Results tagged “blogging” from Life's a Pitch

First, a story: Once upon a time, there lived a fair(ly) young princess who blogged about classical music PR from her Happily Ever Harlem tower. On one particular morning, she used a word to describe a Dragon of Industry that angered him. In retrospect, a less cavalier synonym would have conveyed her point, but it was too late: the Evil Wizard Internet had swept up the post and the Google Alert Fairy had delivered The Word to everyone who would read it. Now the Dragon protects his cave, because the Blog Princess cannot be trusted and may actually be a Poison-Apple-Wielding Blog Witch in disguise. They would all basically live happily ever after, but not together. The End.

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MySpace exploded on the scene when I first started working at IMG Artists. Each department got an intern, and while I was looking through Old Fashioned Resumes, a colleague of mine was clicking through MySpace pages. "We'll learn more from here than we will from those resumes," he advised. Onto MySpace I went, and lo and behold, there we had potential employees double-fisting 40s, girls kissing girls, and lots of...*exciting*...Halloween costumes. Not ideal for a publicity intern, although I guess that depends on how one defines "publicity." For those of you who don't know, unlike Facebook and like Twitter, MySpace pages are viewable by the public; that is, you don't have to be a member yourself to see what people have posted there. While Facebook is private, so many people have joined at this point (and can have secret accounts) that "private" is essentially public.

Around this time, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc. featured stories about how Facebook and MySpace were affecting job interviews and college admissions. Students would spend a lifetime building the perfect college application only to have their young life's work squandered by some choice language on a friend's Facebook wall. Similarly, artists, publicists and managers can spend their days putting forth the best possible image for themselves and their clients, but one Tweet about hating a venue, one blog post about a journalist, and everything we've all be working for can be spoiled. And as a publicist friend once e mailed to me, "I can make my client look good, get her on TV, protect her image, but I can't help her if she wants to Tweet about True Blood getting her all hot and being a metaphor for her life." True Blood, the Downfall of Us All. (Which reminds me: Eric the Vampire, c-a-l-l me.)

I follow Imogen Heap on Twitter because, while I don't love her music, I think she or someone on her team is a marketing genius. My fellow ArtsJournal blogger Andrew Taylor over at The Artful Manager writes about the success of her most recent album here. Consider yourself warned, Heap: I fully plan on stealing you Flickr album art competition at some point. Yesterday, though, Imogen Heap got my publicist hackles up when she Tweeted this:

Gonna see a doctor tmw morning. Feeling pretty shocking but my throat is having the most trouble. Not good I'm afraid. Not good at all :( x 3:49 AM Nov 8th from Tweetie

Maybe we in the classical music industry are just more (spoiler alert) conservative than other music industries, but I couldn't help but think of the ramifications if, say, soprano Danielle de Niese had posted this same thing on her Twitter feed. Her manager would have gotten twenty phone calls, probably within an hour. The Times writers who follow her on Twitter would probably have mentioned something to the Arts, Briefly editors. Her publicist would have had to do damage control for a week. Rumors that she was getting surgery would have started flying.

Imogen Heap did, in fact, cancel her concerts. She Tweets:

I'm so so sorry but I'm cancelling tonight's show. Just seen the doctor. Throat's not in good shape. More soon. Really gutted. Bad start :( about 19 hours ago from Tweetie

No...@therealahhmee, don't leave! I'm so sorry. I'm not gonna make it tonight. I feel awful to disappoint you and everyone else. X xabout 19 hours ago from Tweetie in reply to therealahhmee

Hoping to do tomorrow's show. Will sleeeeep lots. Santa barbara... Will let you know about rescheduling or refund. This is so crap!! Xxx about 19 hours ago from Tweetie

Well, this made me think: yes, she's revealing that she's sick and ultimately canceling her concerts, but maybe telling her 1,250,481 (!!!) followers herself lessens the blow. Would they rather read it from her "personally" with x's and o's, or get a formal e mail from a promoter telling them their tickets would be refunded? Who can stay mad at someone who says they're "Really gutted," after all?  And let's not forget how composer Nico Muhly said the New York Philharmonic's website looked like a Tampax ad in an interview with the Boston Globe and then reiterated the sentiment on his blog in September 2008. The epilogue to this story is, of course, that the New York Philharmonic paid for and will premiere a new work by Nico this spring. In both cases, no damage done, not damage control required.

