Lessons Learned on Twitter

I've been using Twitter for some time now as my primary social media marketing tool. I think it has helped my stock music business, although that's somewhat difficult to quantify. It's also provided an opportunity to express myself in numerous ways. I have a chance to tweet my gratitude for people like you who support my work. I can highlight things that are near and dear, especially the healing power of music. I've heard that trolls on Twitter are the most brutal of all on the Internet, but fortunately have not had those sorts of problems.

There are great things about being on Twitter. Last week, for example, to celebrate the induction of Yes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I did a sort of Yes lyric "tweet-a-thon." I tweeted out snippets of Yes lyrics (mostly from off the top of my head) from across their decades-long catalog. The biggest thing this experience taught me is that you just never know what's going to catch people's collective fancy. The lyrics I expected to have the most impressions, those from classic hits "Roundabout" and "Owner of a Lonely Heart," were not the most popular. Instead, the most impressions (by far) and interactions went to this tweet:

As we flow down life's river
I see the stars glow one by one
All angels of the magic
constellation
Be singing us now#Yes #RockHall2017

— Bruce Smith (@thisbrucesmith) April 7, 2017

Obviously, there are a lot of people whose spirits were touched by these last lines of the song "Hearts" from 90125. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to connect with fellow Yes fans across the Twittersphere, even if only for a moment.

The other lesson I've learned is less happy. For all of the connection that social media provides, we are still provincial and isolated in many ways. In recent weeks I've tweeted my sorrow and mourning for victims of senseless violence in three different places: St. Petersburg, Egypt, and Syria. The St. Petersburg tweet attracted far more attention than the other two. It's easy to rationalize this as the result of more Westerners on Twitter. Yet any taking of innocent life is an abomination against all of us, no matter where it happens or who perpetrates it. Until we as individuals treat all of these things the same, nothing will change at the social level.

What's Happening, Week of April 10. 2017

I hope you had a lovely weekend and are looking forward to Easter week. I spent quite a bit of time tromping outdoors this weekend and am beat as I write this on Sunday evening. Saturday was especially exhilarating, with a trip to Glen Helen Nature Preserve in Yellow Springs, Ohio. As a matter of fact, here' a picture of "the Yellow Spring" up close and personal.

But tomorrow begins a new week. I plan to do my usual promotional and content marketing things. In addition, I'll be working on new podcast intros. I'm thinking another urban themed intro and maybe a blues shuffle. At some point this week I'll talk a little here about last week's Yes lyric "tweet-athon." To make a long story short, it was great fun and quite uplifting.

Have a great week!

Yes Lyric Tweet-A-Thon

To celebrate the induction of Yes, my favorite band, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tomorrow (April 7), I'll be tweeting bits and pieces of some of my favorite Yes lyrics from across their decades-long canon. I'll be doing this over the next two days in fits and starts. I do NOT promise to include every album. As with most fans, I like some Yes albums better than others. (I know - "blasphemy!" - get over it.) My tweets will feature bits of lyrics that have special personal meaning to me.

If you want to follow on my feed, I'll be using the hashtags #Yes and #RockHall2017. Obviously given the 140 character limit, this may prove to be a challenge. I'm up for it nevertheless, at least until the publishers threaten legal action.

I also don't guarantee that what I tweet will be precisely correct, since I'm working from memory and don't plan to take a lot or time scouring YouTube or any of the lyrics sites to jog it. Id est quod est.

New Podcast Intros and Loops Today

I' m featuring new podcast intros and loops on my Twitter feed today. One set is high energy metal in four versions: full, abbreviated, looped, and logo/outro. The second has an urban, "old skool" feel in full, short and looped versions.

Also, my new video on royalty-free music for podcasters is online at YouTube. Hope you'll check it out.

What's Happening, Week of April 3, 2017

Sweet and bitter for me this week.

That harbinger of spring, baseball season, is back. Around these parts, Opening Day is tomorrow (April 3). I'm not living in Cincinnati at the moment, and I don't plan to go to the Opening Day festivities. But if I cared to, I could make may way to a Skyline Chili here in the Dayton area for a free Cincinnati-style chili cheese coney with mustard (and if I were by myself maybe even onions, too - living dangerously).

Tomorrow would also have been my sister Donna's 69th birthday, so I'll be thinking about her quite a bit.

Meanwhile, there's music stuff to talk about. Two new sets of podcast intro music went online, one corporate, one with a jazz salsa vibe. In addition, I have two new sets waiting in curation at Pond5. One is metal, the other has an urban "old skool" feel. Trying to cover as many bases as possible. I've also finished a promotional video for the podcast music collection and plan to upload that to YouTube either tomorrow or Tuesday. When that's online, I'll let you know here and on Twitter.

I hope the spring is in your step this coming week. Thanks for stopping by, listening and supporting my work.