There is practically nothing on your page. You haven't filled out your profile, very few pictures, and most of your updates from the past few months are MailChimp postings. Facebook won't work for you unless you put in some work. Try to post at least once a week and make it something interesting. Use pictures that your fans will want to share. It will build your audience over time.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Facebook's decline as a useful band tool...
- Thread starter Runnerman
- Start date
There is practically nothing on your page. You haven't filled out your profile, very few pictures, and most of your updates from the past few months are MailChimp postings. Facebook won't work for you unless you put in some work. Try to post at least once a week and make it something interesting. Use pictures that your fans will want to share. It will build your audience over time.
Event invites do seem to be less useful than they were even a year ago. I think most people just get spammed with too damn many events (gigs or otherwise), and won't notice one more.
its ridiculous. If you are ok with reaching 15 - 25% of your Facebook following, well cool. But "promoting" your posts is not really a viable thing. Its $5 - $? per post, to promote. I just checked up on a post I made earlier this evening while dronk, and it would have cost $7 to promote. If you make several posts per day, you could be looking at tens of thousands per year in promoting costs. I mean that is just insane. When this sort of thing started making internet "news", evening relatively rich sites where talking about how expensive it would be to promote all 30 of their facebook posts each day. The costs are just not practical, but in this modern time you really should be attempting to contact your fanbase pretty often each day.
I mean, on my own personal page, I don't even see all updates from my own personal friends. that's some ****. Facebook is a sham. leftover smoke and a mirror reflection of what it used to be.
Promoting every post would be a waste of time, money, and manpower. And, to be totally honest with you, we've seen FANTASTIC results from Facebook without promoting anything.
Also, promotions are kind of like "pay per click" advertising except on Facebook. If you already know what PPC is, you know that it's a viable business model that works for lots of people. I think FB is still experimenting with it. The better your post is to begin with, the better promotion will work - you can't just throw money at a crappy Facebook page (which many bands do) and expect it to magically make you a rock star.
People who think Facebook sucks for promotion sometimes think that because they're using Facebook the wrong way. But there are plenty of cases in which it really ISN'T good for promotion, too. Seriously guys, trust me, I'm a professional.
Also, promotions are kind of like "pay per click" advertising except on Facebook. If you already know what PPC is, you know that it's a viable business model that works for lots of people. I think FB is still experimenting with it. The better your post is to begin with, the better promotion will work - you can't just throw money at a crappy Facebook page (which many bands do) and expect it to magically make you a rock star.
People who think Facebook sucks for promotion sometimes think that because they're using Facebook the wrong way. But there are plenty of cases in which it really ISN'T good for promotion, too. Seriously guys, trust me, I'm a professional.
FB has never been my favorite promotion platform, but virtually everyone is already on it, so it's a lot more likely people will see things I post on our FB page than on another website they would physically have to go to. It's just one of several tools to use.
Like everything, you have to strategically pick your spots if you're going to do a paid update on Facebook. Paying to promote a new album of rehearsal photos is ridiculous, and I think most people would agree. But what about the local festival gig you're playing? Now THAT might be worth the investment to promote that event.
I think it's been said elsewhere in the thread, but it bears repeating: Facebook should be one of many outlets for your band's social media strategy. And syncing up your social media feeds so that you can maxmize your outreach is key.
This comes back to not understanding how Facebook works. Quality, not quantity, is the focus. If you're posting several times a day on a band page on FB, you're doing it wrong. The platform will not reward you with reach for doing that.
I spent approximately $7 to have my event ad for our last 'big' (i.e. downtown rock club) gig shown 200,000 times to 30,000+ different people in the 10 days leading up to the date. Easily worth it.
I just tried to invite a list of people to an "Event" and facebook came back with a message.
"We’re sorry, but you seem to be sending invitations to people who aren’t interested in accepting them. Please make sure you’re only inviting people you know and think would enjoy this event. You’ll be able to send invitations again once more people have accepted."
There were only 50 selected of 200+ friends in my friend list. Yes all of them were friends. NONE of them MIND getting invitations. So, now facebook decides for everyone whether or not they might want to go to an event??? F&%$ facebook.
To all you "marketing geniuses": I think your facebook world is about to change. lol!
"We’re sorry, but you seem to be sending invitations to people who aren’t interested in accepting them. Please make sure you’re only inviting people you know and think would enjoy this event. You’ll be able to send invitations again once more people have accepted."
There were only 50 selected of 200+ friends in my friend list. Yes all of them were friends. NONE of them MIND getting invitations. So, now facebook decides for everyone whether or not they might want to go to an event??? F&%$ facebook.
To all you "marketing geniuses": I think your facebook world is about to change. lol!
I just tried to invite a list of people to an "Event" and facebook came back with a message.
"Were sorry, but you seem to be sending invitations to people who arent interested in accepting them. Please make sure youre only inviting people you know and think would enjoy this event. Youll be able to send invitations again once more people have accepted."
There were only 50 selected of 200+ friends in my friend list. Yes all of them were friends. NONE of them MIND getting invitations. So, now facebook decides for everyone whether or not they might want to go to an event??? F&%$ facebook.
Were you inviting them from the band account or a personal account?
Personal. The band account doesn't allow me to select ANYONE. It never has, whether I create the events using a personal account or the band page.
In regards to paying to promote your events on Facebook:
Once you start paying for something you used to get for free, pretty soon you'll be paying for everything else that formerly was free.
