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Facebook's decline as a useful band tool...

#21
All of the various social media sites have their benefits and drawbacks. Most bands I know personally have facebook, twitter, tumblr, myspace, google+, Reverb Nation, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and their own url which may point to one of the above or a bespoke site. It is pretty simple to send updates to all of them.
 
#22
Musiclogic said:
FB has always sucked for band promotion, Myspace was much more friendly for Bands and musicians. C'est la vie
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+1

For all the dorky pre-teen profiles steeped with malicious copy/paste code to saturate your PC with tracking cookies, Facebook is a welcome and needed change. If you had a poorly-designed, slow and rife with garbage band page then you didn't go much of anywhere on Myspace...it was a good opportunity to let people hear your music (playlists FTW!) and display how serious you were with how well your page was maintained/designed.

I think the whole "charging" for effective band and event posting is nothing more than a ridiculous attempt to make a buck that some people will fall for. Just like with any supply and demand situation, if musicians want to post ads for their events but don't want to pay, somebody will capitalize on that and take that market share from Facebook. I hear a lot of people moving towards Google+, but we'll see how well that goes. I'm thoroughly surprised that Apple hasn't tried their hand at a social networking site or something of that nature...they usually champion themselves as the bastion of hope and refuge for the creative members of society (:rolleyes:).

Nothing beats a manager or promoter who gets you on TV, radio, the internet, and at public events though. FWIW, Myspace was the best for bands IMO...lotta good memories updating that band profile on there :)
 
#24
Frank Tuesday said:
All of the various social media sites have their benefits and drawbacks. Most bands I know personally have facebook, twitter, tumblr, myspace, google+, Reverb Nation, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and their own url which may point to one of the above or a bespoke site. It is pretty simple to send updates to all of them.
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exactly! no one medium is going to serve all your needs. use every possible outlet there is to get the word out on your band. your stupid if you rely on just one site to advertise your band.
 
#26
Facebook still works to get the word out. So does Twitter. IMO, you also need to have your own band website with updates and cross promote ALL of them. And don't just post lame stuff either. Make it funny, make it interesting (not even related to band sometimes) that way posts will show up and your name gets spread around like a "friend" sharing something, not an sales pitch.

Also make friends with other bands in your area and cross promote the hell out of any shows you do together (online flyers and event posts). Then friendly or welcoming (also helps to be humorous) reminders every day up until the event. People will either ignore it or they'll finally click on it.

On top of that, if you've got music to listen to - put it up everywhere: BandCamp, SoundCloud, LastFm, YouTube, Vimeo, iTunes, etc. If someone is curious about your band, they NEED to hear you as easily as possible. It's not the easiest on FB, so you need other options for people to listen/download/purchase.
 
#27
One problem is that free / flash based websites such as wix.com or webs does not work on many smart phones... which many people use all the time. Therefore for cheap bastards like me Facebook is one of the best options. Reverbnation is a possibility but they send so many spamy emails it just drives me nuts. Of course, there are also those that refuse to use facebook so...
 
#29
I agree, Myspace could have saved itself if it offered some advanced user options for bands. I believe Facebook will soon go the same way. Younger people are using other apps/sites as their parents and grandparents used FB.
Email lists seems to work best for cover bands. If you play the same venues ona regular rotation, you really need to do very little marketing.
 
#33
The Joe Man said:
Unfortunately, I just had a club owner offer my band a door deal instead of guarantee because he was concerned with our relatively low number of Facebook "likes". I wanted to strangle him. Attention club owners: Facebook is in no way reflective of a band's audience or potential to draw.
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We had a club owner pull the same BS. "You don't have
very many LIKES on FB". We told him fine, we'll have our
following sit at home liking us on facebook instead of drinking
in you venue.

The guitar player told him to go FB himself. Haha. Idiot club
owners.
 
#34
MatticusMania said:
There are many ways to use Facebook to regularly interact with your fans that you wouldn't otherwise do via something like an email list.
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Right. I thought you might have had something that wasn't obvious to most experienced users.

As I understand it, getting your "friends" or "likes" to like and to share your individual posts is key to making it work. No likes and shares equals no reach. I'm getting tired of asking people to like and share posts, honestly. I feel like I'm pestering everyone, constantly.
 
#37
Stone Soup said:
Right. I thought you might have had something that wasn't obvious to most experienced users.

As I understand it, getting your "friends" or "likes" to like and to share your individual posts is key to making it work. No likes and shares equals no reach. I'm getting tired of asking people to like and share posts, honestly. I feel like I'm pestering everyone, constantly.
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You won't have to ask people to "like" or "share" if you post entertaining content. We have a reach of about 2000-3000 for "average" posts and up to 10,000 for "special" posts, and we don't pay a cent to Facebook. The key is posting things that people actually want to share.
 
#38
stagebanter said:
You won't have to ask people to "like" or "share" if you post entertaining content. We have a reach of about 2000-3000 for "average" posts and up to 10,000 for "special" posts, and we don't pay a cent to Facebook. The key is posting things that people actually want to share.
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Right. I've reached over 1000 with a simple picture. That doesn't bring loads of likes to your page or people to your gigs, it's just being seen by 1000 random people who are God knows where in the world. I mean, anything is better than nothing, but I'm driving the same road you are. facebook BLOWS for promotion, PERIOD. It really does.
 
#39
Stone Soup said:
facebook BLOWS for promotion, PERIOD. It really does.
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No, it doesn't. You are doing it wrong. You really are.

What you are failing to take into account that a higher reach equates with your picture on more people's news feeds, which will (if done properly) lead to more fan interaction - and ultimately, more "likes". Part of my day gig is online advertising and I do a lot of this for local businesses and IT WORKS. It works for my band, too. When I do a Facebook campaign for a local business, they see results in terms of dollars. My band sees results in terms of more people at the show and hence more merch sales.
 

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