The Importance of Branding Yourself Properly as an Entertainer
This morning I had the pleasure of having a pleasant initial phone conversation with an author and public speaker. This particular conversation inspired me to write a blog on a very important subject: Branding Yourself. One of the benefits of being artistic is that you can promote yourself using your own unique creativity. However, without proper structure, sometimes the creativity you use can also limit the effectiveness of your own branding.
Social media has given us the opportunity to reach out farther than we ever have before. This is a great thing It’s also a bad thing if not done right. The artist has such a heavy desire to get their career moving that it often causes the artist to rush through creating a solid plan, which can mean costly mistakes. Haste really does make waste. In general, artists also tend to take advice from people who really aren’t experts in the field they need, but may have had more success than we they have, and so out of respect the artist will listen to them and try to emulate them. This could be a devastating move to a career.
In order to maximize a career opportunities, the artist should always strive to build a solid team around them who is driven and knowledgeable in whatever area they specialize in. The artist should make it a priority to brand themselves as best as they can until they are able to build that solid team of professionals around them. Branding is something that involves creativity, consistency and most important, discipline.
When building a brand it is critical that the artist has a game plan to market the brand. Make sure the image is completely in tact, and by image I mean making sure the photos are professional, the logo communicates your brand effectively, the website and social networking pages are all consistent in imagery, message and so on. Don’t confuse the brand with things that don’t showcase who the artist truly is what is unique to them. The artist is the focal point and product. People purchase what they like and understand. Anything else is a waste of time and effort and ultimately leads to nowhere. Artist websites should be a giant advertisement of the artist and not of anything else. Artists need to learn how to position themselves in a way that leads to people noticing them. The “buzz” is what the artists should be looking for, and that doesn’t happen with ill prepared branding.
In short, take time to develop a brand that IS you, be strategic in the planning of launching and marketing it, and above all else, be disciplined and diligent in executing it and maintaining it!