Tech consultant for Olympia, Lacey, And Tumwater

So Plurk is a strange beast, but once you get hooked it is like a big bag of crack. I have only known of one person who gave it a real honest chance before giving up on it. That would be the hardest rockin’ programmer in the world…Mr DarkNemesis himself (RockMyMonkey.com & HeavyAsHell.com).Most people who give it a chance are hooked.

Now at first Plurk was looked at as a Twitter clone. I think once you have used both services enough, you will find they have many things that separate them. As far as bands and other music industry types are concerned I will keep it simple. Twitter is for getting a message out instantly to a ton of people at once. Plurk is for conversation. Imagine a band forum, but way more fluid and interactive. Plus a band forum keeps outsiders away. Plurk is part of a very large network, so if a band is conversing with all their fans through Plurk instead they will end up conversing with tons of potential new fans as well. It is about bringing in new people.

Now many people talk back and forth through Twitter, but there is a very large problem with doing that. it annoys the hell out of anyone who follows you that is not part of that specific conversation. Plurk totally separates new topics and threaded conversations. Now we host several official band forums at RockMyMonkey.com, but I honestly wish they would all leave us for something that would serve them better. Plurk would be so much better for a band if all the band members jumped in and got all their fans excited about it.

So Plurk should be a replacement for official band forums, but how else can it serve a band? Well, what if you only have one tech savy band member that wants to be social with the fans while on the road? There is a great mobile version of Plurk that works well on almost any mobile phone browser. Bored on the bus? Talk to the fans.

Now the important thing to remember for both Twitter and Plurk is to embed your profile into the sidebar of the official website, MySpace, and Facebook. This not only gets the message out to all your fans that you are on this exciting new social network, but it also kind of shows them what it’s all about.

So what about the smaller more unknown bands? Well interaction with fans is even more important for the unsigned and unknown. So it’s even more important you spread the widget mentioned above around. Not just to keep fans posted, but with Plurk casual conversation is more accepted. This helps you be more intimate with your fans while probably ending up with new fans at the same time (being part of a large network). I also notice that more traffic comes from links I post on Plurk than any other social network. Because of the more social aspect of Plurk, people are more likely to check out your stuff. So make sure and post links to news on your official site along with the casual conversation with your fans.

So Twitter is for getting a message out, but Plurk is for true interaction and conversation. Being more social with fans will help your band’s fanbase grow.

Most important of course is to follow me on Plurk.

http://www.plurk.com/MarkCarras

So you are in a band, a press agent, work for a label, or have some part in the music industry and want to know why the hell you should care about this thing called Twitter eh? Well, the first thing you must know is that the power of Twitter is in it’s simplicity. It is a messaging service, but from a perspective that most do not have.

Who’s already on Twitter? Musicians like Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, MC Hammer, Patrick Wilson of Weezer, and many more. Legendary actors like Levar Burton (Actor – Kunta Kinte, Geordi La Forge, Host of Reading Rainbow), Janina Gavankar (plays Papi on The L Word, Ms. Dewey the search engine), Brea Grant (plays Daphne Millbrook on Heroes, Season 3, and was on Friday Night Lights), Greg Grunberg (plays Matt Parkman on Heroes and previously Eric Weiss on Alias), David Hewlett (plays Rodney on Stargate Atlantis, goofs off online), Kate Hewlett (sister of David Hewlett, co-starred in the movie A Dog’s Breakfast, guest appearances on Stargate Atlantis), David H. Lawrence XVII (Plays Eric Doyle on Heroes), Michael Pennie (Earl TV show writer), Richard Roeper (columnist and film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, and former co-host of “At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper”, William Shatner, Wil Wheaton, Stephen Fry of BlackAdder, and many more I don’t care to write out. Even President-elect Barack Obama used Twitter as one of the ways to get the vote out for his campaign! It helped lead our country to it’s first black president. If that’s not enough to convince you I don’t know what will. CNN & the BBC are even starting to integrate Twitter into their broadcasts so get with the program already!

So why is Twitter getting so big so quick? Well, it is a way to get a message out very quickly. Where as an email list only works if spam filters don’t block it, twitter is an opt in service so your message always gets out. Where as email has to wait until the person gets to it, Twitter users can accept their Twitter messages through SMS text messages, instant messenger, email, as well as their own Twitter profiles. So if the band is about to go on some live show they can send out a message to their fans and have an unannounced event suddenly have thousands of people flood in online, tv, radio, or whatever else. Got a “Secret Show” for a major band at a small club? Wait until 30 minutes before the show and send a Twitter message directly to the band’s fans.

Now for smaller more unknown bands things get a little more tricky. Where as some major rockstar might be able to get away with sending Twitter messages about eating breakfast at some cafe in the middle of nowhere, you might loose followers that way. Try to keep it to band related info only. Got a show to announce? Make sure and send a reminder on the day of show as well since many will forget. Going into the studio to record your next cd? Updates once a day at most might make for some great “content” fans will want to read. The second your cd is available you can send a Twitter message to let everyone know. Imagine some small unsigned band getting a few hundred sales in one day because they didn’t wait until each fan felt like going to their website or MySpace page. Twitter goes to their mobile phone too, so it’s instant!

One of the biggest mistakes band’s make is not following the fans back. If all you have is people who follow you, it looks bad. It is proper etiquette to follow people back. Especially your own fans!

