Marketing Hip-Hop Online

OK, so not necessarily Hip-Hop related, but relevant nonetheless…

[As seen on HipHopPRWire.com]

Now, I am twitter-acquaintances of some of those involved with this publication, and applaud anyone attempting the VERY difficult task of launching a PRINT mag these days. But ladies, please accept a couple of quick thoughts:

1. The day after it happened, I noticed the launch party being twitted about. To be fair, I’m not sure by who exactly, but they mentioned the B+C launch party. Because I like to keep up on new ventures, especially in journalism, I clicked the twitter profile of the poster, who was obviously a part of the mag. No info about the mag, no hint as to the full name of the mag, and most noticeable, no website link! My split-second span of curiosity was gone, and I moved on.
2. Today, when looking through the press wire, I saw the headline of the press release. Not sure why I opened it, though I suppose it is a curiosity-inducing enough headline. I read the release, and realized that this was the same mag. But again, no website. Not even a “coming soon” page with a quick email collection link “to be alerted” when the mag is available.

Advice? Remember that EVERY touch with someone must be thought of as a potential grab of attention. Twitter profiles must have some indication of your venture, a website address, etc. Twitter is a swirl of bits of info, but those who would “overhear” your conversation with another, might be interested enough to check in on you, but not interested enough to contact you directly. These folks are called ‘lurkers’, who observe more than interact, but their attention is as vital as any others.

Also, a press release is often your first and most important chance to get your brand out, at least in the early stages. The “seven women” angle was enough to hook me, but for all of the people who might have bypassed it, “A Team of Seven Women Launch B+C Magazine” could have also worked as well, with the added bonus of slipping in the name of the mag. I may have bypassed reading the release, but I would have now had my second exposure to the actual name. The more I see the name, the more likely I’d look into what exactly B+C Magazine was about. In this case, the somewhat cryptic “B+C” could have actually worked to their benefit.

But most important? Wesbite, website, website! As they say, whoever they are, a website is the new business card. A necessary, mandatory thing. The lack of one (or the lack of publicizing it) misses an opportunity to display any info for an interested party, forfeit a chance to at least start building an email list of interested visitors, misses an opportunity to show a visual that a press release does not provide (in this case, the newly unveiled 1st issue cover, for example!), but it can devalue the project right off the bat when one reads a release and there is no site to visit.

That being said, I certainly wish the team of women all the best, please know I do this strictly out of love and affection.

(Ok, so I may have said that different if it had been a team of seven men. Just saying. )