The dedicated 'Music Page' on your band's Facebook Page is becoming a 'must-have'.
We've written before about RootMusic's BandPage and FanBridge's DamntheRadio, but the latter one has just really upped it's game with the introduction of the Partner Ecosystem.
This is just a fancy term for the fact that you can now plug in loads of apps from other services that you might already be using, such as SongKick for gig dates and tickets, Topspin for music sales, IndieGoGo & Pledge Music for fan funding - and loads more.
This makes DamntheRadio a very flexible choice for your Music Page.
Nimbit is a good option for driving all your direct to fan efforts and realistically you'd only use this as your Facebook Music page if you were using Nimbit for all it's functions - but this alone might persuade you to do just that.
The update is a feature called 'Spotlight' which gives you a customisable are on the first tab of the app. Of course, it's also directly integrated to the sales platform on Nimbit.
I'm going to keep posting stuff about how musicians should use Facebook despite knowing that in a matter of weeks the introduction of Timeline is going to radically alter the best practice!
We'll deal with it when it happens!
So, for now, CD Baby have rolled out a new tool for all their users which is a way to sell your music (that you have on CD Baby) directly from your Facebook Fan Page.
Great stuff if you use CD Baby, and being able to sell directly from Facebook is going to become increasingly important.
But, I also think that this 'Music Store on Facebook' now needs to be added to your shortlist of music page apps (along with BandPage and damntheradio and ReverbNation's MyBand) as a slick all-in-one way to have all your music activity on one tab.
It's written for business but it can be applied to an artist fan page.
I'd go as far as to say that if you did these 15 things you'd be set.
I particularly like numbers 6 and 7. Number 6 tells you that Yes/No questions get the best engagement from fans - it's sorta obvious, but all the best things are.
And number 7 is about following influential people on Facebook and interacting with them. Bands just don't do this enough. It gets you noticed, but don't be spammy ....ever!
Lori says the following and I agree!
This post is for only for smart people looking for real strategy and tactics you won’t have to trade their first born to implement. It’s my best 6,186 words of awesome thoroughness written for you! No fluff. And it’s might not be a phone read – it’s a “printer”.
But, it's such a good Facebook primer I need to post it here to come back to time and again.
Here's a part of tip number 1:
So you just joined Facebook and have a grand total of 50 fans (44 of which are your extended family). Well, you know how you can hook new fans by opening for another band on stage? The same goes for Facebook.
“We have some bands that have Facebook Pages that grow really slowly, so we try to reach out to other artists who they have a relationship with, and that tends to drive those ‘likes’ up,” says Allison Schlueter, VP of digital marketing at Island Def Jam Music Group.
Ask a band whom you’re tight with to post your new music video/track/album art to their wall with a link back to your Facebook Page, and remember to return the favor — or, you know, you could just buy said band a beer the next time you play together.
RootMusic added some new features to their BandPage app last week.
See the video below.
We are just working on a post that looks at all the options for this kind of 'Music Page' for your Facebook profile but this is seen by many as the market leader.
Certainly, it works very well as a page on which to host your music, video, images and more and the latest upgrade promises clever 'gating' options - that being where a fan has to 'Like' your page or give up their email to get some kind of freebie - generally tracks.
But, in this post on Hypebot it seems that some users think that some of the functionality is a little convoluted - mainly because to make the tracks downloadable after gating you will need to make them publicly available on SoundCloud and because of the Facebook permission pop-ups that are displayed when people offer their email address.
Some of these may be legitimate concerns, but it is still a very slick offering and one that I'd urge every band to consider. I'd also look at ReverbNation's Band Profile and DamntheRadio.
Here's the list of the update's features from the BandPage blog.
Lite Customization Options – We thought your BandPage could use some spice, so we’ve added a banner option as well as limited colorization features to our free package.
Mailing Lists – Yup! You can start collecting email addresses straight from your BandPage and export the contacts to a CSV.
Like to Listen or Download – Want to build your fans? Easy! Use the like to listen or download feature – non fans will have to like your page to gain access to your music.
Banner Link- Simple but effective. Provide a click-through link on your banner to point to your store, webpage, or other promo materials. Don’t forget to tell your fans to click!
