But, before you go off and start tweeting away we need to pick out a username that you will use across all social media platforms.  This will help brand yourself.  Try and think of a name that is easily remembered, or your real name if you so choose.

Once you’ve got a name in mind we will check to see what social media platforms it is available on.  This is best done with namechk.com.  Just plug in the name you came up with at the top of the screen and you can see what sites it is still available on… remember, the more the better.

Alright, so now back to Twitter – If you haven’t heard of twitter yet then you must not surf the internet too much or watch tv.  Twitter is the latest trend in online social interaction.  I’m not going to get into much of how twitter works if you want to know more about it check out their FAQ page.

So your first task is to head on over Twitter and signup for an account – just go to twitter.com and click on the green “Sign Up” button (see below).

Ok, so now you’ve signed up for twitter and if you’ve cheated and read ahead to your homework you will know that you will have to signup for some more social media sites.  Don’t look at me like that, I’ll be doing the homework along with you.

So you may now be asking your self “How the hell am I going to keep up with all of these accounts?”  Well, I can’t tell you how to keep up with all of them, but I can tell you how to keep up with most of them… the answer… one word… Digsby!

Digsby is an amazing IM/Social Networking interface that keeps all of your accounts (including email) in one place.  Best of all – Digsby is completely FREE!  Check out the video below for more info.

Okay, so just to recap – we are starting slow… just a few social networking accounts at a time.  The first and most important that I want you to sign-up for is twitter because it is so easy to use… Ok, now for the homework.

Homework Assignment

• Pick out a screen name to use across all platforms and check it on namechk.com
• Sign-up for a new account on twitter with the screen name you choose
• Download Digsby and install it
• Setup your twitter account in Digsby
• Send out at least 2 tweets a day for the next 5 days
• Sign up for at least 3 other social networking sites aside from twitter (I recommend starting with Myspace, Facebook, and one more of your choice).  Use namechk.com to find other social networking sites if you aren’t sure.

Please, if you have any questions about any of this stuff – leave a comment so I can get you an answer and it will be shared with everyone.

If you want to be a working musician you have to do more then just be awesome at your instrument , you have to market yourself to the world around you.  You have to get your name out to every person who might possibly be interested in you as a drummer (or sometimes just as a person).

I mean; you could be the best drummer in the world, have skills that match that of Pert, Sexton, and Bonham.  But, none of that matters if no one hears you.

If a drummer hits a rim-shot in the woods and no one is around to hear it – did he really hit a rim-shot?

Through out this series of posts I’m going to help you understand how to market yourself as a drummer.  Sure you can find this information all over the internet, in ebooks, or in your bookstore.  But, I want to give you all of my collective marketing knowledge as I have applied it to my life as a drummer.

A bit of disclosure – I am not a full time drummer.  I have a regular job outside of drumming.  This is only because the lifestyle that I have chose does not lend itself well to a full time drummer who would be required to work late hours and spend much time away from home.

With that being said, I have still utilized many of these techniques (successfully) with my band and for the work that I do as a drummer so I hope that the statement above does not stop you from reading what I have to tell you.  Make sure that you read each post all the way through and look at the bottom for any “homework assignments”.  If you have a question about any of the drummer marketing techniques I describe make sure to ask your question in the comments so that everyone can share in the answer.

I suggest that if you haven’t already, you sign up on my RSS feed by clicking here – this will allow you to have posts from this blog sent directly to your email.

For a first optional homework assignment I would like you to share this link with all of your drumming friends whether it be offline or online.  The more people that read this, the more drummers will know how to market themselves and the more good questions we will see in the comments.