Many people use it. Some gain from it. Some loose from it. By many I mean people from all walks of life. Businessmen and women, corporate institutions, Pastors, Fetishes, Mallams etc. some insider trading on the worlds stock markets employ the use of publicity to make gains or make some to loose value. But I would want to talk about publicity in relation to the creative arts industry.
Many artistes have been in the news and on social media for many reasons. I am not saying for the good reasons or bad reasons but for a reason and you will get to know the reason why I am saying this soon. First of all, if you are an artiste and you are eager to make it (of course all artists are) in your chosen field and you have no social media presence, “forgerrit”. You need to have your presence sufficiently established from your website to Facebook to your twitter profile to your blog and a YouTube channel………….. Etc. this is your foundation if you don’t have any strong online presence. Why? Because no one will notice you even exist if you are the best in what you do, if you don’t have the spotlight on you.
With so many musicians and music publicists floating the inboxes of the media, you can count on the fact that these editors and writers will be checking each submission of your social media presence as a means to weed out who not to cover. And you want to have the edge. But remember too that having a presence don’t mean having more likes than everyone but rather having consistent content activity and engaging with your fans. If you are able to build your social media presence well and stable, then you can start thinking about gathering the publicity you dream of.
PUBLICITY
So, what is publicity? According to the Webster’s Dictionary, Publicity is “notice of or attention giving to someone or something by the media. 2. Giving out information about a product, person or company for advertising purposes.
Some artists hire the services of a publicists to liaise with the press. Here the publicist establishes a relationship between the artist and the media. Here the media includes blogs.
When an artist decides to go for a publicist, the artist pays money to the publicist for his efforts. Don’t expect the publicist to win contracts or gigs for you. If you have a manager that’s his job. If your publicist gets you some gigs or contracts, that is a plus. Yes, your publicist should get results but it’s up to you to help make sure time and effort and strategy are part of the equation. One thing you should however know is that you never know when your publicist’s efforts would start bearing fruit. It can be weeks, months, and sometimes a year or more. For example, not everyone will view your You tube ride when you post it, but overtime the right person will see it later and something dramatic will happen.
ARTICLES ON YOU
One major tool to help you in PR is getting stories to be written about you. Doing this is daunting and this is where artists will do anything to get the kind of PR they are looking for. So when you hear or read in the news of an artist involved in something one way or the other, do not be surprised. Everything they do is well thought out. Some use their works like music, poems and their accompanying artwork to do the PR work for them.
So, if you are not in the industry and you get to see something disgusting like videos or photos of your favorite artist or hear comments made by them, sometimes you feel let down. What you need to know however is that, they do it deliberately or it could be not deliberate but to them it helps in their PR so long as it won’t bring them trouble that bothers on criminality. Your reaction is all they want. As long as they will trend in the media, that will be their priority. They are aware that there are other people who do not know about them that would now hear of them. So, whatever you think is none of their business.
EXAMPLES
Kwabena Kwabena– 
24th January, 2017. Myjoyonline.com. Story Headline. “Kwabena Kwabena’s Second Marriage Hits on The Rocks”. Reacting to the rumor in an interview with Joy News’ Ibrahim Ben Bako, this is what Kwabena Kwabena said, “The last time I checked about myself and my personal status, I advised myself never to talk about anything personal about me in public so I don’t even want to comment on it; whether to confirm or not.” You realize in his response that he is very much aware of the rumor and the situation he marriage is going through, he would rather allow the public to “chew” on it rather than bringing finality to it with a response.
Wisa Greid–
His popularity soared when he released Ekiki Mi but many di not know the man Wisa very well. He became famous when he exposed his manhood during a live concert performance which landed him in court and as I write now the case is still in court. Fast forward 18th November 2017. Modernghana.com. Story Headline: Wisa Greid quits music for roadside preaching? The articles come with a video showing Wisa Greid preaching at a lorry park with people gathered around him and listening. Five days later ghanaweb.com publishes a story from an interview he granted Joynews where he shares his frustrations about the delay of his case pending in the court. Coincidence?
Delay (Deloris Frimpong Mason) my own ‘sister’ used to be in the news for sometime and even still come under the radar. That helped her to reach a certain level of publicity. Afia SCHWAR, Shatta Wale, Samini, Stonebuoy and most recently Ebony has all been in the news for different reasons.
I used to un-officially manage a young artist. He is very talented, has great stage craft and can wow his audience like something. He goes by the name Ikon Baby. One day I was about to sign-out on my morning show when he called. He said “boss as3m aba oo” to wit boss there is a problem. I asked me to come to the studio and let’s talk about it. 20 minutes later here was Ikon Baby. He said he had attended an event he was not billed to perform on. However, when his fans saw him around, they shouted and chanted that he be allowed to perform so he obliged. Mid-way through his performance some of the fans started getting rowdy. He quickly had to sneak out into a taxi outside the venue forgetting that the FM microphone belonging to the events organizers he was using on stage was with him and he took it along with him. He however brought it back the next day but word had already gone around that he had stolen a Microphone belonging to the event organizers and the media have started to call to find his version of the whole story and that is why he needed me to be his mouth-piece to clarify the issue. I later found out that he intentionally staged the whole thing without my knowledge just to gain publicity.
So please anytime you hear a story about an artist, see a video or photo of one whether in good taste or bad taste, don’t fret yourself too much because whether it excites you positively or negatively, they are aware you will be. They are looking forward to your reaction because that is why they make headlines.
Since you are not in the industry, next time you hear or see something, enjoy it if you want to or look away if you can because your reaction won’t matter, actually is greatly welcome. Very welcome.
samuelmensah 