bloodyMary Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 well..that's about it. I'd love if you guys shared some wisdom on that. I know it's important, I try to put some effort into that - facebook mostly - sharing the events, sharing the youtube videos, chatting with fans. But it feels somewhat forced to me, and not really efficient - at least I don't feel it helps much. What techniques do you guys employ to promote your band? Well, yeah, more info.. What I'm trying to promote is my originals band, we play heavy metal, and my goal is basically 1)get more people to attend my local gigs 2) get more people to check out my tunes online - get youtube hits, maybe iTunes downloads I'm prepared to invest money into this, if there;s a kind of a professional who helps with these things.. Help, anyone? Stage: MOX6, V-machine, and Roland AX7 Rolls PM351 for IEMs. Home/recording: Roland FP4, a few guitars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DulceLabs.com Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 well..that's about it. I'd love if you guys shared some wisdom on that. I know it's important, I try to put some effort into that - facebook mostly - sharing the events, sharing the youtube videos, chatting with fans. But it feels somewhat forced to me, and not really efficient - at least I don't feel it helps much. What techniques do you guys employ to promote your band? Well, yeah, more info.. What I'm trying to promote is my originals band, we play heavy metal, and my goal is basically 1)get more people to attend my local gigs 2) get more people to check out my tunes online - get youtube hits, maybe iTunes downloads I'm prepared to invest money into this, if there;s a kind of a professional who helps with these things.. Help, anyone? 1) Probably the easiest way is to invest in some FB ads.. you an target by zip code, age group, gender.. even people who are interested in metal. Send them to your FB page where you have some music, videos and local gigs posted. 2) This is cheap but takes more time than # 1. There are a ton of free music promotion groups on FB. Also get on SoundCloud and start "following" and commenting on similar bands / profiles. You will get follow backs and traffic to your SC account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffLearman Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 In this area, at the pro/am level, bar managers expect you to have presence on facebook and reverb nation. Oddly enough, more booking attention seems to involve reverbnation. I suggest you first expend a lot of time and attention into promoting your band's FB and RN pages. Get every band member to encourage all their friends to like your pages and events. getting started is the hard part; just like attracting a bar crowd, once you get past a certain critical mass, it tends to snowball enough that you shouldn't have to beat on it (unless you're upping your game from say city level to region, etc.) I'd see how far you can get by word of mouth (with a serious attempt by bandmembers to canvas) before considering paid ads. Try to get everyone in the band to every day log into FB and "like" everything they possibly can of their friends' stuff, make comments, etc, so they have a bit of a presence themselves. Have the band page post every engagement, and have bandmembers invite their friends. Occasionally (but not often enough to annoy) have band members post on their own pages asking friends to like the band page. Post pics on the band page, and have band members comment on one or two of them so that their friends can see the pics even if they're not following the band. BTW, I'm basing this not on experience from my own bands, but bands of friends where they seem to be doing it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Dan Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 I'd see how far you can get by word of mouth (with a serious attempt by bandmembers to canvas) before considering paid ads. I only recently started trying some paid ads and was surprised at how effective they were. What I really like about them is that you can set a lifetime limit on what you want to spend. I started out by just saying, OK, I'll set the limit at $30...if it gets more people to the gig, then great, if not, no big deal. It generated some new likes and I had quite a few click-throughs to the event that I had created. I've ended up using them a few times since then. You can get really focused. On the last one I did, I pulled up a zip code map of the area, and targeted specific zip codes of areas around town where I though people would be interested in going to that venue, and only targeted people of a limited age range to whom I was not already connected. I set a time limit, having the ads end at gig time. The thing about setting the dollar limit - most of the money is only spent if people are viewing it and clicking through. So if it's not doing anything for you, not much of your budget gets spent. The last time I ran it, I think especially because I was so focused, with a $50 budget I reached thousands and had dozens of click-throughs to the event. The venue's FB page actually got a number of new likes, and I know they recognized that the new likes came from our event. I guess the biggest benefit in my mind is that it gives you a way to reach a lot of people you wouldn't reach otherwise, and if your budget is spent, you most likely got the desired result. I haven't used it to promote our page, just specific events...but I figure if it's an event, we're getting paid for it, and I view the advertising as an expense that comes out of that pay. Also, by promoting the event, our page gets promoted at the same time, as well as the venue. Dan Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAJUSCULE Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 Quality videos are a must these days IMO. Eric Website Gear page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffLearman Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 I'd see how far you can get by word of mouth (with a serious attempt by bandmembers to canvas) before considering paid ads. I only recently started trying some paid ads and was surprised at how effective they were. [lots of good info ...] That's really excellent data there. I still stand by my point that first you should see where you can get by just doing it. Then try ads and see how much they help. Some kinds will help; others won't as much. If you don't know what the base line is, you won't be able to evaluate what the ads are doing for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffLearman Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 If you have a lot of spare time, are motivated, and really want some insights into how to maximize your social media, consider joining Empire Avenue. Make a page for yourself or your band, and "play the game" as if it was just a game; build your persona there, and get a chance to meet and discuss head-to-head with some folks who are really serious about SM and how to apply it. I played at this for a short while just because some friends had recommended it. Being a bit of a gamesman I fairly quickly established enough of a presence to get invited into bigger circles, but I realized I wasn't really interested and it was taking too much time so I quit. But while engaged I did get a chance to meet some folks with pretty high profiles in that world, and found them eager to exchange ideas (or spread their canon, in many cases). Lots of big egos, to be sure, but in the SM world it's all about being social, so many of the bigwigs deign to chat with us little people & act quite friendly. EmpireAvenue is basically a stock market; you sell stock in yourself and buy stock in others -- all using fake money (though you can pay to get more, if you're an idiot or just plain addicted ... I don't see any real world justification for that.) Anyway, just an idea; take it or leave it. Definitely for the geekier types. It was a year or two ago for me; it may have fizzled by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodyMary Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 In this area, at the pro/am level, bar managers expect you to have presence on facebook and reverb nation. Oddly enough, more booking attention seems to involve reverbnation. That's odd, I never heard of ReverbNation. I'll check it out! Stage: MOX6, V-machine, and Roland AX7 Rolls PM351 for IEMs. Home/recording: Roland FP4, a few guitars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodyMary Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 The paid ads on face look really efficient grom what Dan says, I'll try it for our next gig for sure. What about youtube and instagram, how can I max my benefit from those? Stage: MOX6, V-machine, and Roland AX7 Rolls PM351 for IEMs. Home/recording: Roland FP4, a few guitars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmammal Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 This is from today's LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-youtube-mraz-20131009,0,531207.story Video's are huge. I find myself spending hours YT surfing. I know squat about producing a video, what kind of camera to get, how to put the audio tracks in all that stuff. I think I saw a thread about that here but these threads move so fast I have no idea where it is now. Bob Hammond SK1, Mojo 61, Kurzweil PC3, Korg Pa3x, Roland FA06, Band in a Box, Real Band, Studio One, too much stuff... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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