Promoting Your BandPage Experiences: Part 1 – Facebook

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BandPage Experiences has been live for almost a few weeks now and we’re already learning a lot about what makes a good Experience tick.  We are finding that the best Experiences are not only exclusive and unique, but are also priced affordably and time limited.  It’s important to keep those factors in mind when developing your own Experiences.

In this upcoming series of 5 posts we are going to cover how and where to promote and market your Experience(s) once you have decided on what to offer your fans. This first post focuses on all the different ways you can share them on Facebook. Our next 4 posts will cover Twitter, YouTube, your mailing list, and good old word-of-mouth.

Part 2: Twitter | Part 3: YouTube | Part 4: Mailing List | Part 5: Word of Mouth

Promoting on Facebook

There’s no doubt that a musician should be active on Facebook – after all, it boasts over 1.06 Billion users, people are spending large parts of their day browsing it, and it’s one of the biggest sites where you can find fans. If you have the highest number of fans here, this should be the first place you go to promote your newly published Experiences.

Facebook is a great platform for posting rich media messages to your fans. It supports links, videos, photos, text, and more – which makes it ideal for promoting your Experiences. We recommend posting a short and genuine message to your fans, letting them know that you created an Experience for them.

Quick Tip! We suggest using trackable links like bit.ly or shortURL so you can track and measure the amount of traffic you are generating with your post, and optimize your message based on performance.

Different WAYS TO POST

Facebook supports links, videos, photos, text, and more. Mix and match different media in your posts to see what works for you and your fans. Below are some live examples of different ways to post on Facebook.

  • Embed the BandPage Experiences Link
    • Promote either your individual experience or your entire experiences page, depending on what your goals are and how many experiences you have.
    • Example: George Clinton from Parliament Funkadelic wanted to post about one of his shows in Sacramento, so he shared his individual experience page with a message aimed at his Sacramento fans.
    • George Clinton & P-Funk BandPage Experience
  • Post a Related Photo
    • Take a screenshot or post an image related to your BandPage Experience, and link to  the experience in the text description. Images grab fans’ attentions quickly and they’ll be more likely to click through. Example: Slightly Stoopid below
    • Slightly Stoopid BandPage Experience Promotion
  • Write a Genuine Message
    • Tell the story behind your offer; give some background; reach out to your fans in an engaging way. You can pair this with any kind of media – a photo, link, or video. Lay Low pairs her message with a link to her Experience in the example below.
  • Lay Low BandPage Experiences Promotion

Best Practices

  • Include Rich Media: Rich media posts are more likely to show up in fans’ news feeds and get clicked on. Photo posts are especially eye-catching and engaging.
  • Your Message Should Come From You: Fans respond more when your message is genuine and non-salesy. It’s always good to give your fans a story or more context by answering:
    • What are you offering?
    • What’s the story behind it?
    • Why is it cool and unique?
  • Give An Action Step: Every post should have an action step attached to it – “Check out my awesome offer!”, “Buy now before they’re sold out!” or “Go now – only 10 available!” are all good examples.
  • Always Be Optimizing. Watch the traffic and engagement you’re driving from each of your posts, and optimize towards the ones that are showing results. For example if adding an action step like “Check it out now!” is getting you a lot of clicks, then keep going with that. Different ways to optimize:
    • Time / Day of post
    • Action step in post
    • Type of media posted
    • Geographic location / types of people the post is targeted at (if you’re running ads)
  • “Star” Important Posts: You can star posts on your Timeline by hovering over the star shape on the top right corner. Starring posts makes them twice as wide and will draw your fans’ attention. Example: The Postelles below
  • The Postelles' Facebook post

Advertising on Facebook

If your post on Facebook didn’t generate the number of views or sales you wanted, Facebook offers some great advertising options.

