10 Tips for Artists to Promote Their Music
In the spirit of Fair Play we here at gogoyoko want to tell you about some of the social media tools we use and give away some of our most valued tips and tricks. Consider this a crash course on how to promote music through gogoyoko and social media. Look for more in-depth coverage to come.
First things first. If you haven’t already, please sign up to gogoyoko.
1. Get a blog
Static websites are so three years ago. Today it’s all about engagement with the fans and a blog is a perfect tool for artists to engage with their fans directly. Fans want to know how the tour is going and hear how your day is coming along in the studio. They want to see pictures of you hanging out with other rockstars backstage and know what you’re listening to, reading and viewing to fuel your inspiration.
With a blog you can easily do all these things and add various social media tools to keep you in touch with your fans and your fans up to date on you, their favorite artist.
Tip : Put a gogoyoko support banner on your blog and link it straight to your profile.
Recommended services : Wordpress, Blogger
Recommended reading : How to make my blog, Problogger
2. Get a Facebook profile
Facebook makes it even easier for your fans to follow you and for them to turn their friends into fans too. You can send updates to all of your fans at once, post short status updates and links and upload images and videos.
Using Facebook Connect and the Facebook Fan Box widget you can easily integrate Facebook with your blog. You can even import the blog posts from your blog automatically using Facebook Notes. What’s even better is you can send out invitations to your gigs and send updates to those who are attending. Facebook also integrates well with Twitter which is the service third on our list.
Tip : Put the link to your gogoyoko profile in the info section on the left. That way it’s always visible to new fans.
Recommended service : Facebook
Recommended reading : Mashable’s Facebook topics
3. Twitter
Real time is where it’s at. Your fans want to know what you are doing right now! The best thing about Twitter though is how versatile it is. You can use it to monitor what is being said about you in real time and join in on those conversations if you want. Twitter is also a great tool for personal discovery and entertainment but above all one of the best way’s available to promote any brand or artist.
If you want to Twitter like the pro’s we suggest you use services like Twitterfeed to automatically feed your blog and other services straight to your Twitter account. In fact, we recommend you do this with any social media service you use that has an RSS feed. It’s up to you. Get creative.
Tip : Make sure to put the link to your gogoyoko profile page in the bio section.
Recommended service : Twitter
Recommended reading : Twitip, Mashable’s Twitter topics
4. MySpace
I guess we really don’t have to mention this one simply because it’s the first place any artist goes to to put their music online. If you are not on MySpace you absolutely have to. It’s the first place people will look to find your music.
Tip : Put a gogoyoko support banner close to the music player and link it straight to your gogoyoko profile
Recommended service : MySpace
5. Social bookmarking
Do you do a lot of browsing? Just read a killer review of your new album? Why not share it with your fans? There are a lot of social bookmarking tools and services available like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon but the one we like the best is Delicious. By using the Delicious bookmarking addon for Firefox you can easily bookmark and tag anything you want and share it with the world. We also recommend using Twitterfeed to share your Delicous bookmarks on Twitter.
Tip : Remember to bookmark any coverage you are getting online.
Recommended service : Delicious
Recommended reading : Mashable’s Delicious toolbox
6. Flickr
Wondering where to post, organize and store your images online? Flickr is the place to be. The best thing about Flickr is how easy it is to integrate it with your blog and sites like Facebook and Twitter. Use the Flickr Badge to add your photostream to your blog, The Flickr Facebook app to automatically update your images on Facebook and Twitterfeed to let your Twitter followers know when you’ve uploaded new images.
Tip : Be sure to put all your official images and artwork online too and tag each image well so the search engines can find them.
Recommended service : Flickr
Recommended reading : Flickr topics on Mashable
7. Tumblr
One of the fastest growing social networks online is Tumblr. Tumblr is what is called a ‘microblog’ and is great for quickly posting images, MP3’s, videos, links and text without the hassle of having to compose a complex blog post.
To be make the most of your presence on Tumblr you must follow and interact with other users frequently. Be sure to ‘heart’ everything you like that other users are posting.
Tip : Make sure you make a click through link to your gogoyoko profile every time you post something new.
Recommended service : Tumblr
Recommended reading : Everything Tumblr on Mashable
8. Online video
It goes without saying that you put your music videos on sites like YouTube and Vimeo. But what about the tour diary like the one múm did? How about recording short messages for your fans or even just post videos of you messing around in the studio? Videos are the best online currency available as they can be embedded, linked and shared anywhere on any network. You absolutely have to do more videos!
Tip : On YouTube, put a direct link to your gogoyoko profile in each video.
Recommended services : YouTube, Vimeo
Recommended reading : YouTube and Vimeo topics on Mashable
9. LinkedIn
To survive in today’s music climate an artist has to represent him or herself as a professional. LinkedIn is the perfect site for networking and getting in touch with the right people. Make sure to fill out your profile and connect with everyone you know. To make new connections join as many groups of interest as you want and join in on the conversations there.
Tip : The best way to present yourself as a professional is to answer questions that other users post. Do someone a favour and you will be repaid.
Recommended service : LinkedIn
Recommended reading : LinkedIn topics on Mashable
10. Making it all work
Once you’ve covered all of the above it’s time to make it all work in your favor. Maintaining it all may seem like a daunting task but once you get the hang of it it’s actually not as complex and time consuming as you might think. A certain level of commitment is needed but it shouldn’t be more than an hour a day.
Try to reply to as many fans as you possibly can, accept all requests and approve of every comment that you feel is suitable to publish. Be informative, passionate, topical, generous and always keep a cool head. Most importantly just be yourself. In marketing terms, think of your self as the brand and whatever you do and say is the marketing.
Don’t be a salesman. Nobody likes one. If you handle yourself correctly and engage with fans on a personal level you probably even won’t have to do much selling. It will just happen naturally. Just make sure it is always clear where people can buy your music from (see the tips above).
