restricted definition SOCIAL MEDIA = FACEBOOK (+/- TWITTER).

Without the means to fully exploit the potential, social media gets limited by necessity. And it’s effectiveness is then called into question.

But is it really worth it?

That, dear readers, is the million dollar question.

Social Media Part 3- Social Media Defined (Officially)

It’s a term that gets bandied about a bit, but what exactly is social media? In this post I’ll be putting together a more academically correct definition of the term, which may or may not stand true in reality. That’s what the next few posts are about!

Webtrends.about.com define social media as the ‘interaction among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks’, the key word there being ‘interaction’.

This makes more sense when you break the term down into its constituent parts ‘social’ and ‘media’. This actually reminds me of a joke by The Goodies (remember them?) where they break down, inaccurately translate, and then define eisteddfod- ‘eistedd’ meaning ‘bored’, ‘fod’ meaning  ‘stiff’.

So before we’re bored stiff with definitions let’s push on.

Now we’re all pretty familiar with what the media is- radio, television, newspapers. All of these forms of media have limited ways of interacting. It’s more about them giving information and everyone else taking it in. Think ‘consumer media’.

Add the social component and we come back to that key word of ‘interaction’. As some clever person said regular media is a one way street. Social media is two way.

Now the good folk over at whatis.techtarget.com feel that the way the web is going the distinction between what is social media and everything else is going to become so increasingly blurred as to not actually matter anymore. The assumption of interaction will be everywhere. Every website links to Facebook, every online newspaper lets you post comments on every story, every picture can be Pinned.

And if this is the case why do so many musicians I’ve spoken to assume this-

SOCIAL MEDIA = FACEBOOK (+/- TWITTER) = WASTE OF TIME

Tune in next time to see if we can edge ever closer to finding out!

Social Media Part 2- A waste of time?

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 21^st 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…

Social Media Part 1- It's about time

Well, it is about time. It’s been over a year since I last posted on here. And it’s not that I didn’t want to. Not at all.

But it’s about time.

With a full personal and professional life, trying to fit in blogs of some kind of substance (not to mention sense!) became next to impossible. Until I got the kick up the pants to get back to the keyboard.

Coming up in Sydney in a few month’s time is this fantastic event.

www.whcsydney2014.com

For anyone who hasn’t been to a World Harp Congress before I can highly recommend this week of harp overdose. I was fortunate enough to have attended the 1999 Congress in Prague and it was AMAZING.

This is the first time the WHC has ever been in Australia (yah!) so it is wonderful opportunity for locals to see a world beating array of harps and harpists, and an even better opportunity for overseas harpists to come and see what we have to offer.

And at 4pm on the Friday of the conference I’ll be presenting a paper on ‘The Harpist’s Guide to Social Media’.

It’s a fascinating topic for any gigging harpist that I explored first in a paper for the Australian Harp Festival last year so I’m really chuffed to have another chance to delve into the wonderful world of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in a little more detail.

To help gather my thoughts (and get some feedback too I hope!) I’ll be blogging my way through the research of this little baby. I’m always on the lookout for interesting harpists to follow so feel free to get in touch with your suggestions.

But it’s about time. That’s the big disadvantage of social media. It might be free, but it is costly. It can cost A LOT of time. In this regard the theory and reality of my paper isn’t necessarily going to match up. But I figure that’s ok. Because we all live in the real world and not everyone can tweet twice a day while posting on Facebook and Instagram as well. Even with a product like Hootsuite it still takes time.

So how do you balance the theory and reality of social media?

5 tips for tax time

Ahh, tax. There’s no avoiding it. And around these parts it’s that time of year.

In Australia, our financial year runs from the beginning of July until the end of June which always seems very neat. We then have until the end of October to get all the paper work done and submitted to some nice accountant who knows what they are doing. Only once did I try to do my own tax return and I spent the whole time crying. Never again.

So I spent last week putting it all together and was pleased to see that a few new initiatives I had implemented this past financial year worked really well for keeping on top of all the paperwork. Plus the old reliables are still doing their job, which is always good to know. So here’s a few tips for anyone who shudders at the idea of doing their tax return!

1.      

