Facebook is the largest marketing channel for most musicians and bands. Surprisingly, it's also the one they know least about. In this entry I will break down why Facebook is important, how it works, and most importantly, the steps to make Facebook work for musicians and fans.
Musicians can't be blamed. Many musicians developed their social networking habits on Myspace, Twitter, or YouTube. These platforms are (or were) a lot more straightforward than Facebook. In most cases you post it, forget it, then maybe check the numbers later. Not only do these inattentive social media habits fail on Facebook, they can actually hurt musicians in a very quantitative way.
Furthermore, Facebook largely ignored music for most of its existence. By the time Facebook introduced musician/band pages and musicians started amassing an audience there, these musicians got dropped into an unfamiliar, fully-formed social networking culture—without any sort of learning curve, burdened with the behavioral baggages of outdated social networks.
But Facebook is really not that hard, and if done right, you have a lot to gain. By numbers alone, there are more people that regularly sign into Facebook than Twitter + Myspace + YouTube combined. It's really important now more than ever to optimize your Facebook presence.
Geo-targeting: Does it makes sense to geo target? You can geo-target posts by city, state, provinces, or country. Geo-targeted posts usually reach a higher percentage of fans in the targeted location. Consider geo-targeting for tour dates, radio support, local appearances, etc.Tip: Are you geo-targeting a post to an international country? Post in their language. Seriously, you will get a ridiculously good engagement % from this.
Say More With Less: Shorter posts generally do well, so keep it snappy. Exceptions: heartfelt, substantial, personal, emotional, soul-baring, or narrative posts. Avoid being too self-promotional. Promote it gently. Be funny! Be surprising! Be authentic! Show personality! Dance on the line of what's acceptable or not. If you can elicit a guttural respons, you're more likely to get engagement.
Interact With Fans: Spend a few moments after posting interacting with fans who leave comments on your status update. Like their comments, and respond to them in your own comment box. As your fans see likes and comments coming from your page, they're a lot more likely to leave a comment & vote elsewhere as simply as that in the hope that you might see their comment. Plus, it's an easy and quick way to make your fans' day. Questions can work well. Try ending any given status update with a question that directly relates to your post. It can help jump start the commenting.
Say It With a Lyric: Are you a lyrical musician? Spell out your own lyrics in a status update, especially if it's relevant to whatever else you're pushing in the status update (links, videos, pics, etc.). Your lyrics are akin to a secret code language with your fans, especially if they've already emotionally connected with your words in song. Fans like that. Format lyrics to imply that they are indeed lyrics. And make it easy on the eyes, make it flow like the cadence of the song. The quicker the fan can recognize the lyrics, the quicker they will "like" the post.
In-Line Previews: Are links properly displaying in-line preview? You can adjust the image and description in the in-line preview before you post. Make edits as necessary.
Pins and Highlights: Pinning moves a post to the top wall. To pin a post, click the pencil icon that shows up when you mouse to the upper right-hand corner. Highlighting expands a post across the full width of the wall. To highlight a post, click the star icon that appears when you move your mouse to the upper right-hand corner of any post.
The Psychology of Click-throughs: Oftentimes your main objective in posting a given status update is to get click-throughs on a link. In this situation, you still want to write to maximize engagement because that gets you distribution. But you need to mind the goal of getting click-throughs as well. To that end, write a message that gives your fans a really good, direct reason to click through. Think like a fan, make them want it. Think of how the most trafficked bloggers use headlines to lure their audience to click through: oftentimes they'll tease you into clicking through to the full article. They'll appeal to your sense of surprise, novelty or exclusivity. For example, a lot of them use the tactic of priming your curiosity, holding back key info to compel you to click-through to satisfy your itch.
