4/15/2011-BAND PRIMER-Facebook-Pt.1

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Wayne W. Johnson

-I believe it’s safe to say that the majority of the general public now has a Facebook page. More & more bands are leaving My Space & creating band pages on Facebook. If your band hasn’t-what are you waiting for? 🙂 However, running a Facebook fan page is not the same as running a My Space music page.

-1st you have to create a personal page on Facebook. That could be from a band member or someone the band knows & trusts (like a manager). Then you can create a “Fan Page.” So you get your basics set up & start friend requesting everyone in sight a la My Space right?

-Nope-it’s a little different on Facebook. On My Space, it was expected to have dozens & dozens of bands directly friend request you-even on a daily basis. On Facebook you can’t do that. In order to get people to add your band page, you have to use your personal page & utilize what’s called friend suggesting. You go to the band page & click on “suggest to friends”. A window opens w/ a thumbnail of all your friends in it. Click on the thumbnail-it turns a touch grey-& when you’re done clicking on all the thumbnails you hit “send.” This will send a message to all your friends marked saying that you are suggesting that they “like” your band. You can also ask people on your friend’s list to go to your band page & hit “suggest to friends” & have them do what I just described above-a great thing to have your street team do.

-Of course, you don’t want to do this too often. We can all relate to the band that sends out the same updates every 5-10 minutes and/or constantly hounds you to “like” their page/song/video/whatever. The thing is, Facebook was not made for musicians-it was made for Joe Public to network on. So,if you try hard sell tactics on people here, not only will they be resistant (for the most part), but they will either delete you or-worse-block you. When blocked, it’s like you no longer exist in their eyes. There’s no way to communicate w/ someone via Facebook who has blocked you-even if you’re both on the same thread. Neither of you will see the others posts. Pages can also get deleted if there are too many reports of harassment so be careful. Years ago I used to send out a lot of friend suggestions to people I saw who didn’t “like” CAROLINE BLUE and, for the most, some of those people just deleted me. Now I 1st do it when I get a new friend added. Then I make an announcement every January that I will be sending out another friend suggestion but it’s only once per year. You could probably get away with every 3-4 months-but that’s just me.

-More next month! BTW-this is now my 2nd year writing for 4th Coast. Go me! 🙂

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4/14/2011-ACTING-Update on “SMEAD-The Movie”

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Wayne W. Johnson

-The final cut for “SMEAD-The Movie” has been finished. They’re now looking into production/distribution as well as a place to show the premiere. I have a small cameo appearance in this film-being interviewed about Alan Smead-a very unique performer.

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4/12/2011-ACTING-Cast in “Night Run”

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Wayne W. Johnson

-I’ve just been notified that I’ve been a cast for the role of “Mr. White” in the film “Night Run” by Mad Angel Films. Mr. White is a drug dealer who has a meeting with one of the bosses. Filming is set for this coming Sunday.

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4/5/2011-ACTING-Audition for Bank Commercial via AMS

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Wayne W. Johnson

Thanks to a heads up from AMS Models and Talent I went for an audition for a bank commercial today. Nice to be in a business suit for a change 🙂

AMS MODELS & TALENT WEBSITE
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3/25/2011-ACTING-First Rehearsal for “Stone”

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Wayne W. Johnson

-I just got back from Utica, NY . I was there for the 1st dry rehearsal for the Web Series Stone-great bunch of people! I’m looking forward to working w/ them & doing my best to do my part in making this happen.

-We actually spent more time laughing and telling stories than rehearsing. Get three musicians together and that’s what happens. Rocky Graziano (who’s playing “Slade”) I’d met years ago (1990’s) when he was in a band called “The Blob Mob” and I was in a band called “Four Large Men.” We did some shows together. Shanna Becker (“Agent Prestine”) was in a band called “Hypnotica” and they played a few shows with CAROLINE BLUE back in the mid 2000’s…

MAD ANGEL FILMS WEBSITE
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3/15/2011-BAND PRIMER-Reverbnation-The Social Network For Musicians

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Wayne W. Johnson

-The last few months I’ve been talking about the pros & cons of using My Space-which used to be THE place to go for not only discover new music/bands but also all your social networking needs. The later is now with Facebook-with more & more people migrating to there daily. Worse, many bands are also leaving for a multitude of reasons. There are other sites a band can sign up for to help expose their music-but the one that I’ve seen come closest to classic My Space-and even surpass it in some areas-is Reverbnation.

-Sign up on Reverbnation is free & similar to My Space in many ways. People can leave comments/messages, you can have pics, a blog, music videos and a flash player for your songs-with a limit up to 8 MB. You can upgrade to Mega Song Storage for a yearly fee, but 8 MB is more than enough for most bands.

-So if it’s like My Space, why join Reverbnation? There are a number of reasons. With Reverbnation you can manage your mailing list-which can also be tied into a street team feature-without having to go to an outside service like Yahoo or gmail. The also a feature where you can even message all your friends on My Space. The stats feature ties into almost everything you do on Reverbnation-which gives you a lot of info to work with. You can open a store here & sell merch, albums,downloads-even ringtones-all made up on your page (none of that Snocap stuff). There’s even a section where you can add your press clips.

-One thing you can’t do (that I know of) is to just add people at whim like you can on My Space.You can either post links from your Twitter/Facebook/My Space etc. asking people to join or send messages directly to listeners (yes-it’s not only just for bands) asking them to become a fan.

-Of course, you can’t discuss Reverbnation without discussing one of their best features-widgets. They were doing Widgets way before they became trendy. You can post them on other sites, blogs, bulletins, all over. It’s not just a simple player either-you can have mailing list sign ups, music videos, free downloads, your store and more in these widgets. Course, for the more advanced feature you need to sign up for “Pro” which costs a little but it’s not much-especially for what you get for it. Reverbnation also allows you to make an Electronic Press Kit (a la Sonicbids) as well as many other extra such as helping you build your own website, digital distribution, links to insurance quotes & much more

-While there are many social networking sites out there, Reverbnation is specifically made for those in the music business. It is what I call “Classic My Space (for bands) on steroids”. Check it out at http://www.reverbnation.com/ (and no, I’m not getting paid to do promo for them-HA!).

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3/12/2011-ACTING-Auditioned at Syracuse University

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Wayne W. Johnson

-Today I was up at Syracuse University auditioning for a student film. It didn’t take long and the two ladies there were very nice and polite. Unfortunately, I was told later on that I was the only person who showed up that day! Does that mean I got a role? 🙂

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