Music Marketing Challenge Series #1: Step 1 - Prep

[john]

Hi Gang

 

I recently posted up a music marketing challenge invite to members to enrol in a series of challenges intended to help them improve their music marketing skills. Below I have included a summary of key points from the other topic.

 

Underneath the list of participants, below the green line, you will find the first task.

 

My Music Isn't Ready Yet

 

I absolutely encourage you to get recording, but I do appreciate that not having a catalog of songs might mean missing out on the practical application of challenges until the point you are ready.

 

You can always apply the challenges at the right time for you. While you wait, why not choose to help other artists as we go so you can try the challenges out as they are released? It would help that artist and give you a ready made vehicle to start building your own experience.

 

if you don't want to pick an artist then why not help with  promoting Songstuff? While it is not the same as promoting an artist, a number of key sklls are the same or very similar. Plus you get a warm fuzzy feeling when you help the community.

 

3 Questions

 

I asked you to ask yourself these questions:

 

1. How many fans do you have? Not social media likes, comments or shares. Remove family and friends who are fans of you, not your music. I mean actual, real FANS.
2. When you do your next release, how many new fans do you expect to have after 6 weeks?
3. Do you know what to do to get better results?

 

Please answer these questions in reply to this topic. It's not compulsory. yet the better informed I am about you, the better I can tailor any advice.

 

Definition Of Fans

 

Potential Listeners - These are people you have identified as potential listeners from the general population. They are typically cold prospects

Casual Listeners - Listeners potential fans Can be cold, warm or hot.

Followers - These are listeners who keep up with the band, but they are not yet buyers of your products. They can be cold, warm or hot. They are likely to be mailing list subscribers.

Fans - Followers who have previously bought (or at least bought into) your products. Fans can be dormant, warm or hot. Members of your mailing list.

Super Fans - Super hot fans who buy all your products, go to as many gigs as they can, absolute ambassadors, try to meet you, even follow you on tour.

 

Time

 

Not having enough time is a common concern. There is certainly a balance to be had.

 

If you don't take build your audience you can spend a load of time creating masterpieces for them to remain unappreciated, unenjoyed, unknown, forgotten. Forever.

 

Understanding is useful for the longer term, but if you can get on with "doing" right away, you can gradually evolve your understanding. You can also reduce how much time you spend on martketing and promotion if minimise the overheads using tools, templates and process to smooth the ride.

 

Strategically working with selected other artists you can reduce the load further. By specialising and sharing workloads you can also find ways to improve how efficient you are.

 

Approach

 

In this challenge series I am preparing "execution plans", step by step guides to help you cut through all the info. In other words, focus on getting the benefits before anything else.

 

We plan on releasing courses and ebooks to go further into the subject and to explain more about why some tasks are needed or needed in that format. Execution plans will help you to get started. Understanding will ultimately enable you to go much further.

 

We will have a few challenges focused on creating marketing assets, from bios and press kits to press releases. You can work on those projects preparing for when your tracks are ready.

 

No matter your image, or an anti-image, you still need the assets, the photos, and the artwork. You will still need to have them ready to use. Delaying campaigns while you go make them can cause critical delays.

 

So much of music marketing is about getting your ducks in a row.

 

The Big Analogy

 

Think of Music Marketing like a music performance:

• You wrote the piece to be performed.
• Each performer/instrument is an account or place where you can promote.
• The notes they play is the implementation of a marketing tactic
• When you start, you are a solo player.
• Gradually, you add more performers. For that to be effective, they need to play their part, at the right time, at the right speed and the right volume, with the right feel... 
• To act as individuals where they do their own thing, can actually work against you. Unreliable can be very unhelpful 
• So all performers work together towards a whole, a master arrangement
• When you have a lot of performers, it can sometimes be best to have a conductor to make sure you all sync correctly.

Point is, you start simple and build. 
 

