Are You Working Social Networks or Are They Working You?
photo by Daniel Spillere Andrade
We all know that social media is a great promotion tool, but how you use the tool is more important that the tool itself. During the days of Myspace, marketing specialists and musicians alike could easily spend a few hours clicking from one page to another, finding a new person, music act or scenester, say hello and throw over a friend request. For some labels and nearly every indie artist, this was considered marketing.
I consider this a time waster.
In the above scenario you are out looking for people, interrupting their time they spend with their online friends and throwing a dart at a uncontrollable bull’s-eye. I call this a win in Myspace’s favor as you are essentially making them more revenue by serving more page views so more of their advertisers can be shown. In the end you may have a few more people in your friend count, but no more album sales or people at your show on the weekend.
How can you work social networks in your favor?
You need to setup a promotional system to have great conversations with people and on subjects that you can relate to and add to, or interrupt them in a natural way where you and your music fit their mood and attitude. Sounds easy right? Let’s look at a few examples.
Groups
Groups are a great place to add your two cents. Like minded people join groups when they feel passionate about a subject and want to learn and have like minded conversations and discussions about a subject. These groups are in abundance on Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn. Find groups that fit the following:
- Causes and nonprofit groups you support (or oppose) and voice your opinions and what you have done/want to do to help the cause
- Movie groups are a great place to pose discussion on characters, places to say where your music would have been a great fit or banter about the movie in general.
- Political Groups always have a passion behind them. Join and chat with caution.
- Music genres usually have some good discussion. The idea is not to be over self promotional but add value. Talk about bands you love, bands you have played with or how the music is progressing. The people in the group will respect that and go back and visit your page to check out your tunes.
Blog Comments
Using blog comments plays on the ego of the author and the curiosity of their readers. When you leave a comment on a blog, you generally have the opportunity to leave your name, email and a URL along with your comment. The idea here is to say something intelligent and get the author’s attention. They will generally follow your link to see who you are. Send them to a great sight with insightful ideas, text, videos and music and they may stick around, or better yet Blog about you.
Advertising
Advertising on social networks is getting a bad rap as serving a bunch of impressions with little to no clicks or conversions. This is changing as the power of where your ads are being displayed and the type of media for the ad is changing. On Facebook for example, you can target your ads to kids in Orlando, FL who are 16-25 years old, who listen to Bob Marley and Pepper. This ensures that if you can identify your target market your ads will be better matched.
Another new advertising medium is getting your songs on rotation within online streaming and radio stations. Look at Grooveshark, Jango and Last.FM as major players in this space.
Niche Social Networks
While Facebook, Myspace and Twitter have the large numbers, it is also the easiest way to get lost online. Finding smaller networks with a more targeted audience may be a solution to social network fatigue and again the conversions will be higher as the people in the network are all like minded. Head on over to Ning.com and perform some searches for niches your music fits and see what you can bring to those communities.
Conclusion
There are many avenues, strategies and tactics to working social networks. It all boils down to how you spend your time and where your time is best spent. If you are not a marketer by trade, you will wan to maximize your time on these networks and get the best return for your efforts. If you are on the road and have a laptop or an iPhone, connecting with people should be a large focus. It’s all in how you work the tools!
This post was written by Greg Rollett, from Gen-Y Rock Stars, a music marketing blog focused on helping musicians navigate online tools and live the rock star lifestyle. Greg’s new project, Label 2.0 – marketing school for musicians – is launching soon. You can also find Greg on Twitter.
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