Sydney Slotkin Q&A

Allison Weiss, 22-year-old singer/songwriter from Athens, Ga has gained notable recognition on the Internet from her strategic use of social networking website to promote her music and herself.

Sydney Slotkin: What sites do you use the most to promote your music and why are they good tools?

Allison Weiss: Right now my primary promotion sites are Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and YouTube, with MySpace in a quiet fourth place. They're all great tools because they allow me to directly interact with fans of my music. I like to know a lot about the people listening to my music so that I can provide them with as awesome of an experience as possible. I format my promotion efforts based on what I see people saying and doing. For instance, instead of just hoping people will like a t-shirt, I can ask them directly. I recently did this with my new record (which comes out in November), by allowing my fans to vote on two of the songs on the album.

More specifically... Twitter is great because it's so easy and so addictive. Tumblr is great because it's like Twitter, except with greater possibilities for sharing information, and it's got a super strong community feel. Facebook is great because everybody and their mother (literally) is on it and using it constantly. MySpace is not great, but unfortunately if you're a musician you have to have one...
In addition to these, I also use iLike, ReverbNation, Virb, Vimeo, PureVolume, FourSquare, Last.fm, LinkedIn, and a million others. Basically if you name it, I'm probably on it... I just can't think of them all right now.

SS: What are some of the direct results you've seen from using these sites to promote your music? If you want to give some specific examples, that might be easier.

AW: I guess I just mentioned a couple things up there, but in addition to that, I just see my fanbase growing more and more every day. The fact that I'm out there on the internet all the time means people can follow me or listen to my music whenever they want and decide for themselves if they like it. Also, it's really easy for someone to send their friends a link to my MySpace or my Twitter or something, and so the word-of-mouth promotion works really well. I've definitely met people at shows who come up to me and tell me they found me on YouTube or MySpace or that they follow me on Twitter or Tumblr. It's pretty incredible. I recently went to Los Angeles and played a show in a coffee shop, and there were probably 30-40 people there, even though it was my first time. I consider that a pretty awesome turnout. The majority of them had found me online through various social networking sites. One girl in particular said she'd been a fan for about 5 years, after she found a cover song I did on YouTube. She told me that her and her now-boyfriend met because of that cover. That's pretty incredible, if you ask me!

SS: What do you think has been the best result from using these sites as promotional tools? What do you think just doesn't work for you?

AW: Definitely just the ability to connect with fans and to spread my music to as many people as possible. I think of myself as more than just music. I'm kind of my own brand. A lot of the people who really like my songs also really like me as a whole package. When I perform, I talk a lot between songs and banter with the audience, and the internet gives me a place to show that side of my personality that comes with the performance. I haven't really found anything yet that doesn't work for me. I'll give anything a shot. I joined Twitter over a year ago, but only started using it to it's full extent a few months ago. So from that experience I've found it's a good idea to give everything a shot. I can usually tell when something's got the potential to get huge, though, so if I really believe in a service I'll go for it and promote it hardcore. I don't know if you've heard of Tumblr.com, but when I joined it, none of my friends were on it, until I forced them to join. I think there were maybe two other people in Athens who had one. Now it seems like everyone I know is getting one, and I think it's only getting bigger.

SS: What kind of potential do you think social networking sites have for musicians promoting themselves?

AW: I can't imagine trying to be a musician in a world without social networking. If it weren't for MySpace and YouTube and Twitter and all that, nobody would know who I am. Social media allows musicians to self promote like they've never been able to before, and I believe it can only get better. I recently joined a site called LiveStream.com, and I've been broadcasting some of my concerts to the internet. I also do impromptu living room shows whenever I feel like it. A couple weekends ago I did a marathon show where I played for 4.5 hours, and I had about 150 people watching it the whole time. There's also a chat room attached to the video, so my fans can interact with eachother. They were all talking about what time they had to get up (or stay up to) to watch the stream. It was amazing. There were people from the UK, Australia, Germany... all over the place, really! It's kind of mind blowing to know that I've got fans across the globe, and it's only because I'm really good at the internet. Well, I mean, I guess they like my music too. Hah.

SS: How exactly did you use all these websites to promote yourself so far? I just added you and Twitter and you have over 2000 followers.

AW: I basically just use them regularly and honestly. With Twitter, I try my best to be really engaging. I always tell people, Twitter is ridiculous at first, but when you get the hang of it, it can be really fun. It's more than just saying "I'm having a sandwich," it's about discussing that sandwich in detail, putting an exciting spin on it, or doing whatever you can to make it as interesting as possible in 140 characters or less.