Overpromoting on FB rant

SnowCal · #1 03-10-2013, 06:45 PM

So, I thought we'd gotten over this problem, but it appears we haven't. We have two band members who get very excited about some of our gigs and have a history of each overusing the band's FB page. It just wasn't coordinated and they would both post daily as the band sometimes. 'Show on Wednesday at Pug's Dive Bar'. 'Come see our show at Pugs on Weds'. 'Show tonight'. 'I'm going to the show'. 'Thanks for coming'. 'Thanks for bringing desserts so and so'. 'Here's a dimly lit video of our band at Pug's Dive that features a distorting camcorder mic and Cloverfield-esque camera movement'.

I heard complaints from fans that this was spammy, and shoot, I thought it was spammy. So we had a band chat and rules were laid. Only one post a week. No promoting shows earlier than a week before etc. It worked well. Our page was in radio silence for nearly a month.

We're headlining a big local place on Weds, mostly because the venue wanted us to. And we're the only local band and the only draw. I have no delusions that we're gonna be able to pack this place, because we won't. We talked about it at our last rehearsal and agreed to wait 'til Sunday to post it so that people will remember it.

So, I get on FB today and 'lo and behold, somebody's gotten excited. No mention of our show this week. Instead we're promoing a big local band's new single and talking 'bout how we're going to open for them for their CD release at the exact same venue in 3 weeks and it's gonna be awesome. And it will be, as there are 3 bands (including us) that mostly headline and have good draws and the other two alone would sell the place out.

But seriously, this hurts our draw at our headliner this week. Why come out to see us and some out-of-town band you've never heard of when you can wait a couple weeks and see us at the same venue with two very established local bands? We don't even really need to promo that show. This week we're fighting to not play to an empty club.

BlueTalon · #2 03-10-2013, 06:50 PM

Whoever has the keys to the facebook page, change the password and don't allow the exciteables to post any more.

Or start docking their pay $20 at each gig they over-promote.

**I_LIEK_BASE** · #3 03-10-2013, 06:57 PM

Is there such thing as over-promotion? Sure seeing a dozen posts a week about a show is annoying to some, but not everyone is on FB constantly, so it's good to promote your shows several times. It makes the show or at least the band name stick in your head. When I have shows, I usually post about it 2 weeks before hand, a week before, and a couple times the week of and day of...IMO there is NO such thing as over-promotion.

guy n. cognito · #4 03-10-2013, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by I_LIEK_BASE

Is there such thing as over-promotion? Sure seeing a dozen posts a week about a show is annoying to some, but not everyone is on FB constantly, so it's good to promote your shows several times. It makes the show or at least the band name stick in your head. When I have shows, I usually post about it 2 weeks before hand, a week before, and a couple times the week of and day of...IMO there is NO such thing as over-promotion.

I've unliked a number of local bands for over promotion.

Floyd Eye · #5 03-10-2013, 07:00 PM

There definitely is such a thing as over promotion where FB is concerned. Your 900 friends will all see it when they log on. No one wants to see it 5 times a day. Unless you are paying to promote it ( which I know nothing about) it will roll across everyone's feed.

I control my band's FB page. The other 2 guys don't know or want to know the password.

**I_LIEK_BASE** · #6 03-10-2013, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guy n. cognito

I've unliked a number of local bands for over promotion.

I have too. My question to you is, was it a band you liked? I bet not. Chances are you'd let it slide if it were a band you enjoyed.
If a few people who don't really enjoy my band have to unfriend my page for a few extra people to show up at the club...I say "worth it".

Floyd Eye · #7 03-10-2013, 07:27 PM

My drummer prints off about 400 fliers for every gig. To date, there have been exactly 2 walk ins based on those fliers that I am aware of. Worth it? Nah. FB is only a slightly better promotional tool. It is handy for letting people who normally come to your shows know you have a gig coming up, but it is rare that it increases your fan base. The best way to increase your fan base is to do whatever it takes to weasel your way into a well known, popular club, then go there and bring your A game.

guy n. cognito · #8 03-10-2013, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by I_LIEK_BASE

I have too. My question to you is, was it a band you liked? I bet not. Chances are you'd let it slide if it were a band you enjoyed.
If a few people who don't really enjoy my band have to unfriend my page for a few extra people to show up at the club...I say "worth it".

Yes. I've actually unliked a friend's band because of over-promotion.

RustyAxe · #9 03-10-2013, 07:43 PM

I have a page for one project, and I'm the only manager of the page. Fans of the page can post on the page, but I see it before it goes public. Most people don't have a clue how to properly administer and manage a page, and how to use it ... that's for sure. Like others have said, I've unliked pages that kept sending WAY too many promo messages. One post per gig, about a week before, is all it takes, really.

warnergt · #10 03-10-2013, 08:03 PM

One post a week is very sparse. You want to maximize facebook
for exposure.

The problem with facebook is that they have a "newsfeed" which
lists post by time. Make a post to promote your band and, one
day later, it is so far down that nobody sees it. You want to get
your posts into that newsfeed and keep them near the top
where they will be seen.

Here is my recommendation when approaching a gig date:
1) Limit to one or two posts a day and they must be 10 hours apart.
2) When you add a post, delete an older post for the same
event. This keeps your home page uncluttered and not looking
like spam. But it keeps a post near the top of the newsfeed.

SnowCal · #11 03-10-2013, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warnergt

One post a week is very sparse. You want to maximize facebook
for exposure.

