Promoting your music on Facebook is important and learning where to draw the line between what irritates fans and what interests them is always a challenge. It’s important to promote a constant and consistent message without overdoing it, so if you’re looking for that “perfect mix” here’s a list of things that you shouldn’t do.
If your Facebook following isn’t responding to your posts, you’re probably doing one or more of the things on this list:
1. Constantly asking your friends for “likes.” Every so often it’s okay to ask your Facebook friends to “like” your music page, but constantly updating your status with demands for likes may in fact cause you to lose both friends and “likes.” I think a good rule of thumb is every couple of months. This gives you time to accumulate new friends who may not have seen the update before while leaving a nice window of time for those may have seen it already.
2. Promoting yourself or your music on someone else’s wall. No one likes it when people do this whether it’s on Facebook, a blog, Twitter, a web site, or anywhere for that matter. The best way to promote yourself is to be engaging not obnoxious. Don’t tag people in events/updates/etc. unless they legitimately have something to do with whatever it might be and don’t post your promotional material on others’ walls.
3. ALL CAPS and relly bad speling. Make sure that the information your sharing with the rest of the world is quality content. Read and re-read everything you post or share. The way you speak online reflects who you are so make sure it is giving off the image you’re going for. And since we’re on the topic of language, or the way you articulate yourself, don’t swear (unless that’s the image you’re going for).
4. Constantly asking people to review, buy or promote your music. Provide your friends and fans with more than just promotional posts. Build a community by asking your friends intriguing questions, posting exciting career-related photographs (not random photos of what you ate for lunch) and every once in a while sharing some things about what your doing that are not requests for action. Be interesting not annoying.
5. Posting whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it. Don’t use your Facebook page as your personal profile and update what you’re doing every few minutes. Whatever you are posting should be interesting and engaging, and not just in your opinion. Don’t force your thoughts and perspective on those around you.
6. Negativity. No one likes the negative friend in real life, so why would anyone like them online? If you don’t have anything nice (or positive) to say, keep it to yourself.
7. Not offering an easy way for fans to listen to your music. Hi, like my page. Then find my “about section.” Then find the link to my web site. Then go to the media page on my web site which then forwards you to my youtube channel. Then filter through all the videos where I talk or film things I have to say to finally find that one video of my music. Better solution? Post videos of your songs, soundcloud links of your music or share songs from your bandcamp profile on your Facebook page. CD sellers like CDBaby or Reverbnation even let you build a store and listening station on your Facebook profile so that fans don’t have to search high and low for your music.
8. Sending new friends and fans a message that sounds something like this: “Hi new Friend/Fan! Thank you for liking my page/adding me as a friend. Since you were up to connecting with me on Facebook, why don’t you check out my Twitter, Linked In, Myspace, Tumblr, WordPress Blog, Last FM, Blogger, Google + and Reverbnation profiles and follow me there too!” Instead, post relevant content on each social network separately (write a status on Facebook and Twitter for the same thing but geared towards each network specifically in regards to photos and character counts) rather than making fans follow you in dozens of places to get the information you want. Cross-promote effectively and your following will grow naturally.
What are some things you’ve found to work effectively on Facebook and what are some things you hate that other people do? We would love to hear your comments on this one!
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