This is a serious post, so please don't take it the wrong way. I have an acquantance who is in your same situation. He's signed to about five or six netlabels and even got invited to play a gig in Greece, which is a long, long way from home. He has a MySpace and a Facebook page which are plastered with his self-written, third person bio and even lists his "booking agent's" email address, which is his own name @ hotmail.com.

He's always requesting my friends to like his artist page on Facebook, et cetera, but essentially we're all laughing at him behind his back. We all think his music is crap and that he's trying too hard. Now, I'm not saying that your 500 friends think the same, or that you make bad music. However, it's certain that they probably don't want to be bothered by you.

Often I look at a reasonably big artist's page on FB and they only have 200 likes/friends. Don't force it on people. If they like your music, they'll come. If they don't, you can't make them. Besides, having a big image on Facebook does nothing for you in real terms. Just keep making your music.

___________________
Mix archive | Melbourne club guide

quote:

Originally posted by Domesticated This is a serious post, so please don't take it the wrong way. I have an acquantance who is in your same situation. He's signed to about five or six netlabels and even got invited to play a gig in Greece, which is a long, long way from home. He has a MySpace and a Facebook page which are plastered with his self-written, third person bio and even lists his "booking agent's" email address, which is his own name @ hotmail.com. He's always requesting my friends to like his artist page on Facebook, et cetera, but essentially we're all laughing at him behind his back. We all think his music is crap and that he's trying too hard. Now, I'm not saying that your 500 friends think the same, or that you make bad music. However, it's certain that they probably don't want to be bothered by you. Often I look at a reasonably big artist's page on FB and they only have 200 likes/friends. Don't force it on people. If they like your music, they'll come. If they don't, you can't make them. Besides, having a big image on Facebook does nothing for you in real terms. Just keep making your music.

Well you're actually probably right about the "friends" comment. I know for a fact most of them aren't even into EDM music at all. I actually feel kind of bad sometimes when posting tracks to their wall, because I know they won't even listen or will delete it. Mind you that isn't always the case. A number of people have come out of nowhere and genuinely said they love my music

Yeah it seems alot of shitty producers have alot of likes, whereas guys who have been making gems for 20 or so years don't have many at all. It's really unfortunate. I guess what I need is more exposure to a different group of people. But how? I could use a new country for one, England, Germany, Netherlands, as the scene in the US is dead. Except for the horrible bass/brostep music all the hipsters love the shit out of. I don't know I'm just really caught in a bind right now.

quote:

Originally posted by Domesticated Often I look at a reasonably big artist's page on FB and they only have 200 likes/friends. Don't force it on people. If they like your music, they'll come. If they don't, you can't make them. Besides, having a big image on Facebook does nothing for you in real terms. Just keep making your music.

This is pretty sound advice and basically what I've done for our Plastic Love page. You can't force anyone to like/follow you and spamming them week in and week out isn't going to help. Just be consistent with your posts and material and people will come to you, it'll take time but you'll get there. We've had this page for about a year now and we're almost at 700 fans and we started pretty slow. With enough content and relevant posts you'll get there in time.

___________________

___________________

insignificant cor member alliance

quote:

Originally posted by Happymess Use a picture of a sexy girl's pic with big boobs and/or ass. Everybody clicks on that.

that was my strategy.

still waiting on the boobs though :/

quote:

Originally posted by bas This is pretty sound advice and basically what I've done for our Plastic Love page. You can't force anyone to like/follow you and spamming them week in and week out isn't going to help. Just be consistent with your posts and material and people will come to you, it'll take time but you'll get there. We've had this page for about a year now and we're almost at 700 fans and we started pretty slow. With enough content and relevant posts you'll get there in time.

Thanks. Good advice. +1.

quote:

Originally posted by nefardec that was my strategy. still waiting on the boobs though :/

quote:

Originally posted by OOPS! Thanks. Good advice. +1.

Also I find that a lot of people will probably ignore fan page requests if you don't personally tell them about it. Try sending personal messages and just posting the same information on your personal page and tagging your fan page.

For example, I'll post a link to our podcast on my fan page then say something like "check out the newest edition of the @Plastic Love podcast" on my personal page. Eventually people make the connection that it's YOUR page and they'll like it...

Or not lol

___________________

i think people use facebook pages in different ways.

i personally use it as kind of an extension of my identity - so i only 'like' stuff that i really actually like or that i am actually associated with - i'm picky about what I click. I rarely respond to suggestions.

whereas i could see some people just doing it to get updates, or some people just liking anything that friends tell them too.

i have facebook pages but i don't have a lot of content on them, and of course i'm still working on getting the content to be better too, but i've never been big on self-promotion and i hate to badger people about it. so if people 'like' me, that's cool, if not that's cool too. i would rather the people who 'like' me on facebook do it because they seek me out.

you know, if you build it they will come, and all that jazz.


when i finish my new website I think I'm just going to move all my content there and link it occasionally on FB. I'd rather have people going to my site who seek it out, checking out all the different kinds of content and making me advertising revenue.

quote:

Originally posted by bas

Plastic Love




And not to avoid answering to the original quetion.

Facebook, despite it's ease of use needs to be understood as a powerful marketing tool and should not be taken lightly( and I don't mean this from a invasion privacy POV which is a whole other subject matter).
I am not even going to bother offering you advice because I'm sick of handing out advice to people on internet and not getting anything in return.

Do some research on google. There are loads of articles that will advise you on how best to attract new fans as a musician and about creating a connection with your fans.

The number one reason why fan pages can work is basically if you create a personal relationship to your fans. Giving them some "insider" information.

It depends on who you are, what you do. Find what works for you to create a brand around yourself.
Don't rush it.


"If you built it they will come".

quote:

Originally posted by jdat "If you built it they will come".