HIP HOP WEBSITE/BLOG MANGR NEEDED (Midtown)

Good Day,

Popular Website That Has a strong presence in the hip hop community is looking for someone to come in & help establish the corporate aspect of things to the website.

We I say help establish corporate aspect, I mean get clients for advertising on the site, do follow ups, close the deals etc.. Help form structure for the organization,

We had to strike while the iron is hot. And now is the time. Our alexa/quantcast numbers are strong. And now it’s time to profit. It’s A Hip Hop Community website with over 50, 000 members.

This is a commission based job.

Please Just don’t send resumes. Please Tell us something unique and different about you. And why you’d be perfect for this opportunity?
Also please send your myspace,facebook pages etc.. you must be knowledgeable of social networks as well

**PLEASE INCLUDE EVERYTHING, WE ASKED, IF YOU CAN’T FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. THIS OPPORTUNITY IS NOT FOR YOU**

Hmm.

Well, it’s a badly written ad, so a bad first impression. I’m not sure that the kind of talent they need will be willing to come work for what appears to be an amateurish site, and for “commission only” on top of that.

Several issues.

But I understand, start-ups and such, no capital to invest in talent, etc. Ok, but…

You represent a blog, an online PUBLICATION! I’m sorry to be so blunt, but the writing in this posting is horrendous! Is anyone who is remotely talented or ambitious enough to want to try a commission-only sales job, taking you seriously, based on that posting?

Advice: Look, even if someone does respond, in order to attract top talent, your company must represent itself better. If this post in any way represents the company, or the content, would anyone looking think you had a product worth trying to sell ads for? Maybe you do, I can’t fully call it unless I know the site we’re talking about, but if you want someone who can attract and close deals, function competently in the social media space, all of this for commission, good luck. It sounds like you are underestimating what it means to succeed in such a saturated and competitive online media world. If major media entities can’t get it right, what makes you think you’ll find a savior for commission-only, who will only be able to work on social media endeavors while selling and closing deals?

It’s clear that you do need some corporate up in there, but I just seriously wonder what kind of talent you will attract with that ad.

I love a hip-hop underdog, but guys, your posting just screams “we have no money, and maybe a crappy product.” Which again, may not be the case. 50,000 members is not too shabby a number! But remember, presentation, representation of your brand, at all times, even when posting anonymously, is a Commandment. And to attract someone who might be respectable enough to make things happen for you, you could stand to look a little more respectable yourselves.

But that’s ok. You admit you need some help. That’s cool. But then being a little salty with the “follow directions” comment, really isn’t necessary. Anyone worthwhile who was to come in and bring a little “corporate” up in that piece, really shouldn’t be taking directions from you in the first place.

I mean correct me if I am wrong. You’re asking for a business development, sales, social media maven, to help establish the corporate structure you are lacking, to do it for free commission, and to be ready to only follow your direction.

Personally, I’d require base salary or project based-compensation, as well as creative control, to perform any of the tasks you are asking for, as I am a professional who gets paid to do such things. So I’ll pass on replying to this opportunity, but I wish nothing but the best to you and your endeavors, and anyone who does join your movement.

Your organization could probably benefit highly from a successful corporate mangr like myself, but as it stands, since I totally didn’t follow directions, this opportunity is clearly not for me.

Nicely written piece

A couple of excerpts:

I’m proposing a stimulus plan that calls on some of hip-hop’s most powerful names to start releasing the music they have been holding back (and, by the way, do it for free). Dr. Dre, we need you right now. Jay-Z, let’s start getting those tracks from Blueprint 3 out to the masses. This message applies to everyone who is holding back gems because they are waiting for the climate to improve. I’m here to tell you the climate for releasing an album is never going to get any better. Hip-hop fans need to be hit by a barrage of new music that reminds us of why we fell in love with this culture to begin with. Our morale couldn’t go any lower.

and

I believe that getting fans excited about the music again is the first step in revitalizing hip-hop culture. It would provide a renewed sense of optimism among hip-hop fans, which I believe would improve conditions throughout the industry. Much like the stimulus plan recently passed by the Obama administration, the results of this stimulus also may not be immediate.

