Privacy 2.0

In the early days of social media, social networks were walled-in gardens where you could connect with a select group of friends, and share your thoughts, links, videos and photos. You had full control over who could view these things, so you could maintain a certain level of privacy. Let's face it, this is no longer true! The entire world has access to your online life. If you want something to be secret, you might as well keep it off of your computer!

In today's job market, this is especially important. Make no mistake, prospective employers will peruse your online footprint if they are considering you for a job. In fact, your current employer may be watching you online as well. Given the recent changes many of the networks have made, particularly Facebook, your privacy controls may not keep you as safe as you think.

Here are some steps I would recommend:

1. Review your privacy settings - as I said, many of the networks have recently made major changes. However, you should also recognize that the garden wall is now very short, and even the things you think are safe may find their way over that wall.
2. Stay away from "Hot Topics" - It might be a good time to start following the old saying: "Never discuss religion and politics." If your online rhetoric is not particularly civil when it comes to those who disagree with you, a potential employer will most likely pass.
3. Keep your updates free of complaints - I see quite a few people complaining about their current job or boss, and even about their friends. The thinly-veiled complaint, where you make the complaint but don't name names, is really not much better. It all serves to paint you as a "complainer." A potential employer will be turned off by this, and you could even lose your current job if you're not careful!
4. Remove the incriminating pictures - You know the ones I mean: At the party, holding a beer, with a lampshade on your head. I would suggest you delete them immediately. If your friends have posted them, ask them to delete them. If they won't, remove any tags identifying you.
5. Above all, think before you type - The internet has given us a false sense of anonymity, where we feel like we can say anything without consequences. While this might have been true a few years ago, it is no longer the case. If you wouldn't say it in person, you probably shouldn't post it either.

In my opinion, there is no longer such a thing as privacy when it comes to life online. Assume that everything you say and do will be in the public record forever!

I'm reading: Privacy 2.0

10 Years That Changed Everything

As we near the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, we're seeing the typical year-end and decade-end lists that tend to make the rounds. As I think back on the last ten years, I see it as a time of major change for the music industry. Here is my list of some of the changes I have witnessed in the past ten years:

• Digital downloads surpassed CD sales
• Independent labels became major players
• Established artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails successfully opted to release their music independently, rather than sign a new record contract
• The ever-shrinking major labels lost their mojo, desperately clinging to outmoded ideas and suing children, the elderly, and dead people
• Numerous distribution avenues emerged, allowing independent artists to get their music directly to fans
• Social media emerged, allowing artists to interact directly with fans
• A new generation of music consumers emerged, ingrained with the belief that music should be free

I'm sure I could come up with many more examples, but we'll stop there. Feel free to post your additions and thoughts in the comments.

All of these changes have left musicians and music industry types wondering where we will be when the dust clears. How do we make a living? How do we "monetize" our product if the conventional means no longer work? In fact, what is our "product," if not our songs? Many have come to believe that the way forward is to think of the artist as the product or "brand."

Meanwhile, the major labels are floundering. Frankly, they have lasted longer than I would have anticipated. One lifeline for them has been the popularity of reality television. If you doubt that, just look at all the buzz around Susan Boyle with her recent album release.

At this point, it's anyone's guess what the future will hold. Judging by what has happened in the last ten years, though, I'm convinced it will still manage to take most of us by surprise!

I'm reading: 10 Years That Changed Everything

Gerd Leonard: How Musicians can Thrive in the "Link Economy"

Berklee Today features an interesting interview with media futurist and Berklee grad Gerd Leonard. His comments are in line with what we have heard from several forward-thinking people, such as Trent Reznor (see his comments here.) I think his main point is that artists need to think in terms of their "brand" rather than their "product." Take, for instance, this quote:

"In the new music economy, you need to build an audience and energize them to act on your behalf and forward your music virally. Later, they can become paying customers. Don't ask them for their money first. Once fans are sold on you, you'll be able to 'upsell' them special shows, backstage passes, webcasts, a live concert download, a multimedia product, your iPhone application, a premium package for $75."

Read the full article here, and you might want to follow his blog as well.

