Shorty Award Nomination in Music & As Singer – Your Vote Needed!

Nominate Jennie Walker for a social media award in the Shorty Awards

All you need is a Twitter account to help me get into the Top 10 of Shorty Award nominations in Music or as a Singer. Just click on the link provided and it takes you directly to my Voting page. Once, there, just TWEET out the VOTE, #music is the default. If you want to VOTE a second time for #Singer, just put that in where it says #Music and hit SEND! Thanks for your support in advance! You know how I love a contest!

Follow me on TWITTER at www.twitter.com/msjenniewalker

But my debut album, Night Flight to London on iTunes HERE

Jennie Walker
www.jenniewalker.com

Quoted in Hypebot on Twitter Hash Tag Usage ###

I don’t know how I missed this one, but I was quoted in a Hypebot article on my use of Twitter Hash Tags back in September! Link to article HERE. What did I recommend for Hash Tags? Music Monday #MM – was my favorite! I can’t stress enough how effective Twitter has been for me and my music. Not only have I met people on Twitter, I late got to know off line, it is through a person on Twitter whom I met, that I learned about the British Airways contest, which I ultimately won! And, most recently, I was offered a publishing/licensing deal to pitch my song “Night Flight to London” for film/TV placement. All from Twitter. That is just two of many cool outcomes from that source……….

If you are not on Twitter, run don’t walk to www.twitter.com

My personal Twitter Profile is HERE

Cheers
Jennie Walker
www.jenniewalker.com

Social Media Based Contests Help Artists on PR Costs

As I enter yet another competition, based on social media interaction, such as VOTES or LIKES, I am realizing how valuable these contest really are for those emerging artists who have tiny marketing budgets for their music. While time is money, I think using competitions based on social media hits are a great way to get some new fans, get some press all at the same time, increasing your user skills in social media, which seems destined to stay.

My win in the British Airways Face of Opportunity Contest with a marketing pitch for my album Night Flight to London, had many levels of competition, most being based on the number of votes I could secure. I found myself heavy on social media, like Twitter and Facebook, getting the word out. Result? I won. Got trip to London/Rome to promote my music. Met amazing people. Album on British Airways inflight audio for six months. And, most importantly, a sense of pride and accomplish and a feel of real support from the airline.

Right now, having experience the value of that contest, I have entered yet another competition. This time the prize is £10K worth or music promotion on the music website we7. I am one of 10 artists, who have been selected by Ditto Music (my digital music distributor) to get some social media promo and if I get more LIKES on the Ditto Music Facebook page than any other artist, I will win that one month promo of my music.

That’s something worth Tweeting about!

If you’d like to participate, just go to the Ditto Music Facebook page on their WALL posts. You will find my featured Artist profile about 4 posts down in the WALL feed, as of this writing. Just under the airplane image on the YouTube video, is a LIKE button. That’s the one you push!

LINK TO DITTO MUSIC FACEBOOK PAGE HERE

Easy Breazie!
Let’s win this thing!

Jennie Walker
www.jenniewalker

Competing To Be The New Face of About.Me

I love a good competition! The latest one is to become the new face of About.Me About.Me is a really cool website where you can sort of tell your story and also add in tons of important links to your Twitter/Facebook pages or your website.

Now, the grand prize is having an About.Me promotion, to include your profile on a Times Square Billboard! Now, that is really flying high!

Vote with two clicks by 1) clicking on the About.me link HERE and 2) clicking on the green VOTE botton on the upper right hand corner. You can vote once every 24 hours until September 20, 2011.

Also, find the link here: http://about.me/jenniewalker
As of this writing, I am in the top 5% of entries!

With the help of a good friend of mine, I have set out to describe my story…….

ABOUT ME:

Jennie Walker
That Glass is Half-Full, Mister.

They say I’m too old to put out an album.

They say I’m too fat.

They say I’m too broke.

And you know what? They’re right. I am all that–which is why I decided to do my music my way. I found the right producer–12-time platinum-selling Tommy Faragher, for all you “Glee” fans out there–and I came up with the right plan.

Song by song, I financed my debut album, and now the entire album is spinning on British Airways in-flight entertainment until 2012. And my songs are starting to spin on UK radio.

The album drops globally in October. And it feels so right.

2011 British Airways Face of Opportunity Winner

JennieGirl™ Music

Jennie Walker Music Publishing (ASCAP)

The Rock Star Declaration – Day 1

I woke up this morning and decided to claim “I am a Rock Star!” I posted it on Facebook and decided I was going to act the part of a successful artist in advance of actually having the career that matches that statement.

I’ve watched enough “law of attraction”, “positive affirmation” and “I am” programs now, that I thought it might be the next level of action that would help me evolve into this person. I am supposed to stake my claim!

