Spence Smith - Connecting People To Life, Music, & Travel

A Few More Questions...About Books

OK. Last Friday there were a bunch of you who answered my questions by either emailing me or commenting on my blog. Thank you everyone who did this. If you haven’t answered them, please feel free to do so.

In the mean time, I have a few more questions for you…

1. Where do you buy the books you read?

2. How do you hear about the books you read?

3. Are you in a book club?

4. What kind of books do you enjoy reading the most?

5. What book has had the greatest impact on your life and why? You can’t say The Bible. Sorry that’s just to easy.

HT: Watercooler Wednesday

Something To Remember About Twitter...

Everyday there a new people following me on twitter who are either artists or a company of some sort. I love this. I’m so gad to see the artist world and the corporate world jump on board with this great form of communicating with the masses.

I do have a bit of a warning for those of you industry/corporate types who are trying to figure this out. Twitter is a great place to build a following. But the following builds because the followers enjoy either watching the unedited everyday messages or they like the interaction. Both are appealing because they are sometimes random and mostly the kind of things a follower would never know about your everyday life.

You see...these kinds of messages build trust because you are being TRANSPARENT and AUTHENTIC about your daily activities and thoughts through out the day.

For instance. Mark Lee from the band Third Day just said on twitter...and I quote “ with it being my last night at home, abbie and I are going on a "date". Her choice? Pizza, of course :)” You see...that’s life as it happens. Mark has 658 followers who know his random thoughts and funny quips through out the day. Every once in a while he will plug something his band is doing, like appearing on Jay Leno or the release of a new CD.

Another example...Michael Hyatt, CEO and President of Thomas Nelson just said, “@gailhyatt is at school camp as one of the counselors. So I am taking some of my girls out to celebrate Mindy's birthday.”

So what’s the point?

While Third Day is a multi platinum selling band, Mark only promotes the band when it’s absolutely relevant or needed. If all he did was tell people about the band’s latest single, newest CD or to come to their site to buy something, then followers would get bored and cease to follow...this would be what I call twitter spam.

When you follow Michael Hyatt, you see how he is about his family when it’s family time and you see how he process work through out his day. Does he promote the latest book Thomas Nelson is releasing? Not really, sometimes you might read a quick mention on it, but again...it’s the transparent and authentic messages throughout the day that keep people following him. If all he did was tell people about Thomas Nelson and the books they publish, then followers would get bored and not follow.

No...not every twitter message is compelling, life changing or even interesting. Life is not always compelling or interesting. That’s the great part of being transparent and authentic. When you build this kind of trust with your followers, it’s a lot easier to throw a few promotional Twitter messages out there. When I post something new on my blog, most times I will tell my followers there’s a new post. That’s a no none sense message and a simple reminder to go read my blog.

My advice for you how are trying to market your artist or company through twitter? Stop trying to sell us something and show us who you really are. Show us your likes and dislikes, your successes AND your failures. Show us you are real, transparent and authentic. If you’re church based...leave the preaching at the alter, and show us why you need a savior. If you’re an artist, tell us how the family is doing and that your kid pooped all over you while you were out having dinner. If your a company CEO, tell us what your day is like and that your brain is mush from all those meetings.

And if you’re twittering for the artist you work for. Teach your artist how to twitter from their cell phone. It’s really easy and they will get it once they try it a few times. Your artist probably text messages people through out the day anyway...what’s one more text or two?

Most artists say they don’t have time. That’s usually a code for “I don’t understand it and it sounds like it will take all day.” Dear Artist...you are smarter than that. You need to stop letting everyone else around you do your career for you. Your fans want to connect with you...and only you.

I think I just ranted…

Anyway...Don’t twitter spam...it’s not good for the follower.

Practice Makes You Better

Over the weekend I thought about how much time it takes to actually become knowledgeable, proficient or good at something like a hobby.

As I have been training for triathlons I’ve noticed one thing that has made me better at the sport is practicing the sport. As I look at blogging, one thing that has made me better has been blogging more. As I look at my life as a drummer, one thing that made me better at the craft was playing more.

People tell me they would never be able to run a marathon or do a triathlon, But all I tell them is it just takes a little practice to get started and the determination to dedicate some time to it.

When I was a kid learning to play the drums, a teacher told me once that I needed to spend at least two hours a day practicing the drums if I wanted to be a good drummer. So I did...and my family can tell you...I played every day. They had to hear it.

Since getting into blogging, I spend a little part of each day either blogging or educating myself on how to do it better. That education helps my marketing side come up with ideas to try online and ways to make things work a little smoother in the world of online presence.

Now that I’m full on into doing triathlons, I spend a considerable amount of time each week training and trying to become a better athlete. I’m not the fastest or the best at it, but I’ve done it.

With anything you do, the more time you spend on something, the better you become.

So...if you want to try a new hobby of some sort, jump in and give a little time. Maybe for you this is time everyday or whatever you can handle during the week. Start small, find other people who do that hobby and ask them questions, learn and have fun trying.