This stimulus plan involves improving our psyche, rather than serving to benefit anyone financially. The money will come, but that’s not what is most important right now. We as fans need to love hip-hop again. Improving the quality of music and providing the industry with something we can truly be excited about will most certainly lead to a revised plan from the hip-hop community as a whole. While sales may not improve, it will actually encourage people to start thinking of ways to become profitable in this new age of music whether it’s from becoming smarter in tour packaging to creating new online revenue streams. The desire to fix the problem will grow stronger once the overall morale is improved.

Right now everyone is dumbfounded, looking for a solution to the problem of the internet. In case you haven’t noticed, the internet is anarchy. There is not going to be a solution, formula or even a game plan that works because we can’t control an environment that evolves through unfettered innovation. The best the industry will be able to do is quickly adapt to change. That means if your label, management company or agency isn’t staffed primarily by a bunch of internet geeks that are able to identify trends, stop on a dime and shift gears in the way they’re working, then you’re fucked.

I’m also working with a client in the journalism industry, trying to convince them to embrace, adapt and adopt new media strategies, and what jumped out at me after reading this posting, is the similar message. Creating excitement. Without the people evangelizing your brand, or your industry, they will undoubtedly succumb to the naysayers and gloom-and-doomers, dragging you down with it. Today’s industries, especially those dealing with different forms of media, MUST NOT WASTE TIME wondering when and if and how. They must plunge in, feet first, and become a part of this new wave of industrialism or they will simply be left behind. No one knows the answers yet, so get in there and figure it out as you go along like the rest of us. Don’t wait for the next company or entity to figure it out. BE the next company or entity.

Good post Xplosive. Read his whole post here.

Bigstevegee Bang it out my dude!! Black Rob – Jumpin’ Like Whoa http://www.zshare.net/audio…

and noticing that Bigstevegee’s last 20 tweets were pretty much the same thing to 20 different people, I tweeted:

Manny Faces Dear Music Promoters: Spam is for email accounts, not Twitter. Spam me there. Here, it’s like jumping into a conversation. Rude.

I got a couple of replies, giving me e-dap:

djdimepiece @MannyFaces LOL, I soooooo concur! PLEASE RETWEET!
shawtyslim @MannyFaces amen to that… Twitter is like the “last place we got left”. If this turns into myspace, I’m giving up
WILLIAMGONE @MannyFaces good point! stop it vlad!!!

(LOL @ that last one). So, I’m not alone.

I wasn’t targeting Vlad obviously, but @Bigstevegee, a DJ/mash-upper/remixer apparantly down with AV8 records, the “are-they-still-around?” label that releases white-labelish singles, remixes, extended party breaks and such.

Now, a “reply” normally implies that you are “replying” to something I wrote in general, or wrote directed at you. Big Steve Gee apparently disagrees, and decided to t-spam not only me, but a slew of tweeple with variations of the same message (see image below).

Bigstevegee, we may even have communicated in the past, and my apologies if I don’t recall you off-hand. But I too am a remixer/producer cat (www.mannyfaces.com). I think most would say I’m pretty nice, skills and marketing-wise, and as such, I have had nearly 2,000,000 downloads of my remixes, got thousands of MySpace friends and email list recipients, and most importantly to this issue, more than 7x the amount of followers on Twitter than you do. I occasionally tweet links to my remixes and blog posts, etc., but I make SURE I tweet other interesting, relevant, irreverant, humorous and useful stuff at least 9 times out of ten. It is what has make me #5 in my region with a 99.4 score (source: TwitterGrader.com). So here’s some advice on how it works:

I see you got a few @replies that said good job and all that, but you said “many DMs”. You don’t want DMs. For you to add to your followers, you want people to @reply to you with props. Their followers will look to see who/why they did, and they will find you. But if your last 15 tweets are the same thing to 15 people, hawking your remix, many people who might have followed you, won’t. Your efforts will be largely wasted.

Remember that Twitter is a community that does not take kindly to EXTREME self-promotion. It is fine to announce a release to your 180 followers. But understand that @ replying to EACH of them individually, will probably put a bad taste in these people’s mouths, and at the very least, won’t gain you many new followers.