Most indies are solo performers, in the analogy above, or they have a small number of very loosely organised performers. Each has a basic tune to play but they all love improvising.

 

The thing is, without the master arrangement, without discipline, and some form of coordination... all  you get is a cacophony of noise. The difference between the racket of an orchestra tuning up versus the beautiful symphonies they play.

 

You get the idea.

 

The Plan

 

My plan is to cover the following areas...

 

Assets:

• Artist Profiles
• Bio (in a bit more detail)
• Press Kits
• Press Releases
• Blogs
• Social Media Profiles
• Mailing Lists

 

I cover all of the above (and much more) in a a lot of detail in our courses but I will cover some essentials and hope to get you considering more of what you do and how you do it as well as adjusting your thinking to get better results. Just like music, detail makes a huge difference.

 

I will be covering:

• A very basic release plan
• Simple promotion plan
• Some forum promotion tactics
• Some social media promotion tactics (main networks)
• Music press & Music bloggers
• Writing copy
• Metrics
• Music sales
• Livestreams
• Team work, collaboration and cooperation
• Building and caring for your fanbase
• more...

 

Where i don't cover all of a topic I still hope to give you an appreciation and understanding of what they bring to the party.

 

I am open to suggestions for things you would like to be cover. I will see if there is a way to work it in.

 

Participants

 

If you are interested please leave a reply saying that you want to be included. I intend to add "enrolled" members to posts in the series to try and make sure that they don't miss any of the topics.

 

Music Marketing Challengers

@Cody

@Danidog

@Peggy

@geographyhorse

 

Possible Music Marketing Challengers

@Richard Watashi

@Mahesh

 

 

Do you know other artists that would benefit from these challenges? Please invite them.

 

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Task #1

 

It is not enough to "kinda feel" things have improved. It's better to measure it where we can. This is commonly called Metrics.

 

To measure improvement you first have to know where you are starting from. For that reason the first, and deeply unglamorous task is a stock take. You can keep numbers to yourself, however I go back to: the more information I have, the more I can help you specifically with more accurate advice.

 

Create a list of assets:

 

• Websites (your own music site, Online Music Distributors like SoundCloud, Reverbnation that allow you to have an artist page)
  • Number if visitors your page gets (if available)
  • Number of songs
  • Number of plays for each song
• Social media accounts (not personal, ones dedicated to you as an artist)
  • Number if visitors your page gets (if available)
  • Engagement figures
    • Number of likes
    • Number of comments
    • Number of shares
  • Number of followers
• Blogs dedicated to your music
  • Number if visitors your page gets (if available)
  • Number of subscribers
  • Number of plays for each song
• YouTube Channel
  • Number if visitors your page gets (if available)
  • Number of songs
  • Number of plays for each song
  • Engagement figures
    • Number of likes
    • Number of comments
    • Number of shares
  • Number of followers

 

Do you have:

 

• A team of helpers
  • If so how many?
  • Rate their Music Marketing skills out of 10
• Biographies
• A press kit
• A portfolio of photos
• A list of fans (not social media followers)
• A Street Team / Online Street Team
  • If so how many?
  • Rate their Music Marketing skills out of 10

 

Do you use:

 

• A release process (if so what is it?)
• Press releases
• A list of:
  • Music Press
  • Music Bloggers and/or Music Blogs
  • Playlists and/or Playlist Curators
• Metrics
  • Who/what do you use?
• A mailing list
  • If so, how many are on your list?
  • How often to send messages
  • Can you send automated sequences of messages?
• A method of automated communication?
  • If so, what?

 

Currently, what is your most reliable method of communicating with your fans?

 

When did you last have music available for sale? What were your final numbers?

 

I won't go into radio airplay or real world gigs and promotion here.

 

 

[Cody]

3 hours ago, john said:

 

3 Questions

 

I asked you to ask yourself these questions:

 

1. How many fans do you have? Not social media likes, comments or shares. Remove family and friends who are fans of you, not your music. I mean actual, real FANS.
2. When you do your next release, how many new fans do you expect to have after 6 weeks?
3. Do you know what to do to get better results?

