Choo Choo - doing it right

Back in 2005 Myspace became the most important tool for bands to get themselves noticed online.  The huge mainstream uptake of the service meant there was a ready audience of potential fans for eager unsigned acts to tap into.

The good times didn’t last though.  It didn’t take long for fatigue to set in amongst Myspace’s non-musical userbase.  Constant friend requests from (mostly awful) bands meant that many people who weren’t big music fans abandoned Myspace entirely.

Facebook arrived just at the right time to suck up those disaffected people.  Myspace was left largely as a network of musicians and other creative people ‘befriending’ each other but not building strong active fanbases.  Myspace remains a well-used social network but certainly in the UK I don’t know many people who have checked their Myspace profile in the past year.  While it remains a useful act-finding resource for the music industry’s A&R departments, bands are having to look elsewhere to engage with existing fans and court new ones.

Facebook offers opportunities for bands to promote themselves.  Anyone can set up a band’s presence using a Facebook Group or the more advanced Pages service.  The difference with Facebook is that general users aren’t so keen to engage with people they don’t know in real life.  In fact, Facebook actively discourage interaction with people you don’t know offline.  That makes fanbase building difficult as only people who are already aware of a band are likely to find their Facebook presence.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways for bands to build a following online.  The growing popularity of Twitter this year means there’s an ever-increasing audience of people who will happily ‘Follow’ anyone who posts interesting content using the service.  So, how should a band use Twitter to promote themselves?  Let’s take a look at some examples…

Doing it wrong: The Hussys

Scottish band The Hussys started following me on Twitter a few months ago but I declined to follow them back because of the way they tweet.  They repeatedly post the same information over and over. Gig dates and links to their website are continually reposted every couple of weeks with very little other interaction with the service.  If they personalised their approach they’d become a lot more appealing.

Twitter is great for having conversations with fans and talking about what a band is getting up to.  The great thing about the service is that it’s both intimate in tone and public in nature.  How great would it be for your favourite band to post updates about how rehearsals are going, what beer’s on the rider for tonight’s gig or teasers about new song titles?

Doing it wrong: Me

Yes, I have to confess that I certainly don’t promote my music well on Twitter.  While I set up my account in order to promote the music I make as The Star Fighter Pilot, I quickly got sucked into the world of Twitter.  While I still tweeted about my music it ceased to be my main focus.  I’m not bothered at all - I’ve got a lot out of using Twitter including, ironically, a song.  However, if you’re joining Twitter to promote your music make sure you keep that in mind when you start tweeting about annoying people on your bus ride to work.

Doing it right but not enough: Stone Walters

Unlike The Hussys above, British soul artist Stone Walters certainly gives insights into his life through Twitter.  “Recovering from the Stevie Wonder show I went to yesterday” he says in one tweet, “Explaining to my son that he can’t do somersaults today as the 15 stitches he had in his face from falling over yesterday need to heal first” he says in another.  The problem is that there’s often two-week gaps between tweets!

If you’re going to have a presence on Twitter make sure you update at least once a day wherever possible. It shows that you’re interested in sharing with your followers and will make sure that you stay in their consciousness every day. If they feel like they know you they’re likely to want to spend money on your music.

Doing it right: Choo Choo

Swiss act Choo Choo (not to be confused with similarly-pronounced Californians, Xiu Xiu) use Twitter very effectively.  They don’t spam their followers with gig listings, they converse with them using @username replies, they give insights into what the band are doing and talk about other bands that they like.  Earlier today they were using it to crowdsource some help in securing gigs in the UK.  By using Twitter in the same way a ‘normal user’ does but by keeping focused on the band, Choo Choo are providing value for, and interaction with, their fans.

So are we close to newspapers proclaiming someone to be “the first band discovered through Twitter”?  It’s not likely - you’ll always need good tunes, a strong image and heaps of dedication to achieve musical success.  That said, Twitter is a great, cost-effective way of giving fans something extra.  If your band has a social networking fiend in its midst why not get them to set up and run a Twitter account today?

The key points again:

• Offer insights into life in the band.  Something extra beyond the music.
• Reply to fans’ messages using @username replies.  It shows you value their input.
• Post regularly.  People may ‘un-follow’ you if you don’t post for a while.  Being active attracts more followers.
• Don’t spam fans with gig listings and links to your web shop.  People can find those things via the link on your profile page, or a simple Google search.