‘Who in the world isn’t on Facebook?’

Check out these quotes from a recent CNN.com article that posed this question.  For the full text click here:

On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the site hit a half-billion active users.

That’s nearly five times as many people as watched this year’s Super Bowl — the most popular television broadcast ever — and about four times as many people as voted in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

People spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on the site and, according to Facebook, 400 million of them have logged in during the past month. Keep in mind there are only 309 million people in the United States — total.

So who isn’t using Facebook?

“It’s people who are not computer users — either really young or really old and for whom using technology just isn’t a part of their daily lives,” Smith said. “For people who do rely on technology, Facebook has just really become a common way to function and get a lot of normal things done.”

So what does this mean to you?

Maybe you don’t care about Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Digg.  It can all sound a bit overwhelming trying to keep up with what ‘everybody else’ is posting and why you need to jump on the bandwagon.

If you want to succeed as a performer of ANY genre and don’t have a GOOD website and significant presence on at least Facebook or YouTube you’re fooling yourself. The more people are looking at you the more people will talk about you.  And when you meet with an agent or record label or whatever, regardless of how great your talent is, guess where they’re going to look as soon as you walk out the door?  Google.

They’re going to look you up online and the less they find, the less leverage you have to make them pay attention.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are free advertising.

It’s stupid to assume that everyone on Facebook will see your page but it’s also ridiculous to think that ‘holding off for now’ is helping you in any way.

Let’s keep in mind that DeBeers doesn’t flood the market with diamonds.  Having 30 mediocre YouTube videos can be just as damaging as having none.  Learning that less is more and having a sense of discernment is something we don’t have the space or time to get into.

Moral of the story is:  If you’re a performer and you’re not using the Internet effectively you’re not serious about your career.  If you’re afraid or ignorant of how to play the internet game, there are people you can hire to help you.

Gordon Ogden is the best there is when it comes to maximizing your social media and web strategy.  Read his post here.

Can’t afford to hire anybody?  Buy a book or Google it and learn it yourself.  It’s pretty easy.

Need a website? Check out Femath Media www.femath.com, they did mine.

Instead of asking ‘why should I’ maybe the question is ‘what do I have to gain?’.

The answer?  Everything.

If you already have a website: Is anybody visiting?  Find out for free by using Google Analytics.  It tells you how many people are visiting your website and how long they stay on each page as well as how they found you.  No good having a lemonade stand if nobody’s thirsty.  Your site must evolve to engage your fans in new and exciting ways.

Go get it.

Kahlil (at) Gigsmacked (dot) com

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This content originally appeared on Mashable.com.   Thanks to Samuel Axon for the footwork!

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Name: Headliner.fm

Quick Pitch: Headliner is a real-time social media recommendation exchange for artists and bands.

Genius Idea: It’s tough for an upstart band to make it big, and since all you young musicians are in roughly the same boat, so why not work together? Headliner.fm makes that happen by helping bands promote one another on their Twitter,Facebook and MySpace profiles.

When you sign your band up at Headliner.fm, you’re given a number of “Band Bucks” proportionate to your social media presence — the more followers you have on Twitter, for example, the more Band Bucks you’ll get. You can use those Band Bucks to request that other bands give you a quick shout-out on their social media accounts.

Each time you give another band a shout-out (you can do three per day) you’re given more Band Bucks. This video explains the basic concept.

headliner.fm Sizzle Reel from headliner.fm on Vimeo.

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Bands have to accept promotion requests from other bands, so you can control what kinds of shout-outs are hitting your feeds. Once you accept, Headliner.fm automatically handles the scheduling and the posting — just in case you might forget to do it yourself. You can also get band bucks for inviting other artists to join the site.

Headliner.fm offers analytics tools so you can track how much of an impact your promotions are making. Be smart about the bands you do promotions with by targeting audiences you think would also be interested in your music. For example, it’s probably a safe assumption that Diddy’s feeds aren’t the optimal place to promote your old-fashioned Bluegrass band.

Speaking of Diddy, there are a few big artists on the site, including Travie McCoy and The Hives. Most of the thousands of members are smaller groups, though.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Jan_Kowalski

Another tool you can use to erase the excuses and start doin gigs.  Go make it happen!   -Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

I’ve been performing onstage professionally (getting paid for it) since 1988.   I’ve performed through hail, thunderstorms, hecklers, lightning, threat of sniper fire, diarrhea, and power outages.  Nothing phases me when it comes to performing.

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Except when I suck.  When I have a bad show it completely ruins my day.  And my week.  Instead of honoring my tradition of shaking everyone’s hand as they leave the theatre I just duck into the dressing room and hide, stewing in the countless number of mistakes I made that night, mistakes the audience would never know existed.  I wanted to figure out how to get over the disappointment of what I saw as shortchanging the audience.

And then came the World Cup.

I happen to be a huge Brazil fan.  When I heard that Ronaldinho was not selected for the Brazilian national team I couldn’t believe it.  This guy was the FIFA player of the year, had millions in endorsement deals, and is easily one of the most talented footballers on the planet.  So why didn’t he get the call to represent his country?  He had a bad season.  Actually he’s had a few.

Lionel Messi, the 5′2″ Argentinean dynamo who has captured the imaginations of futbol fans around the world with 47 goals in one season, had a terrible World Cup.

How many goals did he score in the World Cup? Zero.

If athletes playing the most popular sport in the world on the biggest stage can have a crappy showing then why was I beating myself up about forgetting lines and character transitions?

Ever had a bad night on stage?  How did you recover?  Comment below with your experiences and advice.

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See you at the 2014 World Cup.  Brazil Baby!