New Carla & Ariel Video: Find Local Fans on Twitter

Here’s another great Musicians Roadmap to Facebook and Twitter Video from me and Ariel Hyatt!

Carla and Ariel’s NEW BOOK…the Intern’s Perspective

[One of the coolest things about working with Ariel Hyatt is having access to some of the brightest up and comers in the music biz, aka her interns!!! I am quite fortunate to have Miz Marissa Zaenger be my right hand and Community Coordinator this Spring 2011 semester. From the Chicago area, she graduates at the end of this year from Belmont University. She is smart as a whip, and teaching me how to delegate! Today, I proudly share a guest post of Marissa’s, which originally appeared on the Music Success in Nine Weeks blog]

Hey everyone! Guest blogger Marissa here. You may have seen me around on the Mastermind forum if you’re part of that crowd, but if not, I intern with Cyber PR and have Ariel and Carla as two pretty kick-butt bosses. I basically help manage artist campaigns, moderate the forum, and blog :]

Anyway, the Cyber PR office has seen some pretty exciting action this week. Ariel and Carla’s brand spankin’ new book, Musician’s Roadmap to Facebook and Twitter, is now available!! We’ve been processing book orders and shipping out like CRAZY. We had a big order come in for 20 books from Benji over at PledgeMusic, so we decided to have some fun and take pictures of ourselves packing the box. Check our hotness out.

Here’s Jason, Ariel’s right hand man. He’s the head honcho for us interns!

This lovely lady is Chereen, and she’s from Holland. That’s far, yo! She’s super nice and works hard for Cyber PR!


Kyle’s another awesome intern and a native New Yorker. He handles the long train ride from Harlem to Brooklyn pretty well. Probably because he gets to crack jokes with me all day ;]

And FINALLY, yours truly, keepin’ it real. Me! I’m from Chicago. Don’t let the funky leggings fool you, I clearly mean business.

A big thank you from all of us at Ariel Publicity to Benji at PledgeMusic! Everyone go check out PledgeMusic and see Musician’s Roadmap for yourself! Over and out! <3 Photo Credit: Kyle and Jason

Welcome Video for NOMEX Musician’s Roadmap

This week is the first week of the Nordic Music Export (NOMEX) Musician’s Roadmap Course for Social Media. The countries represented are Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, and it’s always a pleasure to work with musicians from outside of the US, as I appreciate their perspectives.

Similar to the Music Success in Nine Weeks Mastermind Forum, the Musician’s Roadmap Course is the private online course offered by Ariel Publicity for countries seeking to export their country’s music. As the moderator for this course, I answer questions, handle the day-to-day feedback, share resources, etc.

So this is the course’s Welcome Video with Ariel Hyatt and me. It was actually going fine before I censored myself at the end, but we got a good laugh out of it! 😉

Welcome NOMEX Musicians!

TAXI Road Rally 2010: Will You Be There??

At this very moment, I’m taking a quick break from editing my new book with Ariel Hyatt. Yeah, I know…I hadn’t mentioned it before now, but it kind of sprang up kinda suddenly 😉 We both had so much material on Facebook, Twitter and other social media how-to’s that we decided to launch a new book (more details forthcoming)!

Ariel and I will be attending TAXI Road Rally, an annual music business conference which takes place in Los Angeles, CA Nov 4-7th. Amidst the three exciting days of music workshops, Ariel will be speaking, and I’ll be mentoring on behalf of Ariel Publicity. We’ll be doing video interviews with musicians and other important people. And we’ll have our new book with us!

For the record, I haven’t been to LA in over 15 years (since I moved to NYC), and I am very excited about being there, and seeing friends.

But in the meantime, it’s back to work for me!

PS – Ariel and I will be hosting a tweet up on Sunday, Nov 7th. Leave a comment below if you want to RSVP, and I’ll follow up with you via your email address. Hope I get to see you!

Music Success in Nine Weeks by Ariel Hyatt – Week 1

My friend Ariel Hyatt has launched the 2nd edition of her Music Success in Nine Weeks book! To celebrate, she’s starting a new Blogging Challenge today, July 5th, which ends September 6th.

Although I’m one of the contest judges, I still couldn’t help creating my own blog for my upcoming Rock Star Life Lessons internet TV show! Music Success in Nine Weeks is an invaluable guide for any musician wanting to learn about social media, and I highly recommend it!

Check out Music Success in Nine Weeks by Ariel Hyatt

Take The Music Success in Nine Weeks Blogging Challenge!

To commemorate version 2.0 of her book, Music Success in Nine Weeks, Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity is launching a blogging contest.

Basically, you read her awesome book, Music Success in Nine Weeks, follow its 9 Week Program, and blog your results. The winner of the contest gets one full Headliner Cyber PR campaign from Ariel Publicity. This campaign is worth $1,595 and will get your music into the hands of bloggers, podcasters and online radio station DJs, plus it will help you organize your entire Social Media attack plan (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

And why am I blogging about this, you may ask. For one thing, I am a fan, friend, and affiliate of Ariel’s (You can read my in-depth review of her book). I believe in what she does to help musicians build their careers. I’m also a former client myself, in addition to being a moderator on her online forum.

Most importantly, I am also a JUDGE in this contest, so I’ll be checking out participating blogs.

The first round of musician bloggers has been listed. Judging closes March 10, 2010 – Good luck, Everyone!

