Ok, this is where things get very powerful. Imagine you are busy as hell, but have time to send a quick text message while in the bathroom. With this one text message you update your band’s profile pages at 32 of the hottest social networking sites. No joke! With this service you can update Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Plurk, LinkedIn, Tumblr, FriendFeed, Jaiku, Blogger, Identi.ca, Friendster, Delicious, BrightKite, Yahoo 360, Plaxo Pulse, Koornk, Live Journal, Diigo, Bebo, YouAre, Hi5, Multiply, Mashable, Yammer, Kwippy, Flickr, Xanga, Utterli, WordPress.com, Imeem, Rejaw, & Seesmic with nothing but a simple text message. Now it may be a pain to get it all set up, but after you do that you don’t even have to log in. Do I have your interest?

Now Ping does have a nice mobile version you can use, a simple full scale online version, and I think some freaky email version. I have never tried the email version though. Why bother when I can do it with a text message? Of course most will not want to sign up to all those networks, but if you are a band that wants to network with as many fans worldwide as possible I would. Imagine if each one of these sites got you a few sales of your cd a day? Not saying that will happen…you might suck. I’m just giving you something to think about.

Although you don’t have to sign in to Ping ever again, I would do that at least once a month just to make sure everything is working the way it should. I would also check a couple of these sites a day to make sure they are getting your updates. You might also want to log in to all these sites just to accept “friend” requests, answer messages, and make sure the account is doing what it should. Check 5 of them a week and you should be fine. I really wouldn’t do more than that. You have music to create after all.

Now I know that most of my articles are longer than this, but why say more? That is the beauty of Ping.fm is that it is simple. If you have any questions please feel free to ask me through Twitter, Plurk, or better yet the comments below.

Now of course you have to go through the annoying process of setting everything up, but once you do you can be done with it. Yes it is a “Set it and forget it” situation if you want. You can have it post the RSS feeds from your band’s news site, your Twitter messages, and tons more. It puts all of them in one place, then streams it in a live real time feed, then let’s people comment on the link. So it’s like Plurk, but the threads are started by the stuff you do elsewhere on other websites.

So although you can just let it do it’s automated thing, you will get more out of it if you are active.  You can follow those who offer content you care about, comment on things that interest you, press the “like” link if you want to share others links into your feed, and basically network with others with interests in the type of music your band provides.

There are also “rooms” you can join to help find people that might be interested in your band. Music isn’t currently a major subject on Friend Feed, but it is growing fast. So don’t dismiss a room just because it only has one or two members. You may start the ball rolling for the room and will have established yourself when it does take off. Plus it doesn’t take any of your time if the room goes dead. Rooms only take up your time if they are active.

So Friend Feed is a way to just funnel all your social media activity in one place, but could also be another place to find and interact with potential fans. It is real easy to dismiss FriendFeed at first. In fact I wasn’t active at all for the first several months after signing up. I set everything and never really looked back. I’m not sure what happened, but I think one of my tech friends Robert Scoble is to blame. He talks to everyone and anyone who isn’t a retard. Because he has an insane amount of followers I ended up with tons of new connections just from following him on the site. Now Scoble is not a music industry person. He is a tech industry person, so he may not help bands or music industry types directly. He is just my example of how your account can suddenly take off and take you by surprise if you put a little time into it.

Now FriendFeed has become my favorite new social website lately. With it being so live, it can almost become like a chat room. I can ignore 75% of the stuff that flows by because I either have nothing to say or just don’t care. You don’t have to reply to everything. Be your own filter. Only pay attention to the things you think will help your band. So set it up to be just an automated archive or dive in with both feet and go nuts. But by all means follow me so I can help you through it all.

