Destructo Deviations

The Coolest Piece of Mail I’ve Ever Received.

Miss Destructo — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:00:09 +0000

You may all be wondering what the heck this is…. well, I stumbled out of my room in a waking fog and found this in my chair. All my housemates were confessing was that it showed up to my door this delivered by an omnious black SUV. They didn’t see who dropped it off.

Great. I once got an eight foot bull whip in the mail from Maxim Magazine randomly. But, this was obviously a guitar and trying to remember what random musician that might be obsessed with me. I seriously almost dialed a few long distance numbers from the past and then I saw the label…

X: TO MISS DESTRUCTO <3 Sylvie

What the heck is this…

Sylvie? Um. Now this is getting weird. Which has become common place in Destructo HQ. But really, this is some David Lynchery.

I started to examine the neck of the guitar, saw red paint splatter and was like “Okay, some random person made an art piece and dropped it off” But who the hell is Sylvie. I started checking my emails, my contacts… no Sylvie.

The next ten minutes of my mind racing, in front of the black trash bag guitar wrapped in amp cable, trying to decide if I should unwrap it or call the police. In typical Miss Destructo fashion, I slowly cut away the black bag. Only to reveal a destroyed guitar, covered in red paint and smashed to all hell. Okay. Who did I piss off?

I started examining it more, wondering if I was going to find a secret message or detonator. There was a sticker covered in “blood” on the neck of the guitar, with a website. MyXRocks.com, using my Myst and many years of playing Resident Evil skills. I visited the website.

Image from http://insidethemagic.net

Meet Sylvie.

The address goes directly to the Howl-O-Scream event website…promoting their new rocker themed horror event starring the deliciously deviant rocker Sylvie and her band My X. *facepalm* Oh man did I ever get skooled by local theme park Busch Gardens.

Woah here she comes, she’s a man eater. Thanks @sylviemyx and @mybuschgardens, this will go down in the record books as the coolest piece of mail I have ever received. Can’t wait to see what they have in store for the event…

I need my scooby snacks,

Have You Given Up On The Good In People?

Miss Destructo — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 11:40:25 +0000

Simply put, without too much detail or spiritual reason…I have always believed that people meet each other for a reason. There was a part of my past I locked away for years with a plane ride to anywhere but where I was. I was left in the burning ashes of a great fire, thinking I had made the biggest mistake in my life. I realize now it had made me a phoenix sent into flight, if none of that had happened in my life and I didn’t take a huge risk and leave it all behind. I would never be doing what I am doing today. Things would for sure be majorly different if I had chose to let someone else be in control of my life. But somethings still stay the same in sinewy rhythms… fleeting but I still somehow have a pulse of memories that haunt me.

Time has passed… I am amazed with where life has brought me in the last few years. The road again has lead me to a point of great decisions. It’s my first time being single in a long while, I have a built an small empire in only a short time. I can honestly say, I am blessed. I love the people that have came into my life. My friends even my enemies. You all make it happen.. you fuel me. Yet. There’s something greatly missing… I should be healed, I should be able to trust. to love. to allow myself to be close to anything other a cup of coffee. It’s the only thing I know that will never fail me, unless it’s decaf. It seemed like I was starting to give up on the genuine good in people…

When I was a kid I made the realization that hospitals were the scariest place in the world, why? Because regardless of what the doctors and nurses jobs may be… they are human, they have bad days and generally they’ve always got another patient to see after you. Yet they put on this big stupid grin while they are sewing up your face. “You’ve seen me bleed and all I get is a lollipop?” I saw right through that false sense of monogamy, even at a young age I had a motto that “the only person who really cares about you is yourself”. Even despite this thought, I had a hard time believing that until I got much older. I am one of those people that cares about people…their emotions, their stories, their fears and doubts.. I want to help, I want to make them feel better. I don’t just want to stitch up their bleeding faces and hand them a lollipop. I want to touch them deeper than that, heal their soul. Time and time again I have made other people the center of my passion and focus, resulting in great disappointment and lack of trust in mankind when they would leave me in the lions den.

