I’m in the process of moving, right now, and I’ve been recording and uploading YouTube videos for my band every day. Because of this time impact, I haven’t been able to post here as much. This week and next, I may only get a couple of posts out until I’m done moving.
Developing the Persona
In the meantime, I’ve been experimenting with developing a “persona” for my band. I got inspiration from two different areas, Soul Train and The Church of Subgenius’s Hour of Slack podcast.
I’m also playing on the “Shi” part of my band’s name, Shiplosion. Everything is a “Shi-Party”. People are “Shi-Players”. Questionably cool things are “Shi-Tastic”. I’ve noticed my friends are starting to use this around me, so it’s working! And it’s just fun.
For the visual image, I’ve decided to go damn silly and get hideously loud clothing from a thrift store. I decided to do a “shi-fashion show” and start flexing my new persona a little bit. I’m improvising, so I’m not quite sure where to go with it.
Improving Speech by Eliminating Useless Nervous Speech Patterns
“Umms”, “Ahhs”, and “Allrights”. I re-watched the first few YouTube posts I did and noticed annoying speech mannerisms. The “allright”s really annoyed me. Also, my nervous laughs were distracting. I created a new post and concentrated on avoiding the umms, ahhs, and allrights.
And I decided to just be freakin’ weird.
Posting to YouTube Daily
Why would I do such a thing? First, I was researching the “most discussed” videos on YouTube, and I ran across The Shaytards. This guy decided to post daily to YouTube about himself and his family. Nothing special, no crazy special effects. He’s had over 295 million views.
Then, Sarah LaCroix commented here about her gaining a following on YouTube despite not living in a place where she can do a ton of live shows. She simply started posting on YouTube daily and has had over 82 thousand views.
Cumulative Effect of Posting
My theory about posting daily is that it creates a snowball effect. It’s not any one particular post “going viral” but a few views here and there on each video adds up. The more views, the more likely others on YouTube will notice your video. This bumps your likelihood of getting higher in search results. (Remember to be generous with your tags! Just keep them relevant to your video.)
In addition, I’ve set up YouTube to automatically post to both Twitter and my Facebook. (Anyone know how to automatically have it post to a FB page?) Also, I set a WordPress plugin to automatically update my website with the new content.
So, each post creates content across all your social media which, in turn, drives more views on YouTube and more interaction with your fans.
Annotations
After posting these videos, I dug around and found out about “annotations”. Annotations are those annoying things that pop up during the video. I was looking for a way to link back to my website, but the best I could find is providing an “annotation” that allows viewers to subscribe to the YouTube channel.
Better than nothing.
But, the best thing I saw about annotations is the level of creativity that is allowed. A band can create an interactive album with annotations. One video can be the “menu” and the annotations can point to the songs on the album (like a dvd menu).
A little more creativity, and a band can create a “choose your own adventure” type of YouTube experience.
A video can be created for a show promotion where each element of the “video flyer” can point to a song from another band and an overall show pitch. (Got this idea from Jon Ostrow’s post on MicControl.)
(To be honest, I didn’t want to share the above 3 ideas. I wanted to be the first band to try them and be all ground-breaking. But I changed my mind. Just give me credit if you do them and become an internet sensation. Heh-heh!)
Future Ideas for Daily YouTube Posts
Rant/Improv: Pick something topical in the news that everyone is searching for and rant about it or do some improv about it. Write a cheesy jingle to commemorate it.
Rehearsals: Turn the camera on at the beginning of a rehearsal. Edit it down later and post on YouTube.
Calls to action: A show, new merch, a new download; use YouTube to pitch it.
Comedy: Do cheesy comedy skits with your band mates.
Reviews: Do your network of bands a favor and give their album or show a review on YouTube. Turn on your viewers to other local music. Being in a working band, you are best positioned to know all the other bands that your fans may like.
Out on the town: If your bandmates go out, grab the camera and start rolling while you hit the bars, go to parties, or just chill out together at a pizza shop.
Live shows: This is a given, but live shows are an easy way to get YouTube content. Unfortunately, camera sounds kinda suck at a live venue. To get a great sound, an investment needs to be made to mic and record all instruments.
Status updates: If you don’t have anything else to talk about, just give a 1 to 2 minute status update. “About to rehearse tomorrow…”, “Finished recording drum parts to…”, “Just wrote a new song about…”.
Validate your fans: I got this one from Thorny Bleeder. Take your video and thank your fans individually for giving you support.
Just be creative: If you have an idea, no matter how weird or silly, go for it. I thought Chatroulette was dead for musicians until I saw the below video.
Thanks for the shout-out Chris! Love these ideas and am looking forward to watching you put all of this into action. I love following your blog, cause most don’t truly ‘experiment’ the way that you do. I also really like the idea of keeping the ‘shi-’ part of the band name and using it to identify with things. Very funny, and a cool thing that people can grab a hold of and remember.
Thanks
Jon
MicControl.com
@MicControl
Thank you for the kind words, Jon! I still need to list all the experiments on a separate page and have links to their ongoing results. Maybe I should start it with just the first experiment I mentioned on the blog.
Not enough time in the day, at the moment!
I watched a couple of your posted vids a couple days ago, and I definately noticed the effectiveness of the “shi”. It’s one of those teeny, weird, guerrilla marketing tactics that most bands wouldn’t even think about. But that’s how marketing works. Keep it up.
A side thought: As a newcomer to the “Shiplosion” name, I was a little confused by it. When I see the name, I see “ship”, like it’s the root of the word. So I was thinking it was describing an exploding ship (then pirates came to mind), but now I see that’s not the case. Then I started brainstorming alternate spellings: ShiPlosion, Shi-plosion, Shi-Plosion. Maybe tack an exclamation mark to the end. Just thinking out loud.
Interesting thoughts and ideas on your site!
Yeah, I get the “ship” part quite a bit. But that’s okay! :)
As long as people remember the name, and it has a unique Google search entry, I’m fine with it! Plus, I’m sure they’ll learn soon enough what the actual meaning is. Haha!
I thought of introducing a hyphen, but then decided to stay away from it. I don’t want to introduce hyphens into google searches or have to grab an additonal domain name in case that’s how people search for it. I’m open to misunderstanding. A calculated risk.
fantastic post, very informative. I wonder why the other specialists of this sector do not notice this. You should continue your writing. I am sure, you’ve a great readers’ base already!
Thank you! I’ve seen quite a bit of posts about YouTube, but, you’re right, I haven’t seen much use of their annotations by other musicians. I can’t wait to see it being used creatively!
That second video was seriously cracking me up! I love the originality of it all. I can tell you enjoy doing what you do, and it makes me want to enjoy it as well!
Thanks! I’m really getting into the video aspect of music marketing. There’s so much potential and fun things to do. I was just watching My Drunk Kitchen on YouTube and she’s getting millions of views. And all she’s doing is getting drunk, being silly, and not even successfully cooking anything!
And all the “wankers” on Chatroulette got it wrong. Now that third video above shows how to get laid using the Internet!!!
Totally. I wish there was a more “wank-free” version of Chatroulette.