Don't click on this link unless you have some tiume on your hands!
It's a list of 100 great socila media tips but each tip links to another article and pretty much all of them are really worthwhile. It just cost me well over an hour of productivity.
Bookmark it for sure.
If you use Facebook as much as I do, you will see many disgruntled users complaining on how their fan page content is not reaching all the fans they have. This is because Facebook doesnt work in the same way as other social media tools do. it uses an algorythm called Edgerank. Once you understand this and how it works, you will definitely see an improvement in your views, and your content should be becoming more viral.
The Edgerank algorythm determines what gets placed in a users newsfeed. You will notice that in the ticker at the side of a facebook page that not all the content displayed there gets put into your main newsfeed. with the thousands upon thousands of posts going on every minute, there has to be some way of seeing what is of interest to you, and this is judged upon engagement.
Since the last major facebook update, the two main websites I am blogging on I noticed through my statistics for those sites that the amount of traffic coming from Facrbook was declining.
These sites are feeding by an RSS feed all the posts created on them to their respective Facebook pages, but the engagement created by them is becoming less and less.
So what is needed is a better form of engagement that can get traffic from these views to get to your site.
Check out this infographic from the Mariposa Agency for some facts on different forms of engagement other than status updates and how well they perform.
On the two websites I mentioned earlier, we have taken steps to change this, by utilising images placed on facebook with a link in the text we've noticed a vast improvement of engagement and traffic.
Bryan Kim director of Biz Dev at Tracksby, personaaly admins over 100 facebook pages for musicians. He has written a brilliant article going into detail on how to get your facebook page performing better. He says,
No matter how facebook slices it, your actionable instruction remains the same: GET MORE ENGAGEMENT! Get those likes, those comments, those shares. Make it your main goal with Facebook. These engagement points build on top of itself, ensuring better and better distribution on news feeds over time as your engagement improves. It’s something like a credit score for your Facebook page, and the algorithm lends you more impressions the better you perform.
How to increase your reach on Facebook? Read his full article 'The Definitive Guide To Facebook For Musicians' here.
Written by Steve
Links
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/07/facebook-for-musicians-a-definitive-guide.html
So, with your schedule busying up, and with alot of deadlines to meet before the upcoming tourdates, maybe you should leave the running of your acts social media to someone else?
Social media is changing on a weekly if not daily basis. New technologies come and go, some successful, some not. How on earth do you have the time to try each one of these and see which is effective for your act/band/project.
Well maybe it is time to hire someone to take on this ever growing list of tasks, but with the whole world offering you solutions out there, how can you make a descision on who is right for the job of taking care of your online presence?
Here are some keys attributes here which were selected by writer Stephanie Winans in an article she originally wrote for her website that you can check to see if the person or company you are picking is the right one.
1. Is An Online Social Butterfly
2. Has An Understanding of Your Target
3. Gets Customer Service
4. Knows What’s Going On
5. Can Spell
6. Knows The Devil is in the Details
7. Is At Least A Little Techie
8. Is Okay With Being “Plugged In”
Music marketing master Micheal Brandvold has also expanded on her list, he added the following comment to her number one item 'Is An Online Social Butterfly'
This is definitely the number one item you should research. Is the person who is going to help you walking the walk and talking the talk? Do they live what they preach? If they are going to help you with Twitter see how they use Twitter. How many followers do they have? How well do they engage with their followers? How well do they use all of the various sites out there that they are claiming to help you with? Here is what it comes down to… do you want someone who has only 35 followers to advise you on what to do?
You can read Michael Brandvolds article here.
Written by Steve
Links
http://stephaniewinans.com/2011/06/11/8-skills-your-social-media-manager-must-have/
Well it must be that people just love looking at pictures, and seeing a large selection on a page just takes one more step out of the browsing experience, making much easier to consume the data presented.