  • Promoted Page Posts: Select a specific post on your page or automatically promote your most recent post to increase the number of your fans or friends of your fans it reaches. Example: Brian Fuente can promote his post to his fan base, and select his budget and reach.
  • Brian Fuente Promoted Post on Facebook
  • Facebook Ads: Ads run along the right-hand side of a fan’s page. You can customize the message and image, as well as link off Facebook to your BandPage Experiences link. You can also target your ad to specific users by age, geographic location, other pages they’ve “liked”, and more.

Facebook Advertising Resources:

To recap, there are a number of different ways you can post about your Experiences on Facebook – links, text, photos, videos, and more. We recommend 1. writing a genuine message with a strong action step, 2. using strong visuals by posting media and/or “starring” your posts, and 3. looking at your viewership and clickthrough rates for posts and optimize towards the types that are successful. Ads are also an option if your posts aren’t reaching as many people as you’d like. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions you’d like us to answer!

And of course, log into your BandPage editor now to request access to our Experiences beta program.

BandPage Plus Features Keep Getting Better

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Two months ago we quietly released some amazing new features as a part of our Plus subscription package.  The idea behind these new features was to allow you, the artists, to more effectively brand and customize your website or blog when utilizing BandPage solutions to manage your online presence.  Now with our newest release, creating a customized and consistent feel on your website is easier than ever.  Check out the list of improvements we made to the BandPage Website and widgets below.  If you like what you see, you can go ahead and upgrade to Plus here.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out these new features in the wild, here are some great examples of Plus BandPagers putting our tools to good use!

Upload Your Logo

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A logo is one of the most important components of any artist’s branding strategy as it is inextricably linked with fan recognition.  Our Plus subscription now allows you to upload your own logo to the Bandpage Website to ensure your branding is consistent across your various online properties.

Choose from 12 Different Fonts

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You can now choose between 12 different fonts options on both the BandPage Website and widgets to help you further brand and customize your digital presence.

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Add Twitter Feed

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We even added a way for you to add your twitter feed to your BandPage Website so your fans can stay up-to-date on everything you’ve been up to

Additional Navigation Tab

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And last but certainly not least, you can now add an additional tab to your BandPage Website.  Use this tab to direct fans to your online store, YouTube Channel, Instagram – wherever.

If you have any questions about how to get your BandPage set up or need help upgrading, check out our Help Center for more info or drop us a line at support@BandPage.com.

Overview: About BandPage Experiences

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Hey Musicians,

A few months ago, we quietly launched BandPage Experiences, a new marketplace that enables artists to create, sell and fulfill unique and memorable interactions with their fans.  Musicians including Stars, Slightly Stoopid, George Clinton (Parliament/Funkadelic), Dada Life, Collie Buddz, stic.man of Dead Prez and more are already successfully using BandPage Experiences to help monetize fan relationships in a manner that is authentic but more importantly also deepens their fans engagement.  We wanted to take a moment and explain our thinking behind this exciting new concept.

Why Experiences? We believe there’s an opportunity for musicians to make a better and more sustainable living by offering fans something more than just merch or CDs. Experiences are a one-of-a-kind chance for you and your fans to connect in a direct and more personal way. Nielsen announced at SXSW 2013 that there is $450 million to $2.6 billion in unrealized revenue in the form of better tailored experiences for fans. “Fans want more,” said Barara Zack, Chief Analytics Officer at Nielsen Entertainment Measurement. “There is an unmet need there. There is a desire to engage at a different level than what they have.”

And that’s exactly what we’re helping artists do.

Our goal as a company has always been to create new revenue streams and drive higher fan engagement for artists and this is the next logical step.  BandPage Experiences answers a fundamental question: there are many different kinds of music fans, from casual listeners and established fans to superfans. So why sell everyone the same products — t-shirts, tickets, CDs or downloads? Our platform lets musicians list anything they want, which translates into the flexibility to tailor different experiences to different types of fans.

A number of our launch artists have already experienced a great deal of success using the BandPage Experiences platform and have had the chance to engage and learned a ton about their fan base along the way. Here are just a few of the great examples we have seen thus far.

