your new friends

‘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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