And for our BandPage Plus subscribers, along with the full advanced customization editor, we have added some powerful tools!
Gated Content – Content is locked until the user likes the page, joins the mailing List, or tweets. Want to do a fan only download campaign? Tweet to download? Email address to listen? You got it!
Fan Only Banner – Build a different message for non fans and fans. Create a call to action in your banner space and tell non fans to like your page for access to exclusive streams and downloads.
Banner Video – Give your fans an engaging welcome with a custom YouTube video right in the banner space. It works great for featured music videos or calls to action for the fan. Flexible and powerful – you have full control over the size and positioning!
Billboard posted this update about Facebook's newly relaunched Music Page:
According to a company representative, the new music page will be "used to engage with anyone within the music community (musicians, fans, others in the industry) and also includes some best practices for how musicians can maximize their Facebook presences."
The info tab on the music page boasts the following features: - Send updates about tours and concerts - Showcase new releases - Engage with fans - Upload photos from concerts anywhere in the world - Let your content spread virally through user interactions with your Page, and be discovered
The good news is that this must mean that Facebook is taking on the challenge of making Facebook the Social Media focus for musicians. With MySpace withering (and not really a Social Network anyway - although we suggest you keep an EPK like page there), Facebook has the landscape all to itself and ought to help us all out!
The page has some useful direct links for setting up your new Music Fan Page and also has a page of tips under the 'For Musicians' tab. Plus, it looks like they're going to group articles of advice together under the 'Articles' tab.
Check it out, 'Like' it and bookmark it and keep an eye on what Facebook are advising you should do to promote your music on their site.
This isn't a music focused post but there is a HUGE amount that you can learn from it.
We are doing some more posts on Facebook music promotion in the next few days, which you'll be able to find on our page, Facebook for Musicians, and this post has helped already.
Not only does it list 40 Facebook Fan Pages that can give you great ideas, but it also lists 10 very cheap (around $20 on average) apps that will allow you to create a custom iFrame tab on your Fan page, and it links to 5 other great articles.
Please check it out if you didn't already as it's really good stuff.
But then, literally an hour later I saw this post on Mashable that has a very simliar theme. In fact, 4 of the points are pretty much covering the same things, but that means that the other 6 make it a great companion piece to our post!
Read them together and you've got 16 different tips on how best to post on your Facebook page to get the best interaction from your fans.
How you engage those fans and sustain a meaningful online dialogue with your customers. Facebook fans will only want to engage with us if we serve up relevant content and truly participate. We also forget about EdgeRank — Facebook’s News Feed algorithm that helps display “relevant” stories. The News Feed only displays a small subset of stories generated by the friends and brands users engage with the most. The more popular your story, the more likely it is to show up in people’s News Feed. News Feed optimization becomes as important as your content strategy.
Let’s explore ways we can create updates that are optimized for the News Feed and engagement. Below are some dos and don’ts to remember each time you tackle that all-important question, “What should we post to our Facebook Page today?”
I read this article and thought that it's content was good enough - if fairly obvious.
But, reading it made me go and check out the Facebook Fan Page of all 10 people that it cites - Eminem, Gaga, Bieber etc.
And, that's where I learnt some stuff.
If these people and their major label team are doing something, using specific apps, selling vs not selling on Facebook, then I'm watching and learning. I'd recommend you have a look see too.
What have I learned?
Well, the iFrame is BIG news - you can make a tab do whatever you want and these people that have coders and designers on hand are doing just that. We'll look at iFrame's on the main site next week.
They mostly like a streaming application - such as UStream - and they're up for having discussions and polls on their pages - all driving engagement and interaction.
Have look and see what apps they're using and see how much of their game you can transpose to your Fan Page.
The piece is good though, and if you do everything that they cover you'll have a very effective band presence on Facebook working for you.
It’s 2011 and every artist worth their salt has a Facebook fan page. But keeping yours up to date can sometimes feel like a chore. And how do you know if you’re really making the most of your page? Could you do things better to encourage your existing connections to share your page with their social networks? Here we describe some helpful ways to make the most of your Facebook page.
