and putting up an online store on a dated , shitty website .
Unless you ’ re Iron Maiden , betting on the fact the your music will sell itself is folly and a recipe for disaster ( and a ramen noodles diet ).
A Digital Marketing Badass In The Making
I have often gotten the question , “ How the hell do you even become something like the social media manager for Megadeth ? How did that even happen ?”
I was unemployed , not sure what
17 my next career move was going to be , and spent a lot of my free time participating in the Megadeth fan club ( I told you , I ’ m a dork ). After awhile , I earned trust and convinced them to let me help with the administration of the fan club and their social media .
At the time , their Facebook page was somewhere around 6.5 million likes . There was a small team of “ volunteers ” ( read : free ) that helped moderate the page for spam and trolls - a full-time job in actuality .
As I got my feet wet , I kept seeing more and more opportunities for how the band could really , truly use social media to their advantage . I came up with ideas , creative campaigns , contests , etc . to engage and build camaraderie with the fans .
Fortunately , Dave Mustaine was always open to learning , discussing ideas , and letting me go for it . Back then , Instagram was still really new and underutilized . I had a conversation with Dave about it , explained the concept of “ User Generated Content ” ( UGC ) - he was worried he was going to have to post a bunch of selfies - and we were off to the races .
I came up with the hashtag # mymegadeth - which was a UGC monthly contest that encouraged fans to show off their merch , swag , and Megadeth lifestyle . By the time I left , that hashtag was being used an average of 1,000 times per month on Instagram . Boom .
I learned as I went , somehow fitting in an average of 50 hours a week in between having my baby home 100 % of the time with me . I basically didn ’ t sleep . I read articles , I took classes , I learned Photoshop , I networked with concert photographers , industry people , and other musicians .
The online fan base grew steadily , and I was able to grow their Facebook page alone from 6.5 million to over 8 million likes in a year and a half . By the time I left , I was managing ( with a few volunteers ) 13 million fans across 17 social media accounts .