Facebook, our favorite chameleonic social media site, is changing its spots again. Facebook recently introduced Promoted Posts. Promoted Posts allow page administrators to pay to “promote” a post to the page’s fans. Some posit that this offering is a result of Facebook’s recent IPO, and the need to keep the new shareholders happy (i.e. make money) while others believe it’s Facebook acting like Facebook and rolling out one change after another after another. (Are you used to the Timeline feature yet? I’m not!)
The truth is that Facebook has always used EdgeRank to help it determine who sees your status updates -- and it has always been a fairly small percentage. What’s new is that you can now pay for posts to show up in the newsfeeds of all your fans. Otherwise, only those who regularly visit, comment, post, or otherwise interact with your page will see your posts. (This is generally a very small margin, somewhere in the neighborhood of five to twenty percent.) If you want to get your posts out to all of your fans, Facebook asks you to click a “promote” button and pay. Per post.
Some see this as a positive way to increase the visibility of your page (Facebook Introduces Promoted Posts), others have felt the blow of the costly new promotion system to their pages. It is especially difficult for non-profits, grassroots organizations, small businesses, and anyone who can’t put forward the funds necessary to reach enough fans to make it worthwhile. Either way, it’s certainly a new chapter in the Facebook saga.
Although there is no simple way of getting around this issue, there are plenty of tips and tricks for keeping your fans interested and informed without having to pay to promote your post. Some of these include sharing this new development with your fans through a blog post and asking them to visit your page or add you to a list, making a group for fans to join, and increasing your EdgeRank.
These blog posts offer some very helpful suggestions and ideas:
How to Avoid Paying For Facebook Post Promotion
How to Reclaim (part) of Your Missing Audience
Don’t Miss a Thing: Start Using Facebook Lists
Once again, Facebook is implementing shifts that are receiving mixed reviews. Who knows what lies ahead? Will other aspects of Facebook become monetized? Will Facebook’s money-making plans send everyone running to find the next new social media home? Time will tell. Meanwhile, if you're getting frustrated with Facebook, stay tuned for an article about using Google+ -- a social media platform with great interconnectivity that's easy to use...
Do you want to have a website for your music - but don't know where to start?
Do you have an endless list of business tasks that never gets finished?
Does the idea of setting goals or making a business plan evoke fear and doubt?
Who can help put things in order? MusiciansMom!
Our mission is to help you stay on track to achieving your goals. But first you have to set them. And keep your online presence updated. And develop a press kit. Oh, and definitely find your music mission.
You don't have to do it by yourself. We'll help you plan, update, and stay focused so you can develop a professional image. We'll even nag a little, if that will help.
Just like mom... Only you pay us.
If you're a Facebook user, you've no doubt seen its new layout, Timeline, on various personal and business pages during the past few months. And in case you haven't heard, Facebook is reformatting all business brand pages to its new Timeline layout March 31st.
As with any Facebook change, there are those who love the new look and features and those who are holding on to the old look as long as possible. But whether you embrace or dread the change, if you're using a business page for your band, it will look very different this weekend!
Like other Facebook changes, Timeline takes some getting used to - but for musicians it may actually make using Facebook more effective. Here are a few of the changes I like:
- The required cover image has more visual impact. I just like looking at them. I get a sense of branding right away.
- The new layout equalizes the playing field, a bit, in terms of first impression. All business pages will have the same basic layout; the big musicians and bands won't have their fancy call to action pages while independent musicians (who may have less time or fewer resources to build the fancy pages) are stuck with a plain layout. Anyone with a bit of creativity and photo editing savvy can have a very striking welcome page.
- The new Milestone feature allows companies to highlight the most important events in your band's history.
- The ability to "Pin" a post to the top of your wall for seven days means you can highlight a custom page, gig or special offer.
There are many more features that can be used to make the most of the new layout. Fortunately, there are a lot of resources to help make the transition easier. Below are links to the articles and resources I've found most helpful as I've begun transitioning my pages, and a several resources specifically focused on musicians.
From PC World:
How to Prepare Your Facebook Business Page for Timeline
From Huffinton Post:
How to Market Your Fan Page With the New Facebook Changes
From Facebook's Help Center (yes, it's actually helpful!):
Timeline: A New Kind of Profile
From CD Baby's DIY Musician:
Using the New Facebook Timeline Features to Market Your Music
How to Set Up Facebook Timeline for Bands
12 Ways to Grow Your Facebook Fanbase Using Timeline
Once you've got the cover and profile images you want, there are still a lot more ways to spruce up your Facebook page. Maybe this is just the impetus you need to tend to your Facebook page? I know for me it was...and I'll be adding more milestones, details and apps in the coming weeks! (These are a work in progress - I spent a lot of timing figuring out photoshop! The pages are: MusiciansMom and the brand new Skynote-Consulting).