So I, as a publicist, am torn: MySpace (at one point), Facebook, blogs, tumblr accounts and Twitter are all fantastic ways for artists to connect with current and potential audiences, and when used well can be a more powerful PR tool than a major newspaper feature. On the flip side, though, we all get lulled into a false sense of security with these things. This morning, for example, I almost Tweeted, "Do you think my neighbors can hear me singing 'Giants in the Sky' in the shower?" Backspace, backspace, backspace; you are a PR PROFESSIONAL, Ameer - you know better than to put anything about THE SHOWER on the Interweb! (Of course now I just did, so apparently I do not know better.) 

Incidentally, this goes both ways.  During the World Series, I noticed that one New York writer implied on Twitter that he would rather watch the next evening's baseball game than review the (presumably boring) concert he was assigned to. If it had been my client's concert and it was "in print" that the critic reviewing didn't really want to be there? I would be furious and dead-set on requesting another writer or none at all.

You get sucked in. You think no one's "actually" reading (they are) and you think no one "actually" cares (they do). As mentioned above, I've gotten myself into trouble with some folks in The Industry with this blog. Sure, some of my in-the-doghouse episodes come down to differences in opinion about a publicist having a blog, but some of them are squarely my fault. Would I say things I write here in an interview with a newspaper, blog, radio station or magazine? Mostly, but not entirely. Why not control the media we can actually control?

From PC World dot com today:

As of December 1, the Federal Trade Commission is going to require bloggers, and prominent tweeters and Facebook types to disclose any paid endorsements to their followers, online friends and readers. These new rules have the potential to change everyone's online habits.

The blog rules are fairly straightforward: if you're being paid to write about a product in a discreet way (which reminds me: my, my, MY, this glass of BOLTHOUSE FARMS SINCE 1915 ANTIOXIDANT RICH GREEN GOODNESS FRUIT SMOOTHIE is just delicious and so good for me!) you'll have to disclose that information to readers. The article says that most bloggers already do this, often right at the beginning of a post they're being paid to write.

The social networking aspect of all this, though, is much more interesting. You know you've made it, Twitter, when the Federal Trade Commission is all up in your grill.

CNET's Caroline McCarthy uses an interesting scenario to illustrate this: a celebrity receives a bunch of free nights from a hotel, and then becomes a fan of that hotel on Facebook. There would have to be disclosure by the celebrity on Facebook that they have received a gift from that hotel.

That sounds reasonable enough, but what about the rest of us? Say for example, you work for Microsoft and become a fan of the company on Facebook or tweet about how much you love Windows 7. Now, what if you have not made it clear on your Facebook and Twitter profiles that you work for Microsoft? Some of your Facebook friends or Twitter followers might see your posts, and--knowing that you're an expert in technology, but not necessarily that you work for Microsoft--take your Windows 7 endorsement at face value. You still might love Windows 7, but you haven't made it clear that you're receiving financial compensation as a Microsoft employee. Under the new FTC guidelines, you may have just crossed the line.

Bottom Line: If you are going to tweet about how awesome your employer is, make sure everybody knows you work there.

Hey, FTC! My clients are awesome and they pay me to say that.

I was told at a meeting a few weeks back that I should teach a Learning Annex class on blog etiquette. I tell you this not to announce that I'm an expert on the subject, although not being an expert on the subject isn't going to stop me from writing this post; the problem within the problem, perhaps? No, I bring this up because while blogs have been in existence for over a decade, from PR standpoint we still don't know how to interact with them. At least I don't, and I have a blog of my own.

The Learning Annex class comment was made after the group told me about a situation that had come up in response to a press release they had sent out the week before. There was an explosion of posts and comments about the press release on a handful of music blogs, including one New York Times' writer's blog, and the organization had no idea how to respond, if at all. So many options!  Should they post a comment? Personally contact commenters involved in the discussion who had been affiliated with the organization? Initiate a private exchange with the bloggers "offline"? Send a formal statement? Find an editor figure to call? Write a blog post on their own site? Each response option had both potential positive and potential negative ramifications; worst, if the organization didn't respond at all, the bloggers would conclude they were oblivious or apathetic.  Or perhaps even more disastrous, the organization would respond and only prolong a debate that would have otherwise died of natural causes.

