This is a guest post that was originally written and published on the Spin Sucks blog back in August. I’m reposting it here because I want to make sure that you guys see it! Enjoy.

Something odd is happening in the land of the web these days; we’re becoming weary of self-promotion.

(Some) Business people are afraid to “toot their own horns” because on the Internet, it’s so easy to sound like a braggadocio (and even if you don’t sound like one, chances are @humblebrag will find you).

Social media is inherently a narcissist’s tool, so we’re all in good company. But lately, we’ve been calling out others in our own networks for being “shady salesmen.”

The Internet has a bad habit of eating its young and we (as a collective group of social media users) are responsible for that. We create or position someone as an “influencer” or “thought leader” and as soon as they start selling us on something, feelings of distrust, jealousy, and deceit start to develop.

Interestingly enough, there are industries out there, where self-promotion is not only accepted, but is the necessary standard.

If you’re friends with a musician or band member on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve seen similar posts:

• “Make sure you ‘LIKE’ [insert band name here] on Facebook! We rock!”
• “Hey, we need your help, vote for [insert band name here] in this contest. Thanks! If we win, you’ll get to watch us rock out LIVE!”
• “[insert band name here] is having a show tonight at the venue, make sure you come and bring a friend. It’s only $10.”
• “We just released our album! Swing by our record release party and buy the album online. Also, watch our videos on YouTube, we just hit 50,000 views!”

Are bands and musicians and artists exempt from self-promotion?

No, they are not.

They just do it in a way that’s so authentic, so pure, and so genuine that you can’t help but to support them. Artists are the ultimate entrepreneurs and we as business people can learn a lot from them.

So, it’s time to recognize that we’re all here for ulterior motives. We all have something to “sell.”  It’s OK to self-promote and there are ways to do it without sounding or looking like you’re full of yourself.

First and foremost, get rid of your cheesy avatar and slip into something a bit more comfortable.

Five Ways to Self Promote and Keep it Real

1. If you’re going to talk about an accomplishment, give props to others. It’s not possible to do it alone. Give the people who helped you along the way credit. Not only will it help you spread you’re message, but it allows you to be self-promotional without sounding self-absorbed. Invest in yourself by investing in others.
2. Believe in yourself. Believe in what you’re saying and believe in what you’re doing. Stand for something and don’t be afraid to argue your point. If you don’t believe in your cause, no one else will.
3. Honesty is the best policy. Unfortunately, many marketers tend to “extend the truth a bit.” People are already skeptical of us, and our industry. Earn the trust, reap the reward.
4. Everyone makes mistakes. One of the biggest faults committed by big names in the industry is that they hardly admit fault. They never say sorry. They never seem as vulnerable as we do. Being human is our biggest selling point.
5. Be Likeable Remember that kid in gym class who was always the best at everything? Remember how much you disliked him? Don’t be him. Stay humble, remain respectful and  make it easy for people to like you. Always remember where you came from/how you got where you are.
6. Just Say It. If you have something to say, just say it.

Do you have any other tips on how to not come off as an “online braggadocio”? Share them with us in the comments!

Last night I went to a show at the 7th Street Entry where one of my new favorite bands, The Drums, put on an incredible performance.

What’s interesting is that I’d only heard about The Drums about 10 hours prior to the show.

So how’d I end up there so quickly? Well, it was quite a serendipitous experience.

I give credit to the magic that is the Facebook / Spotify integration.

If you haven’t started using Spotify, I suggest you do so. You’ll have access to 15 million tracks, for free. I’m a paying member and get premium features like offline sync and the ability to use the Spotify mobile app, but I believe that even the free version is better than any other listening platform out there.

I couldn’t find the exact post that I first laid eyes on, but it looked something like this (I’d like to think that I caused the reaction of the ’3 other people listened to The Drums on Spotify’ thing).

I clicked play on one of the songs, and ended up listening to the entire album. Twice. I guess it was love at first listen.

