Walking out of the studio the other night, I ran into a professional recording artist (who shall remain nameless) who told me that they had just gotten back from an all day conference centered around Branding in the Music Industry. Companies like Tiffany & Co. Black Berry, Sprint, different clothing lines as well as their record label were all said to be in attendance. They told me that they were asked questions by different companies about the importance of branding within the music industry and the affects of it. Of course I found this to be CBBlog gold and could not wait to share this info with you guys. There seem as if there was some branding analysis going on at the event as well, being that I was told that there was a picture of Beyonce projected on the screen during the conference accompanied by a few Blurbs which specific details are unknown to me but I can only assume they were under the context of branding.

Needless to say how apparent and necessary Branding is becoming within the entertainment industry excites me. Reason being is that I’ve been observing the importance of this from the early 2000’s and the difference in success and recognition from the entertainers who implemented this and the ones who did not, and it truly makes a vast difference.  It really separates a star from the rest to the fans and the industry, it creates tons more opportunities for  artistic outlets, partnerships, sponsorships and more. So taking the time out to learn how to brand yourself and to find the most fitting brand for you as an entertainer and implanting it properly can make all the difference in the world.

-Nu

Hey guys it’s been a while but CB Blog is back, and the 1st thing I would like to discuss is VOTE FOR ME!!!! :). You can be at ease I am not in a position requesting that you vote for me in some type of contest, but I did find it necessary to discuss a couple of ways to go about getting your followers to vote for you in the case that you might be in a competition that requires public votes to win. I can strongly relate to this concept, earlier this year my group Tha Boogie was chosen to be a part of the Rolling Stone Magazine Cover Contest, where they had chosen 16 bands from across the country & canada to compete to be the 1st unsigned band in history on the cover of the magazine. There is no question that we were totally stoked to have been chosen but then came the “VOTE FOR ME!!!!” kick we had to be on for months on end.

Timeline Etiqutte

The biggest hurdle to get over was the guilt or possibility of looking desperate asking your followers to cast their vote and pass on the word. We were a little nervous about filling our timelines on our social networking sites up with a ton of solicitations. Being that we our selves found it a bit distracting to see the same updates from a user, let alone ones constantly asking for support. Fortunately I have a cousin who specializes in online marketing who gave us some simple yet tremendous advice. She told us that promoting something with a soliciting purpose is never a bad thing, and you have to realize that even updates that do not mention any thing about a competition you are in continue to build the momentum you need from your followers to keep there attention during the times that you do mention said contest. So the moral of the time line story is to space out mentions of solicitation to your followers with genuine entertaining updates, that you should normally be doing on your social networking sites anyway. I would say that 60/40 is a good ratio the 60 being normal updates and the 40 being the solicitation updates. Remember your followers in your network do want to support you in your endeavors, so be sure you give the opportunity to do so.

Conserving Your Brand 

To follow the time line etiquette or some form of it is crucial in regards to conserving your brand in the midst of having to take on a promotions heavy endeavor. You want to avoid coming across as robotic or with a tone of constantly asking your followers for the same thing it quickly loses peoples interest, and that is sometimes hard to get back. You want to try to make sure that everything you stood for prior to something like you being a part of a competition remains through out. Whether it be really entertaining play by play daily ins and outs, our posting interesting art, music or articles (which I’m a big advocate of) to your social networking sites, be sure that these habits don’t get lost in the sauce per-say and that they still remain present to your followers. No matter what the circumstance people don’t want to feel like what initially caught their interest in you is no longer a factor to you, so just be mindful in maintaining all those things that make you cool and interesting.

Avoiding The Competition

Some people may feel like this article does not apply to them, because they would try to avoid being in such a constructed competition. Which I can’t say is a bad thing, the only thing I would say take in to consideration is that in entertainment we’ve have become subject to very competition based opportunities. When (and yes I’m gonna say it) American Idol first came on the air, artist and viewers alike did not see the contestants as talent who would have viable careers but boy were we proven wrong, with success stories like your Carrie Underwood’s & Kelly Clarkson’s who both achieved great heights as musicians after winning the competition based show that depends on the viewers picking the winner. In today’s market place it seems to matter very little how people were introduced to you or your talent but more so whether or not they recognize you, so for some avoiding this competitions maybe be a goal but American Idol has had a major affect on the entertainment industry and it’s major players, Rolling Stone Magazine for example who created a competition with a similar foundation based on their readers and website visitors votes. So at one time or another we may encounter great opportunities besieged by a constructed competition in our rise to the top on several occasions.

Vote For Me!!! Please Buy My…

Even if being able to avoid the traditional competition based opportunity, with in entertainment there will always come a time where you need to solicit something from your followers, whether it be merchandise, album purchases, concert, movie, or theatre/play tickets, there will undoubtedly be something, because the purpose of the entertainment industry is to literally attempt to entertain someone whether you consider that someone part of a small or large demographic. As an entertainer we need people’s interest, so even if you’re not asking someone to vote for you, maybe you need them to see that you’ve just release an EP, published an article, posted a new video on youtube, etc. Anything you are trying to direct traffic to you can use the timeline etiquette mentioned earlier to do so. This concept whether it be for a competition or not is to give you the tools to utilize your networks in the most beneficial way, for you and your followers. The people who follow and support you want to see you succeed, so it would not hurt to go about giving them the opportunity to do so in a cognizant way.

Nu

Today for the most part has been a really relaxed day for me, these type of days I like to call them Nu Days. Which will usually consist of very little TV, lots of twitter, Facebook, tumblr, youtube, and now researching how entertainers can brand themselves properly. So as I was sitting on my twitter timeline, I was inspired to post something about the difference between enticing and dull tweets. So as I was sitting down gearing to write something I remembered this article I had book marked on the Business Insider website called “10 Kinds of Tweets That Are Guaranteed Brand-Killers” by Rohin Guha I found this article to be very informative, and very Creative Brand Blog appropriate. I suggest reading the entire article, it is never too late to fine tune your tweets!

10 Kinds Of Tweets That Are Guaranteed Brand-Killers

By: Rohin Guha, Outspoken Media

[This is a guest post from Rohin Guha of Blue Phoenix Media. I met up with Rohin a few months back while in town for SES New York where we discussed pop culture, the days of Live Journal and the grammar mistakes that make our skin crawl. We are now linked for life. Today, Rohin stops by to talk about some dangerous tweet types killing your marketing strategy.]

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I’ve been doing a lot of research ever since commencing on this journey of bringing you information on how to brand yourself as an entertainer. There are surprisingly very few resources I came across that I could use here on CB Blog but one useful article I found discussed how to brand yourself online, which is something we all know in regards to the internet being the most vital tool in promoting yourself to the masses. The Article also touches on branding yourself offline as well. Although the piece is not specifically geared towards the entertainer it does touch some general basis of marketing and branding your self, take a gander of the article in full after the jump.

How to Brand Yourself Online – And Off

By: EKAHN

Whether you’re promoting a business or simply establishing your professional identity, branding is an essential step toward carving out your own unique niche in a crowded marketplace. But figuring out how to brand yourself is a different challenge altogether. With the Internet poised to completely overtake print worldwide, conventional wisdom holds that online promotions are the way to go. Yet focusing all of your energies in one place is sure to lead to a dead end, so here’s how to brand yourself both online and off to maximize your results.

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