What Google does to the online world is the last thing on your mind. The fact of the matter is that their moves affect everyone trying to market themselves including independent artists.
Who cares? So what?!
You should care about the online trends that are evolving the “Interwebs.” From the SOPA & PIPA bills to the changes Google has implemented, you need to recognize the importance of the news and changes that occur.
“Hang Out” with your fans on Google Plus. Really, you can… Not only can you share and create “Circles” for certain fans, you can also select a group of fans to live chat with.
All you need is a working camera and mic set up for your pc to have a live conversation with some lucky fans.
Facebook has become another platform for indie band’s to easily interact with fans. It’s more than just posting general information about your band. You can use it as a free marketing tool.
Interact with Your Fans
Are fans commenting on your status updates? Comment back at them… Just a few words from the band means a lot to a true music fan. Then fans will tell their friends how ‘cool’ your band is and how you get back to your fans on Facebook. The 15 – 30 minutes per day it takes to write comments can really help market your band at no cost.
Ask fans questions to help the interaction. For example, you can ask them about their day or what single they liked off of your last album. Heck, you can even ask them what movie you should go watch that night. This type of interaction is priceless to a fan. Imagine if your favorite bands did the same thing. How stoked would you be?
The recent news about Myspace is affecting the user experience. We view social media profiles to discover news and updates about independent artists. We have run into artist’s Myspace profiles that have either been deleted, have broken links or have “error” messages.
Recently, we have had negative experiences when we try to even get into Myspace. Freezing occurs when we try to navigate through Myspace using Firefox. We are now having the same issue with Google’s Chrome.
With the layoff of 500 employees, News Corp. is trying to find a new buyer for the site. Myspace Music is obviously suffering because of their recent decisions.
News Corporation’s much publicized analysis of Myspace has put the social network in crunch mode as it tries to find its niche on the Web. With Facebook dominating the user experience and its threat to move into the music industry, Myspace is struggling to keep up.
Creating a partnership with ReverbNation by adding new tools for artists to interact with fans is the latest idea to give the site an identity.
Generating an online presence is something that has been ignored by bands that we search for when we look for information on new independent artists. Indie bands and artists generally have one or two sites that they have signed up on, but there’s a lack of vital information.
Since all of the social media sites are free, why aren’t artists taking advantage of this free marketing opportunity?
Your band’s website should be dominating the first page of search results for your project’s name. All of the social media and music websites should be right under it, fighting to take up the first page.
We receive many submissions from independent artists and bands who want to be featured, but they leave out important information about their projects. So we research their website, blogs and social media profiles to see if we can put the missing pieces together in a timely matter.
Unfortunately, we regularly find that bands are inconsistent with updating their social network accounts. Their websites offer outdated information or just don’t offer the basic information a fan or news/feature writer would be looking for.
Running a band is like a business and keeping your marketing cohesive is important to your exposure.
Do you have a music blog or a blog for your band and are searching for an easy way to market it? Add a tweet button to your posts. Tweetmeme was the featured retweet button used by blogs until Twitter decided to get into the RT game and released their own button.
This had bloggers like us wondering which one was the best to use. Which one displayed better on Twitter? Would the official button offer better results?