The following are some creative ways artists and bands can use today’s and tomorrow’s hottest social media websites to increase their visibility online and offline. It is absolutely imperative for artists to have a social media presence in 2010 in order to grow an organic fanbase, so if you haven’t already, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon!
The Location-sharing trend
2010′s hottest internet phenomenon is more than likely the new location sharing trend. People everywhere are starting to use sites like Foursquare and Gowalla to let their friends know where they are at by ‘checking in’ to various locations. More and more companies are registering their locations on these sites and awarding their loyal customers with nice discounts. For those of you who don’t know what Foursquare is, I would recommend reading this article. Foursquare is a GREAT potential tool for musicians, especially for those on tour. Imagine if one of your favorite artists checked in to a local café in the town you live, wouldn’t you want to grab a friend and run down there to meet them in person? And I can’t remember how many times I’ve missed that one of my favorite bands/artists were playing in my town. By following them on Foursquare, I will get a notification when they are in my town, so I won’t have to miss their show again. You might even consider having treasure hunts on Foursquare and award winners with free stuff, like Jimmy Choo recently did. Even if location sharing only gets one or two more people out to your show, those people will go and tell their friends what a great show they missed, and this is what we call creating a HYPE.
Location-based websites: Forsquare, Gowalla, BrightKite
The Importance of the Music Video
You may not have the contacts, resources, time or creative energy to make music videos for your songs. But by simply linking SOMETHING in video form to your song, using applications like iMovie and MovieMaker, this increases its visibility tremendously. It can be a lame picture of a tree, a video of you and your friends dancing, or just a simple background image with the song title floating ontop. That is what happened to my latest single “Bingo” with John Dahlbäck – The same day Defected Records put out the promotional video of the track on Youtube (basically just a simple bakground visual with the track information ontop), the video made it to several Youtube top lists, such as “Most commented” “Most favorited” and “Highest Rated”, which of course helped spread the track’s visibility a whole lot more. After just a couple of months, the video has gotten over 75,000 views! I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the phrase “Look it up on Youtube” – I find mysef ‘Youtubeing’ songs that I can’t find on Spotify or iTunes all the time. So make it easy for people to find your music – make a video!
Show Behind The Scenes
Let your fans in on your musical journey by documenting everything you do. Film studio sessions, photo shoots, tour bus adventures; basically anything having to do with your musical journey that may be of mild interest. Complement your written blog with a V-blog where you summarize the day that has been and express your opinions about things. Address common questions you get, talk about the meaning and history of your songs, introduce the people that you work with. I’ve seen some artists film pranks they’ve played on their managers, and other amusing themes. By taking your fans on a journey behind the scenes, it enables them to get to know your person better, which can strengthen their loyalty and interest in your career. (Unless you’re a boring person, in which it may have the opposite effect :p) Your fans will also enjoy the exclusivity of getting to creep on you behind the scenes. But perhaps the most important aspect of this, in my opinion, is that videos and pictures have a much higher spread-rate than any other virtual content. People are more likely to spread your tour bus escapades or live show performances than your blog entries or tweets. We would rather watch a video tutorial than have to read through a lengthy manual, simply put. Videos are easy to share, and even easier to watch – all a user has to do when it pops up in their Facebook newsfeed is press play without having to leave the site, and with an additional click, rate or repost the video.
Video sharing Sites: Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Blog TV
Photo sharing sites: Flickr, Photobucket, Twitpic
Broadcast Live Events
They say that of all the people who say they are going to come watch your show, count on about 50% actually making it out. So give people who are having a bad hair day, feeling under the weather or who just don’t feel like going to your show the option to at least participate in the performance from the comfort of their couch. More than likely, you have lived in more than one place and thus made friends in different cities, maybe even different countries. Give your long-distance friends and fans a chance to be a part of your artist career, and potential new fans who are curious to see what you are like live an opportunity to do so without having to travel long distances to see your shows. By using services like Bambuser and Ustream, you get the chance to increase your audience size either by a little or by a whole lot. There is also a new site that has been generating quite some hype called Big Live (just released) where users can watch concerts online together with other users, friends and strangers alike. Attendees can chat with each other, which helps create more hype (since we listen to what our peers think) and hightens the overall concert experience for your virtual audience.
Of course, the problem here is monitizing your performance in the virtual world. Turn this problem into a solution by encouraging viewers to join your Facebook group or sign up for your newsletter. Ask them to request you to play in their hometown, via the “Come To My Town” button on your iLike page, or to vote for your latest single in given song competition. Or alert them about your Kickstarter.com campaign, where you ask for donations to record your next album. People are more willing to give back in some way when they have received something of value for free, and if they enjoyed your concert, they will more than likely want to see you get bigger and better.
Video-streaming sites: Bambuser, Ustream, Livestream, Justin.TV, Big Live, Blog TV
This is getting a bit more subjective, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like ‘Mixview’ that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you’re listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of “neighbors” will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users, the Zune “Social” is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.
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