I guess I put too much expectations into humankind, society and the world in general…that people would wake up to their inner potential eventually in their lives with a little push. Yes, it’s a tough place.. but look at the world, it doesn’t suck. There is still tons of beauty left, amazing people doing great things even with little money or in the worst situations. That passion for life is exactly what I crave in people. I love to surround myself with these types… those people with their own glowing sense of style beyond fashion sense, they’ve got swagger in their hearts. After you leave their presence, you want to write a song, buy a one way ticket, climb a mountain or just post a few tumblr posts. They inspire you, fuel you, kick you in the ass when you need it and pick you up when you fall. You don’t even need to be around them, they can be away from them for long periods of time, but a part of them is always there shaping you. Yet, I always feel in a romantic notion of the sense, it would be nice to have that someone I can get dressed up and burn the town down with or just sit in a dark corner and laugh ourselves stupid at each other…a true partner in crime.

For the longest time I thought that true chivalry is dead and that made me very lonely. I thought there was no knights in shining armor, just jackasses in tin foil. I often feel like an alien in my own time. Until I find myself back in Roman times remembering spurting out “Et tu Brute?”. Someone ironically said last night.. “If you meet your match. He’s gonna have to either be a movie star from the past or a rockstar from the future.” Crapsticks, my time machine just broke and Tesla is dead. They are completely right… Whoever is going to be that one, they’ll be a walking anachronism. An old soul with a futuristic mind.

There will be no crusade or wormholes, as I have a feeling that will fall into place one day. For now the focus is shifted on taking care of myself and those in my life currently. There’s been a great deal of amazing progression happening at Destructo HQ, things that require lots of time and reorganization. It’s a sense of being blissfully busy I guess you could say. Among all of the chaos in figuring out the next steps, in the past few weeks I have learned to never give up on yourself or the world… despite the negativity, the critics and anything that has happened in your past. Learn from those times that hurt you the most…these experiences change you, you are the one to decide if they are going to be used to change your life for the good or for the bad. Despite the risks, despite the pain…. choose well, move on and love often.

Let love in,

What is Busch Garden’s Secret New Attraction?

Miss Destructo — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:59:56 +0000

Today I received a special message from President Jim Dean of Busch Gardens to Missdestructo.com viewers. Such a tease that Jim Dean, seriously… what could this new attraction be? Destructo Derby? Land of the Tweets?

Check it out…

I can remember being a tiny tot and at Busch Gardens trying to peer through the cracks of the boards of the fenced off new areas, I had a goat once steal my pants while trying to do so but that’s another story.

What do you think this new attraction could be? Post your guesses here or tweet @mybuschgardens

Jeepers Creepers: Dealing with Online Stalkers

Miss Destructo — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:15:08 +0000

Have you ever had an online friend that became an online fiend? It usually starts off innocent, a friend request, a tweet.. then the persistent messages…wanting you to chat with them, wanting to meet up with you in real life, odd worded messages that give you that “ick” feeling in your stomach? With the rise of social networks and the ease of finding or meeting people through social media sites, I have personally known many women and men that have had very terrifying experiences because of “just being nice”. Here’s a few ways you can spot those stalkers and stop any situation before it becomes out of control…

1. Know the signs- You can’t always judge a book by it’s cover. Remember the movie American Psycho, good looking guy eh? Above all USE your gut. Online it’s a bit tougher, but learn some of the signs. Strange messages, persistent messages, they add you on every social network and it seems like no matter how much you ignore them the messages keep on coming. They want to skype with you, they want to meet up with you…and you’ve never even talked to them hardly online. When they also start liking ALL of your interests, they have no personal interests of their own it seems and trying to inflitrate your social groups. I’ve actually had bonafide creepers show up to tweetups, events I go to and some of the creepiest I have seen was about $20,000 dollars of band equipment ruined after an obsessed fan broke into a band’s trailer I was working with, she swore she was the drummer’s wife… the drummer was happily married…to a man. I have also heard about the horror stories of stalkers have actually called up hotels and canceled hotel rooms or said they were the person’s significant other and tried to get into events they were at. Scary.

