By GILLI MOON
This
article is not for the fresh beginner to the Internet. It’s for those artists
who have been dabbling with various sites on the internet to promote their
wares, but just need some clarity on how to navigate, what is best, and what
has changed. I was originally only going
to write an article on Tumbr.com (and the demise of Posterous.com) but instead
I kept writing and decided to write an entire article on Social Networks and
connecting the social dots for your music. I will begin by saying that before you
dabble in Social Networks, you NEED a website first and foremost. Your website
is your HOME BASE where all good fans and links should start, and return. This
is your hub, and your place you alone can control. Social Networks come and go.
Don’t rely on them as your only source of self-promotion. I also highly
recommend you read my book JUST GET OUT THERE as I have a lengthy chapter for
the beginner or expert on Self-Promotion, Marketing and being the Artist
Entrepreneur. Get it at www.justgetoutthere.com,
or Amazon. Or just Google it.
Also
my final caveat is the advice below is based on what I like, what I’ve tested,
and what I use. I’m sure there are other ideas and ways. But I’m sharing with
you my idea, and I want to keep it simple for you too.
Ok,
let’s get started…, or at least, let’s pretend you are already dabbling
online…. So let’s start in the middle: Enjoy the read.
Connect my website news page to my social networks, so I can post all at
once.
Goal: When posting in one place, you have it land on Twitter, Facebook,
AND as a news feed on your website.YouTube
Foursquare
Google+
Tumblr (and you know how THAT can connect!)
Vimeo
Blogger
And of course, Facebook
What
if you have all these online social networks and you have to update your status
in all these different places. Wouldn't it be nice to update one status and it
spreads to all of them? How about tag on a news feed for your website? In
working with artists and their self promotion, I’ve been a big advocate of Posterous.com as a blog for you to post your
latest news, which in turn publishes/syndicates to your social networks
(Facebook, Twitter, etc) all at once. It also has been great as an RSS
feed on your website, (your NEWS stream). However, Posterous.com died an unfortunate death
(absorbed by its new owner Twitter). By end April 2013, it’s “bye bye’.
Welcome
a long tried and true blog network (but least buzzed about): Tumblr.com
Tumblr
is not only going to do what Posterous has done before, but goes one step
further: it is a well respected social network blog in its own right, so a lot
of what you may do on the web may connect to Tumblr (like you may connect
Facebook and Twitter).
Also
in posting through Tumblr, you can share music, video, photos and of course,
text. It’s super sexy. You can also share things you find on the
internet, on tumblr.
How to
get this going:
1.
First, I’m
going to assume you are already on Twitter and Facebook as a good start (see
further into this article about the benefits of those.)
2.
Go to www.tumblr.com and create an account.
Once created, and while logged in, click on
your new “blog” on the left. (1 account can have several blogs)
3.
Create
url - I recommend you use your artist name as the name you choose in the url.
Eg gillimoon.tumblr.com and songsalive.tumblr.com
4.
Find
the Post By Email setting on Under “Account” (click on your blog from there)–
they provide an email address that you can email to, from you email account,
when you want to post to Tumblr. It will be really weird but it works. You can
also post within your Tumblr account online. I like the email route as you can
forward anything you want (your newsletter for example) to Tumblr via email.
Later you can read tips on sending via email here: www.tumblr.com/docs/en/email_publishing
5.
You can change the theme within your Blog.
They have many to choose from. (Also in this area you can change the name of
blog. It may be called Untitled”. Rename that to your preferred blog
name. )
6.
Importantly,
connect to Facebook and Twitter . You can choose what to connect to on
Facebook. Doesn’t have to be your profile (as we often keep that as personal
friends area). You can share to your Facebook Fan Page. (If you have a Facebook
Group, you can connect Tumblr to NetworkedBlogs
(search it within Facebook). Another cool system to syndicate your blogs.)
7.
LOG
OUT and go to your Tumblr url to see what it looks like. Copy the RSS feed by
clicking on the “Subscribe to RSS Feed” . For example the Songsalive Tumblr is songsalive.tumblr.com/rss
8.
Now,
go to your website. I have recommended many of you to design your website
through www.weebly.com. You can drag an RSS feed box to any of your page (I
prefer home, and News page) and insert the above RSS feed. Voila, your website
is also showing your latest news. If your website design management doesn’t
allow you to insert an RSS feed, you can use www.feedburner.com to create a digest of your Tumblr feeds, and then
give you html code to insert into your website.
9.
Go
to www.tumblr.com/apps for more suggestions. You can even share things you
find on the internet, on tumblr (which in turn spreads through your network).
10.
Create
buttons for your website www.tumblr.com/buttons
11.
Other
apps/social networks: you can share Flickr
with Tumblr (go to your Flickr account). You can also surf the internet and
share on Tumblr cool things you find.
IN SUMMARY: Post to the
Tumblr email anytime (Your Newsletter, Your status, Your fun bits and pieces). This
goes to Social Networks AND shows up on your website as latest news.
How to connect to other
social networks too?
That’s easy: through TWITTER. They will then be synced to Tumblr vicariously through your
Twitter/Tumblr API connection. For
example, link Twitter to Facebook here www.facebook.com/twitter/ (obviously you need an account at both places); Link your Myspace to your Twitter within
MySpace. Link your Reverbnation profile to Twitter through Revbernation
(more on these social networks further down).
What’s another alternative to post to
all my social networks at once?