I myself have already created a pinterest profile for my visual website www.bloodyloud.com. It is bringing to the site a lot more traffic, but the interesting thing for me is the use of the 'Boards'. It gives you a chance to present your content in a different way, maybe with more fun aspect, and can be used to help develop your online personality. Example: we post loads of things to do with Star Wars, so we create a board called 'These are not the droids we are looking for..'. Each of the items displayed are on bloodyloud as a serious art/news item, here we re title them with something more amusing, and we get more traffic. Also we can use multiple images from same item differently, attracting the user in different ways.
So now as i work here at Make It In Music too, it was great to see an article on Hypebot explaining how you can use pinterest to maket your music.
Writer Valeria Bornstein of Fame House says:
If you have fans that are passionate enough to follow you across multipleplatforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, it is safe to assume that they will also likely follow you on Pinterest as well. Pinterest is a great place to connect with fans on a personal level because it allows you to showcase your tastes, as well as things that interest you individually. On Pinterest, users share primarily pictures (videos too), and again, there isn’t much writing involved so it is more visually appealing and can be easier to capture people’s attention. Pinterest is not a site that is driven by music at all, so it is essentially a platform for purely sharing content with fans.
Pinterest can be an effective platform for building relationships with audiences, but is an ineffective platform to “sell” to them. By sharing on Pinterest, your fans get a better sense of who you are as a person, and you can build emotional connections with them, which should be one of the main goals of any brand-fan relationship. Fans are more willing, by far, to spend money on and support (word of mouth shall not be discounted!) those artists that have made a personal connection with them.
Check out more of her in depth article here.
Written by Steve
Links
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/05/using-pinterest-for-artist-marketing.html
http://pinterest.com/bloodyloud/these-are-not-the-droids-we-are-looking-for/
Social Media or Social Branding, the two buzz words that are changing the way we interact with each other and all with the things we like from musicians, artists, TV shows and Films, and even Products. In a short time the market place has been revolutionised by the world of social interaction.
This process is slowly removing the 'middlemen' from the equation. There was a time that everyone needed middlemen (labels, publishers, distributors, marketers, retailers, ticket sellers and promoters) to get their music career happening.
Now this is no longer the case, the DIY artist/musician now have a wealth of apps and different choices to carve their own future, using direct to fan technologies which we at Make It In Music absolutely love.
There's a new technology that I am quite excited about, Distro FM. It has a new twist on the spotify subscrition model, where a fan can directly subscribe to an artist to play their music, live shows, videos, in fact anything the artist wants to share with you.
Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm says this about Distro fm in an article on Hypebot.com.
The recently-launched Distro.fm can handle all the technology stuff for you, so you can charge your fans 10 bucks a year (or so) for everything you want to send them. When that year is up, you can ask them to resubscribe. Your fans can stream all of that stuff, download it, or play it within Distro’s upcoming app, which will be able to cache the songs so they can play them without eating up their precious little data plans.
Check out what the other four Apps Eliot recommends in his full article here.
There is a more in depth article on Distro FM from evolver.fm here
Links
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/05/5-powerful-music-apps-that-should-make-middlemen-nervous.html
I don't how often i have heard people say "No i don't use Twitter, it's just a bunch of people saying where they are, what they are doing and what they had for breakfast" and "What can I do with 140 characters?" Well, it has proven it can do a hell of a lot more than that, from distributing news, social and political commentary, to marketing, distributing not only short bursts of text but also pictures and videos. It has now been around for 6 years, and has pretty much become the leader in spreading information across the world, becoming the social barometer of our times.
It is now an essential tool in any musicians marketing strategy, and there is a wealth of techniques you can use to get the best out of twitter in keeping your fan base informed and engaged.
Not only can you use it as a news service, it also has great potential for you to find new fans, and get them to discover you.
Since its inception, there has become a wealth of third party utilities to help you exploit the potential of twitter to the full. Two i have been using the most over the years are Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. They give you the ability to monitor the 'twitterverse' and search for keywords and hashtags (twitters own keyword system that allows users to find tweets on certain subjects such as #art #photography #ladygaga etc) that could be relevent to you, your music and your goals. They allow you to join in the conversations and connect with people discussing things that could be relevent to you, and in turn, you might be interesting to them.