2. Tell them how you feel- There’s all different levels of stalkers, some are innocent people lacking social skills and some can actually become obsessed to the point of dangerous. Especially if you turn them down or tell them to go away. These people need to be handled by the proper authorities, since many become fixated on a fantasy world of who you actually are.. so those turn downs may just seem like you are playing “hard to get” with them. It’s a difficult thing to measure, so deal with your situation with intuition and above all take every measure to stay safe. For the most part if someone is creeping you out, tell them up front… stop it before it goes on too long. Don’t use curse words, don’t use the word YOU too much… don’t sound threatening, they may feed off of this… just let them know that “Hi, you are making me feel uncomfortable..” usually works. Never let anyone make you feel threatened or make you feel that you HAVE to talk to them. Just say NO. If you need any more tips google “Online bullying” or “how to deal with an online stalker”… and always check your countries anti-stalking laws.

3. Report them- Online on sites like Facebook and Twitter you can report and ban people that are sending threatening messages or just being creepy. Luckily, i’ve got the connections to get a background search on any name. But many people have to go through a rigorous amount of paperwork and even restraining orders don’t work most of the time. Let your friends or people at events know who to look out for, let your social networks know as well… they could be doing this to multiple people. Be safe, take a few self defense courses, arm yourself if needed… Ila Dusk is a company that makes amazing disguised self defense products for women. I personally carry a samurai sword at all times…;-)

4. Use Foursquare with Caution-Never check into your hotel, your house or any place you may be at alone. You can check in but check in “off the grid”.

5. Do your research- If it’s one thing I am good at it’s finding anyone on the internet and enough about them that I can get a profile of their habits (chat rooms, forums), interests, social circle and a possible picture of what it’s like in their heads. I guess it’s the marketer… or inner spy in me. Anyways what online stalkers need to know is stalking works both ways.. Google your stalkers screennames, find friends of the person, see if anyone else in their social networks is having problems with them. I actually heard a kind of humorous story where a woman was having problems with an online stalker, she found his name, address and guess what she did? She found his mother’s name through a social networking site, she called his mother and told her what was going on. The mother proceeded to yell at her son on the phone and she never had problems with him again.

Stay social but stay safe,

How To Defeat Mental Swampass

Miss Destructo — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 03:39:30 +0000

“When there is nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire”- STARS

The weather outside in Florida isn’t the only thing that has been funky. Recently, there has been many life changes that have left me a bit in of what I like to call “mental swampass”. What this means is that, you know that feeling after you’ve been outside in the sun all day? That nasty feeling that leaves you feeling accomplished but sweaty, tired and just wanting to take a nap. Yep, I believe that’s called a “hot mess”… Oh yeah, I am totally there… someone please throw me in the pool, maybe some gold gilded half naked men serving me sushi and cocktails?

I haven’t been myself much lately, i’ve been quite quiet and a little distant. I’ve been reading a lot, thinking too much and not saying enough of what I should say to those I should say to in an epically poetic fashion. I can’t think of words, I have been finding myself in thought running into doors and almost cars. I feel like a stranger in my own town, in my own mind… I should be feeling better, my dad is gaining strength back, I just got a rockin new haircut, i’ve got great things going for me career wise, lots of trips coming up to Vegas, NYC, Atlanta and Greenville, above all I absolutely love what I do. Okay universe, okay… I get it… but why do I feel so foggy? I seriously feel like ET in that god awful Atari game, I just fell in that damn hole…

I thought maybe subconsciously, my mind knows I am turning 25 in a few short weeks. (July 19th folks..) That I have reached what Gala Darling has wrote about as the “Quarter Life Crisis” eh, whatever. I believe this could happen to anyone at ANY time in their lives. I just think that maybe our minds put markers on certain years to help fuel us to figure things out so we don’t end up making bad decisions for the next ten years… it’s a survival method. I am sure it can be explained scientifically, but I have a communications degree… as most of us know that will get out of me… a poem, a powerpoint presentation, and possibly a few blog posts on the subject.

Nah, it’s totally mental swampass that I am experiencing… just like the summertime, this can be brutally unkind or a way to detox yourself through sweating even though all you want to do is find a the coldest spot possible. I am learning to stay out of the cold, the cold as comfortable as it is can also be freezing. Maybe that’s why hell is hot instead of absolute cold, it keeps you alive to suffer and your blood boiling… I mean you could just freeze to death but… oh dear… rambling… see… mental swampass.

