Shameless & Strategic Self-Promotion

"Without promotion, something terrible happens- nothing."
                                                                              - P.T. Barnum

We live in an image-obsessed society. Social media provides every individual with the opportunity to create their own "brand". We can take selfies with our smartphones, edit them and refine them in a matter of seconds, and immediately upload them to a social media platform for instant "likes". In fact, self-marketing is easier than ever.

This trend goes hand in hand with the overwhelming migration of services to online platforms. Does anybody call the box office to order tickets anymore? We use the internet to research organizations and individuals, and whether we like to admit it or not, we make instantaneous judgements based on the information that we find there. We base our perception of popularity on the number of "likes" that an individual or organization garners through Facebook posts. It is therefore imperative that we take marketing seriously, and that we stay ahead of the curve, or at least keep pace with the rapidly changing technological media age in which we find ourselves.

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KIRSTEN:  In November of 2015, my colleague and I decided to team up and establish a new children's chorus, with the specific intention of serving the South Shore communities of Boston. This was going to be tricky - we were going to begin rehearsals in January rather than the fall. We knew that we needed to recruit hard and fast in order to reach our goal, and to fill our four ensemble levels with singers. First and foremost, we needed a logo. I reached out to a friend from college whom I had worked with before on several logos, and he came up with an image for us that I was proud of. The decision was also made that teal would be our "color" - and so the marketing escapade began.

Almost immediately, a website and a Facebook page were born. Official e-mail addresses were created, a Google Voice number was set up, and business cards were printed.

My colleague drafted a press release about the founding of our organization, and sent it to every newspaper in the area. A local paper picked up our story, and interviewed us well before our first rehearsal.

Audition requests began rolling in, and before we knew it, the South Shore Children's Chorus was serving over 40 students weekly. We gave each of the students as much "merch" as possible with our logo - a lanyard, a canvas bag, a music folder, several pencils, and a rehearsal water bottle. The students began feeling like they were part of a special team, and we began noticing an immediate change in the community aura of our organization.

When our more advanced ensembles were called to perform on local access cable, I knew it was time to order the t-shirts. For the performance, each student was wearing a bright teal t-shirt with our logo. We took that opportunity to take promotional photos of our choristers in their new t-shirts, and these pictures immediately replaced all the rehearsal photos on our website.

During the interview process for new teachers for our growing organization, several candidates made the comment that they were surprised that the organization was brand new: "It looks so professional - I had assumed it was a long-standing organization." Even the reporter that came recently to write another article about our organization's growth made a similar comment. SSCC presents itself to the online community as professional and organized. This helps parents to trust us, and students to want to be involved.

Marketing and branding for your choir is so important. It's not hard to get people involved when they are convinced by what they see. So convince them!


KRISHAN: My ensemble SACRA/PROFANA existed online before we existed in the physical realm. I created a website with my bio, the ensemble's mission and generic music images before I had actually recruited a roster of singers. I felt that it was supremely important at that moment in time for SACRA/PROFANA to have an online presence; I already knew what I wanted the vibe of the group to be, and the website successfully conveyed that. Of course, as the organization grew and developed, the website changed as well (it's been re-designed four or five times in our 7-year history) and the content became more specifically relevant to our community. But the basic identity of the ensemble has been articulated online since well before our first concert.

As a former Yale student, I was an early adapter of Facebook. I began using it back in 2004, when it was only available to a few Ivy League schools.  Similarly, SACRA/PROFANA was one of the first choruses in San Diego to have a Facebook page; there was a time when we had more "likes" than the San Diego Symphony! To their credit, the Symphony has since hired a full-time employee for these types of things; the Symphony now has about ten times as many "likes" as SACRA/PROFANA- they've obviously learned the importance of having a strong online presence.

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Here's another important thing to bear in mind: if you're using social media, you need to stay on top of it. Many organizations now employ a part-time individual (a few hours a week) who has the responsibility of updating Facebook, Twitter, etc. on a regular basis. There's nothing worse than visiting an ensemble's Facebook page and seeing that it hasn't been updated in 2 or 3 years (it would almost be better for that ensemble to not have a Facebook page at all, because having a barely-active page communicates organizational negligence). Even choruses that only perform 2 or 3 times a year can find things to post about during the slow months; there's never a shortage of interesting choral news and videos to share on social media (btw, this is also a great way to network online). Once a week should be the minimum for updating social media.

Perhaps in a future post, we'll take a moment to lament the superficiality of our current cultural milieu. One could certainly pine for the days when "being social" meant actually leaving the house and spending some time interacting with fellow humans in the real world. But technology has its benefits; online marketing now allows us to reach audiences all over the world. Whether we love it or hate it, social media is here to stay, and it behooves us as choral leaders to make use of all the tools at our disposal.