Baby’s…got…Klout

I got an iphone today.  Me, who just 6 months ago bargained at the Koodo desk for a refurbished, ol-fashioned, drop-down-the-stairs-and-don’t-give-a-damn-leave-it-on-the-bus-and-who-cares LG flipphone. A phone that was a phone. Because that’s all I needed a phone to be.

Well, folks, not anymore. I hath crossed over.

This week put my head in a spin.  The S.A.C. Social Media Challenge I’ve taken on lived up to it’s name with Week 4: Social Media Primer (read about weeks 1,2,3 here).  Truth: I’ve been a sideline-viewer of social media thus far, really.  Dippin’ my toes in the social media bathhouse (ew).  But this week I stripped down and dove in head-on. I got tweets. I got clouds. I got .fms and roots and alleys and RSS and SMS and SEO and BYOB (it was a trying week. throw me a bone).

And it has changed me.  The first thing I did when I rolled out of bed this morning, barely of this world, was sign into my klout.com. (a website we were encouraged to look at this week that “scores” your effectiveness online).  Fatigued faded fast as I saw my klout-o-meter finally rise up from the lowly 13 points where it’s been stationed and…well.  I had tweeted, I had joined, I had posted.  I had given mad ups.  And there it was.  The needle settled at a resplendent FOURTY-SIX Klout points.  I … I have Klout?  I have KLOUT!  The computer told me so!  I GOT KLOUT, Y’ALL!  FOURTY SIX KLOUTS!  I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT MEANS!  But I nevertheless felt a surge of accomplishment.  So that’s the moment when I pushed myself away from my desk and went outside to stick my face in the made-for-real-life snow.  It was all a bit much.  I need to give something organic a hug.In addition to my webpage and this incredible blog, before this week I did have and use: bandcamp , twitter, facebook, myspace, youtube and Ariel’s MasterMind.  But not to their full advantage, and without really understanding their potential.  The reading this week was key in the introducing and explaining of many different types of social media that could be helpful in garnering a foothold on this new planet of online attendance.

...taken moments ago in the blogesphere

I did a lot of reading and exploring of these sites, fixed them up, connected them to each other.  I also ventured into soundcloud, last.fm, Music Alley, Google+ set up my facebook page with a rootsmusic bandpage.  And tonight, at the suggestion of my new best friend iphone: flickr.

So far the sites are boggling, interesting, and a hellalotta work.  I have talked with colleagues about social media networking and most who are serious about it have reaped the benefits in big ways.  Connections, fans, press, sales, show opportunities.  Like we read this week, social media=engagement. Does that mean engagement=presence and presence=opportunity?  I’d love to hear what you have to say about any of these sites/apps/widgets and any tales of how they’re boosting or diminishing your quality of life and how you hope they’ll affect your music career in the next year.

Big cyber-high-fives to the rest of the challenge members: you keep me going.

My partner just looked over my shoulder and commented that if I’m saying the phrase “baby’s got klout”…well, I probably don’t.  (The numbers don’t lie, Alex.)  Time to go stick my face in the snow.
FaceTime me,

Sioux

Next Monday’s Post:  Week  5 – The Musician’s Guide to YouTube

Read your way through the 9 week challege so far:

WEEK ONE – One blog make one a blogger?
WEEK TWO – Presidential Pitches
WEEK THREE – Cheese or Font?