How To Use Social Media For Entertainers

How To Use Social Media For Entertainers

In many of my discussions with people in the entertainment business, they want to know how to best use social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or reverbnation. These tools are essential into spreading the word about your music, product or career.  First, I would say you need to understand where this particular industry is at and use Google to research and understand the tools being used.  Learn some statistics and develop a strategy for maximizing the use of each tool.

It is crucial that all of your social networking pages are linked together, which will allow all of your pages to be updated at once. This will save you massive amounts of time by not having to go to each page for individual updating.  Most entertainers who are developing a game plan also need to try to develop a fan base, as well as create buzz about your next show, CD, Movie or what ever it is that is coming up next.

Understand that social media is still a personal form of networking even though you are behind a computer screen.  You still have to be real and available.  Learn to update only about 25% of time about your career.  Promote others, develop conversations and be available to talk to an extent.  I do caution against getting caught up in people who just want to flirt and have no intention of becoming a fan or a consumer.  This will cause massive amounts of wasted time and not help you reach your ultimate goals.  With all that needs to be done in an entertainment career, using your time wisely is of utmost importance.

Social media for the entertainer should have a game plan of turning new followers into fans and then consumers of your product.  If this is not your final goal then you are wasting your time. If you are a musician, it is all about the number of impressions you make which may attract endorsement deals, fans, booking agents, venues, and sales for labels.   For other types of entertainment you should know at least the basics to help develop a social media-marketing plan that will work for you.

Social media marketing campaigns should be constant and consistent.  Be aware of your metrics and the tools you are using to track your success.  Be diligent, concise and always have a plan.  It is so important to the success of your career that you know your goals and execute a plan to meet them.

21 comments
  1. I agree with most of what you’re saying – except for the part about linking it all together so you update everything. I think you have to be VERY careful of that.

    The culture of Twitter is NOT the culture of Facebook or MySpace. The culture of MySpace – definitely not the culture of Facebook or Twitter.

    Plus, if I’m following you, friends/fans with you and I’m getting hit by the same message 3 or 4 times, booring… and I will remove myself. It just becomes information overload.

    You can still automate some things, but just not everything. And you want to develop different strategies for the different tools. You can’t use a hammer the same way you use a screwdriver. It just doesn’t work.

    Everything else – I heartily agree with!

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    • I disagree Debra, Artists don’t have time to handle multiple accounts which is why sites like Artist Data are so popular. Most people don’t visit all their sites so there isn’t information overload and since most people aren’t online for hours at a time even less risk of that.

      All social networking sites are basically set to share information. Use as that, touch base with fans or prospective fans when you can and let the power of site to site networking work it’s magic.

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      • I have to agree with Debra, at least to the point that if every site is providing the same information, what’s the purpose of encouraging people to connect with you in multiple places? I have my Twitter and Facebook linked. The hash tags from Twitter confuse half of my FB friends. Character limits and culture are of major concern here, too.

        Add to that the effect of mixing venues: Twitter feeds on blog pages, for example. Better not talk too much about updating your blog on Twitter then. Just the same, I am looking forward to trying out FanBridge when my writing partnership gets to that point. I think automating our fan communications is excellent wherever reasonable.

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        • Ryan,

          The blog didn’t say use only the same information. It said learn to link them so as not have to update every page individually. It also didn’t say try to get every fan on every page. That won’t happen nor is it the point. Every person has their favorite pages. The idea is to connect with new fans on the pages they visit frequently. If you find away to be an Indie artist who has the time to update every page with new content and still try and make it happen let me know cause I have been doing this 28 years and haven’t found it.

          It’s a blog, not a be all end all. The concept was to have a plan with your social media campaign. So far I have yet to see hardly any musician with one unless it is done by someone else.

          I use twitter and only twitter and it connects to all 35 different sites of mine with no repercussions of overload on content as that most people only use about 3 sites each as ones they frequent. Your job as an artist is to perform and create music not be updating social media all day. Social media is just a avenue for getting your music out there. If you are doing everything in a career to try and make it, you wont have time for what you and Debra mentioned, and if you do have time then you aren’t going to make it anyway as you aren’t doing the rest of what you need to do like booking enough shows, actually performing, developing marketing plans and executing them etc…

          I stand behind my advice and blog as I do it for a living and have great success with it:)

          Good luck to you!

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          • David,

            You are absolutely right! I apologize. I did not mean to pass judgment on the content of your blog post as a whole, but to respond to Debra’s comment. The key line I am responding to in your blog is:

            “It is crucial that all of your social networking pages are linked together, which will allow all of your pages to be updated at once.”

            I simply disagree. There are ways to centralize control of information without making ALL sites contain the same type and amount of content. Tweetdeck, for example, allows publishing to multiple sites simultaneously, allowing a person to pick and choose which sites get what. I can’t speak for Debra, but I am not proposing that sites be updated individually. As I said, I look forward to using tools such as FanBridge, under the presumption that it will allow me to select which sites get which content.