      The big success for me this year was making myself spend just 10-15 minutes every Monday on bookkeeping. I chose Mondays because there were usually invoices to write following the weekend gigs so I was in a financial state of mind anyway. But just that short time spent adding income and expenditure to my accounting software has paid off big time as there is no scrounging around for paperwork or trying to remember how that mystery $100 came to be in my bank account.

2.       Have a separate bank account solely for business transactions. Nothing makes tax life easier than transparency of transactions (account for everything) and no confusion between business and personal transactions. A separate account for receiving all your income makes this LOADS easier.

3.       Have some kind of accounting system, anything from MYOB with all the bells and whistles to a humble notebook and pen. The important thing is that it works for you and YOU USE IT!

4.       A plastic loose leaf folder. This is a little strange but we own 4 filing cabinets. And I hardly use any of them. But I love filing things in plastic loose leaf folders. I always remember being told that any person can play an instrument if they can just get to the right instrument and I think the same is true with organisation. Find what works for you and you are more likely to use it.

5.       Keep an envelope in the car for all your parking tickets. I mark mine with the details of whatever financial year it is and then bring it inside while doing my tax return, and, hey presto, there are all my receipts for parking. And if I park at a meter which doesn’t issue a ticket I write the date, location and amount on the back of the envelope. This year my parking costs were in the vicinity of $350, which I can claim back as a necessary expenditure. That’s a lot of money that could have been lost with parking tickets just floating around the car and then getting chucked out.

What tax tips work for you?

Who's a clever little freelancer?

Musical training, whether formal or informal, rarely incorporates the business skills required for long term operation as a freelance musician. A few make up for this with formal business study, some learn on the job, and I suspect a lot hope that it will all somehow just take care of itself.

I certainly know that’s what I thought for a long time. At least until it became apparent that odd jottings on the back of old envelopes was no longer going to cut it as a business model.

Now, after 20 plus years on the freelancing circuit I find myself with a business name, an ABN, all kinds of insurance, plus the full social media set up of a blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest etc. And I’m actively working towards diversifying my business so I’m not reliant upon the shifting sands of itinerant gigs.

But why bother to think like a business when the phone is still ringing and the gigs are still coming in regardless?

This blog is the start of a whole series that explores that question, stemming from my recent presentation ‘Facets of Freelancing’ at the 5^th Australian Harp Festival. (You can read more about that here and here.) It’s a topic which I have a real passion for, but no formal education. I’m not trained in business management, accountancy, marketing, booking keeping, IT, arts management or tax matters.

But these are all skills which I use every day as I work as a freelance musician. My 3 music degrees taught me how to play all the dots on the page and developed in me a deep appreciation of all kinds of music, but never ever did anyone mention how to survive in the real world. I studied my Grandjany, Godefroid and Glanville-Hicks but never actually got told how to write an invoice. Which is a kind of helpful skill to have if you want to get paid.

So everything I know I learned on the job.

But before we dive into this series let’s check out some definitions. Just what is a freelance musician? Here’s something I prepared earlier:

A freelance musician takes on a variety of short term work according to demand and works for a variety of employers including working for themselves.

I like this one too:

 Freelancers must be highly adaptable, creative problem solvers, and expert networkers, and they must have the ability to deal with dozens of separate information channels and collate them together, minimizing conflicts and allowing enough time to make it from venue to venue. Too little work, and they’ll end up in the poorhouse. Too much work, and they’re headed for the madhouse. It’s a delicate balancing act!

(http://doublebassblog.org/2008/06/twelve-survival-tips-for-freelance-musicians.html)

So where do you work? My 4 main areas of work are:

1.       Music Industry gigs- orchestra, television, recording work.

2.       Background gigs- weddings, functions etc

3.       Teaching- for me that’s in a private studio, but can be in schools/studios outside the home

4.       Self-run concert performances

If you’re a freelance musician I’d guess your job description would look something similar. But have you ever really stopped to think about all the skills involved with making it all happen? It’s mindblowing! (And I think kind of impressive!)

So take the time to have a think- it’s often worthwhile to actually write down everything that you do beyond playing the dots on the page- chances are you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much you can do! This could form the start of a business plan, something we’ll talk more about next time!