Now for some words of caution.  There are many you should never follow back. Be aware of scammers, spammers, and lowlifes! They are very easy to detect. If they are following tons more people than are following them back there is probably a reason. 99% of the people who have the terms SEO, marketer, or blogger on their bio should be approached with loads of skepticism. If someone fits more than one of these, don’t bother following them back. They are not worth your time. If they have one of those potentially shady items in their bio, but their followers and following numbers are pretty close they might be able to help you.

Honestly I could probably write an entire book on ways band’s can use Twitter, things bands should do on Twitter, and things they should avoid on Twitter, but this is a blog post that has already gone on way longer than I prefer my updates to be. If anyone has any questions they can contact me on Twitter or make a comment below. I hope this helps some of you and make sure and follow me on Twitter. I am pretty active on there.

http://twitter.com/MarkCarras

So I was trying to think about what I should blog about today and it dawned on me that I’m trying to be know and the Rock N’ Roll Tech Consultant. So why the hell am I not blogging about things that would help bands? Time for a face palm and a Homer style “DOH!” So today I will give the top ten tools bands should be using, but are not. Then I will follow it up with a two week series on how bands could get the most out of these ten great social networks. Now here is the trick, how do we get bands to use this info? Please do what you can do get your favorite unsigned, underground, or just unknown band to pay attention to this info.

1. Twitter
Now I do see a few bands that sign up, but then never do anything with the account. Then because nothing happens they give up. SO very sad. I will go more into that in my follow up on Monday Jan 19th. Until then stick this in your Marshall Amp! Imagine being able to text back and forth with your fans while sitting on the tour bus. Imagine you are just a local unsigned band. If all your fans and friends are fully hooked up to your Twitter account you can send reminders out a few hours before a show. This can help your draw. Got a new shirt out, why wait for them to go to your site? Send them a Twitter message. If they have it fully hooked up it can send the message to them on their cell phones, instant messenger, and Twitter profile. So it’s like your website following them around everywhere they go. More detail Monday.

2. Plurk
Now Twitter is great for getting a message out, but what about if you want to talk with your fans? What if you want to get some feedback on a new song, shirt, or show announcement? Plurk is made for conversation. Just like with Twitter, you may end up with new fans just from being part of this very social network. More detail on Tuesday Jan 20th.

3. RSS
What the hell is RSS? Well, I will go into massive detail about what RSS is and how to get the most out of it on Wednesday Jan 21st, but until then here is a brief overview. It is a way for you to get your band news out to more people. It will make your band’s website ten times more powerful. Trust me on this. There are some major label bands that have RSS feeds but are making some horrid mistakes. More info Wednesday on that.

4. FriendFeed
FriendFeed is a service that let’s you combine all your social network profiles into one place and discuss them with people. It’s all about networking and Friend Feed is like networking on a big bag of crack. More info on this one Thursday January 22nd.

5. The Pirate Bay
Now most of my music industry contacts will hate me for even mentioning this site, but screw them and their dying industry I say! Seriously, I think those labels could get some major traction out of TPB if they played it smart. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has a profile page on the site for a reason. Imagine if some unknown band out of nowhere put up their great new cd on TPB. Then promoted the hell out of the free download with a $2,000 ad campaign from Fixion Media. Sure you wouldn’t make any money from the cd directly, but imagine how many new fans you would gain? Then you would have a draw in cities you have never been to before. More info on this Jan 23rd.

6. Skype
I interview bands from all over the world all the time. I have interviewed bands from my own hometown and had horrid connections. Then I interviewed a band called Lions Share from Stockholm Sweden and had a crystal clear connection. It sounded like he was in the same room! It is also a shockingly cheap way to call around the world for things like booking tours or just making contacts with people that can help you get your music out there. More info on this Jan 26th.

7. You Tube
Now I am starting to see more bands use this, but I think bands should use it more. Imagine releasing a new video a week. it could be just the band talking to the fans directly, inside band practice, some live footage, or whatever else. In my follow up I will talk about how to get the best quality video, how to edit it dirt cheap, and how to get the most out of it all. More info on this Jan 27th.

8. CD Baby
This is a great service for getting your stuff on iTunes, Amazon, and several other places all at once. Trying to do everything that CD Baby will do for you is just plain retarded. Let them do all the annoying crap. It’s their job. More on this More info on this Jan 28th.

9. Ping.fm
Ping is pretty much the opposite of Friend Feed. Where as Friend Feed is a great place to receive all your social network activity, Ping is a place you can make one post to tons of different sites all at once. For example I use it when I am about to go live with an interview of a band. Gets the message out to thousands all at once instantly! More info on this Jan 29th

10. HeavyAsHell.com
Ok, did you think I was going to let this post go without getting in a plug? Yes, HAH is a site I started awhile ago. Ever since Keith from Darkernemesis.com nuked all my hard work and replaced it with his own CMS things have been growing nicely. We are about to announce our newest contest, so traffic is about to explode there. So promote your band and win something coll at the same time! This is like Digg.com, Mixx.com, Reddit, Propeler, or a few others except we are only for heavy music. More info on this 30th! Hmmm? Could I be picking that date for a reason? Maybe.

Ok, so this has been more about mapping out what I am going to blog about for the rest of this month. My hope is that this is just a good way to kick things off in a direction that might help me become known as the premier Rock N’ Roll tech consultant. Keep your horns facing palm forward or you are a poser. Next two weeks are going to ROCK!

So after two requests in one day I threw together this little video tutorial. This info works best with Ustream & Stickam but might work on others as well. I forgot to mention I use an Ubuntu o0erating system on the desktop and Vista on the laptop. This is to prove that the OS has nothing to do with how well your podcast can be.