As soon as Facebook became a publicly traded commodity, it changed for the worse, forever.
Is it still useful? Of course. However, like the OP and a lot of other peeps on here, I see things going in the wrong direction.
Once you start paying for something you used to get for free, pretty soon you'll be paying for everything else that formerly was free.
As soon as Facebook became a publicly traded commodity, it changed for the worse, forever.
Is it still useful? Of course. However, like the OP and a lot of other peeps on here, I see things going in the wrong direction.
The reason this happened is because you've invited those same people to events in the past and they haven't responded either way, or you've invited lots of other people who haven't responded to your event, or because you just don't have a lot of interaction happening around your events, period. You can fix it by actually generating a buzz around your event instead of just inviting people and forgetting about it. Also, like I've said before, pictures (like you might print on a 2-up flier) are much more effective than events pages for "viral marketing" and event promotion - maybe you could try that. You won't have to beg people to share it if you already have an interesting, interaction-generating Facebook page - people will see it and share it because they think you're cool. In fact, if you post your FB link on here, I'll see if I can find ways that you can improve it. Remember, Internet marketing is my day job (I do sales and support for a hosting/development firm) - I am not trying to be a jerk here, I just want everyone to see Facebook the way I see it, which is as a powerful tool to reach an audience.
I value your opinion, but money talks and we all know what walks. I'm seeing money from my creative use of Facebook as a promotional tool. Others aren't and that's because they just aren't doing it right. Not my problem, but I am trying to help in this thread!
I don't claim to be a marketing genius, but I do have a really good track record making money for businesses (and myself) with Internet marketing. My real passion is in the more tech-y side of things, but when I started doing web marketing I found I had sort of a flair for it and that was a key component in my company being successful in its first couple years. Sorry for getting OT.People and their data are Facebook's product, not its customers. People who want to promote something, however, are Facebook's customers. Their reach - along with the power of their marketing algorithms etc - has REALLY expanded in the past two years or so. I'm not happy about the paying for promotional spots on news feeds either, but I totally expected it. It's the same direction Google went as soon as their product started getting popular - do you know about "pay-per-click" advertising? Or how about the "sponsored ads" on Google. They didn't already exist, but Google didn't start charging its users as soon as they started charging its advertisers. To me, charging bands, businesses etc. is a totally natural progression for Facebook. Once they start charging their users, I might agree with you - although that will never happen, because like I said, user data is what Facebook sells to marketers, not where they make direct revenue.
Oh, I created a buzz alright. I told everyone how facebook handled the situation. All of a sudden people started posting how ridiculous it was, because many of them don't ever "join" the events, but they still go to them. Go figure... I guess facebook has it kinda' wrong. :scowl:
We shouldn't need a freaking manual to operate a social networking site. People who have "liked" our page should get the events. PERIOD.
Whatever works, right? I think stagebanter has a great point though and that you should take advantage of the buzz you just created by crafting a flyer like he suggested and get it shared. This is an opportune moment for you and your band - we all know how fleeing these can be!
There was a graphic included. It was flying facebook colors.
If I'm expected to pay to "promote" my posts, I may as well collect email addresses and pay a company like Media Monkey to send email for me. That's what we did with past projects.
I'm pretty sick of dealing with facebook, anymore.
Also, I do make graphics for our gigs. It's pretty bothersome having to make them all the time. We gig, on average, two or three nights per week.
Like I said before, my band, many other people's bands, and lots of small businesses do just fine without paying for promotion. If there is no buzz about your Facebook page, it's for one of two reasons: 1) your audience or target demographic is not on Facebook, or 2) you're doing it wrong. The reason you need a "manual" as you put it to operate a social networking website is because it's a complex and very powerful tool. Same reason you need a manual to operate a graphing calculator or a microcontroller.
Yes it's "bothersome" to have to make graphics, same way it's bothersome to make fliers, or text/call everyone and tell them to come to the show etc...sometimes promotion is work. If Facebook is the problem, as opposed to how you use Facebook, then I'd hate to see how they should "fix" that problem. Really, you have two options - complain about how "Facebook sucks" and quit, or just learn to use it and make your social marketing a success. Or, well, I guess you could always call Zuck and tell him what changes you want to see. Don't forget to explain why those changes would benefit his organization as opposed to just you.
Yes it's "bothersome" to have to make graphics, same way it's bothersome to make fliers, or text/call everyone and tell them to come to the show etc...sometimes promotion is work. If Facebook is the problem, as opposed to how you use Facebook, then I'd hate to see how they should "fix" that problem. Really, you have two options - complain about how "Facebook sucks" and quit, or just learn to use it and make your social marketing a success. Or, well, I guess you could always call Zuck and tell him what changes you want to see. Don't forget to explain why those changes would benefit his organization as opposed to just you.
- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
- 38,941
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
I never liked facebook. I think most people who post continually, have a need to feel a lot more important than they think they are. A whole lotta 'hey look at me' goin on. And see how lucky, clever, or cool I can be. Freaks me out.
I really liked myspace for musicians. It was perfect (still is actually) for putting out what you've got. Unfortunately you look ridiculous if you still use it for promo. My link below still goes to my myspace page. I really need to get a website goin though. I'm committing to it before the end of the summer.
I really liked myspace for musicians. It was perfect (still is actually) for putting out what you've got. Unfortunately you look ridiculous if you still use it for promo. My link below still goes to my myspace page. I really need to get a website goin though. I'm committing to it before the end of the summer.