After googling the band, I discovered that they’d be coming to town playing that night. Just my luck.

I texted some friends and found one willing to come along for the ride. We paid $15.00 each for tickets.

Without Spotify, or the Facebook integration, I may have never heard The Drums – and I may have certainly never gone to their show and may have never spread the word about their music.

Without Facebook/Spotify integration, they may have never gained a loyal listener and a paying customer.

After the show, I ended up texting 11 people, updating my Facebook status (1500+ friends), updating my Twitter status (4000+ followers) and posting the video below (3000/monthly blog visits).

City of Music: The Drums perform “Me and the Moon” from MPLS.TV on Vimeo.

Pretty powerful, in my opinion.

Music is a connective tissue, and I welcome technology like this in my life.

Spotify will drastically change the music industry, just like Napster did.

What are your thoughts so far?

To all of the artists,

To all of the musicians, painters, sculptors, dancers, actors, visual artists, film-makers, photographers, poets, and printmakers of the world.

I want to encourage you keep on truckin’, no matter what.

You are the truest form of entrepreneurship.

You face the same challenges as the internet startups of today, but you aren’t in it for the money.

You’re the creators; who take an idea and see it all the way through execution.

You’re sacrificing stability, security, healthcare and traditional retirement funds for the shot at a bigger, more self-fulfilling payout.

You start from scratch and build empires.

You play shows to empty crowds but always put in your best effort.

You grind hard, 24/7. You hone your craft 365.

You channel your emotions into a legitimate product.

You don’t listen to the people who tell you to “give it up” or “quit dreaming” or ask “do you know what the odds are?”

You write your own story, take your own journey and travel down your own path.

You self-promote the shit out of yourself.

Failure isn’t an outcome, it’s an illusion.

You are the ultimate entrepreneur.

This past Saturday was Rock The Garden, a one-day music festival in Minneapolis that is put on by the Walker Art Center and 89.3 The Current. The concert sold out pretty quickly, with over 11,000 tickets gone. Luckily, I’d participated in a contest on the Mall of America Blog and ended up winning a pair of tickets to the show (thanks guys!).

After I found out that I’d be attending the show, my thoughts immediately switched from HELL-YA-OUTDOOR-CONCERT-PARTY mode to HOW-WILL-I-UTILIZE-THIS-GREAT-OPPORTUNITY? mode.

Being an entrepreneur means that you’re always “on.”

You’re constantly thinking of ways to get better, always looking for new opportunities, and everlastingly needing to make new connections.

Naturally, I’d been toying with how to get some attention for InboxCupid at the show but couldn’t really think of anything great that was within my budget or allocated time. Besides, I didn’t want to be schilling at the show. I wanted to have fun. I wanted to just enjoy life and have a great day with friends, so handing out business cards or flyers was tacky and out of the question.

A friend of mine told me to get some t-shirts printed (since turn around time is pretty quick and the cost is pretty low.). The problem with simple t-shirt advertising, though, is that there is rarely an impact. No one ever notices, or pays attention to shirts, especially at a concert where all other senses are being evoked and the amount of competition for attention is high.

How could I get around this? How could I stand out in a sea of colorful shirts?

The solution: a plain white hanes t-shirt with my message scrawled across it in permanent marker.

“After Rock The Garden is over, go to InboxCupid.com (take a picture of this shirt)”

Genius! I thought to myself. There is no way that people will walk by this shirt without reading it.

And sure enough, the shirt was a huge success.

Tons of people were reading the shirt as I/they walked by, many of them approached me and struck up conversations or took photos. I was actually surprised at how effective it was.

Measurement.

Total possible impressions: 11,000 concert-goers

Total estimated shirt glances: 200+ (people visibly reading my shirt)

Total high-fives because of shirt: 7 (“dude, sweet shirt!” *high five!*)

Total full-on conversations about shirt: 18 (“omg, I’ve heard about InboxCupid before! This is so funny.”)

