Using Social Media to Connect With Fans

You can’t go anywhere online without hearing about social networking sites. Every music marketing guru’s favorite “strategy of the day” includes using one of these sites in some form or another to sell your music. The problem with all the strategies floating around the internet is that they really do not spell out what it is you are supposed to be doing on these social networks, how you are supposed to interact, and what actions you can take to get the most return for your social networking effort.

Music marketing is about interaction. Yes, in the good ol’ days, you know in 2003, an artist or group could simply post a picture, some 30 sec. clips of music, and maybe a music video on a website or myspace page and then use some kind of catch phrase... “The Assault on a City - Coming Summer 2004!” and it was enough to make possible fans keep checking back to see what was going to happen. Today, this will make potential fans laugh and think you are so “2003.” Interaction is not a static web page with a simple blog that you update once a week. It’s not a rotating picture gallery that you update once a month. And for sure, interaction is not simply giving away a free mp3 download of your new single.

Interaction, or what millions of people like to call - Social Networking, is about becoming a part of a network of like minded individuals. It is about actually sharing, updating, caring, talking, and listening to the network of people and becoming a true online friend to as many as you can. Social networking really has nothing what so ever to do with selling your music. In fact, the simple fact is that if you join a network and then try to hawk your music to anyone that will listen you will fast be an outsider to the network and you will do more damage than good in the eyes of potential fans. Meaning; getting it wrong can do more damage than staying out of the social networking game all together.

There are many, many, many music marketing guru’s that will argue that bad social networking is better than none. They claim that any form of online interaction is better than street promotions alone. That’s crap - period! Information moves faster than the speed of light on the internet. Good, bad, ugly, or positive - information about you, your group, your label, and what you do online can reach around the world faster than you can add another blog post trying to explain yourself. Even worse, there are no “take backs.” Once you put it out there is spreads like wildfire and you can never take it back. Never!

There is a new term floating around the internet called social media. It refers to what you use to interact within a social networking environment. Things like video, ringtones, podcasts, TV channels, blog posts, widgets, games, and other music marketing tools make up your tool box of social media. This is what you as an artist or record label create to interact with your potential fans. This is where a lot of people get it wrong. Social media is supposed to be an extension of you. Not a marketing message. Sure, you are supposed to place a logo and a web site address on anything you create, but you are not supposed to create something that seams like a commercial and put it out there as “social media.” You need to interact.

There is a basic rule of thumb that has been working quite well for those who get it right. It is called the 60/20/20 rule. As an artist, 60% of everything you put out needs to offer fans information about how and where you will be to interact with them. A bad example would be announcing a live show event on social networking sites and simply saying “we have a live show this Friday come see us!” This is just advertising. It is not interacting. A better way would be to create a short web video with your web cam saying; “we are playing at a club this friday but we are going to be there an hour early and to party with our fans and then after the show we are all going to iHop and we would like all our fans to come join us so come out to the show and let’s get to know each other.” This applies to getting folks to visit your website as well. You don’t just say come to www.mysite.com. You give potential fans a reason to visit your website. Tell them that you are going to host a live “meet the band” event on a certain date and a certain time and the only way to get access is to sign up on your web site. (You can do live webinars for less than $39.00 per month - look up webinar on google) This gives the fans a reason to visit your website - to interact with you and your group or label. But the gold in doing this is that you will have hundreds of people hit your website and potentially buy your music or merchandise.

20% of what you put out within your social media needs to be about other bands, groups, labels, clubs, events, or other things not related to you with in your specific genre of music. Announce events that other bands you know are having, but don’t just say go see “xyz” tomorrow night. Give potential fans a reason to go - because you are going to be there supporting the band and you would like to meet anyone who wants to come join you. Only announce those thing that will allow you to interact with your fans. If it is a news story about another label invite fans to join you on your web site’s user forum for a live discussion about how that news is effecting you or your label.

The last 20% of the 60/20/20 rule is about anything you want. It has nothing to do with interaction but it has everything to do with showing your personality. Maybe you have a found a crazy video on Youtube and think your fans will like it. Tell them about it, but when you do, tell them why you think it is so funny. Give them a reason to go watch it! This is also the time to be 100% personal. Talk about Birthdays, weddings, family, friends outside of music, vacation trips, etc. Let your fans see the real person within you.

Social networking is about interacting and sharing your music with like minded people. It is not about how many people you get to hit your profile and claim they are your friends. You have to actually become friends with these people and interaction is the only way to do it. If you have 3, 4 or even 10 social networking profiles across the internet on different site than you had better be updating, interacting, and communicating with each and every so called “friend” you have on those sites. If not, you are not social networking. You are simply taking up space on on a servers hard drive and getting no benefits from the places you think are helping you!

 

Learn how to use social networking while planning a complete music marketing campaign!

 

Peace,

Jai
“Love the Music in Yourself, Not Yourself in the Music!”
©2009 Jai Hutcherson. All Rights Reserved.