I'm reading: Gerd Leonard: How Musicians can Thrive in the "Link Economy"

Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Connect recently became available for Blogger blogs, so I just added it. I am interested to see how this service will enhance the blogging experience. If you are one of the 5 people who read my blog, please click the "follow" button in the sidebar to the right. Thanks in advance.

On a related note, I recently created a Facebook artist page. If you are on Facebook and you have a moment, please become a fan. (I promise I won't spam you - I don't even have any gigs lined up at the moment.) This is also a bit of an experiment. I am interested to see if this will be a viable platform for artists in the future. I think they still have a few bugs to work out, but it has potential. I think this will finally make Facebook a viable alternative to MySpace for musicians. We'll see!

Link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-J-Johnson/57634653044

I'm reading: Google Friend Connect

What I Have Learned About Twitter (So Far)

Dr. J's Social Media Experiment Part 2: Twitter

(Obscure Music Joke Subtitle: Rockin' Robin on the Interwebs)

Happy New Year! Most of my readers are already using Twitter, but if you have lived in a cave for the last year and don't know what it is, look up Twitter or Micro-blogging on Wikipedia. Too lazy? OK, here goes: A social media/blogging network in which users post "tweets" of 140 characters or less. These tweets provide followers/friends with status info (similar to your Facebook status,) links, jokes, conversations (consisting of @replies,) etc. When referring to a twitter user, you use the "@" symbol; For instance, my Twitter handle is @docj1664. However, if you were to search for me on Twitter, the URL would be http://twitter.com/docj1664. For several weeks last month, I collected my daily Twitter feeds on the blog, so that should give you an idea of how it works!

I signed up for Twitter in early March of 2008. I was taking my high school vocal jazz group to France and Switzerland, and I thought it would be a good way to stay in touch with people while I was gone. I convinced my wife to sign up, and I already had a few friends who were using it. I used the service infrequently for the next two months, mostly because I didn't really understand it very well. Of course, I've found out recently that many Twitter users felt that way, and in some ways the "proper" use of Twitter is still evolving.

I really had trouble figuring out what possible use this could be to musicians. I think this area is still evolving, but people such as @carlalynnhall and @sivers (Derek Sivers of CDBaby) are beginning to figure this out. I think the best way to understand Twitter is to realize that it requires an entirely new approach. 

When you sign up, the question is "What are you doing?" However, the type of self-promotion that is so prominent on MySpace and Facebook is anathema to most Twitter users. As cheesy as this may sound, Twitter is about community, and you often find users more concerned about helping each other than promoting themselves. I think this spirit of helpfulness really started this last summer during the hurricanes that hit the Gulf coast, and it has persisted. 

Here are a few other things I've learned:

• Link Spam - When a user sees someone whose every post consists of a link to their myspace or website, they will probably not follow you. Most users will post helpful links for their followers, as well as occasional blog post announcements.
  
• Troll Behavior - This is absolutely not tolerated on Twitter. Most users even tend to stay away from asserting strong political opinions, and generally don't tolerate online flame wars.
  
• Profile Names - Most users use their full real name, with no numbers. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until I had a few hundred friends, but I'm banking on Twitter getting more popular, and people will begin having to use nicknames and numbers.
• Conversations - Conversations between users are generally looked on favorably, as long as they are not too personal (you can DM or Direct Message another user when appropriate, as long as they are following you.) Many power users spend the entire day conversing with others on Twitter, almost like a public chat room. The idea is that this is usually information that will benefit other users as well.
• Retweeting - When a user sees something interesting posted by someone he/she is following, they will often "retweet" it so their followers will see it as well. This is one of the most fascinating and useful aspects of Twitter, and perhaps why it was so useful during the hurricanes last summer. Information can spread very quickly this way.
• Robots - Recently some accounts have started using 'bots which DM new followers. The community at large, however, seems to find this distasteful, so I would shy away from it.
• Followers - When you follow someone on Twitter, they are not automatically your "friend." They must choose to follow you as well. It is generally considered a courtesy to follow those who follow you, unless you are a celebrity with tens of thousands of followers. It is a good idea to keep your "following" and "followers" numbers as close to each other as possible. 