BandPage Experiences and the artists using it have received a great deal of positive press in major music publications.   USA Today loved the idea of The Octopus Project teaching their fans how to play the theremin. MTV, Billboard, The Next Web and more have also given shoutouts to other launch artists including Zakk Wylde, Black Veil Brides and Parliament Funkadelic.

We believe this can fundamentally change the way you make a living, and allow you to do more of what you love.  We will be in Beta for bit longer but are looking for forward thinking artists who want to navigate these new fan engagement waters with us and create some memorable memories for their fans in the process.  You can sign up Beta access now inside the BandPage Editor.  We’d love to hear from you.

Tip of the week: Updating your Band Name and changing your Direct Link

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Without further ado we would like to introduce you to two of our favorite new features in your BandPage Profile:

  • Updating your Artist or Band name
  • Changing your Direct Link and BandPage  Website URL

After many weeks of your feedback and requests, we put our minds to work to find an easy-to-use and simple way for you to update your Display Name in your BandPage Profile, as well as request a new Direct Link without ever having to send us an email!

How to update your Artist or Band Name:

Step One:  Sign in to the BandPage editor and select to edit your BandPage.  By default you will land in the “Create Your Profile” tab, which is where you can access and update the information that is in the About section of your Bandpage Profile.

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Step Two:  In the text box below “Display Name” you will see your current Artist Name.  To change this, click on the text space and start typing your new Artist Name.  This will change your Artist Name everywhere that your BandPage Profile is displayed across the web.

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Step Three:  Once you have the correct name typed in, click on the blue “Save” button and your Artist Name will be updated!

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Now you can update your  Artist Name as many times as you want, instantly.

How to update your Direct Link:

Step One:  As with updating your Artist or Band Name, you can change your Direct Link in the “About” section of your BandPage Profile.

ArtistName1

Click on the text space below “Web Alias” and begin typing the new Direct Link that you want to have.  Remember that this will update both your Direct Link on Facebook and your BandPage Website URL:

fb.bandpage.com/webalias AND webalias.bandpage.com

Step Two:  Once you have typed in the Web Alias that you wish to have as a Direct Link and BandPage Website URL, a dialogue box will appear that says one of two things:

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“This alias is either invalid or already taken.” means that the Web Alias you have chosen is not accepted by our system, or that it is already in use by another BandPage. In this case, you will need to choose a new one.

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“This will change your web alias in the following locations” notifies you that the alias you have chosen is available and wants to make sure that you are OK with where the changes will appear on your BandPage Profile.

Step Three:  If the Web Alias that you have chosen works, then you just need to click “Save” and you’re done!

If you have any questions feel free to check out our Help Center or shoot us an email to Support@bandpage.com!

Tip of the week: Ordering tracks on your BandPage

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There are lots of things to consider when setting up your BandPage Profile, like which songs to use, what order to put them in, whether or not you should feature them on your Website, and the list goes on.  To help make this easier for you we have made some improvements to the ordering function of your BandPage track list.

Step One:  Choose the songs that you want to have in your BandPage Profile

We recommend that you upload at least five tracks to provide variety to your fans and keep them engaged.

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Step Two:  Put your tracks in the order that you want your fans to listen to them in

This can be based on what was most recently released, what is the most popular, or however else you want to order them.  To do this, log in to BandPage.com and access the music editor:

1) By default you will land in the “Create Your Profile” tab.

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2) From here, choose “Music” from the left side menu and click the white space next to each track to drag it into a new location in the list.

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3) Once your tracks are in the order that you want them in, save the changes and you’re done!

Now when fans come to your BandPage Profile they will see a customized track list and have the listening experience that you have designed for them.  If you have any questions about this process or want to give us some feedback, feel free to drop us a note through our Help Center or by emailing us directly at support@bandpage.com!

 

Music Monday: Alex Day and the Power of an Engaged Fan Base

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The internet has been buzzing lately about Alex Day, the YouTube sensation who released his album at the same time as Justin Timberlake and outsold him on the iTunes UK charts with a fraction of the resources. How did he do it? Years of hard work to engage and cultivate his passionate fan base.

