Conference presented to Northwest Booking Conference social media training session on Oct. 16, 2012.

1. Finding relevance and leads
in social media – and making
yourself relevant
Presented to the Northwest Booking Conference in Boise, Idaho, Oct. 16, 2012
All materials in this PowerPoint are copyrighted work product of Alexander and
Associates and may not be used or reproduced without permission.

2. Can I avoid using social media and remain
relevant?
“We’re doing just fine and we don’t need social media. If it ain’t
broke, don’t fix it.”
The world is full of perfectly good typewriters. Do you still use one?
Does anybody? Becoming outdated and irrelevant is as much as
concern as ever, and it takes less time to become outdated.

3. Three things about social media:
 Users create the content. A traditional Web site is a business
brochure. Social media are a public scrapbook, consisting of
comments, photos, videos and stories from you and your
customers. Businesses can and should facilitate the
conversations and participate.
 Many lines of communication. In traditional media, you send a
message and customers receive it. In traditional word-of-
mouth, customers talk among themselves. In social media, you
talk to customers, customers talk to you, customers talk to
each other about and with you, groups of customers talk to
other groups or individuals about and with you.
 People are their own gatekeepers. Traditional media no longer
control what’s available for the public to consider “newsworthy.”
Each person does that for themself.

4. So what is relevance?
A friend one told me, “I went
onto Twitter once and there was
just a guy talking about the
burrito he had for lunch. Who
needs to know that?”
Believe it or not, that is very
important information to
someone.

5. These businesses would be
very interested in learning
about that fellow’s burrito,
including how much he paid,
where he ate it, if he liked it
and how they could get him
to eat a burrito at their
establishment instead.
Someone’s livelihood
depends on knowing about
burritos.
Everything is relevant to
someone! Social media are
great tools for finding
relevance.

6. The main social media networks artists should
consider:
 Facebook: Basic and essential, mainly for showcasing what
your fans think of you and how you relate to them.
 Twitter: Great for searching for relevance and fishing for leads
and reaching out to those interested in you.
 YouTube: Crucial for any performing artist; it is the second
most-used search engine, after Google.
 LinkedIn: Great for business networking and reaching out to
corporate clients.
 Pinterest: A great place for visually interesting products and
its users are more likely to act on what they see.
 Instagram: More fleeting than Pinterest, geared toward
individual experience.
 Reverbnation: Good for musicians and other performers.
 MySpace: Virtually vacant these days, but a reboot looks
promising

7. Seek out the
“cocktail party”
words on Twitter
The human brain has an
amazing ability to find
relevance. At a cocktail
party, there could be
dozens of conversations
going on around you, but
if you hear some words
that are relevant to you,
they will stand out and get your attention. You might gravitate closer
to the conversation that generated those words.
Imagine you’re at a cocktail party, looking for business leads. What
words would someone have to utter to get you to turn your head?

8. How to find
what’s relevant
Use a program like
Tweetdeck to pop the
lid off Twitter. The
search function opens
a gold mine, allowing
you to hear what
people are saying
about your industry,
product, or your own
business. You can
reach out to those
people, send them
promotions, thank
them, invite them
over - even Shanghai
them away from
competitors.

9. Search for these same terms on Facebook
Look for people and venues that you’d like to hit up, or learn
from. What can you glean from their pages that could help
you? What kinds of fans do they have, what are these fans
saying?
By searching on Facebook, you can also see what your friends
are saying about these businesses and subjects.
From now on, get as many friends as you are comfortable with
on Facebook. This personal network is useful when you want
to invite them to become fans of a page, attend an event or
collect opinion on a local product or business.

10. But don’t get lost in the
technology
While the new tools of social media are revolutionizing
communication, it’s important to keep in touch with the
basics. Some principles hold true in all communication,
whether you’re writing on papyrus or tagging Facebook
photos on your iPhone. Always keep them in mind.
Social media are just the “container.” The real value is
the stuff inside – human interaction. But social media are
amazing and wondrous containers and like any container,
they shape what’s inside.

11. Keep in mind for successful
personal social media use:
 Be relevant to your audience.
 Seek out relevance.
 Don’t overpromote yourself.
 People who are interesting are interested. Take an
interest in others.
 Make yourself learn new things.
 Avoid saying or posting things that will make you look
terrible, freak other people out and are really hard to get
rid of.

