Go ahead, put yourself out there…

Well, if you have never imagined that you could make your own digital content or music, and marketed it to the public, and even generate some success in gaining a following and responses (whether you like them or not), I have some news for you. Yes, you can do it too!

It doesn’t have to be music, it could be something else that you would like to create and share, but for this example, I’m using musical audio content creation as a base.

For some people, finding themselves in a creative space just comes naturally. They are either blessed with the “gift”, or they spend countless hours not just creating but honing their personal craft. For some of us we might just think that they got struck by that “lucky lightning”. It’s more than just “the moons lining up”. For my 13 year old, he may just be trying to impress his friends and I (dad) am playing the enabler role in the equation… but no matter how involved “dad” gets, it is his personality that makes his creations unique. This is true for everyone. For the marketing of any product, I don’t think that the customer comes first, I believe that the creator (person) does.

Let’s look at independent music on the web. So let us say you have already pushed a few buttons on the computer, spent time in the recording studio, or just recorded yourself singing in the bathroom with your phone (They all record audio btw). Like it or not, you have created something called “content”, and it is uniquely yours.

Whatever your audio creation might sound like, you are the person behind it. You are the brand no matter what you produce. Marketing your music then becomes nothing more than being yourself and finding the best way to amplify yourself and amplify your brand. This means figuring out the best way to communicate you and your brand.

Now as a “person” you have strengths, and there are one or more characteristics that people are attracted to. It’s the thing that builds connections, something that draws people to you. For a lot of people that may be humor. A lot of you might be good at roasting others or making funny memes. Use that! It might be something else like being passionate or intelligent about a topic (You may know a lot about the music creation process) related or unrelated. Use it!

But, if I was talking to someone about “Sally” and I said, “you know Sally… that lady that sings in the shower”? Well, most people might not know who I am talking about. But if I said… “you know Sally, the funny one, the one that makes funny memes and posts them on her page all the time”? They might just know who Sally is then. So whatever your strengths are, are where you need to put your energy and focus and this is the baseline of your self-marketing strategy.

The importance here is in the person creating the content and not just the content. I have heard a great song or seen something amazing online and then looked at the creator’s page only to be disappointed in what I found many times. People will hear your creations on the back end, but your strengths are what will draw people in.

In this time of Internet saturation (only increasing) and everyone has a page, a link, a site, or a presence of some kind on the interweb… you are your best foot forward. Identify your strengths and distinguish yourself as you and not by a title. It may sound cheesy, but we need to focus more on distinguishing ourselves not but what we create, but by who we are and by using that to build our personal brand. We will, in turn, get the customers, the audio fans, the clients, the consumers, the support, and the following we are after, by being ourselves to the highest degree possible.

How do y’all plan on putting yourselves out there? Here are some links that offer more information and might just encourage you to put yourself out there…