Ping.fm
used to be the best way to post to all your social networks at once. Then they
were bought out by Seesmic. Then they were bought out by Hootsuite. So, Hootsuite.com is a nice site, however
if you want to post to more than a few, you have to pay. So I found a free one:
Alternion.com. Little is published
about this site, but I’ve started using it and I really like it. You have to
post through the website from a computer though. Doesn’t seem to have a mobile
app. I just posted to my social networks all at once. They are:
Since my
Facebook is connected to my Twitter, I tend to exclude that from the posting as
Twitter posts on its behalf.
Of course
they have a TON more social networks you can multi-post to. AND you can read
all your social network statuses, posts and messages all at Alternion.com. You
can even read all your email inboxes there too. Pretty neat. Still in beta, so
tread lightly.
OK, tell me more about Reverbnation and
why it’s important to my music promotion?
Reverbnation.com is a unique social network site that
I’ve loved since they started. Similar to MySpace, you can create a profile
that includes uploaded songs, photos, a bio, and some press. It’s a pretty
solid place to promote to the media as your “press kit” (though I like
Sonicbids.com better for that, although that one I wouldn’t call a Social
Network). Reverbnation is a lovely place to gain fans (they just come and find
you without too much fuss). You can rise in the music charts, and send fan mail
(newsletters) to your Fans who “Fan” you. Interestingly, you can create html
Widgets of your music player, Tour info/Gigs, Press quotes and your whole press
kit, to insert into your Website.
OK, tell me more about Twitter and
why it’s important to my music promotion?
It just happens to be the best medium to promote your music
and build followers. I know you all love
Facebook, but Twitter attracts fans/followers without you having to accept them
as friends. It’s an OPEN space/playing field. Also, as above, you can link your
Twitter to Facebook to update status simultaneously.
OK, tell me more about Facebook and
why it’s important to my music promotion?
Facebook is like my online Pub. I go there to hang out
virtually with my friends online (through my personal profile, that is). I can
decide who I am friends with, and through my privacy settings, I can be strict
about who sees what. The latest on personal profiles is the Friend requests you
deny, they will be automatically “subscribed to your public posts”. So in
essence, your Fans (who you really don’t call Friends) can follow you too. When
you post, simply choose your audience. If you make it “Public” Friends and
Subscribers will see it. I still think
having a FAN PAGE (or Business PAGE) is essential. Set a Page up within your Profile
and create a URL for it. I tend to only promote my fanpage ie
facebook.com/gillimoonmusic, to avoid too many friend requests from people I
don’t know on my personal profile. Notwithstanding, you can make it harder to
find you through Facebook (Friends of Friends only). Why is Facebook important? Well, it’s your
Soap Box, your ability to talk any time of day, intimately, or publicly. The
fact is, many now use Facebook as their preference for communication (yes,
beating emails and phone calls). That is why it is important to be on Facebook.
As for Music promotion, you can link your Reverbnation, Sonicbids and similar
music sites to your Facebook Fan Page, so that people can listen to your music
through Facebook. Nice stuff.
Other sites I should look at for
promoting my music?
Just put .com after all those listed below
I’ve
mentioned some above in my paragraph about where I linked my Tumblr account to.
I think it’s worthy to mention that MySpace
is making a comeback and so I wouldn’t delete your account with them yet. It was recently bought by Justin Timberlake
(amongst others) and is going through a revamp. You can migrate your old site
to the new. There are a few kinks still, (that is that your old friends don’t
transfer over unless they also migrate their accounts), and the one pet peeve
is all the new music news is all about Justin right now. Go figure!
YouTube is idea
to showcase your videos. You can create Channels, Playlists, find subscribers,
network, AND create revenue (if you hit a certain amount of Views).
Vimeo is an
alternative to Youtube. I don’t use it as much. I like it to share private
videos with people and at Songsalive! we use it for our Songcraft videos as you
can add a password.
Google+ didn’t
get a huge rating for me. Hence I didn’t dive deep. But they are trying. Their
“circles” at least helps you compartmentalize fans into different groups.
Businesses seems to like it (at least that’s Google’s selling point). I’m still
on the fence. To access, you need a google or gmail account. It connects within
your logins for that.
Soundcloud is the
perfect solution for sharing songs (whether full or edited, though you have to
edit inadvance before you upload). You can find fans, and they can even post
their favorite parts of your song, comment, and even remix your song with
permission. Soundcloud is linked sometimes to other social networks too. They also provide a music player html code
for your website.
Blogger is not a
social network. It’s a blog. Write and express yourself, and then
syndicate/publish the feed on your website through feedburner.com and to your
social networks through Alternion.com.
Bandcamp seems to be a nice place to
sell music directly from your site, and connects with other sites. But it’s not
a social network. You can also sell your music on Reverbnation and Soundclick.com (the latter is also a
social network and you can create a music player for your website, plus all
sales go to You. Actually Soundclick is my favorite site for showcasing music.
Like the old mp3.com, they also have Charts. You may see yourself in the top 10
one day.
LinkedIn.com is not a social network in
the true sense, but it is an online networking community where you can upload
your “resume” (Jobs, Education, Expertise) and then connect with others in the
biz. I love it for doing and expanding my “business as an artist entrepreneur”
and people take you way more seriously there, than any other social network
that is generally seen as “fun”.
I’m
no guru on Social Networks. I’m an Artist, and I run my own business. I coach
other artists in their careers too. It may seem a lot to connect the dots, but
if you follow my tried and true methods above, you’re thre-quarters there. The
rest is actually promoting (Status updates, writing, networking) and creating
GREAT music.
See ya online! Twitter: @gillimoon @artistdevcoach @songsalive Facebook.com/gillimoonmusic (my Fan page); Facebook.com/songsalive - Linkedin.com/in/gillimoon - Reverbnation.com/gillimoon – Myspace.com/gillimoon – Sonicbids.com/gillimoon – Soundcloud.com/gillimoon