If the above resources don't answer your questions, or if you need help making the switch, let me know! You can reach me by email at diana@musciansmom.com.
Happy Timelining!
While we at MusiciansMom have been happily busy these past few months, meeting and working with lots of new people (and not updating our own website), social media like Facebook and Google+ have been changing and adapting faster than the speed of light. Okay, well maybe not quite that fast...but a lot is going on!
We're training and adding staff here to better keep up on things like, uh, updating the MusiciansMom website, but meanwhile, here's a status update for Facebook...
According to Ben Parr at Mashable, "On Thursday, developers will be elated, users will be shellshocked and the competition will look ancient. On Thursday, Facebook will be reborn. Prepare yourselves for the evolution of social networking." Read entire the Mashable article and related social media news here.
One of the things we keep asking ourselves as business owners, musicians and as people, I suppose, is "Who am I?" Asking that question helps us clarify and refine our goals, our mission and to make sure we're heading in the direction we want to go.
*note - this video contains a bit of adult language*
The question quickly becomes more complicated, though, when the "who" we're talking about is multiplied by numerous online sites. Who I was when I joined MySpace, for example, (back when MySpace was the place to be) is different from the who I am today on Facebook and my current websites. Different still from the who I'll be on the next very-exciting, all-new web medium. :)
Having a strong sense of your online "who am I" can make managing the various sites you use much easier. One important factor to consider in your "who am I" journey is which sites you need to use and which sites you like to use for your music business. The key is not to overextend yourself. If you have profiles on 50 different sites, but never update 20 of them, that's 20 places too many.
Feeling overwhelmed? You are not alone. There are more and more sites -- and services to manage these sites -- appearing every day. Fortunately, help is available! You can schedule a consultation with MusiciansMom to help you figure out what to do (and what not to do!).
Not sure "who" you are? Join our Mailing List - in our next issue, we will examine web persona development more closely - including a worksheet to help you focus and refine your online identity!
--Diana
In the meantime, here's some reading (and tips) that might help you from the DIY Musician blog:
"One of the keys to your promotion is your musical persona, your musical identity. Part of that is your online identity, which should present a unified front whenever possible. Instead of feeling like your online presence is spreading ever outwards until you’re stretched infinitely thin, think of ways to make the many disparate sites converge on the central truth of “you.” "
To read more about Reclaiming Your Online Identity go to the entire The DIY Musician article here.
With the ever-changing face of online marketing and social networking, there's a lot of information to sort through, much of it suggesting that there is a "right" way to use the internet to promote your music. Like most things, however, what is right for one person is not necessarily right for everyone.
Social networking sites can be a powerful tool in your marketing kit. But in order for them to serve your music business, you'll have to figure out the best way for you to use them. Certainly there are ideas that have broad appeal and work well for a lot of people. But it's not as simple as that: those basic ideas have to be adapted to your particular circumstance - including your work style, your schedule, your audience, your music etc.
A lot of suggestions from the blog entry, "Seven Rules for Effective Social Networking For Artists", work well for me. I love interacting on Facebook. But, considering my real life (a mom who's running two businesses and works for another company), it means I do interact on Facebook, but I don't necessarily "read what everyone else on my friend list is saying." It's just not practical.
I agree that an effective way to use Facebook is to "Think of it as providing an avenue for mass receiving" rather than "an avenue for mass broadcasting" and to "Say interesting things." However, I have been known to simply announce an upcoming sale or to update my status with something as interesting as, say, "More snow. Ugh."
So my Facebook strategy is relaxed. I am not overly fussy about the exact wording or timing of my posts and don't worry too much if I don't log in to Facebook every day. This approach allows me to accomplish the other tasks my businesses require and it means Facebook doesn't feel like a burden. (I rarely keep up on things that feel like a burden!) Is it the best approach for everyone? No. You may need a more scheduled approach, an editorial calendar or a regular day or time to update and interact. Or you may need to hire someone else to do it because it drives you crazy. The important thing is to find a way that works for you.
If you want to read more of Michael Epstein's blog, here's the link:
