Promoting Your Playing And Your Music And You!, Tips and Tricks on Getting the word out about you! |
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Oct 10 2013, 12:43 AM
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QUOTE (Todd Simpson @ Oct 10 2013, 06:01 AM)  I got an email that "Five Finger Death Punch" had subscribed to me on twitter. At first I was a bit taken aback. Then I noticed they have just tons of folks they follow. They are using "following" on twitter as a promotional tool to get "follow backs". This is yet another of those strategies that sucks up wads of time and works best when farmed out to someone else who gets paid or volunteers to do it. Many folks (not all, certainly, NOT ALL) will give you a "Follow Back" on twitter if you follow them. So following folks that look to have similar interests in music can create more followers for your twitter feed. DISCLAIMERBefore the "anti" posts begin, I'll say again that such advice on using social media is only intended for folks who spend some of their time trying to leverage social media. There are plenty of folks who find it a waste of time so this post is really not meant for those people.  I did want to point out this practice as it's used by some larger bands. They have interns, paid folks who can follow people all day. Doing it yourself requires BALANCE that cosmin and I keep talking about.  I agree with what you say, and I can see it all the time. I did it for a while, before I decided it was stupid. I can tell you first hand that while following masses of people will get you masses of followers, generally those followers only follow you because you followed them and generally have no interest in your music. I think out of every 100 followers, about 2 or 3 take the time to check out your music. Having 100,000 followers on Twitter might sound great, but if they are not focused and engaged followers, I would rather take 10 people that I can make a connection with. The attitude on Twitter on Facebook are very different. On Twitter, I can get a follower, and then they will unfollow me a day later, probably because I didn't follow them back. What they should understand, is that if they use lousy grammar and drop an F-bomb every other tweet, I'm not going going to follow you! Yes, I probably would follow a fellow musician back if they followed me, but the fact that 'following back' has become common etiquette is a bit sad. On the other hand, on Facebook, my page growth is a lot slower, but I can tell straight away that every like I get is somebody that I can connect with. Now, a guitarist I look up to a lot, called Andy Othling (or Lowercase Noises), has a blog especially for independent musicians like us. He made a post this morning about different attitudes people can have towards their music. It was a very good read, and if you have the time, I'd really suggest everyone reads through
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Oct 10 2013, 02:45 AM
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You bring up a good point here. Follow backs are really flakey. And ideally in a perfect word I'd like to only deal with followers I can make a solid connection with. However, until the perfect world arrives, the number of followers one has at any given time on these services speaks volumes to potential folks who may be considering an opportunity or partnership with you. I know this is somewhat offensive especially to newer musicians. But at least knowing how the game is played has it's own value. Even if it's a bit sickening.
For example, say you are looking to establish yourself as a review guy. Like Ryan Bruce, Ola Englund, Keith Merrow,etc. Being able to approach vendors and point out that you have good numbers is key. If you have really low/bad numbers, it just broadcasts that you have yet to achieve "relevance" in the eyes of most of the biz. Not that this is bad, you can make AMAZING music and be "relevant" to only 3 people. If that is ok then bingo! If not, being able to understand what is involved in generating enough traction to make vendors want to send you stuff to review or keep has some value. But if you would rather skip all that and just pay as you go for gear, then it really doesn't matter if you are on social media at all. You can let people find you. As I've mentioned some folks take this route and let the music only do the talking. It's certainly a valid approach Personally I try to achieve some level of balance. I keep up with social media ideas and concepts/best practices to a degree so that I can get some traction as I really like reviewing gear that I don't have to buy But hey that's just me Todd QUOTE (Taka Perry @ Oct 9 2013, 07:43 PM) I agree with what you say, and I can see it all the time. I did it for a while, before I decided it was stupid. I can tell you first hand that while following masses of people will get you masses of followers, generally those followers only follow you because you followed them and generally have no interest in your music. I think out of every 100 followers, about 2 or 3 take the time to check out your music. Having 100,000 followers on Twitter might sound great, but if they are not focused and engaged followers, I would rather take 10 people that I can make a connection with. The attitude on Twitter on Facebook are very different. On Twitter, I can get a follower, and then they