As we say often when we are training for triathlons, if this isn’t going to be fun, then why are we doing it? I know...you must be thinking, you call putting your body through all of that fun? Well...if you didn’t by yourself all the time, then no...it’s not...but when you learn and progress with others, then yes...it’s fun because the community around it makes it more fun.

Enjoying what you attempt to do some times is the one thing that keeps you from quitting.

A Few Questions For You...

Hey Folks...I have some questions I would like you to answer. You can leave them as a comment or email me your answers HERE.

1. Where do you buy your music?

2. How do you find out about new music?

3. Are you on a social networking site? If so where?

4. Do you blog? If so, what’s your blog address?

5. Are you on twitter?

Building The Community

I’ve talked about building a community for several months now. It’s part of my grand scheme to rule the universe...not really. But it sounds kind of fun and if Dr. Evil can try it then so can I!

I wonder some times if generations before me have felt what I feel right now. I feel things are changing on so many levels and at a speed which is so hard to keep up with at times. The environment, politics, the economy, culture...and now the internet.

Remember when the internet was birthed by Al Gore? Remember when email came about? Text messaging? Websites? Blogs? Remember when alluser groups were cool and you could create an online forum or message board? Wow...those were cool, Beave.

It’s a small world after all. Why? The internet, cell phone technology, and innovations that make your head spin...I think that disney guy was on to something with that one song. My mother loves that ride by the way. We all road it with her last summer at disney world.

As the internet changes and people become more online, there comes with it ways to exist and evolve online. Mostly this is virtual, not real at times, but none the less...it’s a reality and it’s here. With all of this is the desire to build and exist within a community with those who are like minded about exploring culture using none other than...the internet. Enter the Web 2.0 world.

Yes...it’s a virtual world, but the real part of it exists within those people you interact with online that are real in your life. Otherwise...it’s pretty voyeuristic at times. It’s not bad or of the devil. Just different.

What’s the point? Community. I feel like we are in a generation of people who want to be in community with each other. Whether that community sits in a coffee shop or at a local hang or sits on twitter walking through the day 140 characters at a time. It’s about community.

The world we live in is moving to a consumer to consumer based world where trust and transparency are sought out because those opinions might help when I need an answer to a question about life. Or...what CD I should buy next.

I love it when people are moved to action because they follow someone online, like over at flowerdust.net or that I can follow another friends trip in China because he is loading pictures of the trip daily.

I love that I can reach out to an online community and learn from others like on Watercooler Wednesday. We my friends are in community...it’s time to continue to build it.

Inspiration - USA Swim Team

Inspiration is watching the USA Swim Team and Jason Lezak crush France in this race. Especially since France was so confident they were going to beat Team USA. Whatever! Never ever ever mouth off before the race! Please! Dear France...it doesn’t matter if it’s a tenth of a sec or a full body length. You lost, it showed on your face and now it’s time for more winning.

I love watching the Olympics this year. Every event I’ve seen has been inspiring to watch. The basketball game between China and the USA was awesome! Even watching a 17 yr old from China win the Gold Medal for the the dead lift inspired me...don’t be looking for me to be weight lifting though:)

The ultimate has been the swimming. Especially now. Last night I watched these swimmers pump out 100 meters in less than a minute. I’m sitting there thinking, at my very best so far I did 100 meters in 1:14. I did this a couple of weeks ago and it felt awesome. Yesterday was my first day back to swim practice in a week and a half and I felt heavy, sluggish and worn out. The practice was tough and had to do 100 meters at 1:20 at one point. It was tough. I have a tremendous amount of respect for our athletes.

So with all of this, I’m inspired. I love watching those final seconds in a race, or that perfect form and landing from a gymnast. With everything that is going on in the world, the Beijing 2008 Olympics are a welcome distraction to inspire, encourage, motivate and activate a community.

Way to go Team USA!!!

Phil Wickham Offers A Free Download Of His Latest CD

Finally. An artist in the christian music industry with some guts. Phil Wickham is definitely an early adopter on this one. Offering his new CD Singalong as a free download. Not just one song, but all 15 songs. It’s a love recording and I like.

There have been a few of us like Brody Harper and myself talking about the music industry and the change that is happening. This change is much more than CD sales being down. It’s about figuring out a new model. One that starts with doing things different like offering your newest CD as a free download. Coldplay and Lil’ Wayne did this for their first single and it worked for them.

I love that Phil has done this. I know Brody has worked hard to get people on board with this idea and to at least try it. That’s really thing isn’t it? To just try it. What do labels have to loose? They will say potential income, but I say find other places to generate income around the artist and use the CD as the entry point into the career of an artist. Don’t use the CD as the end of the line. The end of the line meaning, if the CD doesn’t sell, then the artist gets dropped or the next CD doesn’t get as big of a budget to promote.

I know...for those of you industry types that read my blog. It’s a different way to think. So instead of shooting it down or thinking it’s crazy, why don’t you try it. You might be surprised by what kind of doors it opens up for you to market other areas of an artists career.