 

 

 

 

 

1. 3, maybe 5, for sure under 10  

2.  3, maybe 5, for sure under 10, but may drop significantly  

3.  absolutely not.

 

I do already know of a ton of things I "could" be doing.  Could actually set up a music profile, could even group together the recordings I do have in a somewhat cohesive manner as opposed to just being randomly chucked out on various music sharing sites, under various names.  Have always just used the internet for an archive, or a place I could link someone to an individual song for.  I do have a webstite, that is and has been under construction check back soon for a few years  should actually look and see how long I have left on that domain, and possibly do something with it. An idea I "borrowed" from somewhere  business cards with a QR code, but really no point when there's nowhere to send them to hahah.  

 

Soundcloud only thing I've really been using recently

songs usually get 3, maybe 5, or usually around 10 listens   hmmmm up to almost 200  total song listens in the last 24 hrs  wonder what that's all about. There's 31 tracks there, all done last few months, all definitely WIP's , could probably scrape up 150-200 different tunes just from various music share sites, some of them could be good, some need completely thrown away, probably plenty I've forgotten about.  My biggest issue in that lies anytime I try to fix/finish whatever my last stream of consciousness write was I'm moving onto the next one.....rarely keep a thought held onto long enough to do much with it  but I'm not here for mental health help.  About the only thing in your lists I do have, no social media, etc......I make a pretty good one man street-team, never had any real issues promoting myself that way, just difficult when stuck in The literal middle of nowhere...........Oklahoma means in Cherokee the infected pimple in the armpit of the universe  hahaha no it doesn't, but it should!

 

 

edit: but yeah I've sent a few people to....well you're other thread on the subject, would be best for me to just play along for now......I should have a least an EP in the next month, two tops, I'll go from there.  So anybody wants some help, sign me up for your online street team  

[john]

I moved Some replies into this thread as they wandered away from the thread topic by some way. For anyone interested in following the discussion, I created a new topic here:

 

 

It shows Patchez as the topic author as his was the first post. It’s an interesting topic, but largely not music marketing.

[geographyhorse]

On 7/6/2020 at 8:41 AM, john said:

 

3 Questions

 

I asked you to ask yourself these questions:

 

1. How many fans do you have? Not social media likes, comments or shares. Remove family and friends who are fans of you, not your music. I mean actual, real FANS.
2. When you do your next release, how many new fans do you expect to have after 6 weeks?
3. Do you know what to do to get better results?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. It's hard to tell, but just looking at repeat listeners on Soundcloud etc. that are regularly active, I'd guess around 45 or so. I'm regularly pulling over a thousand plays a month (about to hit 20,000 total plays by the end of this month) on Soundcloud, but the vast majority of those are not repeat listens.

 

I'm starting to slowly build some engagement on YouTube and have 29 followers with most songs hovering between 30 and 50 plays, however, We Will Fight and Defeat These Bulbous Spheres with Their Tiny Little Crowns hit 3000 plays. Again, I'd say only less than 30 people are regular listeners.

 

I have only about 7 active listeners on Spotify with about 30 listens a month. 

 

Although their real metrics are a bit of mystery, somebody is regularly listening on pandora cuz they keep sending me a few cents every month. 😂😂😂

 

Ditto with Apple music, there's one lonely listener that plays a couple songs a month. I love you whomever you are. 😂😂😂

 

2. It's hard to really gage, but most of my YouTube engagement came from the last release. So, I'd say a conservative guess is that each release is pulling in 30 or so new active listeners each time. 

3. I've gotten some instant boosts just by sifting through some of my top engagers and dropping a simple hello and how are you doing? 

The only social media I'm having any regular success with is Instagram for some reason so I'm probably going to double down on Soundcloud, YouTube and Instagram for future success. I'm an eclectic and niche artist so being able to engage potential fans is of the upmost importance it seems. They seem to enjoy short, quirky engagements. 