12. To improve your
personal &
business search
returns, get on
YouTube
All performers
should be on
YouTube. Invest in a
decent quality video
camera and record
as much of yourself
as you can. You can
easily refer
prospects to your
channel. Pay
attention to tagging
– this will allow
others to find you
more easily.

13. Every performer needs a Facebook page
The Fan Page is the heart of the business Facebook effort. Mention your
upcoming performances, updates, new media and items of interest.
Always thank fans for commenting. Thank sponsors on your page and
link to their pages, giving them added exposure.

14. Use Facebook
events
Set up Event Pages for
your events. Have
everyone involved in
the event invite their
friends and plug the
event page in your
publicity efforts. Post
on the pages of
businesses you want
to solicit – as well as
existing advertisers –
and invite them with a
link to your event.
Invite friends to
events judiciously –
you don’t want to bug
people too much.

15. Get recognition
for doing good
deeds
Use Facebook to find
charities, non-profits
and local clubs that
need help. Do you give
performances and
workshops in schools,
etc.? Require
recipients to thank you
on your page. They will
benefit from the
exposure and you will
get them to promote
you, raising everyone’s
stock.

16. Consider
Facebook
advertising
Facebook allows you
target ads according
to city, age and words
people type and you
get detailed reports.
Ads are also placed
based on your stated
political views, your
gender, marital status,
age, pages you visit
and favorite books,
movies, foods, etc.
When I turned 45, I
started seeing many
ads for Viagra and
golf.
I once wrote on a friend’s wall about a welding repair job I did for her.
The next day, I started seeing ads for welding supply companies.

17. Get outside your page
1. You can choose to use Facebook as your business page if you’re
an admin. When you are cruising Facebook as your business,
visit other businesses and venues and “Like” them. This is a
way that businesses can be “friends.” In social media, everyone
is a brand and everyone is a consumer.
2. You can’t see personal profiles in this mode, but you can write
on the walls of other venues, thank them and get yourself in
front of their fans – a good move if the other business has
thousands of fans. Only do this if you have a relationship, tie-in
or offer with the other business.
3. Think of other businesses that could use your services.
4. “Tag” another business on an updates and the post will appear
on that business’s wall also. You must be a fan of that business
and only do it for legitimate things.
5. Want to practice this? Go to facebook.com/alexandermarketing
and give your opinion of this presentation.

18. Go for Pinterest
Pinterest is the third-biggest social medium and is great to showcase your
work. Have boards showcaing your performances, places you have
performed, fellow performers, etc.

19. Give people reasons to talk about you
1. Offer a good product or service – do the core of your business
well. That’s Job #1.
2. Use social media to publicize cross-promotions with your business
and others. Tag each other in Facebook posts and write on each
others’ walls to promote it.
3. Thank and respond to everyone who writes on your wall
4. Handle complaints professionally and promptly.
5. Put up interesting news on your wall that’s relevant to your
business or industry.
6. Take photos of people having a good time at your events and at
your business and tag them (you must personally be their friends
first). This will get people to visit your business page. Their friends
will tag photos of their friends on your business page.

20. Mistakes to avoid
1. DO NOT incorporate as a personal Facebook page, like “Awesome
Bellydancing” Facebook requires all personal pages carry the real name
of the person behind them. Many businesses set up as “people” so they
can send “friend requests,” which is a form of spam. Facebook will shut
down such pages without warning. (Also, don’t personally accept friend
requests from businesses, because you have no idea who will have
access to the page and all your personal information).
2. Don’t be “all mouth and no ears.” Show an interest in your community,
put up links to relevant news stories, put up photos and profiles of
your employees and customers, give a photo/video tour of your
facilities and explain how you do things. Don’t spam others’ pages.
3. Don’t take down critical comments, unless they are rude, in poor taste
or planted by your competitors. Use complaints as an opportunity to
display to everyone how you care for your customers and address their
needs. People are willing to forgive quite a bit if a business makes an
honest effort to do the right thing.

21. VERY IMPORTANT POINTS!
Social media cannot change anything about your business.
They can only amplify what is already there and what people
think about you already.
If you offer a good product or service, do good deeds and
treat your customers well, social media will reflect that.
If you offer a product or service no one wants and people
dislike you, then you should work for the IRS.
Using social media is a reflection of the faith you have in your
brand.