Sunday, December 20, 2009

Professionalism: Bloggers vs Artists

It has been some time since I've done a post highlighting "Music Marketing Tips" and after a few recent events, I thought I'd take some time to share a few things. I've actually touched on one or two things before but doesn't help to STRESS the fact again...

First, allow me to share some of my previous postings:

Building The Right Fan Base - Interviews - Tips to Reach New Fans - Networking 101: - **Five Things NOT to do** - Digital Distribution - So You Want to Get on Radio - Copyright Your Work!!

In my **Five Things NOT to do** post I touched on business hours and when not to contact people - ESPECIALLY for the first time. What I felt was common sense when I first wrote it, obviously isn't because this past Saturday night at 11:30 pm I had some strange young man hit me to introduce himself to me. (I've removed the name)

HIM: My name is ____ ima rap artist/song wrighter, is this @MAYORCathrynMarie(twitter name) ?
ME: Yeah, how can I help you
HIM: Oh alright cool, I was just introducing myself that's all. Nice to meet you Cathryn; I got your cell number off your twitter. By the way my twitter is @________ & my myspace music page is www.myspace.com/_____ :).
ME: You decided to introduce yourself and awaken me @ 11:30pm when I have to be up @ 4am..thanks so much! My last 3 tweets were for u but I'm going to check your music out tomorrow. You better be good for all of this unprofessional business you've conducted..gnite hun
HIM: . . . . . Its only 9pm tho. . . . , you must stay outside of Cali; but yeah sorry for disturbing you while you were sleeping Cathryn. Get some rest, good night :)


Did I mention he TEXTED me? First let me say that my number is posted many places so that people can call me if they see fit - I'm not against that at all. I do however feel that contacting someone for the first time outside of business hours is insane. If you expect someone to be professional with you, you have to be professional. Contacting via email would have been more suitable, at any hour.

Today I received about 8 emails from one young lady; 4 different emails sent twice. Yes, the young lady spammed my inbox today. To make matters worst, she didn't BLIND COPY; she failed twice. Did I mention her emails could have all been one email promoting her and her music vs four separate emails? (Stage name removed as she is not getting promo over here that easy!)

My Reply to her horrid emails:
Dear Shawna, I think I speak for everyone you just mass emailed within the past 5 mins..STOP SPAMMING US AND LEARN HOW TO F*CKING USE BCC! Omg! Are you serious? I think you should consider hiring someone to handle the basic functions of emailing people for network reasons because baby, what you are doing is so not the business. Chances are everyone has deleted your emails w/o opening them because you were so simple minded to use "bcc" and you sent each email like 3 times. How about putting them all together in one email and moving along....if you have a budget, we can talk - small business or official w/ digiwaxx media.

Signed, CathrynMarie!

Her Reply To Me:
first of all don't know you just sending out eblast to everyone in my contacts. you are very unprofessional you don't have to be rude and use profanity just simply don't reply if you don't want to cathryn or who ever you are, learn how to talk to people you could never do business with me not coming off the way you did i deal with professionals only it may have been alot of emails but i have alot of important dj's and record labels that i have to email things more than once too so they can recieve it. may God Bless you and change you, SHAWNA!
check me out at myspace.com/____ if you don't know who your talking too

My Final Reply To Her:
Sadly you don't know me yet you sent me the emails; what kind of sense does that make? I don't have to be professional once someone displays unprofessionalism. No matter how important the emails were to you, its not that important to us for you to flood us that many times and not blind copy. Heck, not using the bcc alone was unprofessional. And fyi, I used bcc to everyone you emailed and I got a lot of "thank yous", so maybe you need to check yourself. If my coming off unprofessional to you will smarten you up, ill take it. If you're going to play the game, learn how its played first....



Was I wrong? Probably so. Do I care? Hell no! Sometimes it just needs to be said for people to understand. I posted the text and emails so you can see first hand what some of you are sending out and what we are thinking once we get it. If you want a professional response from a blogger, you must present yourself with exactly that - PROFESSIONALISM! Shout out to @MoeArora for the image.

 
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