 

So.... game plan for future success

 

1.) Engage, engage, engage.... my fans don't like chatty kathy, but they do like being acknowledged 

 

2.) Keep it weird. My fans obviously chose me cuz I'm different, so I need to stay that way. I'm going to launch snail cam in the next month with its own soundtrack. I'm also in discussions with a photographer to get some shots/ create a character so expect the results from that soon. I'm going for a man of contradictions. Am I a dumb, belligerent hillbilly or an aging philosopher? Am I yet another simulacrum of banality or an artist? Am I out of my mind or way more engaged with the real than most people around me? Obviously, expect the character to be weird. 

 

3.) Keep trying to net reviews/ blog shares.  I've been featured in 5 or 6 blogs and reposted in a few playlists now. I'm also going to be promoted on one of Soundcloud's official playlists in a day or two here,  so that's great news. 😜

 

Let me know if you have any ideas on what can tweaked in this game plan?

[Danidog]

On 7/6/2020 at 9:41 AM, john said:

• How many fans do you have? Not social media likes, comments or shares. Remove family and friends who are fans of you, not your music. I mean actual, real FANS.
• When you do your next release, how many new fans do you expect to have after 6 weeks?
• Do you know what to do to get better results?

I'm starting at absolute ground zero (somewhere down in the basement, probably).

1. No fans (for at least a decade).

2. I don't know enough about social media to have any expectations post-release, but will assign an arbitrary number of 100 to have a goal to work toward.

3. Reading geographyhorse's reply gives me an Idea of where I need to start (thank you, geo).

 

I will be progressing forward a bit slower than most with the task related efforts required, but I will be plodding forward. I'm getting started on an IG and fb account, and starting to look at platforms other than SC, and working on several songs I had previously only recorded snippets of. I suspect I may need to settle into a chosen genre to build a fan base instead of using a shotgun blast method and hoping something will stick. Portfolio will need to wait until I look alive, I think .

Any suggestions, feel free, thanks.

 

[john]

@Peggy @Mahesh @Richard Watashi?

[Mahesh]

Thanks for tagging me John. Happy to be part of this. Let me start off with some stats.

 

Instagram: 3137

     - Avg engagement per week : 1392

     - Avg impressions per week: 9399

 

Spotify: 3183

     - Monthly Listens: 4.8k

 

Facebook Page: 3273

     - Avg engagement per post: 1.1k - 1.5k

 

Twitter: 259

 

Youtube: 981

     - Monthly views: 330

     - Monthly engagement: 4.7k

 

Do you have:

• A team of helpers : 3-4
• Biographies : Yes
• A press kit : Yes
• A portfolio of photos: Yes
• A list of fans (not social media followers) : Needs work.

 

Also, I do need to build an effective mailing list and work on a strategy for continued content. There are a lot of ideas but I've been meaning to handle my days better with so many things being worked on, on so many fronts! Glad to formulate some of that here.  I'll add more info soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GREEN BOY 14]

Hi, i don't really have too much fans, I mean, I think maybe 30 fans lmao, but, I'm good wit dat, Im just tryin to improve my level and if u can help me listen my music and tell me wat do u think could be awesome. anyway, thanks for the information that u gave us, and I tryin to have does ideas on my mind to improve. I don't really use too much my social medias, cuz I don't know, haha, but, maybe is time to use it. there's my Soundcloud channel if someone wanna listen my and tell my wat do u think.

 thanks fam.

 

THANKS

 

SQ

 

GREEN BOY

 

GREEN HOUSE

[john]

Many thanks guys.

 

I will go through each just to leave a comment. @Peggy you mentioned elsewhere that you were going to take part in the challenge, are you still interested? @Richard Watashi as you haven't responded at all I am guessing it isn't something you want to do.

 

Ok, a quick run through where each of you are at....

