HIGHLIGHTS: The journey so far – the first six months
When you are a bit of a geek and nerd about statistics as well as the usual Music, Movies, and Games (as well as books and comics) there is the inevitable keeping an eye on site traffic and social media figures.
Its been an amazing six months, even with personal ups and downs which has affected the site. In the last six months along with Darren of Metal Planet Music and Jonny of Belfast Metalheads I have had phenomenal opportunities thrown my way that never in a million years did I ever think would happen.
I have reviewed live gigs like Sons of Apollo, Tremonti, Myles Kennedy, Motionless in White with Ice Nine Kills, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Vambo, StoneWire, Scorpions with Megadeth, Reef, Anvil, Raveneye, Elvana, The Undertones with Brand New Friend, Buckcherry with Stone Broken, Steel Panther along with Wayward Sons, Jeff Tate’s Operation Mindcrime, Jimmy Barnes, Diamond Head with Stormzone, Lock Horns, Tenacious G, The Raven Age and none other than Iron Maiden.
I have reviewed plenty of albums like Anvil, StoneWire, Ten Ton Slug, Seething Akira, MotorJesus, Climate of Fear, Thuum, Kill The Unicorn, Elder Druid, Leaves’ Eyes, Back Roads, Blues Pills, Blackfoot, and Goya.
I have interviewed Brian Tatler of Diamond Head, Raveneye, Vambo, Bumblefoot from Sons of Apollo, Godsticks, Stonewire, Anchorlane, The Picturebooks, Stone Broken, Anvil, Rews, Jimmy Barnes, Toby Jepson (Wayward Sons, Little Angels), and Geoff Tate (Operation Mindcrime, Queensryche).
Had my content shared on other websites such as Jace Media, Blabbermouth, Rock N Load, BraveWords, and 695 The Rock,
Reviews have been used and quoted by Asher Media, Ten Ton Slug, StoneWire Website and StoneWire Facebook, Vambo, Awake Again, Milk White Throat, Dyad, SlimBoy, and Seething Akira.
I have seen the website grow from January to June (first real six months) even when the website went quiet for a couple of months. And it has seriously blown me away.
As to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter the interactions have also been mind-blowing with over 200 followers on Facebook, over 100 followers on Instagram and Twitter. even more so with the followers themselves. Sabaton, Vambo, StoneWire, Godsticks, New valley Wolves, Scimitar, These Wicked Rivers, Cursed Sun, and Baleful Creed on Twitter. On Facebook the list is incredible of those who follow the inane rubbish I put up and includes band members, music PR and the ordinary punter. Instagram is the same. Its also a real buzz when the likes of Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, Reef and Steel Panther actually like your posts and share them.
It has also been a pleasure working with the likes of SD Entertainment, Wilful Publicity, Savage Gringo, SaN PR, James Rollins PR, Central Press PR, Jeff Robinson PR, Peter Noble PR, Duff Press, Cosa Nostra PR, Asher Media, BJF PR Wall of Sound PR, WDFD Records, Napalm Records, AFM Records, Sony Music, Rockshot Records, ROAR (Rock of Angels Records) and many many more. Not to mention going to the Harmony Live Festival and the Stone Free Festival.
I have had over 81,000 impressions on Twitter with a total Re-tweet reach of over 1,250,000; over 10,000 unique visitors to the website with over 200,000 hits of information accessed; over 100,000 post impressions on Facebook with a reach of over 60,000. Mind-blowing. In six months, for me, this was insane.
It is a great way to get experience and upskill in a lot of different communication areas. I have learnt a lot about content management, building websites, looking closer at how social media works, how music PR works, even down to making it as easy as possible for people to immediately see what any article is about. Even doing this six month roundup has made me have a good look at some of the earlier articles and tidy them up to be consistent with how I am doing things now. Consistency is still a bit of a bugbear, but even doing this little retrospective has led me to tweak and rejig older posts to try to get a better feel to the overall site.
Some seriously basic stuff, but it has been a great experience picking it all up and alongside quite a few excellent mentors who have a huge amount of experience in the music journalism field.
The NEWS section has not stopped with loads of emails dropping into my inbox with lots of upcoming news. I am already thinking of a HIGHLIGHT post on improving how press releases are structured – I have found that just straight forward text with a couple of links to streaming services (like YouTube, Deezer, Spotify etc) and at least two or three pictures (at one of the Band) is the best for websites like this. The easier I can upload content the faster the PR company’s press release gets published.
One thing that has hit me is the number of social media platforms there are and perhaps the need to concentrate on those that deliver the best results (Lest be honest – I am looking for traffic to my site!!) But I will persevere for the moment as I get to grips with all that each one can do. Some may not be as useful to me as they may be to others. So plenty of learning still to do.
There is also still lots to do, and though the main focus so far has been on music more will be coming with regard to gaming and movies/series/books/comics.
And made many friends along the way and as such have a bigger family now. Metal is a great thing indeed. And most importantly, its been lots of fun along the way. It can not be underestimated how much this project has helped me with my own mental health. (and on that note – if you live in Northern Ireland check out Metal For Life – a small charity working for better mental health outcomes for those within the metal community)
So THANK YOU to each and every one of you who has supported me in one way or another. Be it following Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Google+ or Twitter; listening to the interviews on Soundcloud; visiting the website; sharing anything I put up; bumping into me at gigs and having a chat; and most importantly those who have given me the opportunities to do this – not just Darren or Jonny but also all the Public Relations and Record companies.
I might add that having looked at July’s statistics, it was a good job I was sitting down.
