New Music Biz 101: Facebook (Part 1)
posted in: Features
This post will be the first in a mini-series about social media for musicians. Social media, as most musicians know, can be a powerful tool to create consistent engagement with your fan base. Everyone knows they should be using it, but not everyone knows exactly how to do it effectively. This mini-series will offer tips on how to best utilize Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace to assist in creating an actual ROI (return on investment) on your time spent. Lets get started with Facebook!
#1 Create Engaging Content
It’s essential that you constantly do your best to engage your fans. You probably hear this advice a lot, but what does it really mean? It simply means to stay away from posts like Come buy our album, Buy tickets to our show, or Give us three grand to make our next album. Although you can fit in something similar to these posts once in a while, it’s more important that you post something that is going to grab your fans’ interest and get them involved. For example, Did anyone get any good pics at the concert last night? Upload them to Facebook and we’ll share them for everyone to see! Be sure to post great music and cool videos and to write about topics relevant to you and your genre of music. Take lots of pictures at your concerts (including some shots of the audience). Encourage your fans to tag themselves in these shots. (Hint: this is then posted on your fans’ walls, letting all of their friends know that they were tagged.) Also encourage fans to post their own concert shots to your wall, and credit people who take great shots.
#2 Form Strategic Alliances
One way to gain a stronger legitimate fan base is through creating strategic alliances with artists who play within a genre similar to your music. As a fan, it’s easy to be supportive of multiple music groups, so there is no disadvantage to sharing your fan base with others, especially when they find that they love the music you’ve recommended. Network with those who have a similar sound and exchange wall posts to encourage your users to like their page and their users to like your page! As everyone knows, this big game we call the Music Industry is all about networking.
#3 Don’t Forget Your Website
It’s important that you continue to keep up with your web presence by linking back to your website from your Facebook page whenever appropriate. The fact of the matter is that people haven’t adjusted to pulling out their credit cards on Facebook quite yet. It’s not a natural or typical motion for Facebook users to go through. Until it is, continue to send users to your website and have engaging material there for them to browse through.
Hopefully these three little tips are helpful in promoting your music on Facebook. A couple of great resources to learn more about social media are Hypebot and SocialMedia Examiner. Remember, social media is a constantly changing world and best practices change all the time. Do your best to stay up on it all, and remember to add your Facebook link to the links section of your OurStage profile!