[john]

On 7/6/2020 at 2:41 PM, john said:

• How many fans do you have? Not social media likes, comments or shares. Remove family and friends who are fans of you, not your music. I mean actual, real FANS.
• When you do your next release, how many new fans do you expect to have after 6 weeks?
• Do you know what to do to get better results?

 

On 7/6/2020 at 3:03 PM, Patchez said:

1) None, and won't be having any I am sure, (as discussed)

2) When "musicating", every 3 - 5 days. Time between musication, 4 - 8 weeks. Pending on "release" demo, daily, finished, finished a year later -- if not deleted. 

3) No. 

 

1) well, you never know. Musically, I don't see why not...

2) When you release a song, where how do you release? For example, on Soundcloud, Reverbnation? An mp3 file uploaded on a forum? Or are we talking released through an OMD and then on to iTunes, Googleplay, Youtube etc?

3) ok, we can do something aout that.

[john]

On 7/6/2020 at 3:03 PM, Patchez said:

 -- How to handle alias', who what where why and how and why, why-not, is it a problem, is it in the long run better to do from day-one? What are the risks on social media or online today? How many "Pro's" use their real names, addresses and life situations? How many "Pro's" do not, and then what?

 

In essence you are setting up a brand identity. At it's simplest, on a business level, you become a sole trader and the brand name is your artist name. John Moxey trading as Big Bad John is essentially the same idea as John Moxey trading as Tommy Truman. As you progress as a business it normally becomes a limited company or limited partnership or other business entity that protects personal assets.

 

Brand wise the name is normally picked for it's memorability and where possible it's ability to stand out and get attention. It's also a useful step when you want to re-invent yourself, to draw a line. That was then THIS IS NOW. Usually That was then gets buried. Sometimes it is a permutation of their real name. For example Justin Randall Timberlake, originallly performed as Justin Randall, then later as Justin Timberlake. Often artists use aliteration as a simple mechanism to aid memorability and occasionally to help it stand out.

 

Another reason alias are used is to disassociate or to associate. Often it is cultural. Lana del Ray played a lot in Miami and wanted a name that would fit. Bruno Mars wanted a name that didn't sound Cuban. Sometimes it's to avoid connection with an existing star who is a relative or it's their nickname. A common reason is to simplify their name. To sound more cool is also a big motivator (ask Reginald Dwight).

 

Probably the most common is... you only get so many bites at the cherry. Often only one. Yet artists can try over and over again. The trouble is their failed name is toxic. Their previous image failed too. So they reinvent themselves and sometimes that means a different name.

 

David Bowie was interesting. His real name and previous artist name was David Jones. I tink he played under other names too, but of course he publicly changed his name to David Bowie. Yet he also created an on-stage personna as Ziggy Stardust, which he used as a liberating personna that allowed him to experiment more wildly.

 

So there are many and mixed motivations, realised in different brand and business ways. Advantages vary.

[john]

On 7/6/2020 at 2:41 PM, john said:

• How many fans do you have? Not social media likes, comments or shares. Remove family and friends who are fans of you, not your music. I mean actual, real FANS.
• When you do your next release, how many new fans do you expect to have after 6 weeks?
• Do you know what to do to get better results?

 

On 7/6/2020 at 6:00 PM, Cody said:

1. 3, maybe 5, for sure under 10  

2.  3, maybe 5, for sure under 10, but may drop significantly  

3.  absolutely not.

 

1. ok, we can improve on that!

2. Confidence. that's what we like lol

3. Loads of room to improve bud

[john]

On 7/6/2020 at 2:41 PM, john said:

• How many fans do you have? Not social media likes, comments or shares. Remove family and friends who are fans of you, not your music. I mean actual, real FANS.
• When you do your next release, how many new fans do you expect to have after 6 weeks?
• Do you know what to do to get better results?

