What do you do and what is your background?
I run The Hospital Club’s website which is gradually becoming a creative resource of content and news for all the industries that the club represents. My first few jobs included stints at Moving Shadow and One Little Indian until I got my first New Media role at V2 Records when Branson still owned it. Since then, I have produced, edited and developed sites for Done and Dusted, KLP, Channel 4, Flextech, Virgin Media and The End.
What are you working on at the moment?
The Hospital Club’s website has been undergoing a major period of transition moving well away from being a niche support site for club members to something much more compelling and useful to the creative industries at large. We have only recently restructured and re-launched so there’s still a lot to but my focus for the rest of the year is to re-position our social network as a business network, launch a mobile version of the site, set up partnership to carry Broadcast and Advertising content...
What is online PR?
For a lot of agencies and brands, it’s the method employed to promote brands and products online. The trick however, is to filter through all the crap and specifically target content that consumers actually want.
As a band - why is important to keep up to date with social media?
Instead of using cruder traditional methods of spot advertising which is often expensive and unmeasurable, social media has put much more control back in the hands of the bands and artists and forced labels and agencies to be much more creative in their approach. Ultimately, the consumer will do your marketing for you...but you still need to be good for anyone to take notice!
What are the nuts and bolts in terms of online PR that bands should have as default? (i.e twitter etc)
Whilst having a presence on Twitter and Facebook goes without saying, perhaps too much emphasis is put on social media at the moment. These sites only really work if you can engage your followers and fans properly who will in turn spread the word. But to engage people, you need content and creative ideas that set you apart.
How can bands optimise their own websites or MySpace pages so that it comes up in searches?
There’s no easy way of doing this but knowing your market and being a pest are the basics. I’d make a list of every blog and every website (big and small) that cover music I could possibly find and start sending monthly press releases to them with a free download or some cool video content, something a bit different...and persuade as many sites and blogs to name check you properly with a link. Whilst nobody likes being a pest, don’t forget, nobody knows you so who cares what they think...your aim is to break them.
What are the most recent social networking or phone apps that bands can use at the moment that are worth investing in or looking into?
In truth, I haven’t looked at many apps recently but sites like MFlow have recently popped up as a rival to Spotify. Personally, I’d go for something a bit less social like Soundcloud which is good for streaming, downloads, access and feedback.
Do you know any helpful services or websites where you can get extra features to pimp up your myspace page to make it look the bollox? Is there a website that helps you or can you contact myspace to ask them?
Embarrassed to say, no idea. I’ve always been a content man, if you aint got decent content, who cares how flash your page is, scuse the pun. Personally, I think keeping things simple is the best order of the day. You can pimp your page but once you’ve seen it, the novelty wears off real quick and it soon because more irritating than anything.
How often would you say it is worth doing a tweet on twitter, and when is the most effective time to do it in your opinion?
Again, if you have something engaging enough to Tweet, one and five Tweets should do the job but people tend to check Twitter in the morning so I am told...
In terms of selling music online what platform is the easiest to sell your music on, and why?
Who cuts the best deal? Go with them! I am lucky to be sent a lot of music so rarely buy online but I use 7 Digital and Beatport. Big catalogue, easy to use, good quality. Don’t quote me on this though, I have never sold music online so this answer might be rubbish.
Is there anything else you think our UBR bands should know about??
What I said above about being creative in your approach to marketing and knowing your market better than the rest is so important. And to add to that, a thorough understanding of how the industry works and how money is carved up between publishers, mechanicals, labels, retailers etc is so important. If you can’t get to grips with the business side of being an artist, you’re in big trouble.