The problem with facebook is that they have a "newsfeed" which
lists post by time. Make a post to promote your band and, one
day later, it is so far down that nobody sees it. You want to get
your posts into that newsfeed and keep them near the top
where they will be seen.

Here is my recommendation when approaching a gig date:
1) Limit to one or two posts a day and they must be 10 hours apart.
2) When you add a post, delete an older post for the same
event. This keeps your home page uncluttered and not looking
like spam. But it keeps a post near the top of the newsfeed.

FB changed their default feed setting and for most people it doesn't work like that anymore. It's a 'relevance' thing that is some combination of how close FB thinks you and the other person are, and how popular the post is. So, ideally you want sparse posts that get a lot of comments, shares, and likes. They can sit at the top of somebody's feed for awhile. Frequent posts that don't get much attention won't appear on any feeds except the handful of people FB thinks are close to your band. Those poor folks will have every single announcement near the top of their feed for awhile.

**gard0300** · #12 03-10-2013, 08:31 PM

I have control of our bands book page. I post maybe 2-3 times a week before the show at different days and times of the day. If no shows are planned maybe 2-3 times a month.
But yes I have knocked bands off my newsfeed if they over promote, or just annoy me.

ABravado · #13 03-10-2013, 08:41 PM

Spamming people is bad and you'll lose followers but I don't think "radio silence" is a great policy for your FB page in the days leading up to a show. I don't think one post a day is bad at all especially for a week that you have a gig and maybe a thanks post with some pictures or a video the day after. In my experience what people hate is a bunch of little posts that could have been one thing. Upload any photos you want to share at once for example, don't do it a couple at a time throughout the day. That gets old.

brotondo · #14 03-10-2013, 09:10 PM

I don't FB , still trying to heal from Myspace. But there should be only one person with the job to run such a thing, ideal would be band members spouse or friend of the band. As a fan, I'll look for your shows, trying to socialize with friends and having to wade through waves of "come to our show!" would get old quick , and there is one easy way to put a stop to that. Unfriend.
get in there and change that password, let the guitarists wreck their personal page

mellowinman · #15 03-10-2013, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Floyd Eye

My drummer prints off about 400 fliers for every gig. To date, there have been exactly 2 walk ins based on those fliers that I am aware of. Worth it? Nah. FB is only a slightly better promotional tool. It is handy for letting people who normally come to your shows know you have a gig coming up, but it is rare that it increases your fan base. The best way to increase your fan base is to do whatever it takes to weasel your way into a well known, popular club, then go there and bring your A game.

Someone finally speaks the truth.

"How big is your following?"

"Uh, not very big, because the bars that are typically WHERE EVERYONE GOES on a Saturday night don't book us."

"Why can't you get 200 people into John's Sleazebucket?"

"Because on John's Sleazebucket's BEST night in the past 20 years, they had 50 people, and it was New Year's Eve."

"Well, you don't draw, so we won't book you."

stagebanter · #16 03-10-2013, 09:57 PM

To whoever said that FB doesn't increase your fan base, I respectfully disagree - Facebook has been invaluable to us in terms of getting our band off the ground. You can tell whether or not you are "overpromoting" by using the Insights graph on your FB page. If your interactions are going down, you're (probably) doing something wrong. FB insights are not perfect metrics, but you can use them to measure how many people are interacting with your page as opposed to just seeing your posts.

Sharing images with gig info on them is more effective than an "events page" in my experience. We get soooo many more comments, likes, and shares from images than we do from an events page. We use both, though.

SnowCal · #17 03-10-2013, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stagebanter

To whoever said that FB doesn't increase your fan base, I respectfully disagree - Facebook has been invaluable to us in terms of getting our band off the ground. You can tell whether or not you are "overpromoting" by using the Insights graph on your FB page. If your interactions are going down, you're (probably) doing something wrong. FB insights are not perfect metrics, but you can use them to measure how many people are interacting with your page as opposed to just seeing your posts.

Sharing images with gig info on them is more effective than an "events page" in my experience. We get soooo many more comments, likes, and shares from images than we do from an events page. We use both, though.

That last part is interesting. By images with gig info on them do you mean fliers? Or is it more of an image also gig thing?

SnowCal · #18 03-10-2013, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Floyd Eye

My drummer prints off about 400 fliers for every gig. To date, there have been exactly 2 walk ins based on those fliers that I am aware of. Worth it? Nah. FB is only a slightly better promotional tool. It is handy for letting people who normally come to your shows know you have a gig coming up, but it is rare that it increases your fan base. The best way to increase your fan base is to do whatever it takes to weasel your way into a well known, popular club, then go there and bring your A game.

I guess I'm making a distinction between exposure and promotion. Telling existing fans that you have a show on FB seems a very effective form of promotion to me, but it provides no exposure. Our date in a few weeks for a couple big local bands provides us exposure to their fan base but we probably won't go out of our way to promote it.

Downunderwonder · #19 03-11-2013, 01:34 AM

Someone with the FB smarts should start off a sticky on how to employ the FB beast.

If I can manipulate it to my band's advantage I guess I could get onboard with a band page.

lowfreq33 · #20 03-11-2013, 01:47 AM

We have a band page. So far it's been useful for keeping in touch with our "big" fans, of which we seem to have a few in every town. We don't spam though. IMO that's a big part of what killed myspace. You can create events and invite people, but honestly I tend to ignore that stuff and I think most others do too. It is important to have a presence on FB though. Venue owners do look at that stuff. We've had a few gigs that were booked entirely over FB. Never actually spoke to anyone at the venue until we walked in the door to set up.