When promoting, I tend to worry more about the handful of people I might piss off, than the handful of people who I won’t. Bad reputation spreads faster. Spamming may be acceptable collateral damage for email or MySpace communication, but start spamming on FaceBook or (especially) Twitter, and you could easily annoy a community of artists, DJs, journalists, PR folk and regular folk who enjoy passing around information. These are exactly the folks you want to pass around KIND words about you. At the very least, I would look into using a site like HootSuite.com, to judge whether you are actually getting clicks from these efforts, so you can at least gauge whether the reward is worth the risk being frowned upon.

Look what it’s doing for Vlad. I wasn’t even talking about him, but here, a bad reputation may be preceding him. Not a look I think you want.

Anyway, just my $.02 my friend. While I don’t normally jump to check other cats stuff, for the purpose of writing this post, I felt compelled to actually download the track. It’s good. Maybe not Whoa!, but good.

All the best Bigstevegee. MarketingHipHop.com readers, feel free to check it yourself @ http://www.zshare.net/download/562284619050918c/ [zshare].

@BigSteveGee's Twitter Stream

AListRadio.net

Maybe I’m not normal. In my living room, I don’t have a radio. I do have a little office area, with a desk and a computer, and a nice amp/speaker setup to go with it. So tonight, I was playing on the Wii with my son (and by playing, I mean losing to), and then eventually, I played with my woman (and by played, I mean finally felt worthy because I won).

Anyway, just before I had left the desk area to play Godzilla Unleashed, I got an IM from alistradio on AIM. See, one time I was tracking down DJ Bobby Trends for a possible feature on one of our client sites, Birthplace Magazine, and I came across AListRadio.net, an online “radio” station where Trends has a couple of shows. I got on their IM list and they always shoot an IM when it’s time for a new show. So I logged in, to jam a little while I got my head served to me by the Prince of Nintendo over here.

Basically, ALIstRadio allows DJs, some very well known, others moderately so, to rock a show for 2-hour timeslots, with live audio and video streaming to the net. The night I first listened, I checked Bobby Trends show and he had on Uncle Murda and Mickey Factz. The combo of these two alone was something you wouldn’t normally get on commercial radio, and the whole AListRadio structure struck me as an interesting experiment in the internet radio world.

I remember IMing the show, and they apparently kept my IM, and whenever a show is on, they will IM whoever is on their list that a show is on. Simple, but effective, and it got me back logged in tonight, during the Wii session.

Since it’s focus was hip-hop, R&B and associated genres, I found myself logging on from time to time when I was only near a computer, not a radio, and wanted some enjoyable background music, like tonight. I remember months ago after first stumbling upon AListRadio, I told an associate about it, basically saying, “This AListRadio is on to something. Mark my words.”

I still believe this. They have a decent amount of (usually) 2-hour long shows, and seemingly more ads on their site lately, with the promise of a “new website coming soon”. And for two hours tonight, they kept me noddin’ my head (thanks and shouts to DJ Dennis Da Menace, DJ Big Ben and DJ Reymo), with no commercials and only minimal amount of buffering delays. So nicely done.

Ah, but this is a blog about marketing, not rating internet radio sites. And we tend to point out the problems. So what are they?

Well, I am a producer, remixer, semi-well-known, pretty plugged-in, a guy who gets roughly 320942887587 emails and tweets and IMs and flyers and smoke signals and telepathic messages about all things hip-hopish, and yet I have not seen or heard much about AListRadio, except through my own haphazard e-stumbling. It just seems as if no one really seems to know about this site, and it is not being talked about. There are a bunch of “broadcast” tweets from those associated with the show, but a cursory twitter “poll” shows maybe 2/20 tweets are actually someone NOT affiliated with the show, talking ABOUT the show. Overall, a buzz marketing fail so far.

I noted that it seems as if Funkmaster Flex might has recently joined the ranks. This will surely increase awareness, it seems as if Flex can promote any of his side projects when on air on NY’s Hot-97. Eventually, this NY audience awareness will trickle throughout the decidedly worldwide web.

