No, I’m not talking about the bassist playing bass. Sure that is important, but your bass player needs to get up off his lazy butt and do a little more if he wants to play that bass for a job. There are many social networking tools I have featured in this blog. Way too many for one person to really use to there fullest extent. So if a band is really hungry they need to work together on this. You people are a small army and you need to look at this like a war. Don’t be the private that just sits back in the barracks eating up the rations. Have each band member can take on one or two social networking tasks. Then you can focus on it and push it to it’s limits. You can even make it an inner band competition. These social networks are ranked. Each user is ranked by either the site themselves or by an outside service that crawls the data. So which band member can climb the highest on the chart for the social networking site they took on. It will soon be very clear if the bassist is actually the laziest band member or if it’s that drummer.
Now most bands have that one band member that really knows their way around a computer and that band member always ends up being the one to take on all these promotional tools. Instead have that one band member be in charge of teaching all the other band members how to use these tools. This way the band as a whole can work together to take over the world. Each band member already has their specialty, so why not get the most out of that knowledge? These social networking tools like Twitter, Plurk, and FriendFeed are just waiting to be used to get your band’s music out to more people. So why not use them, abuse them, and suck them dry of their venture capitol while the money is still there. And of course make sure and add me to all of them. I tend to work really hard to give away cool stuff.
One of the most important things to remember when using social marketing is target audience. In other words, why follow people that have nothing to do with music? There are tons of SEO, Internet marketers, and bloggers out there that are no better than the spammers that fill your email inbox with phishing scams trying to get your bank info. Not saying all of them are that way, but social networks seem to attract the worst of them like flies on crap.
The best way to find the music people you want is to first find just one legit music type. Then go through their friend list and grab the ones that look like they might be able to help get the word out on your band. As I have pointed out before, you want to follow back every legit person that follows you. It’s just good Internet etiquette. However, you should be careful about not following back the low life scum. These people will follow several thousand people in hopes they get followed back. They prey on your guilty conscience. You are better off without them in your circle because they are not your target audience. The band that has 100,000 followers on Twitter can get way less reaction than the band with 100 quality followers because if you have thousands of followers most of them really don’t care about your music. In fact it may be less than 1%. It’s like spending a few thousand dollars on a specific metal ad network like Fixion Media or spending thousands advertising on the Today show. Just as middle age housewives won’t care about your band, neither will SEO spammers. It’s all about target audience!
Now we’ve talked about reaching music industry people like the music specific bloggers, booking agents, record labels, and other music industry people your band should network with, but what about actual fans? Well you need to make sure and use the embeddable widgets on every website the band is part of. Both MySpace and Facebook have ways to do this. Put it on your main official website as well. Put it everywhere you can. This way your fans can follow you on all these social networks. Then they will bring in their friends and your fan base can grow. This is better because it gets you your target audience. Plus because of this you will end up with way more followers than people you are following. This makes you look more legit. Remember that a social networking profile that has way less followers than people they are following shouldn’t be trusted.
Of course a good start to finding that target audience is to follow me on both Twitter & Plurk. If always plug the music profiles I think deserve more followers.
So now that you have created tons of social networking accounts to promote your band, how do you use them? As with anything there are unspoken rules. Imagine all the horrid stuff noobs do when they come to see your band for the first time. There are so many noob mistakes you can do at a metal show, there are just as many in social networking. Mostly you have to keep in mind that it is about being social. Don’t just post stuff about your band. Reply to others about the things that are important to them as well.
Talk to people about stuff other than your band
DO NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPS EVER!
Don’t post a flood of stuff in a small amount of time.
Post at least a few times a day whenever possible
Keep it “work safe” because most are surfing from their job
Make sure you get as many fans & friends to join you on these social networks
Run tons of giveaways through just those social networks
Friend people back or you look like a snob.
Don’t use trickery to get attention. Always be honest!
Keep your followers & followed ratio close
These are pretty general things. This stuff works on Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, MySpace bulletins, or any others. I hope they help.
Now there is tons more we could get into but I like to keep these updates nice and simple. This kind of thing can be a lot to swallow at times. Some people will come at you with tons of unwanted advice and will make you feel like a 13 year old kid being taught guitar by Yngwie Malmsteen. Yngwie only knows how to go full speed, so his lessons are pretty useless. So I hope I don’t go Yngwie on you people. If I do let me know.
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.
So Plurk is a strange beast, but once you get hooked it is like a big bag of crack. I have only known of one person who gave it a real honest chance before giving up on it. That would be the hardest rockin’ programmer in the world…Mr DarkNemesis himself (RockMyMonkey.com & HeavyAsHell.com).Most people who give it a chance are hooked.
Now at first Plurk was looked at as a Twitter clone. I think once you have used both services enough, you will find they have many things that separate them. As far as bands and other music industry types are concerned I will keep it simple. Twitter is for getting a message out instantly to a ton of people at once. Plurk is for conversation. Imagine a band forum, but way more fluid and interactive. Plus a band forum keeps outsiders away. Plurk is part of a very large network, so if a band is conversing with all their fans through Plurk instead they will end up conversing with tons of potential new fans as well. It is about bringing in new people.
Now many people talk back and forth through Twitter, but there is a very large problem with doing that. it annoys the hell out of anyone who follows you that is not part of that specific conversation. Plurk totally separates new topics and threaded conversations. Now we host several official band forums at RockMyMonkey.com, but I honestly wish they would all leave us for something that would serve them better. Plurk would be so much better for a band if all the band members jumped in and got all their fans excited about it.
So Plurk should be a replacement for official band forums, but how else can it serve a band? Well, what if you only have one tech savy band member that wants to be social with the fans while on the road? There is a great mobile version of Plurk that works well on almost any mobile phone browser. Bored on the bus? Talk to the fans.
Now the important thing to remember for both Twitter and Plurk is to embed your profile into the sidebar of the official website, MySpace, and Facebook. This not only gets the message out to all your fans that you are on this exciting new social network, but it also kind of shows them what it’s all about.
So what about the smaller more unknown bands? Well interaction with fans is even more important for the unsigned and unknown. So it’s even more important you spread the widget mentioned above around. Not just to keep fans posted, but with Plurk casual conversation is more accepted. This helps you be more intimate with your fans while probably ending up with new fans at the same time (being part of a large network). I also notice that more traffic comes from links I post on Plurk than any other social network. Because of the more social aspect of Plurk, people are more likely to check out your stuff. So make sure and post links to news on your official site along with the casual conversation with your fans.
So Twitter is for getting a message out, but Plurk is for true interaction and conversation. Being more social with fans will help your band’s fanbase grow.
Most important of course is to follow me on Plurk.
So I was trying to think about what I should blog about today and it dawned on me that I’m trying to be know and the Rock N’ Roll Tech Consultant. So why the hell am I not blogging about things that would help bands? Time for a face palm and a Homer style “DOH!” So today I will give the top ten tools bands should be using, but are not. Then I will follow it up with a two week series on how bands could get the most out of these ten great social networks. Now here is the trick, how do we get bands to use this info? Please do what you can do get your favorite unsigned, underground, or just unknown band to pay attention to this info.
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!
So after two requests in one day I threw together this little video tutorial. This info works best with Ustream & Stickam but might work on others as well. I forgot to mention I use an Ubuntu o0erating system on the desktop and Vista on the laptop. This is to prove that the OS has nothing to do with how well your podcast can be.