Now, I’ve had, over the years, enough fear and doubt around my music to fill up the Milky Way, and it is a constant effort to remind myself “I can do this.” “I can be this.” “I can handle this.” Particularly without real solid support personally, from a manager, family, agent or significant other. I am truly out there, doing this, on my own. And, quite frankly, no one really understands what this means for me and I’ve quit trying to explain it.

Do I have what it takes to build my music business? As a small business artist? On my own? The way other organizations are built? With a limited budget? Winning the 2011 British Airways Face of Opportunity Contest truly gave me the confidence to believe I could build my business, without a record label. I parted ways with my UK label, in part because of the confidence I gained during the competition and in part because they were unable to move my music career forward. I proved to myself I could handle much more responsibility and proved that my business building skills were more solid than I ever realized. That is what a win and Top 10 Video designation got me! It also reminded me of an old saying from my mother, which was “never let anyone do for you what you can do for yourself.” And, I think taking my foot off the pedal to have a label step in and work with me with no results, is a great example of this statement. Technically I lost time, but in reality it was a wonderful experience, moving me forward still to this place I am today.

So, today I :
1) decided to saunter to the Subway instead of schelpp.
2) decided to dress up in my white denim GAP jeans, black lace a-line blouse, Pianegonda sterling silver rock star necklace, Prada sunglasses and vintage Louis Vuitton back pack and look like a Rock Star (I got a few compliments today!) – translation – DRESS like a Rock Star!
3) spent the day: sorting out my photos for retouching on my album insert for the physical CD I will produce, working with an editor on my album insert, drafting an email to fans to announce my upcoming album release, contacting NARAS (The Grammy organization) to learn about entry dates and release dates for Grammy consideration for this year versus next which will clearly impact my release date, speaking with British Airways, creating a better draft of my Night Flight to London music video treatment, sending off photo/bio/mp3 files to UK internet radio station who wants to play my music, obtaining directions to radio station in New Jersey on whose show I will be interviewed on August 1, 2011, tweeting, foursquareing, facebooking, and blogging.

It is fair to say I absolutely love what I do. I am really excited to finally be able to share my music. I can’t wait to get some reaction, as it is completely untested, untried and unknown. It is going to be a singular experience for me as I find out.

27 Days & Counting Until Album Release

So much of DIY (Do It Yourself) is Doing It Yourself! Even as I transition from unsigned artist to signed artist with Maddie Records and a UK release on 2/22/10 (Universal Music, Ditto Music), there is a lot I am still handling. I thought you might enjoy reading about some of those things.

My Social Media presence is totally self managed at this point in my career. I can’t imagine ever giving this up, but I can imagine using some interns to keep the many sites up to date. With all the cross connections between sites, there is still so much information that needs to be maintained that a daily effort and schedule is going to be needed. Just today I linked in my WordPress Blog to my Reverbnation Artist Page. These social media web sites are constantly improving their service, so you really have to maintain your page and check back often to see what other fun stuff you can do. My attitude is this…It’s not up to me to dictate how others consume or learn about my music. So, I want to go to where they are…on the Social Media Sites….and give them easy access to find my music and my central web site.

Today I have been checking in on all my Social Media Sites one by one. I maintain a spread sheet of all sites where I have a musical presence as well as statistics on those sites, including number of fans/followers/friends, songs posted, photos posted, etc. It was nice to see that in just one month, since I last updated my stats, that I have increased my fan base! There is some over lap between all the sites and email lists, but even with that, stats are trending upward as I move closer and closer to my release date. This is as it should be. And really exciting.

What is totally fun is reading my weekly Google Analytics report, which come to me on Mondays. If you don’t get an analytics report on your website, run don’t walk to your internet browser and set this up through Google Analytics! This is the most telling piece of information availalbe right now (since I have no sales data to factor in) on gauging interest in my music. My analytics report shows a doubling in traffic on my site. The report will detail for you direct traffic and referring traffic, which is so great, because you get to see the point on interest on your website. I get a lot of traffic through Twitter links and links off my blog. It really goes to show how important it is to have a presence and a link in as many places as possible.

Today’s report had some really interesting data. For the first time, visitors from the UK were almost as many as those from the USA. This has been trending upward but it took its largest jump this past week. I can attribute this to my weekly radio show on GU2 Radio out of the University of Surrey, England. I am o the Friday night Alumni show with Panos Fellas. In addition, I have some really wonderful supporters in the UK that have been spreading the word about my upcoming album to friends, family and co-workers.

So, there is a method to all this musical madness and I hope to share that with you each day as I tick down the days until February 22, 2010. Thank you for staying with me during the most exciting time of my life!

Jennie Walker
www.jenniewalker.com
www.twitter.com/msjenniewalker