It just boggles me that right now, while I have been watching/listening for the past two hours, there did not seem to be more than 15 listeners at any time (if the little counter on the site was accurate). Really? 15? That’s all??

Personally, I think this website is an awesome find for hip-hop heads. Live mixing DJs, on at most times of the day, with no commercials, uncut versions of songs, industry guests, no HD or satellite charges, and it may even stream to cell phones (will test this soon).

But where is the iPhone app?? Where is the buzz? I mean (pardon my non-journalisticness), but this cat Reymo was, as they/we say, killin’ it! And only 12 people in the WORLD are tuned in to this? Is AOL radio’s hip-hop channel better than this?

Advice? Well, for one, it is very NY-heavy with talent, and overall sound (except of course for the specialty shows, classics, latino shows, etc.) so that could be a problem reeling in listeners from other areas, where NY-styled hip-hop is in the minority. But even with this limitation, the site is really still a best kept secret. Here’s a couple quick things that I/we would think about doing to increase engagement (if, hypothetically, we were involved somehow, hint hint, wink wink, lol).

MORE INTERACTION! Like I said before, the station will IM-blast out that they are on air with a new show. That’s fine, I don’t mind it, since I kinda-sorta opted in my IMing THEM at one point. Let’s assume for the sake of example, that no one will mind being contacted by the show. Here is the transcript of my “conversation” tonight:

MannyFacesNY: Manny Faces still on the checkin yall got me locked in tonight.. club style in my living room lol

alistradio1: LOL

MannyFacesNY: L.I. Home of mad trees. Not weed. Actual trees.

alistradio1: lol

MAKE ‘EM FEEL SPECIAL! The reason why radio stations ask for the 100th caller and 329743875934 people call in is because EVERYONE WANTS TO BE ON THE RADIO, or in this case, shouted out and acknowledged by the “station”. The shoutout is cool, but interacting on IM would go a long way to help create evangelists who will spread the word about the station to their friends. “They are mad cool, will shout you out, IM with you and everything!” It’s a way of making listeners a part of the show, something they could never get from their local station.

There are other things that can be done (more video time for the ‘friends’ in the room, i.e., the very cute female on the DJ Dennis The Menace show would hold the attention of many of the likely-male surfers, myself included! Multiple video angles also perhaps…), but I’m waiting for their new website to debut before revisiting this. I would love to see a more informative UI, maybe one side showing the video feed, one more for announcements and info to be displayed. Song info? DJ info, links, etc. Maybe a public chat alongside…

REPEATS? Ok, it’s 12:05, and the ’station’ is off-air. Some music is playing, but no indication which show or DJ, if any. Just a crawl of upcoming show times, information that exists already on the site (and ARGH, I just heard a song that I never heard before, and have no clue who it is!!!) Well at least. why not repeat earlier shows? I think there is something interesting in watching a video feed of these guys doing what they do, and I would guess others do too, so why not re-play the day’s earlier shows after midnight, to help hook the night owls?

PR. Well, this is easily a story. It is probably fit for mainstream coverage, entertainment, business, radio world, internet, tech… Basically, I should be hearing about this from other sources besides a couple tweets or IMs a week from those involved.

In any event, I realize it’s still a start-up, and still on the come-up. But I truly believe that with some attention to stronger interactivity and a few other marketing, buzz-inducing efforts, this site could quickly become a cornerstone in the internet radio world, something that no one has really conquered yet, and do so with minimal expense, even without the technological enhancements. This site is exactly the kind that can explode through proper buzz and word-of-mouth.

The bottom line is that I’m calling this site a winner in advance. I think there is a lot they could be doing to get there faster, but then again, some of these things might already be in the works. I look forward to seeing this online entity evolve, I think they are expertly taking something old, and mixing it with something new, no pun intended. They may just live up to their tagline, and end up really being one of the the only net stations that matter.

Check them out at www.alistradio.net or on AIM, screen name: alistradio1.

Hey, and tell ‘em Manny Faces sent ya. I’m trying to get a show on there, it might help my cause

[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. )