If you try hard enough, nothing's safe. "Underneath the stars"? 'Bang on a can"? Best not to head down that route. I hate it when everyday phrases that I have to use in class regularly have been made into permanent double entendres in my brain.
Another piece is ready to go - the Woven Tide review. If others have things it would help vary the author to post them first, but this one is slightly time-sensitive as it is a new release that is coming out Jan 31, and we can be among the early reviews around now, so I'd like to see it go up within days rather than weeks.
@Germanprof: Well, what do you think causes those rocking chairs to fall off their porches?
I'm pleased to report that today I became sufficiently annoyed by the broken link messages the theme was causing (e.g. for the login page) that I went in and fixed it.
FYI, I'm just about done with a fun little mixtape for Valentine's Day. I'll be submitting it soon, but it can get filed away for later review when we get closer to the day.
I just did something really silly. I created a Facebook ad for Music is Good. You only pay for clicks and I put a maximum of $5.00 per day so I figure it doesn't hurt to try it for a day or two. There appears to be really good analytics so I'll share as soon as that starts up.
I targeted the ad to fans of some of the artists that we've already written about in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.
If someone actually follows the link in the ad to our page it costs an estimated $0.63 (although they claim that will almost certainly be a high estimate).
I'm fascinated by this. The ad went live a little bit ago, and has thus far been on the page of 197 people an average of 2.5 times. No clicks yet, though.
3,482 individuals have had the ad on their page an average of 5.0 times.
14 of those individuals have also seen that one of their friends have already liked the page.
13 people have clicked through and viewed the Music is Good Facebook page at an average cost of $0.52 per click for a total cost of $6.71.
1 person has liked Music is Good through the ad.
Can't really say it's worth $6.71 for one person to like us, but it's not really about that for me. I'll probably let it run for a bit longer before stopping the campaign.
I just found some temp work again, so my schedule just got even tighter than before. I'll still try to do the Tweeting, but I can guarantee that I'll be able to do it every day. I'm more than happy to share the login and pword (amclark has it, too).
Just an fyi. Nobody has to accept the mantle, just warning that my shoddy timeliness is about to get shoddier.
@jonahpwll, greg, many thanks for the kind words. Very encouraging. Especially as I am writing for the blog with a strong feeling of making it up as I go along. I've never written about music before this, and what I know about music theory is pretty much what I learned before the age of 11. I'm finding it helpful to sit and listen to an album with a pen and notebook, writing down every word or impression that comes to me. Most of it I then don't use, but it really focuses my listening and I start hearing more things.
Ad experiment was concluded yesterday evening. After 48 hours of the ad being shown to fans of Bang on a Can, Bill Frisell, Doomtree, Micachu, Nils Frahm, Noam Pikelny, or Nathan in the U.S., U.K., or Australia, the results are as follows:
6,920 (of a total target population of 47,320) people had the ad on their page an average of 8.7 times.
14 of those folks also had a notation that one of their friends already likes Music is Good.
25 people clicked through to the Music is Good page and 4 of them liked the page.
The average cost of each click was $0.51 for a total cost of $12.76.
Not sure I'll do it again, but it was fun nonetheless.
@Craig, thanks also for the kind words. I hope I'm not inspiring everyone else to stop writing :-). I'll have another review for Monday, but would love to see something else go up to break the Smith sequence.
Also, congratulations on scientifically establishing the monetary value of a Like on facebook! Thanks for doing that, it's quite interesting. Among other things the quotation of a target population is interesting - is that based on how many people had liked those bands or on something cleverer? Can we let those four people know they cost us 3 bucks a piece and tell them they'd better tell all their friends?
I think next you should try a billboard somewhere near Times Square.
I should have a review of the concert I'm going to tonight ready for early next week, so that'll break it up some. (Going to MPR's The Current's 7th Birthday Party with Low, Tapes 'n Tapes, Night Moves (discussed in the last Dispatches from Funkytown), and Dead Man Winter (a Trampled By Turtles side project).
As for the target population, that is not more clever than the total number of folks in the three geographic locations who like at least one of the listed artists. Interestingly, they give you several graphs on the ad monitoring page, and one of them is a kind of circle graph with the full target population as the outside circle, the number of that target that has had the ad as an inner circle, and a third level circle of targeted folks who have seen the ad with a friend listed as liking it. It really is fun for a data geek like me to run an ad. Good thing too, because $3 a piece for 4 likes would otherwise depress me.
I don't do 'near' Times Square. It's Times Square proper, or nothing!
$0.05 per like. This billboard will be so fantasmilogical that we will instantly become the most popular page on all of Facebook. It will be comprised of jonah giving a thumbs up while standing next to a nude Scarlett Johanson and Ryan Reynolds with explosions on one side of the background and Colin Firth proposing to a woman dressed like Jane Austen on the other. It will say simply: "You think this is good? Try Music is Good."
Comments
I think my followers will be more into the Offthesky post, though. The Door in the Wall sounds dirty if you try hard enough.
Craig
I'm pleased to report that today I became sufficiently annoyed by the broken link messages the theme was causing (e.g. for the login page) that I went in and fixed it.
P.S. Thanks, Jonah, for the nice words.
I targeted the ad to fans of some of the artists that we've already written about in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.
Craig
Craig
Craig
3,482 individuals have had the ad on their page an average of 5.0 times.
14 of those individuals have also seen that one of their friends have already liked the page.
13 people have clicked through and viewed the Music is Good Facebook page at an average cost of $0.52 per click for a total cost of $6.71.
1 person has liked Music is Good through the ad.
Can't really say it's worth $6.71 for one person to like us, but it's not really about that for me. I'll probably let it run for a bit longer before stopping the campaign.
Craig
Just an fyi. Nobody has to accept the mantle, just warning that my shoddy timeliness is about to get shoddier.
Also, that was my first listen on their site of the album. Wow, that's some pretty stuff. I might have to pick that up.
Craig
6,920 (of a total target population of 47,320) people had the ad on their page an average of 8.7 times.
14 of those folks also had a notation that one of their friends already likes Music is Good.
25 people clicked through to the Music is Good page and 4 of them liked the page.
The average cost of each click was $0.51 for a total cost of $12.76.
Not sure I'll do it again, but it was fun nonetheless.
Craig
Also, congratulations on scientifically establishing the monetary value of a Like on facebook! Thanks for doing that, it's quite interesting. Among other things the quotation of a target population is interesting - is that based on how many people had liked those bands or on something cleverer? Can we let those four people know they cost us 3 bucks a piece and tell them they'd better tell all their friends?
I think next you should try a billboard somewhere near Times Square.
As for the target population, that is not more clever than the total number of folks in the three geographic locations who like at least one of the listed artists. Interestingly, they give you several graphs on the ad monitoring page, and one of them is a kind of circle graph with the full target population as the outside circle, the number of that target that has had the ad as an inner circle, and a third level circle of targeted folks who have seen the ad with a friend listed as liking it. It really is fun for a data geek like me to run an ad. Good thing too, because $3 a piece for 4 likes would otherwise depress me.
I don't do 'near' Times Square. It's Times Square proper, or nothing!
Craig
Craig