I’ve been noticing more and more that some musicians are sticking to their personal Facebook page to promote their music rather than opting for a Facebook fan page. I think it’s extremely important for every musician to have a Facebook fan page for the following reasons:
1. It strengthens your online brand instantly by keeping the personal and professional separate.
2. It’s automatically set as a public page so it’s more effective for search engine indexing and viral marketing.
3. It offers the “insight tools” function which provides information on how fans interact with your page. You can view traffic and fan demographics. You can also export your data into an excel sheet.
4. You can send messages to fans according to their geographical location and demography. Therefore your marketing becomes targeted.
5. You can exploit the power of indirect connections to boost your fan base. For example you can ask your fan base to recommend your page to their friends.
A great book on Facebook marketing is ‘3,000 fans in 30 Days’ by the New Media School. I thoroughly recommend it!
Tags: Facebook, music marketing, musicians, Social media
I admittedly am one of these musicians and can give my personal insights into this. However, I have set up a fan page on FB, only because ReverbNation required one to link up, but I haven’t pushed it onto people. I thought I’d give some feedback on your points Jem.
1. The same thing happened on Myspace a few years ago when they created a “music” page. I had had a personal page, then created a music one, and what ended up happening for me was I started sharing my personal stuff on the music page anyway and eventually decided to shut down the personal one. It’s a difficult line to draw because as artists if we want to give the fans access to us we need to show some of our personal side. Making connections not only with your music, but also other things you have in common with your fan base is just as key.
I’ll also add on your 1st point that FB is not a great platform to “discover” music. There is the iLike and My Band apps that can be added to a personal page. But I don’t believe any music fan thinks FB is where they go to have a music experience.
One thing I did on the branding was claim ownership of a more personalized FB URL (this happened last summer). So my FB URL is http://www.facebook.com/bfranke.music and everything on my page from “about me” to the little box under the profile picture is music focused.
2. I agree it’s probably easier for people to just “become a fan” than to await approval for a “friend request”. But I see people “become a fan” and then also “befriend” an artist fairly often. And then they usually get the same messages from both an artists personal and music pages. To me that comes off as duplicating efforts.
3. This is probably the biggest benefit I think–metrics. But I don’t know where to find it on FB.
4. Targeting is very key too. Though through the personal page you can create lists among all your friends, which is something I have done to target shows. I don’t know if this is something done manually or automatically through a public page.
5. Good point, though I have had friends recommend their friends to me over my music using the personal page. But that’s rare.
Anyway, I don’t mean to say outright these are not good reasons. Like any social media, FB is just one tool for communicating with your fans. It’s hard to keep a personal and music page separate because at the end of the day, we’re just people and will communicate whatever we desire–music or something else.
I personally think that FB should not be the head quarters of your music career. It’s merely a portal to your official website or the place where people can hear your music, see where you’re playing, and become better connected to your career.
Brian Franke
Singer/Songwriter
http://www.brianfranke.com
Twitter: @bfrankemusic
Thanks for your comments Brian. I agree that Facebook is yet to become the best platform to discover new music but I think that it’s music discovery power is definitely increasing. For example, I’m constantly checking out fan pages that my friends have “fanned” as I notice their activities on my news feed. Therefore, I think the viral power of an official Facebook fan page is much stronger than your personal page. When you see someone you trust “fan” a page it’s like a personal endorsement. When you see someone has just become “friends” with someone, you don’t feel it’s your business to become friends with the same person unless you know them personally.
In terms of duplicating information on your personal page and official fan page, I would recommend having a more structured schedule of communication and strategy for your fan page so certain types of communication are exclusive to the fan page only. This is easier said than done I know!
To access your “Insight Tools” you will find a box under your Information box on the left side of you page. Click on the “See All” button and this will take you to your analytics.
Jem
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Whoever said advice wasn’t free.
Not too many people have considered that alternative. I appreciate you raising this important point in such a relevant way.
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