Get out of the cold, turn up the heat some more… be a fireball of life. Whatever is holding you back, take a swim through it. I am slowly reaching the other side of the pond, everyday making changes and fighting for my future goals. Getting things more organized, decluttering material items, working out almost everyday, eating better, cutting some of my vices and negative people in my life. I have to thank the ah-freakin-mazing friends, supporters and people that have unexpectedly came into my life recently. Uh yes.. drastically shifted my whole being. Kicked my ass. Yada yada yada. Pushing me to become a stronger individual and take some of the needed risks that I have been putting aside for awhile. Uber thanks to you all. Our time is now and the Beatles were right… find a little help from your friends. Just don’t tell them it’s because you’ve got a massive case of mental swampass.

Burn it up,

Take Risks: What Have You Always Wanted To Do In Life?

Miss Destructo — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 04:34:07 +0000

For me, i’ve always wanted to cut my hair super short… to have a punk rawkin mohawk or a cute Audrey Hepburn do. I’ve always had this motto in my head, “Do it while you are young”… today, it was “It’s only hair…” That’s right folks, I have went from a bob to a super short pixie cut. As my friend Allie from That Girl Allie put it “The shot heard around the world” as if I can’t count the number of comments I received when I announced the news online earlier of my new ‘do.

Was this planned. Uh no. Yes, that was decided just this morning…No, i’ve never had my hair this short. Honestly. It was nerve racking yet thrilling to finally do something i’ve always wanted to do. Something in me has always wanted to try a short hairstyle like this, but I was always with that feeling… “I’ll look hideously boyish”. I’ve always been one to oooh and ah over the short haired divas like Annie Lennox and all those ladies that rock the androgynous style. I figured what the hell, it’s only hair… if it was only that easy to decide since my hair is such a part of the Miss Destructo brand, but it’s about time I got away from that old image and haircut that still didn’t feel like ME.

Now, I stop in the mirror and feel pretty again… not only that, but in a manner… whole. It just feels right. What a liberating experience to do something that you’ve always wanted to do… spontaneously without planning. Also strange how losing a little bit of hair can open up a new chapter and outlook on life as well. I have taken many risks in all kinds of aspects and most of them have been because something just felt “stuck” in a current position. Basically, I am one of those people… as some of you may know I moved this time last year from Greenville, SC. If I don’t feel like I am following my heart or if there is something I want. I’ll go for it no matter the obstacles or how much it scares the crap out of me. This pertains to any kind of risk you can take, it’s scary but as I learned from Nathan Fillion “Do it if it scares you” this couldn’t have been any truer in most of the things I have done in my life that were risky but ended up changing my life for the positive.

Anyways I want you ALL to take risks and do something that you’ve always wanted to do this week… apply for that dream job, start your own business, tell that crush that you dig em, get a tattoo, sing karaoke, dye your hair blue… whatever it is. Go for it, no matter your age… you’ve only got one little life… plus you’ll need stories when you write that best selling novel.

What have you always wanted to do in life that seemed risky?

Thank you to my amazing hairstylist Vanessa Gomes. @lilmissvg... Visit her at Salon Lofts Tampa

Destructo in The City: Moving to New York City.

Miss Destructo — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:18:28 +0000

If I go there will be trouble, but if I stay there will be double….-The Clash

In the next few months I am preparing to make a HUGE leap in the world of Destructo. That’s right folks, I am planning on moving to New York City by the end of this year. *record screech*…. NEW YORK CITY?!?!?!?

When I was 12 years old, I had a strange obsession with all things New York City. Movies, TV Shows, Fashion, Music… It all started with a dream, I can fondly remember having a very vivid dream where I was running through the city, albeit a much more futuristic New York City than it is today. It felt like home, the land of Klaus Nomi and David Bowie… two people that moved to NYC with hardly nothing and a dream. If they could do it, I could certainly do it. Even though I am a pretty small town girl, from New Port Richey, Florida… living in a community with culture and a constant vibe of life has always been my cup o tea… even at 12 years old… I made it a goal that someday I would live there…

Later in life, I visited the city a few times. I was psyched and ready to fall in love with the city that had been fueling my ambition for so many years. When I arrived, I was really disappointed… it wasn’t the city I expected or felt like I knew in my head. Something just didn’t feel right about it. I lost my dream and traveled the world on a search for a place to someday call home.

