After a successful week 3 it’s time to begin week 4…

This week is all about the power of blogging, twitter, facebook and flickr!

I visited commoncraft.com and watched all the videos recommended by Ariel and yes, these were great. The video’s were all about social networking, rss feeds, wiki, etc… There’s lots of good info here.

Next it’s time to create a blog and this is something I have done and now I’m a daily blogger. Yes, there is a lot of power in blogging! Here’s a couple of examples why blogging is working for me…

#1: I’m now posting new content to my webspace which in turn gives visitors and fans a reason to return to my site to see what’s new with John Gilliat. It’s my own reality web show. I post behind the scene gig pages so people can see and read what it’s like living a guitarist life.

Because of my posts I’m adding content and keywords that is increasing my google ranking and relevant web traffic. I have currently increased my daily traffic from an average of 125 visitors per day to 225. And I know that’s directly related to my blogging.

#2: I had a client contact me because they read a post about a wedding I played. The client was considering the same venue for their wedding and was looking for a guitarist. I was found by a google search for the venue and a guitarist.

Week 4 – Day 2… Now my big task this week is to find blogs related to my music and my guitar style and post comments, I need to be involved with other bloggers and begin developing my social network of like minded bloggers. I’m going to dive in and develop a circle of new blogging friends. I’ll also have to be sure I include the blog sites I comment on to my blog role. My goal this week is to find and comment on 50 relevant blogs!

Week 4 – Day 3… Today I didn’t have any time to find my 50 blogs however, as I’ve been doing regularly I created a new blog post. “Back to Whistler Mountain, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics to perform at the Squamish Lilwat Cultural Centre” It’s been a busy day with travel and a gig were I have to set up 2 sound systems, perform in 2 locations, etc… Some days it’s hard to find the time to put my social networking hat on.

Week 5 – Day 4... Today I’m going to learn to take twitter a little more serious. I already have a twitter account http://twitter.com/johngilliat and I’m going to tweet and hook up with new friends here. Also, I have found an app for my blackberry which allows me to tweet anytime/anywhere. It’s a free app called UberTwitter for anyone interested. I can also see what’s new with Twitter friends I’m following.

Week 5 – Day 5… So here’s what’s going on today, Just downloaded and installed twitbin – very cool browser app to keep me up to date tweeting. Also I’m posting to as many relevant blogs as I can find and having fun meeting other bloggers. It’s fun getting involved!

Week 5 – Day 6… Today it’s Flickr day. I wasn’t aware of this photo gallery, social networking site. I checked it out as per Ariel’s book and it looks great! I have re-activated my Google account and will create a Flickr account as soon as Yahoo re-activates me. (I created an account some time ago and never used it. Yahoo takes up to 24 hours to get me re-activated. Then I can create my Flickr account.) I really need a good and easy to maintain photo gallery on my website and blog. This has been a task on my to do list for years. Flickr looks easy to create and I should be able to instantly upload photo’s from my blackberry to my website, blog, facebook page. Keeping my fingers crossed that this comes together easily as it could be a wonderful edition to my internet space!

Week 5 – Day 7… Flickr is up and running visit me on flickr here. Lot’s of work to do here at flickr… upload photo’s join groups and discussions, create galleries, widgets and I need to learn to embed a flicker gallery into my website. (all great stuff, I need more time!)

I almost missed checking the CyberPRMastermind blog this week for the supplement post. I must begin following at least 100 tweeters and need to add Ariels “must have” apps to my facebook account!

In summary the toughest part of this week is finding really good blogs (at least 50) to become involved with, add to my blog roll and post comments to. I’m continuing to forge on with Ariel’s program however there is a lot more on going work to be done from this past week.

Also for others working through Ariel’s Music Success in 9 weeks program, be sure not to miss signing up to be involved with Ariel’s CyberPRMastermind Group/Blog. There are some fantastic supplement posts to each week that you must not miss!