I wrote here about how Cleveland Orchestra Executive Director Gary Hanson (and/or his team) posted the same statement in the comment field of any blog that mentioned the Don Rosenberg firing. I won't get riled up about it again, but that is a classic example of realizing blogs are important but not knowing how to interact with the culture. In my experience, statements like his should be e mailed to bloggers in official press release or media alert form, just as Letters to the Editor or correction statements would be e mailed, mailed or faxed to the print media. Comments are a different beast entirely, as they are intended to be tailored responses to specifically address topics in an original post or a previous comment. On this blog, the best example of commenting I've received on a post was from the Detroit Symphony, whose website I was highly critical of. Rather than e mail me and ask what business I had critiquing the website they had just spent a good chunk of change on ("who asked you?"), their Director of Marketing, John O'Dell, simply commented for all to read, "'Rome was not built in a day.' Stay tuned." He acknowledged that he was aware his website was being discussed and alluded to future developments. Their website still gives me a headache, but I am extremely impressed by their public relations.

Readers may remember specific posts of mine that may have offended some organizations. It's true, I've gotten my fair share of angry personal e mails. These e mails frustrate me, but not because the blog or I am being criticized. Quite the opposite, actually: I wish readers with concerns or differences of opinion would publish their comments, just as I put my opinions out onto the interweb every week. Here are some of my responses. I've cut and pasted but removed names.

Dear Record Label,
The issues you raise are interesting and important, and your perspective is obviously well-earned and quite valued in the industry. That being the case, I'm disappointed you didn't submit your thoughts as a blog comment and have asked that I keep your e mail between us. Should you change your mind, I would be thrilled to post your note on the blog in whole or in part.

Dear Presenter,
...Also - if you want to post any of this e mail as a comment to the post, it can be totally anonymous; only I see the e mail addresses.

Dear Publicist,
Thanks for your note and your phone call, though I'm disappointed you didn't post your thoughts as a comment! The point of the blog is to spark discussion about "behind the scenes" PR topics that no one has wanted to talk about in public (ironically enough), and I'm certainly happy to be argued with. So please feel free to post your e mail in its entirety.

To date, no one who has sent an angry e mail has agreed to post their angry e mail as a comment. What then, I wonder, do they think is accomplished from just communicating with me? Will I be wounded, take the post down, alter my writing in some way? Nope, but I will most likely be extremely interested in the contrary opinion, as, I imagine, would other readers. The only thing I really do with these e mails is respond with what I've pasted above and then forward them to the ArtsJournal editor, Douglas McLennan. I feel that since he asked me to be on his site and hosts my ramblings, he has the right to know that some people out there are unhappy with said ramblings. While I always click 'send' worried he's going to kick me off ArtsJournal, he inevitably writes back something like, "Great! People are reading and care about what you're saying!" OK then.

This personal e mailing is not limited to negative correspondence. I receive positive comments a few times a week; not just "I like this blog" notes or whatever (which are lovely, and thank you for those), but actual constructive thoughts about posts and comments, sent just to me. When I suggest they post their thoughts--even post their thoughts anonymously!--they shy away. Again, I am so glad you're reading and caring, but what am I supposed to do with your e mail? Know you're smart? Tell a friend about the insightful e mail I received?

I'm not trying to discourage extra-cir-blog-ular (if that wasn't so awkward I would copyright it) personal interaction, here. I enjoy corresponding offline with bloggers I don't necessarily know personally, and it's always a treat to meet them face-to-face eventually. The same goes for readers: when San Francisco-based publicist Karen Ames organized our publicist summit (i.e. six bottles of wine) last spring, I was so thrilled when Maura Lafferty, Marketing and PR Coordinator at New Century Chamber Orchestra, came and introduced herself. "Oh! You comment on the blog all the time!" I said, all the while thinking, "I'm glad you're a real person and not just my sister writing in under a pseudonym to make me feel better about myself." This wasn't someone who had ever contacted me directly, but I recognized her from the comments she made in the public forum. Conversely, though, there are people who have contacted me directly, never having commented, and I've enjoyed getting to know them as well. But most of them commented to say hello, not to offer private content commentary. The third slice of this is talking to people I already know about what I've written in the blog, the most terrifying recent example of this being when I got coffee with an editor last month and he mentioned looking forward to seeing my haircut. So blogging has become a way - like various social networks - of updating acquaintances without actually updating them. 

Where does this off-the-record vs. on-the-record culture leave us? Is anything accomplished by an anonymous comment? I understand that sometimes people's jobs prohibit them from slapping their personal opinion in a blog comment field, but if readers don't know where a commenter is coming from, how much can they value his or her opinion? I could be commenting on my own posts, for all anyone knows! And if a discussion that was started in a public forum is made private, who benefits? Two people? What conversation could be sparked and what progress could be made if those private discussions were submitted for public consumption?

