Using Social Media for Bands and Artists

You know what people hate? When a band is constantly harassing people to get more fans or followers so they can reach a certain number of fans

Aside from gaining credibility when people first look at your page to see how many fans you have what else do you gain? Aside from a bunch of people who were forced to like your page who probably won't buy your album or anything of that sort?

 Loyal fans are not bought, they're earned! 

It's very important when using social media for anything to earn your fans, not buy them. When you earn your fans you get people who actually liked you at a show, or who had your album passed down to them with your Facebook or twitter link and you can do this by keeping your current fans happy with what you're posting. These people are likely to follow your music in the long run! And what's even more awesome, is if they actually become loyal fans and follow you through social media outlets, they'll probably spread the word for you when the time comes!  It'll keep them Liking, RTing, and sharing your stuff on their own sites and you'll earn even more fans. 

Assuming you've already created a great cover picture with your bands name for your Facebook Timeline and taken care of the "bandpage", "band camp", or "band player" player applications for your band, here are some tips and ways of taking full advantage Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & Instagram for your band.

1. Keep A Consistent Username

One of the most important things that you have to do in order to grow your social media fan base is make sure your usernames are on everything you give out. Business cards, demos, CDs, Fliers, QR codes, etc. Many people make the mistake of just putting the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram logos and think their fans will figure it out, that doesn't work. People aren't just going to search for you or even know what to search for. Therefore it's much more effective to have the social media site logos with your bands URLS and usernames next to them. I know that may seem very elementary, but some of the biggest brands who advertise on billboards and on television still don't understand that concept. 

2. Using Pictures To Interact With Your Fans 

Have fun with pictures! Take pictures backstage or of you prepping for the show! Your fans will love that you're giving them a sneak peak of what's to come. It makes them feel more connected to you!

One of the most common things done by bands right now is taking pictures of the audience at shows from the point of view of the stage and later posting it all over their social media sites, whether it be on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. To effectively do it, it should be on all three.

 If you're using Instagram, you can actually share that picture of the audience on all three sites simultaneously, however I would highly recommend solely using that feature to post on twitter. Hashtags are not received very well on Facebook, and posting to Facebook through 3rd party applications receives a much smaller reach. You can still use the same Instagram photo (that's saved to your phone after you post it on Instagram) and upload it to Facebook and you can type the same caption without any hashtags.

You can also use Instagram/Twitpic pictures taken by your fans to run contests and giveaways!

Say you're at the stage and you want to be more interactive with your audience then and there, assuming there's reception somewhere during the beginning of the show you can say "Alright everyone we're gonna give away a free merch package to two lucky fans at the end of our set. One on twitter, and one on instagram, take a picture of us #(bandsname) and whatever caption and we'll pick the best ones at the end of the show."  Then at the end of the show you can do just that. Go on your phone really quick and pick a winner before you get off the stage. Of course it would help a lot if you have a team mate at the merch table doing this for you and just expediting the selection process for you so you don’t look like you’re just killing time.

If you're a big enough artist and people want to take pictures with you before or after the show, another great way to get fans more involved with your page is to get pictures taken with them and have then post them on your wall. Pass out a flier that says something along the lines of "Find your picture with (bands name)!  on Facebook.com/(bandsurl), Twitter @(bands username), Instagram @(bandsusername)" 

3. Keep Your Existing Fans Entertained!

Nothing is worse than a dead page. Hopefully if you're posting pictures with your fans and of shows, you'll have enough buzz on your page. But it's good to post at least 3 times a week to remain active. 

"But what do I post?" 

Glad you asked. There's plenty of ways to create content for bands. 

     - For starters you can post pictures of you or your band in the studio or working on a new song with an interesting caption.  

     - You can post a Snapshot of what you're listening to once or twice a week so your fans know who you're being influenced by. 

     -  Most importantly post things that your fans will be excited to interact with. Ask them questions, like "What's your favorite lyric in any our songs?" or "What's your favorite one of our songs?" You can even use Facebook "Questions" to make a poll of which one of your songs off one of your albums your fans love best. 

One of the greatest social media networks you can use to your advantage for creating content is YouTube.

If you don't have a YouTube account as an artist you should create one IMMEDIATELY,

Videos can become a vital portion of your online content, whether it's making a different cover video and posting it on Facebook & Twitter every one or two weeks, or even posting videos of you performing your own songs, full band, acoustic, or whatever the occasion calls for. You can even see if the venue you played at has footage of you playing and post snippets of that on your sites. The great part about it is you can gain subscribers on YouTube, generate content on Facebook and Twitter and slowly but surely increase your following.

Any other tips? 

It's extremely important the way you go about doing your posts. Syncing your Facebook to automatically post to Twitter is great; However, don't sync your twitter to automatically post your tweets to your Facebook. It may seem like a great idea but it's not at all. As mentioned before, using third party applications on Facebook reduces your reach. 

It's OK to post very often on Twitter, I’m not saying to spam your followers but you can use post at least 4 times a day on twitter and it wouldn't bother anyone. You can post about upcoming shows and you can mention and hashtag the location and area that you're going to be playing. For example if you're gonna play an open mic in Miami you could tweet "Playing an open mic night @thecoffehouse at #Bayside in #Miami tonight at 7pm!" that way anyone searching for the hashtag Miami or Bayside would see it, the coffee house could retweet it and you could get people to come. 

Use Instagram to post to Instagram & twitter in order to take advantage of using the hashtags on both networks (they do work the same exact way)  post the same thing to Facebook but use the Facebook application and upload the picture manually, this way you can write the same caption without the hashtags and avoid looking foolish on Facebook. 

I hope these tips come in handy and you're able to grow your fan page for yourself as an artist or band :)

-BeBonta

References: 

"How to host a photo campaign on instagram"

<http://help.instagram.com/customer/portal/articles/95801-how-to-host-a-photo-campaign-on-instagram>

Robley, Chris (March 16, 2012) "12 Ways to Grow Your Band on Facebook Timeline" 

<http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2012/03/12-ways-to-grow-your-facebook-fanbase-using-timeline/>