1. Save Time With This 3-Month Social Media Content Calendar
2. The Quick & Dirty Way to Boost Facebook Likes
3. How to Share your Music Page with a Like Button
4. 10 Easy Social Media Contests to Make Your Fans Engage
6. How to Stop Losing Visibility on Facebook
7. Are you Cool? How to be Popular on Facebook
8. 7 Mistakes that will Kill Your Facebook Efforts
9. My Most Popular Posts on Facebook
In this article I’d like to share tools that will make your Facebook Music Page POP!
Lots of people are on Facebook. According to Zephoria Digital Marketing, there are 1.79 billion monthly active Facebook users and five new profiles are created every second. Being on Facebook should be a requirement for independent artists, because a musician thrives on community and it is happening right on Facebook. Furthermore, not only should you be present on Facebook, you should have a fan page and it should be excellent! Why? Because, at the very least, you need to look comparable to your fans’ other favorite artists and at most, make yourself stand out from the crowd of other musicians clawing for your fans’ attention. You can achieve lots of fan engagement, tons of traffic to your website and blog, song plays, and merch sales all while looking the best with a well developed music Facebook fan page. Here’s how to do it.
1. Add a band widget.
A band widget is a tool you can use to showcase all of your music stuff all on one tab. It’s really cool because it allows full streaming of your songs, along with any videos you might want to feature, plus your upcoming show dates, as well as other feeds such as twitter and your recent blog posts. Musicians often use a third party service for this such as Bandpage and Reverbnation. You have to go set up an account on the third party’s website, give it access to your Facebook fan page, fill in the sections and it will automatically populate in a new tab on your fan page. This will showcase your music seamlessly in a very professional manner. You can feature all of your music, albums, photos, and extra information such as show and ticket information, reviews, and streaming music all on one page. Some of the services allow you to use different colors and imagery to further make your page pop.
*NOTE – As of Dec 2016, unfortunately, Bandpage is discontinuing certain features as it migrates to a YouTube platform due to a merger. One of the features that will no longer be available is the Facebook App! However, Reverberation is still holding it down and if you want an all in one, they are currently the best source.
2. Add a store.
Never miss an opportunity to sell. You can sell your music directly on Facebook. There are many services that offer Facebook store widgets such as Storenvy, CDBaby, and BandPage to name a few. This is a great way to offer your music for sale on Facebook without your fans having to go to another site.
3. Add a Mailing list tab.
While you’re at it, why not include a tab for collecting e-mails? This is yet another way to add variety to your page and something for people to do while browsing your music fan page. Services like Mailchimp and MailerLite are great resources to collect e-mails directly from Facebook. These services easily integrate with Facebook and once people sign-up they are added to your list automatically. There’s no need for you to worry about doing it manually. Other services that may offer the same features are Constant Contact, AWeber, and Benchmark.
Be sure to post to your page regularly. You should aim to post at least once per day (but more like 3x per day if you can manage it) with fresh and interesting content that your fans would want to read. This will help keep your fans engaged and show new fans that you are consistent. Being consistent gives you a lot more credibility. It makes you look welcoming and assures them that you are a working musician and staying relevant. For more ideas on what to post on Facebook click here to download a FREE 3 Month Social Media Content Calendar and never run out of ideas again.
There are two other things to consider when maintaining a Facebook band page and they are – the About Section and the Events Section.
When it comes to the About Section, you should try to fill out every section possible.
Don’t leave any table unturned when it comes to filling out information on your fan page. You don’t want to miss connecting with a potential fan because you didn’t spend 5 minutes to include your website or your booking contact number. Fill out the long and the short bio section. Fill out where you are from and any other pertinent information available. Be sure to include a high-engaging quality cover image for your fan page. For inspiration, take a look at mainstream artists in your genre. See what they are doing. Don’t copy off of them, but do something on the same level as they are. Pay attention to the quality of their photos, they way their bios are written, what sort of tabs they have and so on. If it’s working for them, there’s a good chance that it will work for your. Us them as your guide. Pay special attention to your cover image. Make sure it is something that will speak to your fans.
Make sure that everything about your page is visually appealing. Even fill out the section of favorite bands. You’d be surprised at how much people read all of this stuff. It might seem trivial, but it speaks to your personality. When people look you up, they not only want to listen to your music, they want to see what kind of artist you are. They’re looking at your likes and dislikes, what drives you and most importantly they’re trying to determine if they can get behind what you stand for. Don’t leave them guessing here. Spell it all out.
Also, use this section to answer every question possible. Answer questions a potential fan, a potential event host, a club/venue booker or even members of the press might have. You don’t have to go into great detail, but give them something that will suffice. For example, a journalist might be looking for a promo photo, you can set up an album for profile photos and link to it right there on your Facebook page. Or if someone is looking to book you, how might they do that? Include information to answer this question as well. Obviously they can go to your website if they need this information and I do recommend including this on your website as well, however some people don’t want to hop around. They like to stay where they are and it would be very beneficial for you to provide them with the information they seek without them having to go looking around for it.
Consider keeping your events up to date. Facebook is a great source for inviting people to your shows. But they can’t come if they don’t know you’re playing. If someone happens to find your band page and likes what they see, their next question usually is “Are they playing near me soon?” You should answer that by including your show dates in the events section. Otherwise, you might give your potential fans the wrong impression that you’re not performing anywhere. An artist not performing, is an artist not worth going to see. Add this as a step on your to-do list when you’re updating your website with new show dates so you don’t forget.
Utilizing every avenue available to get your music out is the best way to reach as many potential fans as possible as well as maintain connection with your current fans. Make your Facebook band page pop using elements that can bring life and variety to your page. Make your page fun using imagery and colors. The widgets I mentioned above can help you stand out.
What are your thoughts? Are there any other elements that should be added to the musician’s Facebook page that would make it pop? Chime in with your comments below.