Alright: this post will either get a lot or zero comments.

Update 9/3, 9:31am: Since posting this entry, I've received four private e mails about it.  There is one public comment.

Happy Friday! It's not raining and I actually have an interview to post!  This week we have Jaime Green, Literary Associate at MCC Theater in Manhattan and blogger of 5 years. Below she discusses why she started blogging, while she'll keep blogging, and whether or not There Will Be/Should Be Blood in the theater blogosphere. Err..."theatrosphere". Additionally, this marks the first mention of lolcats on this blog.


Jaime Green is a freelance theatre producer and dramaturg, as well as Literary Associate at MCC Theater.  She is Artistic Director of Temporary Theatre Company which, true to its name, is now in hibernation.  She often considers leaving theatre to teach/garden/become a nutritionist/have a podcast/hide under the covers, but it hasn't happened yet.  In addition to her blog, Surplus, she has written for Cheap Healthy Good and Program Notes, the blog of the National Performing Arts Convention.  She is a contributing writer to Spezzatino, and would sell a kidney to write for The Awl.


When and why did you start writing a blog?

I started writing a blog before they were even called blogs (at least that I know of).  In college some folks had "web journals," and I started one of my own, which I told no one about.  I spent more time teaching myself html and perfecting the layout that writing, but I did post one rather fine story about finding a spider in my dorm room.

I started Surplus in August of 2004.  I'd started reading some blogs in college, and this was the summer after graduation.  I was probably feeling the lack of writing and creativity in my desk-job life, but the conscious reason is in the title - I had (have) a lot of extra ("surplus" - aha!) stuff knocking around my head: daily anecdotes, thoughts, opinions on just about everything.  My friends were probably starting to get sick of it, and there was a free blog platform, and I suffer from the delusion that what I have to say is interesting.  


Who did you expect to read it?

I didn't really think about that at first, but I was hoping for a similar wide-ranging readership as the blogs that I read - personal blogs (oddly often parents') that were entertaining and engaging, little windows into people's lives.  The stuff that gives blogging its narcissistic bad name, but what actually makes it, to me, something special.  So, basically, I was hoping it would be read by strangers.  Millions and millions of strangers who were fascinated to read about this fake engagement ring I accidentally acquired.


Who ended up reading it?

Well, some strangers, but I've yet to break the millions-and-millions mark. Some friends, though not all of them.  Some people I know through the theatre world, which is always at once cool and totally terrifying.  The time an actor I know through work introduced me to someone as a blogger.  That was scary.  But also, "Wow, she reads my blog?"  My sister reads it, but I don't think my mother does.

What's the over-under on the number of "The Sun has Set" headlines we're going to see because of this? From the USA Today obituary for The New York Sun:

Many readers also found its arts section sophisticated and accessible.

Fair enough.

This I appreciate:
 

The old Sun was also known for its "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" column -- its response to an 1897 letter from an 8-year-old girl asking if there really was a Santa Claus.

My versions of Santa Clauses these days are the many talented bloggers who will carry/are carrying the torch.

On Fridays, I'll post interviews with folks far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, ArtsJournal's own Douglas McLennan on marketing your blog, the changing face (or platform) of journalism, and why the world doesn't need publicists - gah!

Douglas McLennan is an arts journalist, and the founder/editor of ArtsJournal.com, which just celebrated its ninth anniversary. He is also the director of the National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP), and speaks and writes frequently on issues in digital culture, the arts and journalism.








When did you start ArtsJournal?

The site launched September 13, 1999.


How many readers does the site get daily?

We probably have about 45,000 users every day.


Have you ever considered selling your newsletter list to arts presenters? I'll bet they've asked...

We have 33,000 newsletter subscribers, and it's a great list. I certainly have had requests to sell the list, but I'd never do that. I also get requests to have me send out messages to my list but I haven't done that either. But we offer advertising in the newsletters, and they've been really successful and most of our advertisers are repeat business.


What software do ArtsJournal bloggers use?

We use Movable Type Open Source. The whole site runs on it. I've hacked the code for the main site, but the blogs are pretty straightforward.


Would you recommend that platform to other bloggers? Why yes or no?

MT has been great. There's lots of flexibility and it's a very stable platform. I do wish it were even more configurable. I think blogs are a transitional form, and so the software needs to be ever more adaptable. So far, MT has been great at evolving. I'd definitely choose MT over Blogger. They're both free, but MT is much more flexible. I haven't played much with WordPress, but people love it and I like some of the modules they use. You can be up and using MT in about an hour and looking great, so it's not very difficult.