Day started posting videos on YouTube in 2006, and has kept a schedule of 1-2 videos a week since then – that’s some real dedication there. Now he boasts more than 600,000 subscribers, 100 million + views on YouTube, and over half a million songs sold. Now for the biggest revelation – he’s done it all independently, without a label.

James Altucher of TechCrunch wrote a great piece on Alex and it has some great lessons in there about how musicians should manage social media. The thing to remember about all of this is that it didn’t happen overnight. This was a product of almost a decade of hard work that finally paid off. So to our musicians who are reading this, there will be hard times in your career – but keep building up your foundation and content. Practice and get feedback from your friends and the larger music community. Continually engage your fans and reward them for supporting you. That’s the core idea driving BandPage experiences – we want to give musicians like you an opportunity to break down the glass wall between you and your fans, to reach out to them and engage them like never before.

And of course, here’s Alex Day’s new album for you to listen to and buy:

Alex Day – Epigrams and Interludes

And just for fun, Alex will explain “Lost” to you right now.

Note: BandPage is bringing back #MusicMondays for you! Every Monday we’ll post a little something on happenings in the music industry. Subscribe on the right and stay tuned for more!

Introducing BandPage Experiences: A New and Sustainable Way for Musicians to Make Money

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Our mission here at BandPage has always been to connect people who make music with people who love music.

Three years ago, we took an important first step when we launched the first iteration of BandPage, an app that helped musicians reach their fans on Facebook. Over the past year, we’ve built on that offering, giving the musicians who use BandPage ways to more easily set up their online presence and automatically syndicate that presence to the world’s largest social and music platforms, including Twitter, Soundcloud, and Pandora’s Concert Calendar.

Today, we’re taking another big step forward, one that opens a new chapter for BandPage and the more than 500,000 musicians we work with.

Introducing …BandPage Experiences!

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BandPage Experiences is a new feature that answers a fundamental question: there are many different kinds of music fans, from casual listeners and established fans to superfans. So why sell everyone the same products — t-shirts, tickets, CDs or downloads?

We believe there’s an opportunity for musicians to make a better and more sustainable living by offering fans something more: experiences. Experiences are a one-of-a-kind chance for musicians and the people who love their music to connect in a direct and more personal way.

BandPage Experiences enable you to make a deeper and lasting connection with your fans through memories, not stuff. It gives any artist the freedom to create different experiences for different types of fans, and offer something more imaginative than downloads, CDs, t-shirts, or concert tickets. With BandPage, you can tailor experiences to the unique characteristics of your fanbase; offer low-cost items for people just discovering your music, premium experiences for your super-fans, and everything in-between.

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Until now, offering these experiences to your fans hasn’t been possible through a single platform. BandPage Experiences changes that by giving you –or any musician– a way to create these experiences and a place where they can live. And it’s possible through a platform you’re already using to connect with your fans across the web.

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Over the past few weeks, we’ve had the pleasure of working with more than 50 truly world-class musicians who are launching experiences today through a redesigned BandPage.com, including Black Veil Brides, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Collie Buddz, Nataly Dawn, Free Energy, Hieroglyphics, Los Rakas, Múm, The Postelles, Slightly Stoopid, Stars, and Zakk Wylde among others. As you can see here, these artists have put in the effort to come up with creative and valuable experiences for their fans:

Here’s a video where Rinoceros, Mum and The Stone Foxes explain their experiences:

For this first release of BandPage Experiences, we’re starting with a select number of musicians. We will make the feature available to a wider audience in the coming months, with a goal of offering it to any artist who uses BandPage by this summer. Starting today, anyone with a BandPage can sign up to be among the first to try Experiences as we roll it out this spring; just log into your BandPage account on the Experiences tab. Meanwhile, think about what types of experiences your fans might be interested in!

We believe that offering these types of experiences directly to fans will be a significant source of revenue for musicians over the next few years. We’re proud to make BandPage the first platform where artists can easily offer these experiences at scale, and look forward to seeing the amazing new experiences musicians come up with.