FAQ

Cyber PR® is a process that combines digital PR, email marketing, and social media amplification while emphasizing fan acquisition and growth.

In other words, we are an artist development company. Our core offering is planning and strategy.  There are a lot of things to be aware of in today’s new music business and we are here to be your thinking partners.

The Founder, Ariel Hyatt, is dedicated to artist education. This is why you will find hundreds of blog posts, webinars and free downloadable worksheets to help you on this site. We believe the most powerful thing you as a musician can do is educate yourself to understand the ever-changing industry and how to get ahead in it.

In this crazy ever-changing music industry landscape we see the same issue over and over again: A vast majority of artists don’t have any long-term plan in place. Each year hundreds of artists approach us looking for PR because they were told by someone in the music industry that they need PR. We don’t necessarily agree.

Here is how we approach your music career and we invite you to take a good long stare at this VENN Diagram:

Why yes you can! I have a $97 solution for you. Come take my Supercharge Your PR LAB and learn exactly how to generate PR for yourself. It’s easier than it has ever been before and this 3-part master class will teach you exactly how to get the results you want. Not interested in learning how to do PR for yourself? No worries – there are also 11 other courses covering a range of topics from booking to email mastery to releasing music without all the stress – read about all LABS here.

Cyber PR has an online dashboard that our artists have full access to throughout their campaigns. This houses a VPK (Virtual Press Kit) and a list of all of the blogs and podcasts we have pitched you to with links to their socials. We will never hide who we send your music to, as we want you to connect to the bloggers we are pitching you to and start interacting. This helps us do our job and gets you into the communities of tastemakers who can help you long after your campaign with us is over.

Next, we hand-craft a pitch for you depending on who we’re trying to reach, and what we are strategically asking for. And sometimes we ask 4 or 5 times…. 😉

We know how to get you onto publications because we spent thousands of hours researching who takes indie submissions, who likes guest posts, which columns you’ll fit into, and how many interviews a month each publication features.

1. We help you write a long term plan FIRST – In our many years developing artists, we find most call upon us when their albums or EPs are about to come out (like next week!) It is completely baffling that someone would work so hard on new music and visuals, dedicating hours and hours writing songs, practicing, not to mention spending large sums of money recording, mixing and mastering, only to rush the release with no plan in place!

So, let us talk to you about creating a customized plan. We call these our Total Tuneups – they cost less than PR and can actually save you a fortune in the long run.

Note: Musicians can no longer rely on social media exclusively to drive sales either. According to a recent article in Business 2 Community, “Those who can measure results directly have discovered social media is far less effective at driving direct purchases than email or search advertising.” This is why our marketing plans cover both social and email marketing.

2. We implement content marketing– We know that to stand out amongst the thousands of artists vying for precious limited space on music blogs you need to cultivate what separates you from the rest. We will make you a shark in a sea of tuna by executing effective niche content blog placements. We find out what non-music topics you are passionate about and connect you to these passionate bloggers’ audiences. When we provide them with well-researched, thoughtful content that you create, it becomes a win-win for everyone involved. This means you stand out in non-traditional ways on blogs that don’t normally feature music and entertainment content.

3. We GIVE you our pitch list – You get all of the social media links for every blog we pitch you to (this is something that none of our competition offers).

Why YES you can! Here is a link to all of our case studies which will show you some individual artist campaigns as well as our Social Media Management (SMM) campaign successes.

We get asked this all the time: What’s My ROI (Return On Investment) from a Cyber PR Campaign? It’s a legit question. Any publicist that tells you that you will sell music as a result of a PR campaign alone is not telling you the truth. PR is just one part of the picture (this is why we like long-term plans).

So we encourage you to stop asking about ROI and think about this as ROC – Return on Conversation… you know, what is actually measured on social media.

Cyber PR is digital PR. This means we place on:

• Blogs / Music Blogs
• Podcasts
• Video Sites
• Socials – via shares, regrams, reposts, and RTs

No disrespect to our colleagues but we don’t “blast” a generic press release to a list in a database. This approach never yields strong results, and we love strong results.

There’s 2 answers to this:

1. The SNARKY Answer: Traditional PR for independent artists is VERY HARD to produce. Think about it – when was the last time you saw a totally independent artist get a write-up or review in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, or The New York Times? Until you have a steadily growing fanbase and a substantial draw, you are not ready for this yet. Anyone who tells you differently is lying.

2. The NON-SNARKY answer: The evolution of devices, expanding social channels, the 24-hour news cycle, and instant access to every imaginable type of media for all who are connected constantly shifts the landscape and the opportunities for exposure online are far greater for an independent artist. Since we serve independent artists we want to do what actually works.

No. Press releases are not an effective way of reaching music bloggers. For that reason, we gave up writing them and blasting them in 1996.

YES! We execute full social media management campaigns. This means we will tweet, pimp out and post on your Facebook Page for you, run your Instagram, write blog posts, and help you with your monthly newsletter.

We will develop a content strategy that actually works, by identifying themes that resonate with your audience, and planning your calendar so you don’t forget the important stuff that your fans need to know about.

We are also passionate about educating you! We will teach you how to work our LABS programs so that you can continue to build your presence on all social networks as well as master Branding, Booking, DIY PR, Facebook Ads and more.

Indeed we do! However, if you are looking for millions of followers then we are not the company for you.  We believe in authentic and organic growth. We will help you to find your tribe and connect with them by making sure your brand, messaging and social media is cohesive; however, we are not gonna use bots and other BS tactics to get you there. Building a real audience takes time and effort – we can teach you how to do it right.

YES! We strongly believe that all artists should have a fabulous bio (we call it a signature story around here). This is the cornerstone of your online footprint and it is more important than ever to have a strong story that fans can relate to. Our bio writer is a total pro. He has written bios for Lana Del Rey, Joe Jackson, and Julian Lennon (and hundreds more). He has a degree in journalism from NYU and he has had articles published in SPIN, The Village Voice, Guitar World, and CMJ New Music Monthly. You can read examples of his work and even sign up for a bio right here.

We are happy to tell you that and you can find out here! But after speaking to thousands of artists and running countless campaigns I have discovered that most times it’s NOT PR that an artist needs – it’s an artist development strategy that helps you plan your next powerful moves.  We call these Total Tuneups, and they are the secret weapon you don’t even know you need.

YES! Of course, we can customize a payment plan that works for you, and, of course, we take credit cards.

We are so happy you asked! It’s a toss up between these 2:

Surprised Kitty
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