Recently, I visited again. Expecting the same dreaded feeling of disappointment and childhood dreams shattered. This time things felt much different, the city welcomed me and I found myself immersed in a world where I knew I could make my dreams happen. I attended the Mashable Media Summit and crashed about four other Internet Week parties in one day. During this whirlwind of a time, I realized I already had such a HUGE network of friends and made tons more of connections, potential clients and employers… It really hit me when someone pointed out to me, “People have been talking about you all day Miss Destructo, you’ve rocked this crowd.” What? Really, in New York City? Among all these people I have read about in Fast Company and are sitting in my DVD collection.. I can stand out of the crowd? I mean, I know… blue hair, six feet tall… but they told me it was more than that. Much more than that. They never explained what exactly what that “More than that” was…. but they said, “If you can make this much impact in New York City in one day, you can do anything…”

Sitting on the plane on the way back to Tampa. I fought with the pure insanity of the idea and combated it with a plan. I may be broke and unemployed but I will somehow make this happen. I’ve been in Tampa for a year with no job offers… no real future here other than I will miss my family and the amazing people that have supported and helped me rock the social media scene here. Everyday, I don’t feel like I am living.. I feel like I am in hiatus, waiting… waiting… and surviving.

Here’s the plan…

1. Find a job in NYC (or remotely from wherever!) . Who needs a social media destroyer of boredom?

2. Find a neat little sublet in Astoria, Queens or Brooklyn.

3. Seek and destroy my belongings. Stay tuned for a Ebay event of the century.

4. Drink a epic crapton of coffee.

5. Buy a bike. *cough* “Destructo mobile”.

6. Gary Numan. October 23rd. Nokia Theater.

7. Get a gym membership to David Barton Gym.

8. Foursquare Day NYC 2011.

9. Steal every Foursquare mayorship I can from Stuart Tracte.

10. Find an apartment.

11. Recreate the “I’m Afraid Of Americans” video by David Bowie over by Christopher Street.

12. Be all the Destructo I can be… change the world, change the future, change my socks.

It will be a huge thing to tackle on my own, but my friends and henchmen in NYC are amazing and have been connecting me with agencies, job offers and housing. Yet, I still need tons of help. If you have any tips, advice or can hook me up with awesome housing or most importantly a job in social media goodness. Please do, you’ll get a huge thanks when I write the “Book O’ Destructo” someday. Looking for a sublet for Oct-December in Astoria, Queens or Brooklyn. Or if you would let me crash on your couch or bathtub for a month that would be super…. I don’t snore, don’t smoke, love pets, clean other than the occasional blue hair dye in the bathroom accident and I also love Rock Band and being surrounded by positive people.

Also any donations would help, it will probably cost about $3000 for initial moving costs. I may have to skip Blogworld and some other events this fall but i’ve got to save every penny right now towards my future.

Cheers to the future. I love you all. So much, you all push me further in life. With phone calls, with postcards, with tweets and emails.. most of you I haven’t even met. Yet you’ve changed my life in such great ways… with support, with a cup of coffee, with a hug and a beer.

If you want something in life, you’ve only got one life. Don’t be 35 wishing you had did something at 25. Fight for your future… always. No matter how broke you are, no how many people say you are crazy… no how many people say you “can’t”… no matter what is stopping you… DO IT NOW.

Mashable Social Media Day Tampa

Miss Destructo — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 23:58:33 +0000

Recently when I was in New York City for the Mashable Media Summit, I was hearing about the next global “social media day”, as some of you might know Tampa recently hosted the first social media themed holiday with Foursquare Day. This time the social media news source Mashable is throwing a global gathering to celebrate social media in your city on June 30th.

Tampa is throwing their own “social media day” event at the Tampa Bay Brewing Company in Ybor City… this Wednesday, June 30th at 6pm.

