CD Baby's Facebook Music Page

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.

Well worth a look. Read about it all here.

Topspin and RootMusic sync up a beauty!

I use Topspin and RootMusic BandPage for my clients.

When Topspin announced this yesterday, I added a New BandPage (from scratch) to a client's Facebook Fan Page and had it installed and with a Topspin store selling 10 different records / CD's / downloads within 10 minutes!

Sure it needs tweaking and more doing to it, but, that, my dears, is the future!

Read the post on Topspin's blog or watch the video below. In short, this shows why Topspin are at the leading edge of Direct To Fan - sharing API and looking to offer the best functionality for promoting, marketing and selling your music.

I know I sound like their salesman - I promise I'm not! - but it works for me.

Someone asked me yesterday if I didn't think it was too expensive. No, I don't. I come from an old school background where my artists were paid maybe 15% of record sales. So paying $9.99 per month and 15% to the distributor and keeping 85% feels pretty good to me!

Watch the video here.

Facebook - learn from the big dogs!

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.

Check the 10 examples here.

Facebook Photo Strip = Free Ads

Just a pointer over to the main site.

No Dailies today as I was working on this post.

How to use the Facebook Photo Strip as free ads to get your fans listening to your music and buying your stuff!

Facebook Photo Strip article here.

Facebook Fan Page revamp - what does it mean for musicians?

There is only really one story today - that Facebook have rolled out the expected changes to their Fan pages.

Image by Robert Scoble

How does this affect what you do to promote your band on Facebook?

The good news is that, on balance, it's an improvement. A few things I liked have gone - the tricks with profile photos for instance.

But there are two great improvements - switching between admin and yourself which allows more personal interaction - i.e. you can now interact on your page as the band or as any individual from the band (excellent!) and secondly, being able to act all over Facebook as your page.

These are both really good developments for artists in the ways that they can up their interaction.

And, the great concern was that tabs would change, but these have stayed as is, so all the work you put into making them work (such as with BandPage) will remain. Plus the introduction of iframes will allow some new trick apps to be developed and gives more freedom of design - don't ask me how but the techy people are excited about this!

I'm just going to link to four good reviews of the changes at the foot of this post so that you can go and get the gossip.

Amanda and I were waiting for this, since the changes to personal profiles, before we started finalising her eBook on Facebook for Musicians and various posts on the site about best practice for Facebook for bands.

Now that we know how Pages will look for the time being, we'll get stuck in to giving some specific advice on the main site.

Here's the four best posts about this that I found:

All Facebook

Ignite Social Media

Mashable

Inside Facebook

 

 

 

Don't waste your time and money on Facebook Ads

Unless, that is, you are prepared to do it properly - which means A/B testing.

We've looked at Facebook Ads for musicians before, such as here. 

There's lots of stuff about this just a Google away.

But, before you start, read this post on Hypebot.

I've run lots of Ads on Facebook and on Google Adwords and I've learnt to my cost that it is ALL about testing one add against another - called the 'control'. It's in doing this that you can refine the ad for maximum effectiveness and minimum cost.

Musicians are a suspicious lot. We tend to hold fast to our gut instincts. We heed the counsel of close friends and die-hard fans. We can be defensive and protective of our artistic “purity.” We’re afraid to do anything that smacks of out-and-out marketing.

But sometimes you shouldn’t trust yourself.

Sometimes you should ignore the advice of loved ones. Sometimes you just need to get scientific about things.

Trust the numbers! They don’t lie.

A/B testing allows artists to try out variable options in an advertising campaign so you know how to best direct your efforts.

Read the piece here.

 

Facebook Tagging - a full guide

We looked at Facebook tagging a while ago in this post.

It opened my eyes to a tactic that very few people use on Facebook.

But, now, Mari Smith - an expert on all things Facebook who we've referred to before -  has written a post that is really a full guide on how to use '@ tags'. Her angle is about businesses using it, but it applies to musicians too - probably better in fact.

Tagging your Facebook friends in photos is one of the most ingenious and popular features on the site. Tagging friends in Notes is another use of tags, though used less often than photos. In September 2009, Facebook broadened this tagging feature by allowing users to tag friends, pages, groups, events and apps in status updates and posts. This type of tagging is referred to as an “@ tag.”

But, the big deal isn't in tagging photos or the like, it's in using tags to spread your posts right on to massive traffic fan page walls. There's a right and a wrong way to do this - basically spam will make you look like a twat.

Mari has the lowdown - read her post here - and use the technique.

DamntheRadio - Facebook Fan Page wizardry

I mentioned and linked to this in the last post, but, in case you missed that one, here's a little bit more info.

All artists now need to be rocking a good Facebook Fan Page - you know that already.

Unlike MySpace, there isn't one accepted way to do the perfect 'Facebook for musicians'.

This is a new option - and I really like the look of it.

It's just been bought and integrated with FanBridge which means you get loads of cool Fan Page stuff and it links to your email system - if you use FanBridge that is!

Just go and read what they have to say about their service and let me know if you choose to use it over RootMusic's BandPage.

Sell your music on Facebook

Moontoast is a new suite of tools that allow you to sell your music direct on your Facebook fan page.

It also promises much more - interaction, storefronts on multiple platforms (your website and others) with email collection and track sharing to come. Is it the answer to Facebook for musicians that everyone is looking for?

Will it be better than RootMusic? It looks like a more comprehensive offering, but, I haven't used it yet, so it's a case of watch this space.

Go and look it over at http://www.moontoast.com/