Chris Singleton over at Prescription PR has put together a list of 13 top tips for musicians and bands using twitter which i think you should take a look at. Here is my favourite peice of advice from his article...
By all means post links to your band's new videos and MP3s from time to time, but do not get too fond of doing so; otherwise you’ll just look like a jerk. Believe me, when it comes to overcommunicating about my own music projects, I’ve been there, done that and bought the t-shirt…and despite waxing endlessly about the importance of musicians keeping schtum for five minutes, I still see artists (who should know better) bore their friends, family and remaining fan to tears with hourly Facebook updates about their latest creative endeavours. Nobody cares after a while (if they ever did in the first place –geddit?). Instead, post links to great content from other sources – whack links up on Twitter to scintillating articles which don’t happen to be about your music (and rest assured, there are a lot of them). Or make witty observations about cheese and/or the credit crunch. In short, get a reputation for being an interesting dude, not a self-obsessed bore.
Check out the rest of his article here.
We also have an article on our Make It In Music site on twitter for musicians here.
Links
http://www.makeitinmusic.com/twitter-for-musicians/
As promised, normal service will resume as and when Steve gets on board and I find that extra bit of time to keep this up!
One thing I have had confirmed from the first month back in the mainstream music business is that there really is a level playing field for the DIY musician and what we and the other musician advice bloggers tell musicians is EXACTLY the same stuff that big music marketing agencies charge labels and globally succesful artists loads of money to do.
So, what we're telling you is what works!
Anyway, here's the tip that I've come across today.
This free eBook is called the 'Social Video Blueprint' and it explains what makes a video likely to be shared and therefore likely to get more likes, views and comments.
It's written for brands rather than musicians and some of the specifics don't apply. In fact, there's a lot of general theory in the first two-thirds of the book, but read it all and in the last third you'll find loads of good solid tips and advice that will help you make videos that are more likely to get views.
For musicians part of the message is that you can make a video that seemingly has little to do with your music (as well as making lyric videos, music videos, backstage and live videos etc) and let your music soundtrack be part of the video. If both are good, you can direct some of the viewers on to your music elsewhere.
There's plenty of specific ideas on what type of content works in that context.
In fact, when you sign up for 'Social Video Blueprint' you'll also get 'Video 101', a basic short overview of video marketing that is also extremely worthwhile.
Go and get them here and see what you can learn to apply to your videos.
But, you might also benefit from a Tumblr site.
Less formal, a place where you can post thoughts, photos, inspiration, random stuff.
I'd still have a sign up form that goes to your same mailing list system (Aweber if you need help deciding!) on your Tumblr though!
You might be reading this on our Tumblr site - the way we use it is OK. It suits our purpose of quick posts pretty much every day (and we save our main site for larger, deeper posts), but it's not really best practice.
Still, people check it out....a lot.
You can make your Tumblr as simple or as complicated as you like. It can be styled or left very plain. The added advantage is that there is a community on Tumblr just like Twitter and Facebook and they reblog posts avidly - so it's genuinely a way that people can discover you and your music.
This piece in Billboard lists 30 great music Tumblr sites that will give you plenty of inspiration.
If you think it's worth adding to your network I'd recommend posting a little something about your life and how that fits with you being a musician at least once a day, saving deeper content posts for your main site, posting there maybe once a week.
That's a general 'rule of thumb'.
Another long video from the IMS summit in Ibiza earlier this year.
The people on the panel are genuine experts and I do really recommend that you take some time and watch the whole thing.
BUT, for me the best stuff is from Randy Reed who manages an act called Pretty Lights that you may or may not have heard of. The facts about Pretty Lights are that he has given away (yes, for free) 1.5 million album downloads and as a consequence he sells more albums on iTunes et al and has a career that makes him a very good living from those digital sales plus touring and merchandise.
For me, he is the total answer that freemium (when applied to good quality music) clearly does work. If it's not working for you, my usual hunch is that your music isn't good enough! Therefore what his manager has to say about how to reach fans wuth Social Media is worth hearing, don't you think?
