Grimm Talks About Twitter and Music Licensing

Interviewer’s Note:  Due to my background in the entertainment industry, and interest in performing arts, I’ve always been fascinated with the music industry.  Today’s interview, with Grimm Jones, delves into his music licensing business and how he uses social media in his work.

Hello Grimm, welcome to the Pluggio Blog!  In a nutshell, how do you describe your business?

Grimm Factor Music Publishing specializes in a growing catalog of indie music from various artists. Currently, the lineup is urban music. My duties are to sell licenses to interested buyers in the film, TV, video game, and advertisement industries for the use of the music in my catalog.

How did you get started?

I am c an artist who creates music, and I maintain a catalog. I researched being a music publisher and licensing music extensively for about two years or so, and then I decided to start my business.

What role does Twitter play in your work? 

Twitter has helped me engage more people and create a community around my current endeavors. I get to network with a ton of musicians and companies that I can use in my day to day operations. Twitter’s search engine is incredible for finding the right people and companies.

What impact or change have you seen due to Twitter/social marketing?

I’ve seen a huge shift in how people are spreading the word about the things they love most in life or the activities they engage in. Sometimes it’s a double edged sword in that many people give up too much information about their personal lives for all to see then complain that information is available to the public, including businesses looking to profit from marketing endeavors.

Are there any of your accomplishments with social marketing that you are particularly proud of?

Mainly that I have been able to drive a ton of traffic to my sites and have used social marketing to build my community.

How do Twitter/social media help you achieve your goals? 

By enabling me to reach out to more people and companies across the world much faster than older/traditional methods. I’ve found so many tools, tips, tricks, techniques, and data using social media. These tools have steadily pushed my efforts forward…mainly for free!

How did you build your following? 

I started by doing keyword searches on Twitter for terms relevant to my business and the community I wanted to build. I also took to LinkedIn and even Google for more keyword searches. Once I found the proper profiles, I began following as many of them as possible. I would make sure to inform the person I’ve followed by mentioning their username in a tweet. I also set up my Twitterfeed account to automate some of my status posts with relevant RSS feeds from various music industry, film, commercial, gaming, and television industry blogs and websites that had RSS feeds. This kept my timeline up to date when I wasn’t able to tweet myself. As my followers grew in numbers, I started paying attention to their convos and would interject my thoughts and views whenever I felt it appropriate. I would also post a status about my website .

Regarding your following, what kinds of people/businesses are they?

Music, film, TV, Commercial, and gaming professionals and companies. Also musicians, bands, artists, and composers.

How will you choose who you will follow?  What do you look for in a follower?

First, they have to have a profile pic and it should align with their bio. I also look for bios to match up to profile pics.  If I see what looks like spammers, pay for follow profiles, overly dramatic users, fake celebrity profiles or follow for follow profiles, then I generally shy away and I block them too. I never follow a user who mentions me in a tweet demanding that I follow them or someone else who is not following me. If someone has a high follower count but are barely following anyone, then I don’t follow them. If I see less than a certain amount of tweets on a users profile but they have thousands of followers, then I don’t follow them. There are so many ways I keep my Twitter profile with quality followers. However, I have one profile that I created that is strictly automated with job leads (@GetMoneyArena), I usually follow every profile that follows that one.

I also used Twitter export tools to export the follower/following of certain users…then I do tweets mentioning a bunch of those users at once saying stuff like #Hello or #Shoutouts. Then I make sure to follow everyone I mention. Usually I get follows from those mentioned and retweets too!

If you could go back to when you first began using social media, what is one thing you would have done differently?

Nothing really. I love the fact that I’ve been able to grow with my social media profiles and networks over the years. It’s been a learning experience and I’m still learning. I’d have to do everything over again and again just to keep doing things differently. Might as well keep moving forward.

What does Twitter do for you that nothing else can do?

Give me a real break from Facebook while still remaining social through text. Haha

What lessons have you learned about Twitter and online marketing?

That true Twitter users do not view the platform as a popularity contest. I blame MySpace for the people using this “friend my way to fame ” mentality. Twitter is about community, finding people that share your interests…just like every other social network. As far as online marketing goes, truthfully you have to be clever without being sneaky or forceful with your message when delivering it.

I agree with that- a lot of people have stressed the importance of that.

Also, be a provider: give people in your social community useful information or relevant news to their interests. The one major thing you must understand when it comes to social media marketing is this: Its not about you! No one cares about your product, brand, or message until you care about them…so ENGAGE YOUR COMMUNITY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!

Follow Grimm on Twitter here.

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