Musicians like Beverly Mahood Change the Promotion and Marketing of their Latest CDs

Beverly Mahood and other musicians like her are utilizing social networking sites like facebook and myspace to promote their CD releases. The Academy of Country Music changed the voting for Entertainer of the Year from the academy to fans votes. To make it easy for fans to vote for Entertianer of the Year the votes were collected via an internet poll. Kenny Chesney made the comment that, "But I don't think it's right that they picked the one award that means the most, that all the artists sacrifice the most for." He said they changed the category "into a sweepstakes to see who can push people's buttons the hardest on the Internet. I don't think that's right, really" The award has now become a prize for the nominee that can market themselves best on the internet and appeal to the age demographic that lives online. I should note that he made this comment after winning the award.



Utilizing the internet to promote yourself and your business is cost effective, in most cases free, and depending on your target audience effective. Social networking sites like facebook and myspace enable businesses to create pages and advertisements that will show up on their targeted audience's pages. Even if you feel that you don't have the time to play around with these sites, you do need to take advantage of their low cost advertising and create an online presence for your business.

Online polls, forums and comments are a very cost effective way to gain a better understanding of your audience. However, you need to understand the demographics of those that use the internet regularly and those that rarely log on. Which is your target audience? Will you find them online or offline? Kenny Chesney's comment about fans voting for their favorite entertainer has more to do with the age of fans then it does internet marketing. If an entertainers fans are older the chance they will know about voting and will actually vote decreases. Although you need an online presence understand your target audience and ensure they will find you on and offline.