How do you/have you market(ed) ArtsJournal to the world-at-large? For example, when you launched the site, who did you reach out to?

I've never really done any marketing for AJ. When I launched the site, I sent emails to people I thought might be interested in it, but I haven't done anything more than that. It's really been word-of-mouth and links elsewhere on the web. One interesting thing is that many of our newsletter subscribers forget there's a website. They think of AJ as a newsletter. There's yet another group that gets AJ as an rss feed and another that sees it embedded in other websites. So about a year ago I stopped thinking of AJ as a website and more as a service. If I just think of it as a website, I'm missing a huge number of users who never see it that way.


What is your advice to new bloggers (not necessarily on ArtsJournal) on how to market/publicize their blogs?

I tell them to make sure they're listed in blog directories. I tell them to email all their friends and people/organizations whom they think might be interested. And I tell them that getting on as many blogrolls as possible helps their search engine rankings. Mostly, though,  I tell them that the way to get the biggest audience is to post as often as possible and to be consistent about it. If you post every day and then suddenly skip a week, you lose most of your readership. But you can post once a month and if you're consistent, you'll capture a set of readers. The big numbers though, go to bloggers who post often.


Do you think we'll reach a point where blogs/bloggers need publicists and/or marketing consultants? Advising them on where to advertise their blogs, advocating for them to other blogs and publications? Are we already there?

Interesting question. I actually think there's a revolution in thinking about marketing. I think you can't think about marketing in the usual way - it can't be all about just "selling" you something. We're mostly numb to those kinds of messages. I think the new marketing is about building communities around whatever it is you're trying to do and making it possible for that community to interact with one another through you. It isn't just about buying a ticket to this concert or that play. That's only part of it. The other part is making it possible for people who are attracted to whatever you're doing to interact with others who are interested in your work too. That's what helps make the experience really meaningful. Look - sell a ticket to somebody and they'll come to the concert and maybe never come back. Get them interested in the experience and the others who are there for it, and you've got a follower. I think there will be no need for publicists or pr people in the traditional sense. I think there will be big demand for people who think about audience relationships and strategies for how to build communities.


Who/What do you think is ArtsJournal's competition for readers? Other blogs? Or do you think ArtsJournal readers are primarily print newspaper readers? Do you send out reader surveys to collect demographic information?

That's a tough one. I don't really think about it at all. I see myself as a curator; someone who sifts through a large universe and picks things I think are important. I've never been driven by competing against anyone. I don't think AJ readers are primarily newspaper readers. I think they're people who are interested in culture in a larger context. I haven't done any demographic research but anecdotally I think I have a pretty good idea who the readers are. But I have to say, I don't really write the site with a firm idea of who the reader is. I choose things because they interest me.


When do you think newspapers will croak for good? At some point Jonny Greenwood or whomever is going to declare that Radiohead no longer wants to be reviewed in print because it's bad for the environment, and that will be the end, right?

I think there are already artists and arts organizations that have given up on newspapers. Hard to argue with their logic. I don't think newspapers will ever really go away. I do think that 2-3 years from now it will be the exception for local newspapers to have staff critics. They'll still run some form of writing about culture. But it won't mean much. Really a shame. I think newspapers have hurt themselves greatly by the ways they've come to think about arts coverage. There's a huge audience out there, but newspapers have pursued a dumb strategy when it comes to A&E coverage.


I feel like I came to the blog party circa five years late. Ah well. Are blogs over? Close to over? What will be the next big thing?

Blogs aren't over. But blogs don't have some magical property. Blogs are merely a quick publishing platform that allows the world to see what you write. They're like a pen is to paper - a tool that enables you to write. What you choose to do with it is entirely up to you. There are as many kinds of blogs as there are people. Some of the bigger blogs are starting to look more and more like traditional publications. Some traditional publications are looking more and more like blogs. Some are very journalistic. Many are like personal diaries.

What's next? I think there won't be a huge revolution. Changes will be incremental. Video, audio, collaborative. Etc. The next immediate thing is the explosion of mobile use and interactive multi-media. I think this will very much change the way we use the web today. It will make how we use the web/create for the web today seem like the Dark Ages. Any artist, arts organization or journalist who isn't thinking about the way mobile use is going to change things, is going to be left in the dust.


Final and most important question: who's your favorite ArtsJournal blogger? ((cough::cough))

Favorite, eh? You know me, I'm shy about offering my opinion...