Total quick remarks about shirt: 22 (“nice shirt,” great idea,” “love the creativity.” etc)

Total photos taken of shirt: 12 (with promises of uploading to Facebook and/or Twitter)

Web traffic: increase of 6% on Sunday.

Costs.

Concert tickets: $0.00

T-shirt: $0.00

Marker: $0.00

Special shout-out to the late Micheal Larsen (Eyedea), who was often seen around the Twin Cities wearing home-made shirts. About a year ago, I saw him at a really nice restaurant, wearing a home-made shirt that said, “Artist for sale.”

That image of him has really stuck with me. Thanks for the inspiration, Mike.

(Photo credit: theotherchristianlundberg)

Locked in a Vegas Hotel Room with a Phantom Flex from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

Why We’re Here: Twin Cities from Seven and Sixty Productions on Vimeo.

Hello.

I’d like to formally announce that I’ve accepted a position with OLSON. My title will be Senior Social Engagement Specialist (although titles don’t really mean much at OLSON since everyone works on everything) and I will be starting later this month. I’m extremely excited to begin my work at OLSON. This place has a phenomenal culture and an energy that supersedes any work environment I’ve ever stepped into. I am excited with the prospect of facing new challenges & meeting a variety of interesting people.

My soon to be previous employer, McNally Smith College of Music, is an awesome place to work and I really enjoyed my time there as the Internet Marketing Manager. I have a deep interest in my team & the success of the college itself so I am hoping to help them find a great replacement. If you, or someone you know may be interested, please either send me an email (kareem [at] kareemahmed.com) or message on Twitter or Facebook.

Cheers to 2011!

The other day I had the opportunity to give a lecture about using social media for musicians to a class at McNally Smith called “Creating A Life in Music”. I brought up the point that bands and musicians should be on MySpace for one reason: SEO. I stumbled upon this article today which affirmed my beliefs. The full article can be read on MusicThinkTank.com

Kareem

Facebook and Twitter are both more popular than MySpace, but based on my informal study, MySpace still rules when it comes to Google search results for music acts. Last.fm is also favored by Google searches.

Given that it’s pretty much dormant (and we never did much with it in the first place), I’m always surprised to see our MySpace page show up as one of the top three results whenever I do a vanity Google search for my band. I was curious to see the Google rank for the MySpace pages of well-known artists and conducted a quick search experiment last week. It wasn’t exhaustive — I just started with some of the bigger “indie rock” names of the past decade and threw in a handful of classic rock acts as well. Also, for band names of more than one word, I didn’t put quote marks around the full name, I just typed the band name and hit return, figuring that’s what most people would do when conducting a search.

For most of the acts, the Google Music Search player appears at the top of the results (no surprise there). And in almost every case, the band’s MySpace page was one of the top five search results. Of the 10 other artists I conducted searches for, Led Zeppelin was the only one where a MySpace page wasn’t one of the top 10 search results. Facebook only made two top-10 appearances (one of which was a search for my own band), though it was in the 11th or 12th spot for several acts. Last.fm made a surprisingly strong appearance and was a top-10 result for almost every artist.

Some artists (or their labels) are very active on MySpace, of course, so you’d expect to see their respective MySpace pages as top search results. But MySpace also has the substantial advantage of having been around longer than Facebook, Twitter, etc., and online articles and blogs posts have linked to MySpace pages for years. Incoming links figure highly into Google’s PageRank calculations, so even if some artists are transitioning their social networking efforts to other sites, MySpace seems likely to remain at the top of Google search results for the foreseeable future. And Apple’s new Ping network (I’ll be writing more about it soon), seems unlikely to become a top search result, unless iTunes is transitioned to a browser-based platform.

