composer's notebook

…let’s talk about my Online Presence.

If my name is the commodity I’m promoting (which it kind of is), then I have placed that name on a baffling array of shelving around the internets:

* My website
* This notebook
* BCM International website
* BCM Forum
* Facebook
* Twitter
* Classical Lounge
* The AMC Online Library (formerly NewMusicJukebox)
* Wind Repertory Project*

And that’s off the top of my head, and doesn’t include sites where I’ve absent-mindedly let my membership lapse, like the American Composers Forum, or am simply listed and linked to as a “composer”, like Meet The Composer.

I never made a MySpace page (because the site made me yack) but there is an extant BCM MySpace page that’s pretty much frozen in 2006…which I sort of refuse to link to.

In addition to this nonsense I’m considering starting an e-mail blast list. BCM used to do these back before they were cool (read glitzy HTML), but since we’ve basically stopped doing that, it might be time to venture out on my own into the world of annoying people in yet another medium. Because I smell a tipping point, and despite the fact that personal e-mail marketing generally makes my teeth itch, I really don’t want to be the only schlub without a stylized mailing list shouting out my latest and greatest.

But a mailing list would require, y’know, actually mailing out regular releases. And the website itself already has a “news” page (technically a Blogger page itself) which requires constant updating. This page requires updating, certainly more than what I do. And the whole idea of Twitter is constant updates. And when these things go by the wayside (as they tend to with me because occasionally I like to write music), the concept of an “online presence” does as well. Because you stop reading if it’s not new. Which means that the “commodity” of my name has incrementally lowered in value.

I’m looking for a balance. The question is, how much of each of the above toe-holds into online networking does one do? How much information is mirrored from one place to another? How frequently does one or the other update? It used to be that my website was the one-stop-shopping source, but no longer. Now, people actually write me with legitimate “business” (residency or commission inquiries) on Facebook, of all places. Pretty much the most impractical place to do that kind of thing. In that kind of world, where does one rank the importance of staying current with, say, the “Juilliard Alumni Online Community“?

As far as how others seem to handle it, SB has done something intriguing where he aggregates almost his entire online presence on his front page, which is pretty nifty. Those kinds of links are there on my site, but one needs to dig a little.

The king of this balancing act is my friend EW, who parlays his catalog of music and conducting work into active Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace accounts, as well as all his named websites and weblog. His particular online genius shows in his lassoing all of these disparate sources to create something brilliant like his Virtual Choir project.

I do keep a Google Reader account, filled to the brim with my friend’s blogs and rss feeds, ideally to keep track of their online doings … but frankly I never have the daily time to read them, and find myself catching up on something like a monthly basis, power-reading through scores of entries. It’s exhausting, and defeats the whole purpose of the daily blog. If I have trouble making it through everyone’s feeds, status updates, tweets, and e-mail blasts, why should I expect you to deal with mine?

How do you manage your name online? Where exactly is the Nirvanna of internet promotional balance? Comment. Or re-tweet this post. Or message me on Facebook. Or e-mail me. Or IM. Or txt.

Or better yet, pick up the phone and give me a call. I remember phone calls. Phone calls were nice.

*12/1/09 edit: I forgot about my page on Nikk Pilato’s excellent wiki.