We went from 15 people a week and a half ago to over 100 RSVP’s and ranked number #14 in the world for attendance for Social Media Day globally as of today.

HUGE THANKS TO: Our local Tampa event organizers, sponsors and supporters. Tampa Bay Brewing Company, Tbo.com, 933Flz, Bright Eyes Tampa, Creative Loafing and Ruth Eckerd Hall. Of course the whole staff of Mashable for coming up and implementing this great event idea.

RSVP for Mashable Social Media Day Tampa… http://www.meetup.com/Mashable/7601/

Facebook event page…. http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=132429763447858&ref=ts

Twitter hashtag for event… #TMMUP

Say hello to @brett and tell him how much Tampa is going to rock the social media world’s socks off on Wednesday.

See you all at the event!

Weapons of Miss Destructo: Palm Pre Plus

Miss Destructo — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:38:50 +0000

Okay, so most of you are getting your iPhone 4 today. If you are one of those types of people like me, who don’t buy into trends and want to check out your other options, I would certainly check out the Palm Pre Plus. I until a month ago had a 2 year old Samsung Alias, which I loved… but after finding myself traveling and attending tech conferences and many people going “Seriously, Miss Destructo? YOU of all people do not have a smartphone?”.I found that having a smartphone would save me tons of hassle and ease of not having to carry a laptop and still be connected to the social networking sites and important emails. Plus, when you are in a strange city or looking for pizza in Brooklyn at 2am…. it’s freakin handy to have Google Maps in the palm of your hand. I finally gave into the craze and went on a huge search to find the phone right for me, I tried the Droid… the Devour and the iPhone. Albeit powerful little phones, not exactly a good fit for what I needed… a small phone with personality and a smooth interface. Plus, as we all know.. I break things. A fragile expensive phone is not a good fit for Miss Destructo.

Here’s some of the pros and cons…

Pros:

-Amazing interface, very visually appealing…one of the best interfaces I have seen on a smartphone. It’s purty.

-Touchscreen. Pinch and Zoom.

-QWERTY keyboard.

-USB Charger

-You can have multiple apps open at once. This rocks my socks.

-Great rounded design, fits in my pocket. Even when I am wearing the tightest jeans.

-16 hour battery time, I hear people complain about the Palm Pre’s battery all the time. However, most of my friends with other smartphones have about the same battery length. Just don’t have a bunch of apps open and keep a charger on you. I tried the Devour and the MotoBlur just sucks the battery life in record time. Yikes.

-Uh, ladies… it has a mirror on the back. For the win.

Cons:

-Reboot takes about two minutes, however… I hardly ever turn my phone off, and it rarely crashes.

-Only 2,000 apps in the app store. But, how many apps do you really need? I do however wish it had some of the awesome photo and camera apps that iPhone has.

-No external camera button. But, with the awesome OS you can patch this to make one of the external buttons for the camera. Also if you want a on screen touch keyboard. There’s a patch for that too.

Palm Pre, you’ve got the Miss Destructo seal of approval. This is going to be a good relationship for at least the next two years, just don’t leave the toliet seat up.

How to Promote Your Band Using Social Media.

Miss Destructo — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:46:15 +0000

Yesterday I was invited to speak on a panel at the Homemade Music Symposium in Ybor City, Florida to musicians and artists on how they can use social media to promote themselves. Many artists and bands have yet to fully grasp the full spectrum of platforms they can be using to really rock the internet and increase their fan base and buzz about themselves. I used to work for bands and records labels doing internet and event promotion for almost ten years and way back in the day of the only way to promote online was through message boards and chat rooms… in real life, the flyer and poster was your best friend and getting people to show up to your show took convincing (you don’t know how many artists I know that have helped people move just to get them to the show…) in this new world of promotion and connecting with social media it’s free, easy and doesn’t take a public relations degree to figure out. Here’s how to promote your band using social media.

1. Keep your Myspace- Even though Myspace is becoming the “ghetto” of the internet as Stephen Hammil from Creative Loafing put it yesterday, it’s a valuable base point for bands. Many already have a strong fan base on Myspace and it’s a good place to put your music to be easily accessable for the public. How to use Myspace with the new social media platforms, point your fans on Twitter or Facebook to Myspace to listen to your music. Get your old fans on Myspace to twitter and facebook. How?