Randy comes on the video at 11.41 and then in a couple of other places, but, like I say, you ought to watch it all!
I don't know, but I have heard a wall of noise about this new site, Turntable.fm, this week and I've logged in and had a look around - and I was hooked - a bit.
Go and check it out. It's in a 'Beta' mode right now so you might be able to log-in if someone you know (i.e. a Facebook friend) is already a member or you can sign up to their invite list.
I'll point you to this article for the full explanation, but in essence this is a social newtork that allows you to play music to others in self-selecting groups (rooms) and as such it could be the much vaunted 'music recommendation engine' that so many people have hoped for.
On the other hand, it might just be a fun way to play records to people.
I did enjoy it and found myself listening to records that I had forgotten I liked and discovering new ones.
Will this change music forever? - maybe, or maybe not. But I have an odd feeling about it! One thing I do really like is that the way that people vote on each song in the room as it plays could give real feedback on whether people like a song - an unbiased opinion that is otherwise hard to come by.
Go to Turntable.fm here.
Well, actually, no, not really as Instagram is easy to deal with direct from your iPhone and can now be linked to all your other social networks including Twitter and Facebook.
If you recall, in our Twitter music marketing series, we point out how much fans love to see photos of the band doing .......anything!
So, Instagram ought to be a no-brainer addition to your ways of keeping them engaged.
Read exactly how to do it in this excellent piece from Mashable.
Tour diaries: They are the satisfying sustenance required by every hardcore music fan to feed a band addiction. A glimpse into the backstage, on-tour-bus life of one’s favorite band. Now, thanks to the marvels of modern technology, it’s easier than ever to create a highly visual tour diary to sate the appetite of your friends and followers. One word, my musically inclined friends: Instagram.
It's written for 'marketers' rather than musicians, but I'd suggest you check it out.
It's a report on the state of Social Media in 2011 and how brands and marketers are using it.
I found the facts about what tools people are using to help them deal with social media management as well as the things that they feel they can outsource interesting.
You might find something that helps you with your music marketing!
You've heard about Google +1?
Google's answer to the Facebook 'like' button which appear in search results in the next few days as they roll it out and later on third party websites. Including yours if you have any sense!
You know how it works, as you're used to clicking the 'like' button already, but I think that this will be great for musicians as people will get social proof about a band right in the Google search results.
So what does this mean for artists, record labels, promoters and ticketing companies? First of all, Google's +1 gives artists and music companies added incentive to integrate social media into their online projects and properties. Think about it: If your competitor has added +1s and has facilitated the discovery of their artists amongst fans' social networks, you would be giving up an advantage if you ignored these social features. Think of music as a zero-sum game. Awareness and sales for one artist takes away from another artist's potential. And by allowing people to +1 an item, you're creating a popularity measure that can be seen by all viewers of Google search results.
Read the full lowdown in Billboard.
Failing that, and if you couldn't care less, watch the chatting babies discuss it here.
Simple guidelines for what to do to make your use of social media as a musician effective.
Image by Rosaura Ochoa
This a really handy 10 point list on how to approach social media as a musician.
It's not so much a 'how to', more of a 'why for', if that makes sense.
Still, it's really good and I'd go as far as to say that the thinking behind it should inform your social media use.
But for many artists, social media remains something they choose not to fully delve into. Some find it too overwhelming; with the constant posting of content onto the countless platforms and would much rather spend their time creating music.
Others may even be ready to actively engage in social media, but have no idea how to properly utilize each platform.
Nancy Baym, a professor of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas recently wrote a fantastic piece entitled "Engaging Fans Through Social Media."
In it, she explains how musicians and audiences can build symbiotic relationships that can nurture and sustain one another over the long haul.
The following 10 points summarize Baym's key ideas on how to maximize your social media effectiveness:
Read the post and get the much more in depth pdf here.
What you shouldn't be doing in your social networking efforts.
