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Social media. Am I missing out?

#21
I’m on Facebook since I need to promote our shows… that’s the only reason I am on board. I cancelled my account in 2020 but once we started working publicly I had to restart since the band manager needs for us to push the advertising hard. I usually share these ads once per week.. I don’t have the app on my phone, just at home and don’t post anything aside from these band posts and Happy Birthdays..
It all depends on how you use it.. it can be a tremendous time waster if you get drawn in to all the attractions..and there are many.
 
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#24
FB is no big deal. The only personal information you need to start an account is an e-mail address, and those are easily created at sites like mail.com. All you have to do is go clean out your inbox from time to time. Zuck would like more information, but you are under no obligation to share it. Once you're on, just don't click on any of the stupid stuff (mostly phishers looking for hints about your e-mail address) and you'll probably be all right.

FWIW: My band does well on FB, mainly because we have a lot of followers on FB. When we post announcements of upcoming gigs, our friends share them. Our experience is that getting a rec from a friend rather than the band to attend a show has more persuasive power than our own posts.
 
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#25
I am staunchly anti-social media. For years people told me I should “get on there! You’ll get more gigs!” This is complete BS. I did for a few years and guess what- no more gigs than I was previously doing. Since abandoning my social media accounts, I’ve actually gotten more gigs. Zuck’s company actually deliberately amplifies content that makes you very unhappy so you continuously engage (full of rage!!) until it spills over into real life with serious consequences. Anyway, have a great day everyone!! :)
 
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#26
If you gig and your band has a Facebook page, you should have one to share the gig posts with. There are specific musician pages locally that I follow and share gigs on. Clubs have FB pages and they appreciate you directing people to their pages. My band has 700 followers or thereabouts so 5 or 6 will show up to a gig! Does social media work for bands? It’s easier than hanging flyers on telephone poles and works about as well. We have a Meetup group that follows us on FB and they then make a meet up event from it. We’ll get 20 people come to a gig as a group and it changes the dynamic of the night dramatically.
 
#27
My band uses FB to promote upcoming gigs. I guess it works OK to let people who like us to know where we'll be.

I use it to keep in touch with actual friends and family (I have a very short friends list) and to follow a few local musician's groups where people are well behaved.

Otherwise, FB is a bottomless pit of hate and stupidity.
 
#28
I don't have an account on the Facebook, I have no personal interest in it. But I'd be a fool to ignore it's usefulness as a business tool. So, I admin my band's FB page from Beautiful Wife's account.
 
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#29
If you make the mistake of joining FB, you will be tracked EVERYWHERE you go, despite you THINKING your cell phone’s tracking ID is off. You will be inundated with friend requests from people in those locations who have absolutely zero interest in you: FB does this without them knowing, and many of these people will be people you know. How this is legal, or how this is acceptable blows my mind. Resistance is futile…
 
#30
Facebook is ok, it definitely filled with a much older age group and mostly I find people used it to talk to family from all over. But facebook groups for certain older topics like photography on film cameras for example have tons of members then other social media counterparts similar to talkbass it can have a better database. I find a lot of people from Indonesia use facebook still and are very helpful and active in bass guitar forms, so it is cool really seeing everyone from all over. Facebook I guess has expanded deep.

Instagram is OK, just follow accounts you like, avoid the newsfeed, always some toxic stuff. Creepy algorithm for sure.

Reddit - meh is ok, I never liked reddit in fact I kind of dislike it... but it's the few places you will hobby subs these days. I rarely used the other things and it tends to be an echo-chamber. I rarely go outside R/bass, R/swimming, R/Kendo or R/flyfishing and some other hobbies. Reddit gives me headache but again I like using it for those hobbies but there's always someone who generalizes an opinion, young users giving some awful advice, assuming things about people/famous people and system that runs on votes can be super bias... hence why reddit gets hate but I love it for sure for fishing subreddits a lot everyone is cool on there. But the extra anonymous you can be doesn't help credibility at all at times.

I have a twitter I just use it for seeing artist NEVER look at the news feed in that and I don't need to lol.

Do not have a Tiktok, I have no idea why my generation is so into it, and I refuse to every have one. No interest. I guess if you consider youtube one I have that but youtube is the wild west but it can be great for seeing local acts! I guess Steam is one but that's for PC gaming. Discord was a gaming communication now its used for groups, rarely used it outside of real life friends or college friends.

Hmm that's it for me, I honestly hate social media but I do enjoy Instagram seeing my friends and fan pages but thats all and Facebook groups and fan pages as well.
 
#32
I use FB so I can get in touch with half brothers who are in another part of the world. It's up to you if you want get suck in it. Privacy anonymity, it's too late. I joined a long time ago when it was a way to network with business associates. Too late now, they already got my data, but I keep the profile pretty lean now. I did get a vintage Selmer alto for a good deal from the classifieds and some gardening tools, so there is that.
 
#33
I used none of them, never have.
Have lost 2 auditions in my over 50 year career and walked away by choice from every band that strayed from the initial goal. (Usually after a new member attempted to take control and make the band his backup.)

All I use is reader sites like CL, bandmix or old fashioned posting a card in a music store.
 
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#35
Aside from "Old man yells at Facebook" on this thread, there are benefits and drawbacks.
The groups are what I enjoy most about FB. There is something for just about everybody.
However as some have said you can get sucked in for hours.
As far as a point of contact for other musicians, I have no idea.
 
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#37
Generally, things like FB can be useful but you really really really need to disciplined to ignore the vast majority of it.
Accept that the purpose of it is to spam the hell out of you, at the very least, and make it your tool and you'll find its 'uses'...but don't get sucked into you aren't anything but a target audience thinking. You can apply that to pretty much all SM, tbf.
 
#38
MynameisMe said:
Aside from "Old man yells at Facebook" on this thread, there are benefits and drawbacks.
The groups are what I enjoy most about FB. There is something for just about everybody.
However as some have said you can get sucked in for hours.
As far as a point of contact for other musicians, I have no idea.
Click to expand...
I resemble this..
 
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