 

On 7/8/2020 at 2:58 PM, geographyhorse said:

1. It's hard to tell, but just looking at repeat listeners on Soundcloud etc. that are regularly active, I'd guess around 45 or so. I'm regularly pulling over a thousand plays a month (about to hit 20,000 total plays by the end of this month) on Soundcloud, but the vast majority of those are not repeat listens.

 

I'm starting to slowly build some engagement on YouTube and have 29 followers with most songs hovering between 30 and 50 plays, however, We Will Fight and Defeat These Bulbous Spheres with Their Tiny Little Crowns hit 3000 plays. Again, I'd say only less than 30 people are regular listeners.

 

I have only about 7 active listeners on Spotify with about 30 listens a month. 

 

Although their real metrics are a bit of mystery, somebody is regularly listening on pandora cuz they keep sending me a few cents every month. 😂😂😂

 

Ditto with Apple music, there's one lonely listener that plays a couple songs a month. I love you whomever you are. 😂😂😂

 

2. It's hard to really gage, but most of my YouTube engagement came from the last release. So, I'd say a conservative guess is that each release is pulling in 30 or so new active listeners each time. 

3. I've gotten some instant boosts just by sifting through some of my top engagers and dropping a simple hello and how are you doing? 

The only social media I'm having any regular success with is Instagram for some reason so I'm probably going to double down on Soundcloud, YouTube and Instagram for future success. I'm an eclectic and niche artist so being able to engage potential fans is of the upmost importance it seems. They seem to enjoy short, quirky engagements. 

 

So.... game plan for future success

 

1.) Engage, engage, engage.... my fans don't like chatty kathy, but they do like being acknowledged 

 

2.) Keep it weird. My fans obviously chose me cuz I'm different, so I need to stay that way. I'm going to launch snail cam in the next month with its own soundtrack. I'm also in discussions with a photographer to get some shots/ create a character so expect the results from that soon. I'm going for a man of contradictions. Am I a dumb, belligerent hillbilly or an aging philosopher? Am I yet another simulacrum of banality or an artist? Am I out of my mind or way more engaged with the real than most people around me? Obviously, expect the character to be weird. 

 

3.) Keep trying to net reviews/ blog shares.  I've been featured in 5 or 6 blogs and reposted in a few playlists now. I'm also going to be promoted on one of Soundcloud's official playlists in a day or two here,  so that's great news. 😜

 

Let me know if you have any ideas on what can tweaked in this game plan?

 

1. 45 or so.. it's a start

2. +30 per release

3. You have some rough ideas. We need to have a definite strategy and something that includes core activity and a retention plan... ie something to enage and add new fans, and something to keep existing fans happy

 

[john]

On 7/6/2020 at 2:41 PM, john said:

• How many fans do you have? Not social media likes, comments or shares. Remove family and friends who are fans of you, not your music. I mean actual, real FANS.
• When you do your next release, how many new fans do you expect to have after 6 weeks?
• Do you know what to do to get better results?

 

On 7/9/2020 at 1:12 PM, Danidog said:

1. No fans (for at least a decade).

2. I don't know enough about social media to have any expectations post-release, but will assign an arbitrary number of 100 to have a goal to work toward.

3. Reading geographyhorse's reply gives me an Idea of where I need to start (thank you, geo).

 

1. Okay, well anything is an improvement...you have a blank slate to define and/or re-invent your image

2. It's a good idea to set a goal to measure against. If we do it right, you might be surprised.

3. okay

[john]

On 7/6/2020 at 2:41 PM, john said:

• How many fans do you have? Not social media likes, comments or shares. Remove family and friends who are fans of you, not your music. I mean actual, real FANS.
• When you do your next release, how many new fans do you expect to have after 6 weeks?
• Do you know what to do to get better results?

 

 

On 7/10/2020 at 4:56 PM, Mahesh said:

Thanks for tagging me John. Happy to be part of this. Let me start off with some stats.