will unfollow me a day later, probably because I didn't follow them back. What they should understand, is that if they use lousy grammar and drop an F-bomb every other tweet, I'm not going going to follow you! Yes, I probably would follow a fellow musician back if they followed me, but the fact that 'following back' has become common etiquette is a bit sad. On the other hand, on Facebook, my page growth is a lot slower, but I can tell straight away that every like I get is somebody that I can connect with. Now, a guitarist I look up to a lot, called Andy Othling (or Lowercase Noises), has a blog especially for independent musicians like us. He made a post this morning about different attitudes people can have towards their music. It was a very good read, and if you have the time, I'd really suggest everyone reads through |
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Oct 10 2013, 12:26 PM
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I tried to get all relevant info in this thread in this wiki entry, which I just updated, let me know if it's okor missing something Todd
 https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/inde..._And_Your_Music -------------------- Guitars:
Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster, Ibanez RG2570MZ, Epiphone SG G-400 Amp: Vox AC4TVH head + V112TV cab Effects: Vox Satchurator, Vox Time Machine, Dunlop CryBaby, Boss MT-2, Boss CE-5, Boss TU-2, Boss ME-70 Recording: Line-6 POD X3 + FBV-Express, Pandora PX5D GMC wants YOU to take part in our Guitar-Wikipedia! Have a good time reading great articles and writing your own with us in our GUITAR WIKI! Share your playing and get Pro-advice from our Instructors: Join REC |
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Oct 10 2013, 04:02 PM
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Just my thoughts while adding new virtual friends Cosmin
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Oct 12 2013, 03:49 AM
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WOW!!! That is an AMAZING job on pulling all these thread ideas together in to one Tapestry of Information!!! FREAKING WELL DONE FRAN!!!!!!! You RRRRRAAAAAWWWWKKKK!!!!! QUOTE (Fran @ Oct 10 2013, 07:26 AM) I tried to get all relevant info in this thread in this wiki entry, which I just updated, let me know if it's okor missing something Todd https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/inde..._And_Your_Music |
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Oct 12 2013, 08:05 AM
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Hehe, indeed, great work Fran!
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Nov 6 2013, 09:13 PM
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That is a great thread and should be pinned at the top of the forum
At the moment we have no videos so Youtube will be nice for promotion in the future but at the moment we will concentrate on Facebook and Homepage. But I will create a ReverbNation account asap because it looks really interesting As hobbyband should we also create an account here ? Bandcamp Musicxray Thanks Frankster |
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Nov 7 2013, 01:38 AM
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Thanks!
Most of it is in our GMC WIKI! Another great resource for information! Our WIKI GURU Fran has put it all in wonderful order!! He did a much better job organizing it than I did on presenting it for sure! Here is the link!https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/inde..._And_Your_Music Be sure to share your new places on the web with the GMC Community! Todd QUOTE (Frankster @ Nov 6 2013, 03:13 PM) That is a great thread and should be pinned at the top of the forum
At the moment we have no videos so Youtube will be nice for promotion in the future but at the moment we will concentrate on Facebook and Homepage. But I will create a ReverbNation account asap because it looks really interesting As hobbyband should we also create an account here ? Bandcamp Musicxray Thanks Frankster This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Nov 7 2013, 01:39 AM |
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Nov 10 2013, 12:00 PM
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Nov 10 2013, 02:00 PM
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Alright mate! Now I can read stuff about your band - your rhythm guitar is named like a Japanese guy but looks European
What's the story?
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Nov 11 2013, 09:34 AM
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Another interesting tool would be MailChimp - it allows you to organize e-mail campaigns and it keeps track of the subscribers on your site, offering you analysis tools to keep you updated
You will need a bit of time to understand how it works and maybe even have someone to help out with coding a bit. I've been using it in various music or non music related projects and it works amazing! Check out more here: http://mailchimp.com/I'm sure that there are other solutions of this kind as well, so let's see what the other guys say
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Nov 12 2013, 12:32 PM
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Haha
Amazing - do ask, it can be a great story for the fans  Have you tried Mail Chimp?
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