Forty to fifty years ago, musicians relied on mass advertising channels (like print, television, and radio) to get the message of their mere existence out to the general public. Segmenting the overall market into niches, or target markets, was out of the question " if people were talking about you, then you were doing something right.
The invention of social networks has allowed up-and-coming musicians to effectively and (to a certain extent) efficiently disseminate not only their aforementioned existence, but also their music.
Thats right " social networking sites, like Facebook, give amateur musicians the opportunity to display their songs and original compositions to their target market, pulling in the demand from their ever-growing fanbase.
Following these three simple ways to market your band on Facebook will put you on the path to stardom (or, for the cynics in the audience, at least a moderate and local following).
1. Create a fan page for your band
Creating one is as easy as signing up for a Facebook account.
The fan page wizard takes you through a few easy steps to create your profile. Once the profile is created, youre essentially given a space to use at your liberty.
2. Add Relevant and Interactive Apps
Once your page is approved, youll see that its completely blank.
This gives you the opportunity to add informative and fun apps that your audience will actually derive value from.
Get the My Band app. It allows you to add a band biography, your gig schedule (along with an actual ticket counter where you can sell tickets to shows), add songs (with optional downloading capability), and, most importantly, track your bands popularity on Facebook.
3. Talk to your fans
Its important to talk to the fans that you have. The entire point of joining Facebook is to interact with your fanbase and start a conversation with them.
Start contests that encourage fan participation.
Popstar Olly Murs, the runner up of the British TV show The X Factor, who just released a record, started a hat competition where the winner of the competition wins a CD autographed by the star himself. Approximately 300 of his fans interacted with him for that particular status update " this isnt an assessment of the entire turnout of the competition itself, but its evident to see the buzz thats created when the band takes an active interest in their fanbase.
4. Keep producing new content
Update your status at least once a day with something informative. Its irrelevant to just say, Its an awesome day today, when you can link back to your home page for a new and exciting announcement (like the release of a new song, for instance). Update your fanpage status with unique blurbs and your fans will stick with you.
At the end of the day, these four strategies are compounded by primary research. In other words, you need to analyze the activities of other musicians that are achieving success online through advertising on Facebook and see what you can do to better their actions. Similar to the business environment, theres a plethora of competition " if you can prove to the world that your band is one worth listening to, your online success can translate to monetary or even critical achievements.
About the Author: Prashanth Mohan
