Ariel Hyatt: Effective Crowdfunding, Social Media & Music Publicity

We’re joined by an independent music industry powerhouse, Ariel Hyatt, this week. Ariel is the director of Cyber PR, a New York based online PR agency who work with musicians and entrepreneurs. Over the past 18 years, Ariel and her team have helped over 1800 clients rock their online presence. Ariel has also spoken at events and conferences in 12 countries and has released 3 books on the subject of social media for artists, with a new book in the works. In this interview we talk about effective crowdfunding, what to consider when hiring a music publicist, and how social media has changed PR.

Highlights:

Ariel has a lifelong battle with people mispronouncing her name

Ariel has grown up in an entrepreneurial family – her mother is an entrepreneur and her father is a working artist

We hear about Ariel’s experience of working with one of her favourite artists (The Spin Doctors)

Effective crowdfunding is probably not what you think it is

Our friend Shaun from No, Totally! has a question for Ariel about knowing when you’re worthy to run a crowdfunding campaign

Ariel tells us about her upcoming book on crowdfunding… and we’re very excited to read it!

Remember that you are in the driving seat when hiring a publicist – it’s a buyer’s market

So many artists who appear to come out of nowhere have been working behind the scenes for years

Ross and Marcio are pronouncing things weird all over the place

Ariel recommends we watch Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca Grammy performance

Ariel shares her thoughts on how publicity has changed in the social media age

“Just because you have the Twitter handle of the writer you want to cover you, it doesn’t mean they’re GOING to cover you” – Ariel Hyatt, 2015

It’s much easier to identify who bloggers and journalists are now than it was a few years ago

Ariel says that social media and PR are very much intertwined now

Ariel’s cat (@thehuntercat) doesn’t Tweet as much as her, as she doesn’t have opposable thumbs

We say awesome too much

Advice:

On crowdfunding – most of your funding is actually going to come from the people you already know

You have to reach out to people personally when crowdfunding

When people don’t contribute to your crowdfund, it’s not always personal – people are busy and forget!

Think about what you can provide that will be really special to the people who donate to your crowdfund

Identify your VIPs and create a spreadsheet of people you think will contribute to your campaign

Before working with a publicist – ask yourself if you really need to be working with one

Talk to at least three publicists before hiring

After your PR campaign is over, think about how you can leverage your publicity

If you’re doing your own publicity, you have to do your homework, and have targets

Guest links:

Sponsors:

Subscribe & Review

Support us on Patreon

Like what you see? Share the love!

Don't miss an episode! Subscribe to us on iTunes YouTube and Stitcher . And if you like the show, please leave us a comment on YouTube , or a rating/review on iTunes or Stitcher We love making this show, but need your help to keep it going! Join the BTA family and get some sweet perks by supporting us on Patreon . <3