Interview with Ariel Hyatt, Indie Music Publicist and Author of Music Success in Nine Weeks

The Rock Star Life Lessons Interview with Ariel Hyatt, Indie Music Publicist and Author of Music Success in Nine Weeks
by Carla Lynne Hall

Rock Star Life Lessons: How has your marketing yourself and your career changed in the last 5 years?
Ariel Hyatt: Wow – great question – it has changed radically…. Since the evolution of Social Media my own PR and marketing has shifted from making our promotion and marketing all about a one way conversation: Hey artists: We have been in business 12 years and look at our reputation! Coupled with the fact that I was very much in the background as the “pitcher” to the writers writing releases and telling a very one sided story using press releases and mail and phone call follow -ups.

Now the primary marketing tool that I employ my expertise and how I can share what I have learned being on the court to help musicians understand not only the value of social media but also how to do their own PR and Marketing. The more I share, the more Cyber PR seems to flourish because people buy from those that they like and trust and I have built up trust by sharing good ideas and having a two-way conversation in the musicians community in the form of blog posts, vodcasts and newsletters and well as real-life interaction by teaching workshops and bootcamps and paneling at music conferences.

RSLL: What is Cyber PR?
AH: Cyber PR is my online PR firm and we get musicians and authors featured on blogs, podcasts, Internet radio stations, and all over the Internet. We also help artists come up with a social media strategy that works in tandem with a marketing plan so they can take advantage of the new ways to build a fan base and a community online.

RSLL: What do musicians need to know about social networking and/or Web 2.0?
AH: Social media is a wonderful way to engage your fans, meet new people and use cool interactive technology to communicate BUT artists must realize that this is just one piece of the puzzle. The real money and profits comes out of having a strategy and setting goals and working towards them.

I see so many artists that have thousands and thousands of fans on MySpace and on Facebook and they are making no money. The reason is: no one comes to MySpace or Facebook with their credit cards out ready to buy music – they do that at iTunes and on Amazon – so there needs to be a strategy that gets engaged fans away from the cool Web 2.0 portals where we meet and chat and interact into an atmosphere where we are used to BUYING – Amazon, iTunes and live clubs are where fan pull money out of their pockets and buy so if you are only on MySpace and Facebook and you are frustrated about why you sold way less than you expected ask yourself: Where are you asking for money? and how are you asking for money? Is there a strategy behind your asking or are you forgetting to even put a plan into place around this? Or even worse are you forgetting to ask at all because asking for money means you are being too pushy and aggressive and you hate the idea of asking?

You need to look at the Internet just like you look at your telephone or your fax machine – its a way of communicating NOT a place where you just will magically make money without a strategy and some knowledge of how traditional marketing works and a willingness to employ real plans and actions.

RSLL: What are some of your latest product and service offerings for indie musicians?
AH: Aside from Cyber PR campaigns, My best selling product is my book that I released last year. It’s called Music Success in Nine Weeks and it is a Nine week program that helps artists do 3 things:

1. Build a bigger fanbase
2. Get more PR (via using Social Media)
3. Earn more money

The way I teach this is by taking artists through a process that helps them:

1. Laser focus their message so that potential fans can understand them
2. Start a two way engaging conversation with all fans
3. Capture vital information (email addresses)
4. Create a plan that is based on traditional marketing so that they are set up for making money

My book comes with a lifetime membership to my closed online forum (which in the interest of full disclosure I will say Carla helps me manage!) where artists can get direct coaching from me and Carla and get a plan in action with the support of other musicians.

You can buy the book here: http://www.cyberprbook.com

RSLL: What is one action a musician can take to build their music business?
AH: Being in control of your own mailing list and start a regular email newsletter and send it at least once a month! This has been the #1 technique that I have noticed works the most effectively for musicians.

RSLL: If you were starting all over today as a musician, what would you focus on?
AH: I was never a musician so this is a hard question but I would say I would focus on building a community of fans who are engaged and involved with me on a personal and authentic manner. The bands that I meet who are making the most money and having the most success during these weird and uncertain times are the ones who work really hard at knowing who their fans are and what they like, don’t like and what they will respond to. These artists also provide a steady stream of communication and music and opportunities to engage with fans – either online or offline.

Thanks Carla – it was fun being interviewed!

###

Ariel Publicity was founded 12 years ago, and has since represented over 1,400 artists. The publicity game has changed radically over the last few years, so the company went 100% digital to accommodate the new landscape in January of 2007. Cyber PR is currently handling campaigns for artists of all genres and at all levels of their careers.

Ariel’s bi-weekly ezine “Sound Advice” has over 6,000 musicians and music professional subscribers. Her first book, Music Success in Nine Weeks, came out in June 2008. She is a contributing blogger to New Music Ideas and Music Think Tank and her articles have been featured in the Discmakers and ASCAP online newsletters. Ariel Publicity also offers Band Letter, a musician’s newsletter service to handle fan outreach.

Ariel has spoken at dozens of music conferences including SXSW, The Philly Music Conference, NEMO, The East Coast Music Awards, OCFF, & Les Rencontres (Canada), A2A (Amsterdam), CMJ, BMI Music Panel Series, and The Connective Panel Series.

Ariel’s Websites:
Ariel’s Blog
Ariel Publicity on Twitter
Ariel Publicity on MySpace
Ariel Publicity on Facebook

Ariel’s Products and Services:
Ariel’s eBook: Music Success in Nine Weeks
Cyber PR Campaigns
Band Letter Newsletter Services
Review You