Happy 1st Birthday Amused Now

I can’t believe we are celebrating the first birthday of The Amused Now Blog and YouTube channel. I have met many talented artists and shared many interesting stories and helpful advice. Indie artists are the bravest and truest artists in the world.

This past year has been more rewarding than anything I could have imagined.  Yes, Amused Now is becoming known as one of the premiere sites to promote indie artists; but what really excites me is the community and partnerships that we are building as we grow. I love how we support each other and share each other’s successes and introduce each other to those who can help advance our careers. How many sites can say that?

I want to celebrate the successes of our five most popular posts this year. I am often asked how artists can increase their reach and attract new fans. Well, I’ll let these real life examples answer that question:

#1 Smiz the Moneykid ~ Office Boys NY

These guys are promotion machines! Smiz the Moneykid and Villa Dom have multiple Twitter accounts, one for each of their projects. I just looked up their post and, since their post was published in February, they have over 1700 tweets. They heavily promote on Facebook and Google+ too.

Lesson learned: The lifetime value of your post depends on you. As a promoter, when I publish your post, I give it my undivided attention for 1-3 days. As long as the information in your post is relevant, you can link to it from your website and social media accounts for long after the publish date. Take advantage of all your internet real estate and pump up the volume!

#2 Chris Browne ~ Busker Rhyme

I love Chris Browne’s positivity. I asked Chris to be a featured artist, but he was busy touring Europe, so we settled for a written interview instead. We had quite a successful initial promotion.

Then, two weeks later, I noticed Chris’s stats rising. I told him that he was hot, hot, hot and asked him if anything changed. Chris replied, “Oh, I have over 250,000 fans.” When he finally had time to share his post on his social media sites, his post topped the charts for over a week!

Lesson learned: The bigger your fan base, the bigger the impact of any campaign. If you look at the post’s social media stats, you can see that with a moderate effort, he reached and retained the #2 slot. Yay Chris!

#3 Angela Ardis ~ Just Write

I met Angela Ardis at the 2014 Indie Music Awards show last month. When I learned she was an acclaimed author, I asked her to write a guest post, so I could help her get more exposure.

My promotional campaign was quite successful, because we published her post right after the awards show and the buzz was still loud and strong. Well, Angela posted links her article all over the internet and it quickly rose to the top of the Amused Now charts in just a couple of weeks.

The lesson learned is pretty much the same as with Chris Brown: Invest in cultivating your own fan base where your fans hang out. Again, if you look at the social media stats at the bottom of Angela’s post, you may wonder how she accomplished such a feat in a short period of time. Angela has multiple sites. She strategically placed her post’s link and let her fans do the rest. Kudos Angela!

#4 Matthew Modine ~ Actor, Filmmaker, Commie?

Matthew Modine is one of those rare filmmakers and actors who remain authentic throughout their career. I met Matthew Modine on Twitter and he offered to be a featured artist when Amused Now was barely one month old, before we became popular, and I will always adore him for it.

OK, you may think that Matthew reached the #4 slot because he is famous. You couldn’t be more wrong! Amused Now has featured several famous filmmakers and actors whose posts didn’t come close to being as successful as Matthew Modine’s post.

Lesson learned: Research and choose promotional vehicles that best fit your style and the style of your target audience. Matthew’s post reached #4 because Amused Now is an internet-based publication promoted through social media, and Matthew Modine is one of the most social media savvy people I know.

#5 Andrew Harding ~ A New Breed

I knew Andrew Harding way before I founded Amused Now. We met on Twitter, but I cannot remember when we met.

Andrew Harding is a Twitter machine. He wrote about his collection of books called The Hybrid Series, so his post continues to be relevant long after I published it last August. Like the Office Boys NY, Andrew tweets his post almost every day and the post has over 1700 tweets.

Lesson learned: Build a community of fans who share, share, share! Andrew Harding has several fans that retweet his post immediately after it appears on their timeline. It’s amazing. He also has a fan with a daily that includes his post at least once a week. That’s dedication! Those fans increase his exposure and introduce him to new fans.

Take these lessons to heart:

–          Remain genuine, even as you become more and more popular

–          Find the sites where your fans hang out

–          Build your fan base and get to know your fans

–          Become the #1 promoter of you

Thank you all for helping make this the best first year ever.

Happy Birthday Amused Now!

Cynthia Kahn, Founder of Amused Now    
@Amused_Now
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