Follow me on FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/markcarras

1. Twitter
Now I do see a few bands that sign up, but then never do anything with the account. Then because nothing happens they give up. SO very sad. I will go more into that in my follow up on Monday Jan 19th. Until then stick this in your Marshall Amp! Imagine being able to text back and forth with your fans while sitting on the tour bus. Imagine you are just a local unsigned band. If all your fans and friends are fully hooked up to your Twitter account you can send reminders out a few hours before a show. This can help your draw. Got a new shirt out, why wait for them to go to your site? Send them a Twitter message. If they have it fully hooked up it can send the message to them on their cell phones, instant messenger, and Twitter profile. So it’s like your website following them around everywhere they go. More detail Monday.

2. Plurk
Now Twitter is great for getting a message out, but what about if you want to talk with your fans? What if you want to get some feedback on a new song, shirt, or show announcement? Plurk is made for conversation. Just like with Twitter, you may end up with new fans just from being part of this very social network. More detail on Tuesday Jan 20th.

3. RSS
What the hell is RSS? Well, I will go into massive detail about what RSS is and how to get the most out of it on Wednesday Jan 21st, but until then here is a brief overview. It is a way for you to get your band news out to more people. It will make your band’s website ten times more powerful. Trust me on this. There are some major label bands that have RSS feeds but are making some horrid mistakes. More info Wednesday on that.

4. FriendFeed
FriendFeed is a service that let’s you combine all your social network profiles into one place and discuss them with people. It’s all about networking and Friend Feed is like networking on a big bag of crack. More info on this one Thursday January 22nd.

5. The Pirate Bay
Now most of my music industry contacts will hate me for even mentioning this site, but screw them and their dying industry I say! Seriously, I think those labels could get some major traction out of TPB if they played it smart. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has a profile page on the site for a reason. Imagine if some unknown band out of nowhere put up their great new cd on TPB. Then promoted the hell out of the free download with a $2,000 ad campaign from Fixion Media. Sure you wouldn’t make any money from the cd directly, but imagine how many new fans you would gain? Then you would have a draw in cities you have never been to before. More info on this Jan 23rd.

6. Skype
I interview bands from all over the world all the time. I have interviewed bands from my own hometown and had horrid connections. Then I interviewed a band called Lions Share from Stockholm Sweden and had a crystal clear connection. It sounded like he was in the same room! It is also a shockingly cheap way to call around the world for things like booking tours or just making contacts with people that can help you get your music out there. More info on this Jan 26th.

7. You Tube
Now I am starting to see more bands use this, but I think bands should use it more. Imagine releasing a new video a week. it could be just the band talking to the fans directly, inside band practice, some live footage, or whatever else. In my follow up I will talk about how to get the best quality video, how to edit it dirt cheap, and how to get the most out of it all. More info on this Jan 27th.

8. CD Baby
This is a great service for getting your stuff on iTunes, Amazon, and several other places all at once. Trying to do everything that CD Baby will do for you is just plain retarded. Let them do all the annoying crap. It’s their job. More on this More info on this Jan 28th.

9. Ping.fm
Ping is pretty much the opposite of Friend Feed. Where as Friend Feed is a great place to receive all your social network activity, Ping is a place you can make one post to tons of different sites all at once. For example I use it when I am about to go live with an interview of a band. Gets the message out to thousands all at once instantly! More info on this Jan 29th

10. HeavyAsHell.com
Ok, did you think I was going to let this post go without getting in a plug? Yes, HAH is a site I started awhile ago. Ever since Keith from Darkernemesis.com nuked all my hard work and replaced it with his own CMS things have been growing nicely. We are about to announce our newest contest, so traffic is about to explode there. So promote your band and win something coll at the same time! This is like Digg.com, Mixx.com, Reddit, Propeler, or a few others except we are only for heavy music. More info on this 30th! Hmmm? Could I be picking that date for a reason? Maybe.

Ok, so this has been more about mapping out what I am going to blog about for the rest of this month. My hope is that this is just a good way to kick things off in a direction that might help me become known as the premier Rock N’ Roll tech consultant. Keep your horns facing palm forward or you are a poser. Next two weeks are going to ROCK!