Social media basics for bands -- Do it yourself music: part 4

August 12, 7:26 AMSalt Lake City Entertainment Industry ExaminerChristopher Harding

In our last article, Secrets of Social Networking for Bands (DIY Music: Part 3), we tapped into the knowledge base of social media expert, Ghennipher Weeks, and covered two of the six foundational pieces you can involve in your overall artist or band promotional strategy.  Without going into all of the details, here's a quick summary of the points we discussed:

1. Your own website:  We described this as your home base or virtual home office, which points to all other social media points.  While it should be creatively reflective of you as a band, it’s helpful if it’s also an organized information center where pros (like A & R reps, booking agents, reporters, and radio program directors) and fans alike can easily access information about you.

2. Your MySpace site:  This can be seen as your own interactive billboard/radio station/fan lounge.  It allows you to aggregate fans and provides them the chance to interact with you and each other.  It’s a bit more of a free-for-all environment.

(For the detailed list on how to maximize these two aspects, refer back to Secrets of Social Networking for Bands (DIY Music: Part 3).

In this installment, we’re going to return to our interview with Ghennipher and explore how to best apply the tools offered by Facebook and twitter to your band’s strategy.  As before, we’ll apply some metaphors to each tool to provide clarity and distinction between them.

3.  Your Facebook site: One way to look at this social media application is to consider it to be your own personal public relations site/band magazine. 

• Facebook can be looked at as a more strategic application in that you will want to provide longer term views of your plans, upcoming events, signings, schedule and other opportunities, whereas with twitter, for example, you’ll be tweeting about things either while they’re happening, directly before or directly after.
• Consider creating a Facebook band or artist site, as well as Facebook sites for individual band members (or for you personally, if you're a solo artist).  This allows you to provide different voices to your audience.
• Your personal Facebook pages will be more about you and will include interactions, photos, sharing, etc. that fit your personality and style. 
• Your Facebook band or artist site, on the other hand, is a place where you’ll be spoken of in third person, as if it’s being written by your press agent.  This site will be more directly promotional and can involve contests, campaigns, etc.
• Post music and videos at your Facebook site that might not be featured on your other sites.  While your band site might have more overall videos of performances, backstage videos shot by others, your personal page might have videos shot by you.  As mentioned in our past installment, decide what you will do to make your Facebook pages different from your other sites.  If MySpace is more a raucous, nighttime bar scene, then let Facebook be a slightly more civilized daytime space.
• Where MySpace is a bit more free-form, Facebook’s more organized space allows you to make posts in a much less cluttered environment.  Decide how to use the settings for your pages that best suits what you want to accomplish (do you want people to post on the wall of your personal site or just the band site, and so on).
• Use Facebook to email fans about upcoming events.  Be careful though because if you abuse your email privileges (and deluge people with multiple emails a week) you could end up getting blocked by the very people you’re counting on.  One way to avoid annoying people is to take the time to build a list of people based on their geographic area.  That way you only email the ones who will be close to the event you’re promoting (there will be times when you have general emails as well, of course).
• Utilize your Facebook band site to invite your fans to participate in promotional work for you (inviting their friends to shows, postering a town, talking about your latest CD, etc.)  Being part of your Street Team is a real perk for a lot of music fans.
• Keep your Facebook pages updated at least several times a week with fresh content, photos, what’s on your mind, what you’re currently up to, your latest influences, comments from the road, music you’re working on, and thoughts about the last show.  These are all aspects that keep your site alive and keep people coming back.
• Consider tracking your traffic via Facebook Insights to give you a more accurate sense of what you're doing that's working and what's not as effective in attracting eyeballs to you site.
• As with your other applications, remember to link back to your other sites (your website, MySpace site, twitter, etc.).

For some additional perspectives on Facebook, please check out Guy Kawasaki’s article, Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Facebook and Facebook Marketing Solutions (provides a number of examples of how others are using Facebook to market their bands or products).

4.  Your twitter account:  Jumping back to our metaphor platform, we might compare twitter to your own personal real-time, buzz generator.

• Using twitter effectively is like being able to whisper the latest, coolest, most interesting bits in your fans’ ears so keep it interesting.
  
• If Facebook is more of strategic tool, in that it promotes and publicizes events earlier on the timeline, twitter is more tactical in that it focuses more on what’s going on right now… this very minute—or what just happened or what’s about to happen that people will want to be in on.
• Remember not to broadcast your event too early in the day.  Put it out there as the time gets closer so it feels more immediate.
• Tweet where you've posted pictures of last night’s gig and of your fans that were at the show (some artists tweet during breaks and broadcast comments and pictures from their current show).
• Encourage your fans to tweet while they’re at your gigs (some venues are adding twitter screens for that purpose).
• Use hashtags to better organize your tweets and make them easier to find (for a step-by-step guide on using hashtags, check out How to Get the Most Out of Twitter HashTags by Benn Parr).
• Twitter allows you to speak to fans directly from wherever you are.  Use this wisely, only saying things you want everyone to hear, building your fan relationships, while limiting your tweets between you and any particular fan to a max of three or four (once you’ve reached that limit, simply sign off with, “have to run, thanks!”).  Doing so can save you a lot of grief.
• Use twitter to talk to your peers.  Those following you will love it because they’ll be on the inside of these conversations (again, remember everybody’s listening).
• Share your thoughts before the show (“Stoked to go on at the Roxy!  Wish us luck!”).  Or describe how you’re feeling after the show (“Totally pumped and exhausted… we knocked ‘em out tonight!”).  It’s that sense of intimate contact that builds followers and fans.
• Remember twitter can be a double-edge sword.  Just ask Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), who recently deleted his twitter account because some of his fans turned on him while others began to share private details of his love life. (Sad thing is, he now no longer has a voice in that medium, while those who talk trash, continue to do so.)
• For a great example on how to use twitter, check out Pete Wentz’s twitter page (with well over 1 million followers, he’s doing something right).
• To heighten your twitter experience, take a look at the new Power Twitter extension for Firefox and other browsers (and check out Demo Girl’s video on Power Twitter for a closer look at this tool).

As with all media outlets, social media can benefit you or bite you in the rear.  Using these applications wisely will help create the best chance for you to use them in your favor.  In our next installment, we'll focus on YouTube and Amazon/iTunes/CD Baby (as well as social media aggregator, FriendFeed).

If you enjoyed this article, here are three more you might like “20 questions every band should answer,” “What you need to know about do it yourself music: part 1?” and “Before you record your music: part 1.”

Additional Notes:

All of the social media applications we are covering have embed codes that allow you to embed a logo on your various sites that points your visitors to your specific sites.  Using these embedded logos calls attention to your other sites in a manner that a plain link just can’t accomplish.

If you’re serious about making the most of social media, check out what others are doing, scour the web for suggestions, and consider hiring an expert like Ghennipher—one who’ll roll up their sleeves and work with you to get the very best out of the many social media tools that are available. (You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/Ghennipher or access her company site at http://www.ghennipher.net/welcome-twitter/.)