{"id":80,"date":"2006-07-14T16:36:50","date_gmt":"2006-07-14T16:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2006\/07\/14\/blogs-to-sign-or-not-to-sign\/"},"modified":"2006-07-14T16:36:50","modified_gmt":"2006-07-14T16:36:50","slug":"blogs-to-sign-or-not-to-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2006\/07\/14\/blogs-to-sign-or-not-to-sign\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogs- To Sign or Not To Sign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in December 2005, my colleague Joyce Rice<\/a> and I were talking about strategies for marketing the Oregon East Symphony more effectively. In this context, she asked if I had a blog, or had ever thought of doing one, and, if so, perhaps there were ways I could use that medium to work on developing both the size and commitment level of our audience in Pendleton.
\n<\/span>At the time, I didn\u2019t even have a website, and I had only ever thought of blogs in terms of politics (politics is one of my major obsessions, but I\u2019m staying away from that here, at least for now). Nevertheless, I liked her idea. Writing for me comes fairly naturally, and I liked the idea of self-publishing a lot- most of my frustration as a writer has always been seeing what happens to a lovingly crafted editorial, guest column or think piece once it falls into the crave hands of an unsympathetic editor.
\n<\/span>The idea bounced around for some time, and I did try a few test entries, but it wasn\u2019t until we entered the preparations for the OES performance of Mahler 2 that I committed myself to the project. Ultimately, the reasons were practical- Mahler 2 was an unknown work by an unknown composer (in that region- hard to believe, but true), and it was, by far, the biggest and most-expensive concert we\u2019d ever planned. It seemed clear that I needed to use every single resource I could find to build interest in the program
\n<\/span>The work paid off- the Mahler Journey series on this blog attracted a lot of attention throughout the region and Mahler 2 was the biggest selling and most successful program the orchestra has done.
\n<\/span>Since the blog was conceived of necessity and in haste, I have to admit, I was kind of making up my approach on the fly. I felt that, if the experiment was successful, I could think about broadening the blog\u2019s scope and purpose at later date. Now, as things are a bit calmer over the summer, I have been taking a bit of time to explore other blogs and give some thought to what I might cover in the future and how I might cover it.
\n<\/span>One very obvious thing I\u2019ve found is that many blogs are written by anonymous authors, including On An Overgrown Path, possibly the most popular of classical blogs. I have to say that I do feel a bit of jealousy reading these. As a working musician, I can\u2019t help but feel that my range of speech is somewhat inhibited. I don\u2019t want to alienate possible future colleagues or supporters of orchestras I work for, I don\u2019t want to get friends or teachers in trouble and I generally feel the need to play nice, which, while good karma, can make for somewhat more boring reading. I have a great rant about a famous conductor which is full of really good, fresh venom on file that I still haven\u2019t posted lest I find his agent is a consultant on a search I\u2019m in this year.
\n<\/span>Nevertheless, I\u2019ve decided to stick to the original goals of the blog, which were to build bridges and increase interest. It\u2019s far more important to get a potential donor interested in supporting next year\u2019s OES season because of something they\u2019ve read than for me to have the satisfaction of being free to unleash a really vituperative diatribe about some modern political leader that that same donor might happen to really like. So, for now, I am a nonymous \u00a0blogger instead of an anonymous one. Staying fresh and cutting edge is more of a challenge this way, but who knows, maybe I\u2019ll start an anonymous blog somewhere else were I can tell you all about the my former agent who\u2026..
\n<\/span>Kidding.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n