What to say to your fans

Don't dismiss this post as being off-topic. It's not.

In my advice to my management clients (but it also applies to readers of our music marketing blog) I am consistently finding myself talking about 'content strategy' and what they need to plan out and then pass on to their fans from their various online profiles.

That will be music (free tracks, DJ sets, covers, demos), videos (rehearsals, gigs, backstage, on the road, messing about), and......information.

That information will often be about them, their music, their releases, but it's also about other stuff that they're in to, their scene, other bands they like.

We try to plan out when things will be posted and released, but we also like to be able to react to what's going on in music and comment on it and be involved.

This is very powerful for an artist as it places them in the fan's sense of an overall love of music.

And, here's the point - we encourage artists to use tools to follow and discover things that they might want to Tweet, mention on their Facebook wall or blog about.

In order to be at the forefront of things happening in your scene, you need to monitor what's being said online and then get involved.

The best way to do this is to monitor keywords in a variety of ways. Once you have your keywords (things like 'London music', 'London Gigs', 'Post Rock', 'Post Rock London', 'Post Rock UK', 'Sigur Ros' - might be some of the things you'd monitor if you were a London, UK-based post rock band, for example).

You can then monitor these words using tools (Google Reader is the one everyone talks about but I'll show you a better way another time!) and regular searches on Twitter and pass relevant things on to your fans. That way you're not always talking about yourself!

In my example, if you pass on good and timely news about Sigur Ros or a new post rock band playing in London, your fans will appreciate it (as will the new band) and they will start to see you as an integral part of that scene.

This non-music post by a marketer talks about the same thing and gives some suggestions on using tools to keep abreast of your searches.

It’s a cliché, but the early bird really does get the worm. In this case, the quick and sly Internet marketer gets the traffic and the conversions.

Staying ahead of the competition in terms of social media presence is often an underrated weapon. However, in a world where there are potentially thousands of competitors, doing the little things often separates the leaders from the rest of the pack. Beating everyone to the punch and staying in the forefront of the buzz can take a website from obscurity to Internet prominence in a hurry.

Oh, I know – it’s physically impossible for you to monitor each blog, forum and social network 24/7. We’re not going to do that.

We’ll pick our spots so that even the upstart Internet marketer can do things that will move him forward.

Read it here.