link” every once in a while, and keep the fans engaged with your music and your band,
while reminding them of the available release. Do track giveaways. Post new You Tube videos
of your gigs. Ask your fans for input on different issues. And, by the way, use the Facebook
Questions feature for that, and solicit answers to various questions about your tracks, touring,
covers, posters, prices, anything relevant and engaging.
And while we are on this topic of engaging the fans and gaining exposure through your
Facebook presence and activities: Yes, post your tracks and your videos, and offer some
audio or video content of your music that fans can not get anywhere else but on your
Facebook page, so they clearly feel the benefit of being on your Facebook friends list; but
as you do that, every so often, use the so-called “like gate” feature on at least some of
that content. Meaning, set up your videos and tracks on your Facebook so that in order
for someone to open them, they have to “like” your page first. As they do that, of course
those “likes” get distributed to their friends’ list, expanding your exposure.
So use that feature. It’s easy to set up, and it makes Facebook work even harder for
you.
And now that you are becoming a Facebook music promotion expert, you might as well start
incorporating some of the applications that work in conjunction with Facebook to the whole
mix, and take it to another level. For instance, sign and set the band up with BandPage, and
it will update your uploaded, audio and video content, news, touring dates, bio, and so
on, on all the sites where you are present, across the web – Soundcloud, Facebook, VEVO,
and so on. Plus you can sell your music, merchandise, and tickets through the site, too. You can
do similar things through ReverbNation as well, which also has its own music widgets
that can be used across platforms, and through FanBridge, which in addition to all the other
things mentioned, enables live video streaming, and crowd-funding projects. So now that you
know, go and get your Facebook turbocharged and make it work for you overtime.
But Facebook is just one aspect of your online presence. You need a website built that you
can customize from the ground up for your band’s purposes. Your site should allow
for: streaming and selling your music, connecting with your social media sites, blogging, acquiring
fans’ contact info, access to your live performance calendar, sharing of your photos
and videos, and other promotion, information, and sales features. To build the site, in
the early part of the band’s career, you can of course use general website building
platforms, like Wix or WordPress website builder, or you can use expressly music site building
platforms like Bandzoogle, BandVista, HostBaby, FourFour, and others.
Regardless of what your preference there might be, the differences between all those are
relatively minor, and what’s important is not really what service you use to build it,
but that you build it, and that you include all the relevant components in it. It is your
online calling card, your info center, and your commercial hub. So it needs to be done
right, and to be actively maintained and updated. Take care of your site, and you increase the
probability that it will take care of you.