Below are the top 10 search results as of Friday, October 15, 2010. Click on the artist names to see the full search results:

Arcade Fire

1. official site
2. MySpace page
3. Wikipedia page
4. Google news results
5. fan page
6. Google video results
7. Last.fm page
8. label page (Merge Records)
9. Amazon.com album page
10. Twitter page

Band of Horses

1. Google Music Search player
2. official site
3. MySpace page
4. Wikipedia page
5. Google video results
6. Last.fm page
7. label page (Sub Pop Records)
8. Amazon.com album page
9. artist site (album streaming page)
10. Facebook page

Broken Bells

1. Google Music Search player
2. official site
3. official site (home page)
4. MySpace page
5. Wikipedia page
6. Google video results
7. Amazon.com album page
8. Last.fm page
9. NPR story
10. iTunes album link

The Layaways (my band)

1. Google Music Search player
2. official site
3. MySpace page
4. eMusic artist page
5. Amazon.com page
6. Facebook page
7. CD Baby album page
8. unrelated site
9. post at this blog
10. unrelated site

LCD Soundsystem

1. official site
2. official site (album page)
3. MySpace page
4. Google news results
5. Wikipedia page
6. Google video results
7. Last.fm page
8. Vimeo page
9. Pitchfork interview
10. Discogs artist page

Led Zeppelin

1. Google Music Search player
2. official site
3. Wikipedia page
4. Google video results
5. fan site
6. Google news results
7. Last.fm page
8. Amazon.com album page
9. fan site
10. MTV artist page

The National

1. official site
2. MySpace page
3. Wikipedia page
4. unrelated site
5. unrelated site
6. Last.fm page
7. unrelated site
8. unrelated site
9. Google video results
10. unrelated site

The Rolling Stones

1. Google Music Search player
2. official site
3. Wikipedia page
4. Google video results
5. unrelated site (Rolling Stone magazine!)
6. Google news results
7. Last.fm page
8. MySpace page
9. Artist Direct page (dead link)
10. fan club page

U2

1. Google Music Search player
2. official site
3. Wikipedia page
4. fan site
5. MySpace page
6. Google video results
7. Last.fm page
8. fan site
9. fan site
10. MTV artist page

Vampire Weekend

1. Google Music Search player
2. official site
3. official site (music page)
4. MySpace page
5. Google news results
6. Google video results
7. Wikipedia page
8. Amazon.com page
9. Last.fm page
10. Google image results

The Walkmen

1. Google Music Search player
2. MySpace page
3. official site
4. official site (news page)
5. Google news results
6. Wikipedia page
7. Last.fm page
8. Google image results
9. Google video results
10. NPR story

It’s 1 a.m. Do you know where your Foursquare friends are?

Every night, hundreds if not thousands of Twin Cities diners, concertgoers, sports fans and club kids are using smart phones to punch in their whereabouts on such social media networks as Foursquare and Twitter. These night owls are using their iPhones and Evos as a different way to see and be seen.

Not only have these mobile networks changed the way people go out, but they’re changing the way bars, restaurants and music venues market to consumers, with digital come-ons that include food and drink specials, instant coupons and VIP perks.

Use of mobile devices for such nightlife networking is big, and getting bigger. Twitter, which lets users send short messages called “tweets” to their lists of followers, has 100 million users. Foursquare is a location-based service that has a smaller but rapidly expanding user base of 1.5 million. With its geo-coding capability, Foursquare instantly records “checked-in” users as being at a particular location. Without making a phone call, people can track down their friends for a meet-up — or maybe avoid them entirely.

For fans of these networks, a night without smart phones is unimaginable. Detractors find the whole thing pointless, even narcissistic — does the world really need to know your every move?

On a recent Friday night, Kareem Ahmed, 23, stepped into First Avenue, the downtown Minneapolis rock club, and immediately whipped out his iPhone. He was there to see the electro-rock band Solid Gold. On his phone, Ahmed checked in on the club’s Foursquare page and sent out tweets announcing his arrival.

Ahmed has more than 3,000 followers on Twitter. Some he knows, others he does not. But they read his tweets and he follows their digital musings, too.

“Twitter is the main source of information for anything I do,” he said…

Read More Here: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/dining/98075339.html?page=1&c=y