My friend Dave is a superb house DJ/producer. A few weeks ago, he asked me about what I do and why I blog.
I explained my working life as best I could (lots of people are confounded by exactly what the PR profession entails, so I find myself doing this a lot).
Dave then said, ‘Oh, sounds a lot like what I do’.
To which I dimwittedly replied, ‘I don’t play records to people with strong buzzes, late at night, in loud, flashy boxes.’
He explained a few things about the methods DJ’s and PR people employ to get known (and get business). Indeed the similarities are GLARING. I recount them below because I had never thought of this linkage.
1) Produce helpful content for the masses and give it away. David podcasts regularly. I blog. The REAL end goal is the same – content get consumed for free which then leads, hopefully, to gigs/business/moolah. The content is differnt – the idea EXACTLY the same.
2) While the content is for everyone special attention needs to be paid to influencers. Dave has had a few tracks he’s made appear on mixes by Mark Farina (one of the biggest funky house DJ’s on Earth). He has built a relationship with Farina that has helped spread the word about him and his rep. PR bloggers – esp small fish like me – need to build ties to bigger influencers to spread their name/content. I do this by writing for Ragan. Whatever avenue you choose – pitching bigger fish on your content, writing for an aggregator like Ragan, guest posting – influencer outreach is critical to growing traffic.
3) Getting out there (in person) is perhaps the best way to get known. Dave plays regular gigs in a number of North American cities. He’s very good live and hyper-enthusiastic about his craft, so it is cool to watch him play (and a very different experience than simply listening to him play via a podcast). Those who experience him live are more likely to consume online content, pay to see him again, or spread the word to other promoters/people that booking him is a good idea. I have recently started doing some speaking about PR. The idea is the same. Hear the talk, hopefully like it, then consume more content, then, ideally, book some kind of pay for play gig.
A business of one – whatever it is – can benefit so much from these new ways of being knowable. What are you doing to exploit these tools?
BTW – if you want to check out more of David’s dope ass work, try this.