The key point - why do you want to add all those people on Facebook and Twitter if they aren't going to be a fan? What's the point?
You may well have heard of Ariel Hyatt and her company, Cyber PR - she's been a leader in musician advice for some time and has some great detailed ideas.
In her latest blog post she looks again at a graphic tool that she has used to teach people best practice to follow in their use of social media to promote their music.
Obviouly, we have covered a lot of this in our guide to twitter music promotion as well, but I do like the graphical representation to remind you to mix it up.
You can also check out all her other training and well respected courses here.
Watch her video here or below.
This post on Hypebot has 5 ways to use it as an artist.
I'm almost as intrigued though by the comments at the bottom - that Facebook and Twitter do the same thing better, and by the discovery of a site called Aka Music. I'd never heard of it and it seems to be doing well as a place that fans can fund artist's projects and the comment by the band, Dallas, about how they used it and Foursquare may inspire you.
Foursquare describes its goal as "getting users out of the house," and one way in which they do this is by offering local businesses a Merchant Platform to attract and retain customers.
Through this platform, a user checks in at a specific venue and is presented with a special offer – usually a mobile coupon, small prize or discount – to entice them to keep coming back. In addition, brands (either with physical locations or without) can create their own profiles to further interact with customers.
Just this past year, brands such as MTV, Vh1, Bravo, Huffington Post, and Zagat, among many others, have all signed on to integrate Foursquare into their social networking activity.
But I can't help but wonder: where are the bands, artists, and labels?
I see Foursquare as a great potential here – especially for those looking to build a loyal fanbase.
Instead they've made their artist site and their email list the core of all their fan interaction. I'm not sure that I'd abandon social networks - I'd rather maintain a presence on all platforms and focus people back to a great and regularly updated website - but I can't fault the data.
Last week one of our artists made two posts to the blog on their site and then emailed their list. The traffic to their site jumped exponentially (1000% the day of the email, 500% the day after and 250% the third day). As you'd expect, it takes a few days for people to open and read email, but, also, over 40% of the people on the list clicked through and spent over a minute on the site.
You NEVER get that kind of traffic and conversion from social networks - it's just not possible across all the noise!
Read our posts on building a fan mailing list and start one now if you haven't already.
No matter how many fans you have on a social network, it is the platform itself that dictates how you can communicate with them, how you can post updates, how many words you can use – the connectivity with fans is limited.
When MySpace crashed, we lost that connectivity with 40,000 + legitimate fans and our 1 million or so plays became meaningless, it is nothing more than a number. When it comes to your next release, it means nothing unless you can reach those fans again. It quickly became apparent that we could not communicate with our fans the way we wanted through these means.
We have always maintained an email list and we realized that the majority of our traffic came from posting direct to our fans through this platform. We decided to stop updating our social networks and exclusively use our email list last year. The overwhelming response from fans was fantastic. To make it a successful two way tool, when we send emails we are not just plugging our latest release, we mainly communicate our feelings and thoughts on topics we feel our fan base would like to talk about. We openly encourage people to reply and we feature the best replies we get. It's not actually that groundbreaking an idea, and I have to credit Bob Lefsetz email list as an inspiration, but it works very well for us.
Have a look at these pieces on the Guardian site and HypeBot.
It's a social network / artist promotion site that aims to restrict itself to a maximum of 3000 artists chosen from submissions by a panel.
Quite what happens when they hit their 3000 limit isn't clear - although I have asked them to let me know! If they do, I'll pass it on.
I'm not against another place for artists to upload a profile and maybe reach new fans, but I'm not sure that it's the future either.
The recipe for building your fanbase is to get your own site and the key social networks (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace) plus music sites like Last.fm, Pandora and ReverbNation. That's where the traffic that may like your music is....in droves. So that's where you need to be.
If Roostie can become a hot destination for music fans then we can add it to that list but it's a very big challenge for them. Remember Ooizit? Me neither!
That said - I would have a profile everywhere one was available if I had all the time in the world - but you need to prioritise.
