Promotion Vs. Spam

[Hygro]

Sigma, I think I know exactly who you mean We love the guy so it's all good.

edit: I always post up my soundcloud updates. I'm pretty conservative about posting and promoting events these days. I really like when people post their originals so, golden rule, I do the same. A lot of my friends dig my music, probably only because they know me, but I think some of them have enjoyed the evolution of quality from my dicking-around-garageband days of 2006 through my shitty-but-hoping-to-breakthrough days of 2009 through my recent and rapid evolution to almost-but-not-really-knows-what-he's-doing days today.

[DJ Elroy]

Its tough. Sometimes you just need to let your following grow organically which takes time...

Exactly. Pushing your mix/tracks/events/ to the same group of people daily is spamming it. It makes you look desperate. Ideally you'd want to just mention it a few times and let word of mouth and fans do the rest.

Is there any way to block ALL event invites?

[mostapha]

This doesn't just apply to DJ mixes, it applies to everything………but the only difference between promotional materials and spam is whether or not the listener wanted to receive them.

I'm pretty sure I've reported emails from the Google+ system as spam on my gmail account.

[dao]

lol. Maybe the 'beat writer' is the voice in their head, then 3rd person works, ya? Fronting, spamming, inauthenticity, these things made me quit the scene years ago. Being authentic & modest, but repping solid skills is the only way to be a positive effect on the scene, imo. And first person bios all the way!

[Badger]

If someone has multiple Facebook accounts, then they shouldn't post the same advertisements (for mixes, events, or anything) on all pages at the exact same time, with very few exceptions.

For instance, a friend of mine has a personal Facebook account, then a page for his electronic music projects. He also likes to post items on a page dedicated to fans of an old radio program from years ago, and a page dedicated to fans of an old Tulsa-based music merchant.

Usually, he's not too bad... but sometimes, when he wants to let people know he has a new song/album/project/whatever, he'll post on his Facebook page, PLUS an identical post on his electronic music artist page, PLUS an identical post from him onto the wall of the old radio program, PLUS an identical post on the music merchant page - all within the course of a few minutes. So, on my Facebook wall, suddenly I get four posts in a wall from the same guy. THAT is annoying.

I also have a local acquaintance who is heavily into the art and indie music scene who has his own personal Faceboook page, plus a page dedicated to Tulsa artists and performers, plus a page dedicated to Tulsa spoken word, writers, and, um, performers. One night, this guy decided to repost something about every single forthcoming event, almost simultaneously, on all three pages... and within a very short amount of time, he had dropped FORTY posts out there. Now, that felt like a gigantic spam attack. I ended up either hiding posts from my wall, or ending my membership, from at least one or two of his pages.




When I post on Facebook about forthcoming events or new tracks/mixes that I'm offering, I try to be a lot different about it. Sometimes, I'll post a link to a new mix on my DJ Badger page, and then it'll be a few hours before I post the link on my personal page. Sometimes, I'll wait for a day or two. I think I've only "simultaneously" posted to both pages 2-3 times over the last few years. Unless it is a REALLY major event, then I probably UNDERpromote myself on Facebook, because I'm so afraid of people just thinking that I'm yet another irritating spammyass.

[MiTunes]

I have a completely different way of looking at it. being that i also have a degree in business marketing and advertising i agree to a certain extent with what everyone is saying however you need to ask yourself whether or not you want people to know who you are. If your just mixing for personal pleasure then yeah just post a couple here and there but if your mixing to make a career out of it then spam is just a way for other people to complain about your efforts. If you really want to be noticed and create a following you need to let them know what you do and what yove done, So posting the same mix daily i would say isnt a bad thing becasue your reaching more and more people daily. however it does not go to say that you wont annoy the people that have already listened to it and know where to go but what about the people who missed your mix yesterday. Word of mouth is the worst form of networking, advertising, marketing you name it. If word of mouth is what your banking on then you will always be a hobbyist dj

[Hygro]

Word of mouth is the worst form of networking, advertising, marketing you name it. If word of mouth is what your banking on then you will always be a hobbyist dj

Maybe you mean word-of-mouth differently but in the entrepreneurship classes I've taken, taught by people who include the startup CEO who set the world record for fastest 1 billion dollar evaluation and others who have made it, is that good word of mouth is the *best* form of networking, advertising, etc. Seth Godin talks about this extensively.

[Nick Bike]

Word of mouth is the worst form of networking, advertising, marketing you name it. If word of mouth is what your banking on then you will always be a hobbyist dj

Word-of-mouth is one of most difficult marketing tools to effectively achieve - which is generally why it is thought of to be one of the best marketing tools anyone can have on their side. If you have people talking about your stuff without telling them to, that's free advertising and free opportunity to go viral. Any business person should strive to have the public talking about them. It isn't just limited to face-to-face conversation. When people share links, write posts, or inform people about your product in some way without instruction to do so - that kind of stuff is invaluable.

[TCMuc]

I have a completely different way of looking at it. being that i also have a degree in business marketing and advertising i agree to a certain extent with what everyone is saying however you need to ask yourself whether or not you want people to know who you are. If your just mixing for personal pleasure then yeah just post a couple here and there but if your mixing to make a career out of it then spam is just a way for other people to complain about your efforts. If you really want to be noticed and create a following you need to let them know what you do and what yove done, So posting the same mix daily i would say isnt a bad thing becasue your reaching more and more people daily. however it does not go to say that you wont annoy the people that have already listened to it and know where to go but what about the people who missed your mix yesterday. Word of mouth is the worst form of networking, advertising, marketing you name it. If word of mouth is what your banking on then you will always be a hobbyist dj

Reading your entire post makes me wonder how (or at what kind of school) you got your degree, as you don't seem to have understood that much of the subject. As some others have already pointed out, word-of-mouth is usually considered to be a very, very good marketing instrument. Spam on the other hand - not so much... Ever wondered why no reputable company, even if they are famous for their marketing, employs spamming as an advertising tool...?
But I'm quite confident that you, having a degree in business marketing and advertising!, will find another way to make yourself known.



Back to topic:

The question whether something is promotion or spam is acutally a very easy one:

If I'm doing it, it's promotion, if someone else is doing it, it's spam.



Case closed.

[Hygro]

Ok MiTunes, you've just elicited a lot response. Let's see what you have to say!