 

Instagram: 3137

     - Avg engagement per week : 1392

     - Avg impressions per week: 9399

 

Spotify: 3183

     - Monthly Listens: 4.8k

 

Facebook Page: 3273

     - Avg engagement per post: 1.1k - 1.5k

 

Twitter: 259

 

Youtube: 981

     - Monthly views: 330

     - Monthly engagement: 4.7k

 

Do you have:

• A team of helpers : 3-4
• Biographies : Yes
• A press kit : Yes
• A portfolio of photos: Yes
• A list of fans (not social media followers) : Needs work.

 

Also, I do need to build an effective mailing list and work on a strategy for continued content. There are a lot of ideas but I've been meaning to handle my days better with so many things being worked on, on so many fronts! Glad to formulate some of that here.  I'll add more info soon.

 

 

No worries Mahesh

 

1. A great break down of your stats. How many on your mailing list?

2. You don't mention expectation...

3. At least you have some ideas. Yes you could do with adding a number of elements you don't have, but need to prioritise and start checking things off as "done" and in-place.

[john]

On 7/10/2020 at 6:12 PM, GREEN BOY 14 said:

Hi, i don't really have too much fans, I mean, I think maybe 30 fans lmao, but, I'm good wit dat, Im just tryin to improve my level and if u can help me listen my music and tell me wat do u think could be awesome. anyway, thanks for the information that u gave us, and I tryin to have does ideas on my mind to improve. I don't really use too much my social medias, cuz I don't know, haha, but, maybe is time to use it. there's my Soundcloud channel if someone wanna listen my and tell my wat do u think.

 thanks fam.

 

THANKS

 

SQ

 

GREEN BOY

 

GREEN HOUSE

 

It sounds like you are looking for critique, not a marketing challenge? In which case, post to the critique board. Please read the rules to understand what is expected Good luck!

[john]

Many thanks guys. You've given me a reasonable idea of where you are at.

 

next steps would be to put together some basics that you will use many times over... your bios, your photos, your logos, your artwork etc. I will start a new topic to kick that off

[john]

Here's a link to the next topic, basic assets:
 

 

 

[john]

1 minute ago, Patchez said:

Not mentioned, and may not be a concern, nevertheless, -- the autoplay feature on soundcloud, to be certain one person for some reason kept playing and on next unless clicked stop, -- many plays there were not plays. I've hear folks complaining that their stats don't match their "experience" with folks they are interacting with. And, so, not just SC, but even Facebook had a known issue of timing a pop up and cause a click and not a "real" one. So for folks who like "stats", statistically speaking are they real?, over inflated by 10, 15, 60%? Just a thought. 

In some instances in which I engage, if I had a "page" count of original fist time hits, or "come back bus" -- I'd have a, more clear, idea. However, too, as with any of my "stuff', it is project specific. I can "get numbers". But, I say so what? Like the Facebook falacy of the "follow me trains"... 1500 friends and I'll follow you if you follow me and if I post you click and I'll click too, -- really, ? so what? Sales? $? Usable feedback or network leads of any meaning? 

 -- Well, just some flow of thought, if even redundant, again  hahhh! 
 

 

You are right to highlight the issue of quality of page views. The quality of views on OMDs is poor overall. Between "I like you so you like me" kind of interactions, accidental run ons and autoplays, figures are heavily unreliable... and the key to building a genuine following is genuine figures, and at least the acknowledgement of the realism of what figures really mean.

 

Social media figure also cannot be thought of as fans. "possibly interested" at best.

[geographyhorse]

I just hired an artist to design a new logo. Its going to be an Abstract Expressionist play on my Green Souvenir "W" on black background. She's going to send a couple proofs in about 2 weeks and we will settle the final price then as well. Expect to see that roll out in early September-ish. Next on there agenda is to get some professional photos done. 

 

I may actually hire somebody you write my bio/bios. You know, what @john said about the perception of professionalism and all that. 

 

In other words, fake it till you make it or something like that. 😂😂😂