Bridge The Atlantic

We're joined by an independent music industry powerhouse, Ariel Hyatt, this week. Ariel is the director of Cyber PR, a New York based online PR agency who work with musicians and entrepreneurs. Over the past 18 years, Ariel and her team have helped over 1800 clients rock their online presence. Ariel has also spoken at events and conferences in 12 countries and has released 3 books on the subject of social media for artists, with a new book in the works. In this interview we talk about effective crowdfunding, what to consider when hiring a music publicist, and how social media has changed PR. Highlights: - Ariel has a lifelong battle with people mispronouncing her name - Ariel has grown up in an entrepreneurial family - her mother is an entrepreneur and her father is a working artist - We hear about Ariel’s experience of working with one of her favourite artists (The Spin Doctors) - Effective crowdfunding is probably not what you think it is - Our friend Shaun from No, Totally! has a question for Ariel about knowing when you’re worthy to run a crowdfunding campaign - Ariel tells us about her upcoming book on crowdfunding… and we’re very excited to read it! - Remember that you are in the driving seat when hiring a publicist - it’s a buyer’s market - So many artists who appear to come out of nowhere have been working behind the scenes for years - Ross and Marcio are pronouncing things weird all over the place - Ariel recommends we watch Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca Grammy performance - Ariel shares her thoughts on how publicity has changed in the social media age - “Just because you have the Twitter handle of the write you want to cover you, doesn’t mean they’re going to cover you” - Ariel Hyatt, 2015 - It’s much easier to identify who bloggers and journalists are now than it was a few years ago - Ariel says that social media and PR are very much intertwined now - Ariel’s cat (@thehuntercat) doesn’t Tweet as much as her, as she doesn’t have opposable thumbs - We say awesome too much Advice: - On crowdfunding - most of your funding is actually going to come from the people you already know - You have to reach out to people personally when crowdfunding - When people don’t contribute to your crowdfund, it’s not always personal - people are busy and forget! - Think about what you can provide that will be really special to the people who donate to your crowdfund - Identify your VIPs and create a spreadsheet of people you think will contribute to your campaign - Before working with a publicist - ask yourself if you really need to be working with one - Talk to at least three publicists before hiring - After your PR campaign is over, think about how you can leverage your publicity - If you’re doing your own publicity, you have to do your homework, and have targets Guest links: - Website: cyberpr.com / cyberprmusic.com - Twitter: @cyberpr / @cyberprmusic / @teamcyberpr / @thehuntercat - Facebook: /cyberpr - Instagram: @cyberpr Sponsors: - Alyssa Parma (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqlkLurzyYE) - Chris Keaton (http://chriskeaton.com) - Buck Naked Soap Company (http://bucknakedsoapcompany.com) - Christine Infanger @ Thirty Roses (http://thirtyroses.com) --- For more episodes, visit http://bridge-the-atlantic.com Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bridge_atlantic Subscribe on iTunes: http://bridge-the-atlantic.com/itunes Support us on Patreon: http://patreon.com/bridgetheatlantic