Follow Mary-Jess Forum on Facebook

[Admin]

Hi Everyone,

I have set up a Facebook page to help Mary-Jess fans find the forum through Facebook.

www.facebook.com/MaryJessForum

Please like the page and invite your friends.

Thanks,
Dazza

[John]

Good idea! I have shared it on the Classical crossover page as well.
For just 18 members, we haven't done badly so far, but it would be great to have more people participating.

[bobscullen]

Thanks Dazza and John, It is not even a week old yet so we have done pretty good so far as you have both said. I find the success should be judged by number of hits as some fans just prefer to view rather than join and contribute. I think we will soon reach 50 if we keep the momentum going with all these excellent initiatives. I have spread the word through work as we have a large medical Chinese community here and 2 have already asked me where to get a copy of Shine.

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[Admin]

Thanks John and Bob, keep spreading the word.

Facebook pages are important, when I first set one up for All Angels International we were regularly getting more referrals from Facebook than Google, not anymore as we haven't used it much since All Angels have been inactive. People searching for Mary-Jess on Facebook will hopefully find the forums page as well.

Bob, your point about people who just browse the forum without joining) is an important one, I would never make a forum like this members only. A lot of people who are interested in Mary-Jess will visit the forum and keep coming back without ever joining, and that's good because it's still helping to support Mary-Jess and her music.

I do look forward to more members joining the forum who will hopefully contribute to posts, we have done very well so far.

Dazza

[jillwithajay]

I heard about Mary-Jess's forum through a fellow Russell Watson fan but went to her Official Website and obviously didn't find it. If you don't do FB then you only get to hear through word of mouth.

[bobscullen]

I would hope that Mary Jess will eventually put a link on her web site on the next update Bob

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[Admin]

I will speak to Mary-Jess or her management about this.

I have a few ideas about this but from my experience of Decca /Universal's media department while running All Angels official forum for them is that they probably won't do anything, they barely update her official site as it is, it's something that really annoys me.

There will be a lot of fans who don't use Facebook or Twitter, don't know about this forum and are missing out on all the latest news.

Dazza

[bobscullen]

That's record companies for you. More concerned about making money than what the fans want!

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[ken]

Hi Bob,

Yes, that is sadly true. I have no connection with the music industry and do not claim to be an expert. However, I feel that official sites are not intended to satisfy the wishes of existing fans. They exist primarily to attract new fans. For that, they only need to display details the latest album and forthcoming concerts. They are not likely to concern themselves with every press article, You Tube video or one-off TV appearance like we do.

It is, I suspect, a question of resources. Decca probably only have a very small team to update the websites of all their artists. If that is the case, very little time can be afforded to any one of them.

We, on the other hand, choose to support Mary-Jess in any way we can and we are happy to give our time freely to do it. Thanks to you and Dazza, at least we have a platform for that purpose. I can only hope that this forum becomes more popular so that we can, in time, make a real difference.

Ken.

[Admin]

I was approached through All Angels International by UCJ as they were then to run All Angels Official Forum, I was happy to oblige but that was the only communication I had from them.

I was annoyed then at the lack of updates I even offered to update it for them, but my e-mails were ignored.

It is a huge benifit not just for fans but the artist themselves to have a fully updated website, not only for current fans but to attract new fans, Facebook and Twitter have made things a lot easier but not everybody uses social networks.

Laura Wright for example has had the promotion and backing by Decca, her official website is updated and speaking to the taxi driver in Cheltenham last night, he had never heard of Mary-Jess despite being local, but he had heard of Laura. Yet when I look at the forum stats Mary-Jess forum receives three times as many visitors as Laura's forum does, I think Mary-Jess can be just as if not more popular but that is only if people know about her, an updated official website would go towards helping that.

In the very early days there was a link to the AAI forum on their official site which gives me a slight glimmer of hope that something could happen, I have ideas and I will speak to Mary-Jess about them.

Dazza

[ken]

One hopeful sign is that Google does find us. We are currently the top match on Page 2 - but only if you include the word "forum" in the search term. Unfortunately, people won't do that if they don't know there is one. Without it, we are nowhere to be seen. We will be there somewhere but we certainly don't appear on the first five pages. Don't we need to get links from other sites to increase out ratings?

Ken

[bobscullen]

Thanks Guys, I think it may be different with Mariette Davina as she does have a lovely website that is owned by her and not a record company. It is something we can talk about next month Dazza. It is funny that Mariette has more Twitter follows than Mary Jess but no record label. It is also interesting to note that since we launched the Forum Mary Jess has added nearly 100 extra follows as she was on 888 when we launched 4 weeks ago. She is now getting closer to Mariette.
This just shows that Forums work for the artist and bring communities together. I remember back to when Katherine Jenkins started out it was her Forum who established her fan base and even Katherine acknowledges she would not be where she is today without it. Her Forum started long before these Social Networking sites and indeed Dazza and I first met at one of her concerts through her Forum. When I asked Mary Jess about a Forum she was highly delighted and did not have any hesitation in saying YES. I then referred her to Dazza LWI site and she loved it and the rest is history. We could not have wished to support a nicer person and as you saw last night she is very grateful indeed. I hope many of you help Dazza and I support another dear friend of ours Mariette Davina when we launch her Forum next month. Mariette deserves our support too and scored high marks for vocal talent, interpretation and creativity like Mary Jess on www.classical-crossover.co.uk Bob


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