I don’t spend a lot of time online. I’m sure I should, and I bet there is some self-appointed social networking “expert” out there that would scold me for my lack of attention to online marketing. I don’t have a “dot com” and I don’t (think?) I have a “brand.” In fact, I barely have a business card. You should see it—it’s a simple white card in black Arial Bold that says, “Jai Meghan : Scoring Assistant”, with my phone number. Problem is, the phone number is not in service anymore, so underneath the crossed out phone number (in Sharpie, of course!) is my new Gmail address that was only set up a few months ago. By the time I finally remember to log in and check my Facebook messages—and honestly, I’m not even sure that’s what Facebook is really for—they are so old that the person has written a follow up that goes something like, “Dude, are you mad at me or something?”.
Basically, I suck.
I’m terrible at promotion. What I am great at, however, is returning calls, responding to emails; all of the things that are required to do business. I can handle those tasks with no problems, but when it comes to these social networking tools that are the rage right now, I’m the last guy you want advice from.
And so… I’ll do the opposite. I’m going to give you the antidote to all of those things; the secret weapon; the Kryptonite to what everyone else is telling you. I’m going to tell you what works better than any Tweet, Facebook status update, or MySpace Bulletin will ever work. This one single piece of advice will change your life, I promise.
Shut up and score.
This town—Los Angeles—is full of crap… and I’m not talking about content, I’m talking about people’s lines of BS. Vigorous self-promotion and self-aggrandizement the likes of nothing I’ve ever seen. Everyone has a spiel. Everybody has a schtick. I see many composers online talking about this and that on Twitter or Facebook—what they’ve done, what they are doing—and I think, “But how is your music?”
There seems to be two types of people in this particular area of focus: The composers that talk about everything that’s going on but have nothing actually going on, and the composers who talk about the stuff they actually do have going on. The second group I will “follow” or “friend”, and the first I absolutely will not.
There is another group of people that I will not be associated with who just gather follows or friends. I cannot tell you how many friend requests I get from people that are just out looking to build up their number of friends on Facebook or their followers on Twitter. If you are one of these people—and it is easy to tell who you are because either we have tons of friends in common but have never met or spoken, or worse yet, we have zero friends in common and have never spoken!—I will decline you without hesitation.
Here’s the thing, and then I’ll give you SCOREcasters the floor to tell me why I’m wrong or right… If you are a great composer, PROVE IT. Let us hear this amazing sound that’s coming out of your head. You don’t need to self-promote. Your music should do that talking. Your work should be your promoter. If you feel like you need to self-promote (which, given the fierce competition out there, you very well might), then do it with your work. Post some of your cues every once in a while. Have some guts! Let us hear this amazing music you keep talking about. Risk a little and put yourself out there. Let the world experience the creativity you have pouring forth. I seriously doubt your producers/directors will care. If you think they will, then ask them! I think you’ll be surprised as to what they say.
Quietly promote yourself, and back it up with evidence. To put it bluntly… Shut up and score.
FACEBOOK EXAMPLES WITH CLEAN, QUIET PROMOTION… WITH THE GUTS TO BACK IT UP WITH MUSIC:
Neal Acree
Mark Brisbane
Bill Brown
Shawn Clement
Mark Mosher
David Newman
Print
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that is some good points layer down in this
i agree on it total
best regard a newbie
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original music and sound design…Noel Selders….Happy to be out of the LA loop, living in Kansas City.
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yeahh Meoowww finally.
I told you, but you deleted me..
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Right to the point Jai
Thanks for writing this!
Yep, what Chris said.
Agree. Thanks.
Hah! Awesome rant Jai, especially liked the bit about crossing things off on your biz card with a sharpie, made me chuckle this morning
Personally, what bugs me is when I'm friends with someone on Facebook that I do consider a friend, either through work or play, and they try and get me to connect with their personal 'Fan' Page. It feels a bit icky, to be honest. I guess I see Facebook as a social site with less of a work connection – I'm actually telling my mates what I'm up to and what I find interesting rather than doing the hard sell.
Twitter, on the other hand, is a whole other ball game. I wouldn't have met you guys (virtually speaking, of course!) or been introduced to SCORECastOnline if it wasn't for that particular online social medium. For me, twitter is about connecting with current and potential clients, searching out information that will be useful in the business side of things and promoting my online presence.
I've actually gotten some great composing gigs and offers of speaking work from directors reading my blog and liking my own particular rants! If it's not your thing, no problem, but actually the whole online networking and marketing thing can be quite useful when you're based outside of a major media centre such as LA, New York or London (like me!).
However, there really does come a point where you have to shut up and write. Completely agree on that, Jai.
EXCELLENT article – Thanks for this Jai. While I do believe (quiet) self-promotion is a valuable tool, it's gotten so bad that I actually find myself ignoring what these aggressive self-promoters have to say most of the time. In that sense you can say it actually backfires.
All these social networking sites are already overflowing with people who can't function without updating their status every minute – so if you're going to self-promote – do it right. Which Starbucks you're at discussing a potentially huge gig with a hot-shot producer from that other TV series you're also up for, which you tweeted about 10 minutes ago, I could care less. But if you just finished writing the main title for your upcoming show that airs next month and want to share with the world this exciting news as well as your MUSIC, of course I'll check it out.
Jai-I really believe that if your career as a composer or composer's assistant does not take you where you want to go you should seriously consider a career in journalism or writing. I thought your piece about the union thing was top notch as is this one. It's very difficult to use language to convey information succinctly and directly and keep the language modern-something you do quite well. Sorry to be so off topic, but I thought pointing out your skills as a writer was worthwhile. No ulterior motive here-just a kudos.