Social networks with a music marketing twist

The social networks scene and music marketing go hand in hand, they really do.

But...

But when does it stop? Twitter came out, MySpace is still there, so is Youtube and Facebook...we must not forget your own website as well.

What do you do, how do you cram in so many things at once, surely the social networks scene isn't supposed to be this bad is it?

Well unfortunately it is. You see when marketers and business people alike see an opportunity they jump on it and plough into it many millions of dollars.

When Facebook came out people went to it from MySpace. When Twitter came out, people went to it is flocks. But what do we have left? All of them.

So do you twit, message, or what?

I think you need to look at the social networks scene and see where your fans are at, not what the next best thing is.

My readers use the Internet and use email. I cater for the social networks sites but I don't break my back to be on them. If I do:

- something is going to be missed,
- I am not going to do a good job at it,
- I will repeat myself pointlessly

Assessing where your music audience is is a savvy way within music marketing. You can shout all you want, but if you are shouting at no-one, what is the point?

If anything, one must be chosen, to keep your users updated, and know that they are using your method. And that is the point. you may have a bookmark coded into every webpage but is it being used?

I can not tell you which to use because your audience will be different to mine, but what is also needed is to connect with your audience and then to speak to your audience.

What happens when you tweet as soon as you sign up "concert tonight, all welcome". If you are known, some may show, but if not, you are going to have one heck of a poor opening night.

Just like every other marketing medium known on this planet, you have to engage with the audience.. Speak to them, get to know them...All these books that say "make millions with Twitter today" are complete crap if you do not have anyone to tweet to in the first place! They didn't get up one day, tweet and then became millionaires...its impossible.

The above paragraph sounds like blogging, emailing, and just about every Internet networking apparatus known to mankind.

The new social networks are not really new.

It is Internet 2.0, in other words, it is based upon tried and trusted ideas, with a little twist.

But tried and trusted ideas are that. Tried and trusted. To succeed in the social networks arena you need to do two little things:

Talk
Listen.

Talk to your audience, build up a following, listen to their comments and then talk back to them- engage with them.

Its not hard. The marketers have made it hard because you think you should be doing much better than what you are doing. They have had a running start, they have got people who follow them initially...

The problem that you have is that if you don't do it someone else will. If you stop communicating and engaging then with all those tweets and websites to check out, you will fade away. That is a scary thought.

With millions of websites going up each week (not months, maybe even every day) do you think that people check out every single one of them? No, they don't. They check a hand full of ones that they care about and ones that get updated regularly.

Googles (and other engines) success has nothing really to do with them. It is to do with people need them to check out the Internet. Once someone has found something to fill their need and desire, why should they go to another page to find information on a desire that is now fulfilled?

The social networks marketing is exactly the same. If I want to find a group that is a style that I like and are pumping out tunes, then I will keep with them. Maybe find one or two more, max. If they stop churning out tunes and stop "chatting to me" then I move onto someone else. I will not look at 300 different groups and support every single one.

It doesn't happen.

Niches are being filled and the first win. Music is exactly the same. You need to make sure that you find a niche, and dominate it by releasing music regularly and corresponding with your fans.

Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor knew this. It is plain to see why the band has been so successful- because they have always released tunes, gigged and interacted with their fans. A simple formula that has made them millions.

Remember Snow Patrol? Don't hear too much of them nowadays. If they don't watch it their fans will migrate somewhere else and the vacuum that was there will be filled. The problem is, if Snow Patrol came back, guns blazing, they would be hoping for nostalgia, rather than old fans coming back and supporting them.

The problem with that is that you can not sing the same old songs for long, you need to reinvent yourself, and in doing so try to coax back some old fans while trying to bring new ones to your cause. Again, the problem with this is that the new you could become a "sold out version" if you reinvent well off the mark. Madonna is fantastic at reinvention without the sellout factor, its hard to do, but the rewards are huge.

Keeping your fans then is a must for every musician and social networks can help as long as you realise what they are:

A social network where you talk and listen...regularly.

Its not hard, there is no "secret formula" and no 60 page ebook to suggest anything else. No, to be successful at any of the social network sites is to interact. People then will want to listen to you, to download your music and to go to see you.

You would have tapped into their desire for wanting what they want.

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