2. Offer exclusive content- Put content on your social networks that only people visiting these sites can get, such as a exclusive mix on the Myspace or a secret show location on your Facebook or Twitter. Cross promote! Have a reason for people to visiting these sites, you can also start a UStream chat with fans before a concert that the link you can only find on the Twitter or Facebook page or play a concert in studio via UStream just for your fans and take requests over twitter using a hashtag just for that event.

3. Stay professional- Have a nicely designed website for your band, think of this as your PR agent. It’s the face of the branding of your band or image online, it’s also the information hub for your fans, press and media sources that are searching for your band. Keep it updated with tour dates and press releases, bios and press photos. Make sure you have the contact info for how to book you for a gig…this is important. Don’t forget your social media integration, have buttons on the front for your Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter pages. Again, if you don’t know of a website designer or photographer and are broke… use twitter and network. You may be able to find the help for cheap or free.

4. Connect with your fans- If you need to hire someone to set up your social networking sites or to run them and announce show dates or just information. That’s fine. But as long as you have a ratio of half information and half interaction. You as an artist need to connect personally online with your fans, have discussions with them, ask them how THEY are doing. Don’t make it all “me, me, me… I am the rockstar look at me.” You fans will be the ones showing up at concerts and buying your merch. They are your biggest online evangelists… treat them good and they will spread the word. Get your fans input on new t-shirt designs, songs and even give them something back every once in awhile. Treat your fans like they are all VIP. I recently was talking with an industrial/ebm artist Faderhead on Twitter, I mentioned how I would love to hear him cover Justin Timberlake’s Sexyback… the next day, he tweeted me the link to the finished song and put my name in it. Actually listen his take on Sexyback here... pretty darn awesome. Not only that but he offered an exclusive download on ReverbNation (another social media friendly site for artists) and announced it to his email subscribers. I could do a whole article on the marketing creativeness of this artist, but that’s another article. After he released this song, I contacted a few radio show friends of mine and got the track played all over the country on different shows. The point is, go above and beyond for your fans or listeners and they will do it for you.

5. Create community- Make fun ways for fans to interact, announcing secret location CD Release “tweetups” (twitter meetups) for fans. Run special contests on your Facebook (first 25 people to comment with song requests gets on the guest list). Chandra Lee from Hangar 1 Media yesterday had a great idea of taking photos of the audience and having fans tag themselves in the audience on Facebook. Have a special name for your fans, as Lady Gaga has her “Little Monsters”, start a street team of devoted fans to help spread the word, give the top promoters special bracelets or necklaces that get them into shows or after parties. Again, your fans make you… do something for the ones that support you the most.

6. Don’t forget Foursquare- Use Foursquare to your benefit. Set up announcements with businesses around the venues you are playing at so when anyone checks into a nearby venue it announces your upcoming show. Maybe offer the mayor of the venue a guest list spot. As I mentioned yesterday, a goal would be trying to get a swarm badge (50 checkins) or super swarm badge (250 checkins) of fans to show up to a concert. Announce this on your social networks for weeks before a gig that you may be worried about the numbers of people showing up. It gives people incentive to show up! Also if someone checks in to your show, offer them a merch discount if they bring the checkin up to the table. Certainly worth a try!

6. Going beyond promotion- Okay, face it. Most artists and musicians are broke and when it comes time to tour… it’s time to beg your friends and hope that people show up to your show and buy merch. Get on twitter and network in the towns that you may be visiting, find the bands that are big in that town in your genre on Twitter and start networking with their fans. You may find a couch to crash on, get transportation from the airport, maybe even find hotels in the area that will offer a discount. Start chatting up people and using those towns resources to see how much you can get for free or cheap. Offer them show passes or guest list spots, or maybe even a special afterparty tweetup for those that have been tweeting with your band in that town. The possibilities and resources on Twitter are endless for bands and musicians.

Again, no matter how popular or successful you get. Never forget who put you there, the fans.

Take a little lesson from Bono.

Be memorable, be kind, work hard, get out there and rock the world. No matter what you do.

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