Twitter definitely requires some "outside of the box" thinking, especially if you are using it as a marketing tool. Many of the old social network rules do not apply, and new rules are being written as the service evolves.

I've barely skimmed the surface, so here are a few additional resources:

For more advice on how to use Twitter for marketing: pistachioconsulting.com/ and www.hubspot.com

For advice on how to use Twitter and other tools in support of your music career: rockstarlifelessons.com/

I'm reading: What I Have Learned About Twitter (So Far)

Artist 2.0

Over the past few years, there has been chatter about new media developments, for instance "Web 2.0," "Music 2.0," etc. I believe we are witnessing the emergence of a new type of artist, "Artist 2.0," who will cross traditional borders of media and incorporate old and new media in order to get his/her ideas across. Here are two recent examples:

1. Joss Whedon, during the writers strike, decided to produce an internet musical webseries (his brother actually coined the term "mushortio" to describe it) outside the traditional studio system. "Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog" turned out to be such a huge success that it crashed their server during the first day of it's release. It was streamed free for one week, but offered for sale on iTunes as well, and it continues to be in the top ten TV seasons now, 3 weeks later. It is currently streaming ad-supported on Hulu.com, and will be released on DVD in a few months. The soundtrack will also be released soon, presumably on iTunes. Whedon and company spent no money on promotion for the series. Instead, they used MySpace and Facebook, obviously to great effect!
   
2. Trent Reznor is in talks with HBO for a television adaptation of "The Year Zero" (see my earlier post.) This will reportedly be accompanied by another album, as well as an Alternate Reality Game (they also did an ARG for the original record.)
   

Now, just in case you think I'm grasping at straws, I Googled "Artist 2.0" and found an NY Times article published more than a year ago where they used the term. I guess I can't get credit for coining the term...

I'm reading: Artist 2.0

File Under: People Unclear On The Concept

So, I get this bulletin on MySpace from one of my "friends" who is involved with an organization that I have some ties to. In the past, I have been active in promoting the organization, and one of my best friends is in charge. This guy works with my friend, but I don't really know him very well.

Anyway, this myspace "friend" says in his bulletin that he is creating a new profile page for the organization. He says he wants to use it to "promote" the organization and promote all the individuals involved with said organization. It is important to know that he uses the word "promote" twice in the bulletin. My first thought is always to find ways to help these guys out, because of my friend. So, I'm thinking, "I'd better add them as a friend and put them on my top friends list. That should help 'promote' their organization."

I send an "add friend" request, and promptly forget about it. A short time later, I get this condescending little message from the guy:

"Thanks for requesting the add. Right now we want to keep this page all (members of the organization.) Glad to have you on my personal page, though."

Now, maybe I've got it all wrong, but I've always understood that the best way to "promote" something on MySpace is to get as many friends as possible. If you try to keep your page exclusive, it is going to be ineffective as a promotional tool. If you want to have your own little exclusive clique, create a myspace group, and make that exclusive.

This gentleman obviously doesn't really understand the true intent of myspace. I also wonder if he assumes that if he only allows organization members to do an "add" request first, they will appear first on the "friends" list. In other words, maybe he thinks people appear on the "friends" list in the order they are added. This is incorrect. In fact, myspace lists people in chronological order according to the date they first created their profile. So, keeping your profile exclusive for a while, then adding outside friends, is useless.

So, what can we learn from this about using myspace (or any social networking site) as a promotional tool?

1. If you're trying to "promote" something, you cannot really restrict your friends list. If you want to have an exclusive, elite clique, creat a closed myspace group.
2. If you decide not to honor an "add" request, don't send people a condescending note and make them feel bad, just deny their request. Chances are, they won't even notice anyway, especially if they have over 600 friends.
3. If you send out a general bulletin, asking your friends to add the new profile you've created, you should probably be specific if you don't intend everyone on your friends list to do so.
   
4. Do not, under any circumstances, include in your condescending note, a phrase like "Glad to have you on my personal page, though," as if they are lucky to have you as a friend. Chances are, they have plenty of friends already, and it's no skin off their nose!
   

OK, so those last three are really about MySpace etiquette in general. Here endeth the lesson!

I'm reading: File Under: People Unclear On The Concept