            I think my partnership must be the exception, as we have discussed social media approaches at length. But 35 sites?! I need to find out what you are using, as we have only considered three or four avenues of communication! I definitely wouldn’t have the time to update 35 sites individually. It would drive me crazy.

            Thanks for the well-wishing! 🙂

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          • I didn’t see it as judgement, just reiterating, it’s a blog on a general topic. I don’t get to specific so as to weight it down, or so that people don’t need my services lol

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          • Ha! Yes, you do need to protect your livelihood. 😉

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  2. Hey David, I don’t think that what we’re saying is so different. I mostly was commenting on a mistake that I see a lot of artists make with respect to how they use their social media, which is not honoring the culture of the different sites.

    I don’t think you need to be active all day along to achieve effective use of the main sites. And I don’t encourage my clients to be active on all of them. For gosh sakes, I get invited to a new social media site almost daily. That’s CRAZY!

    I also agree that there are several things that can be automated with great effect, AND that you have to be careful about the automation you do, because it can lose you as many fans as it makes you, as Ryan expressed.

    A great way to work this is start one site at a time. Get to know it, learn what works and doesn’t work, and automate as much as you can, and spend some time getting your following to become viral with authentic interaction and relationship building. Once that’s really going, you can probably reduce your live activity to a half hour or so a few times a week in addition to the automated stuff. Then you move on to focusing on the next site.

    It’s a question of building in baby steps, not trying to do all of it all at once.

    I have great respect for what you do in your blog which is why I frequently read and RT it. You provide great information here. And since it is a blog, not the be all and end all – I would hope that you are open to additional depth added by your readers.

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    • I am definitely open to it, but I have yet to see people hardly ever leave as fans. Only if its uber twitters that post every 15 seconds. Heck I tweet over 300 times a day and have only lost 3 people. I agree for the most part with what you are saying but just knowing statistics, the place to be is twitter and really only there besides facebook. 140 characters is more than enough to be authentic and interactive with fans:)

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    • Looks like I went too long without refreshing the page! Debra, you beat me to it! 🙂

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  3. Completely agree! However, I have lost and I have clients who have lost FB friends/fans because of the confusion created by blindly forwarding all tweets to FB.

    Tools such as Tweetdeck, hootesuite, fanbridge datasource (is that the name, I’m blanking) and others can be used to facilitate and automate your processes. I just think you need to be cognizant and careful in that automation.

    And pick and choose which social media sites you will commit to – and then really commit to them! Consistency is key to success in all of your marketing efforts!

    Thanks for this interesting conversation!
    Debra

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  4. I’m not only a voice over artist but I have been doing internet marketing for a few years now as my full-time job. I do agree with basic status updates being kept together. Using something like ping.fm to post links that you want to see on Twitter and Facebook; photos you want to see on Twitter and Facebook or basic status updates is key. The personal touch comes when you respond to comments, other’s posts, feedback and/or @replies.

    One thing that’s important for any professional promoting themselves on social media is the difference between social media marketing and social media networking. Social media marketing is creating a presence on the social media networks through gaining followers or “friends” on sites. Social media networking is the conversational aspect, when you form online relationships with others through feedback, comments, replies, etc. Having a marketing plan for yourself and a networking plan for yourself should be two separate things. Begin by marketing and creating a presence then ease into the networking once your presence on those networks is established.

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    • Candace,

      Thank you for the reply and taking the time to read my blog. Let me clarify a little. Most people misunderstand networking. Networking isn’t talking and building relationships. That’s relationship building. That is very important and builds the foundation for the networking to happen. Networking is the actual exchange of knowledge, work, opportunities, and so forth. Networking is only networking when people are helping each other or exchanging business. The rest is relationship building. This is why most people fail at networking. They expect things to just happen after they have talked to someone and get frustrated when it doesn’t. In order to network, you need to pursue the exchange and not sit around waiting for it.

      Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog!

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    • Hey Candace – I actually think you’ve got it backwards. I think you relationship build first, then network (and David I love the distinction you made – brilliant!) and then, and only then do you market to people.

      People have a very low threshold for signal to noise when it comes to marketing. Unless you’ve created a relationship. In which case it doesn’t feel like noise to them, but like a trusted source offering a unique opportunity.

      No relationship – you’re just one of many millions who want their time/money/endorsement. With relationship – they like you, trust you, and are much more willing to invest in you.

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      • Debra,

        I don’t know… I actually think it might depend on the type of overall relationship an artist is trying to cultivate. Perhaps someone is looking to generate marketing to attract fans, and then takes the time to get to know them. Others might want to build a fanbase that is personal to them, and work out from there. *shrug* Some people really don’t want to get to know their fans: it’s all buzz machine. “Networking” comes from who is attracted to their buzz, who wants to do something for them (as opposed to being motivated by the relationship).

        Either way, it’s fun to see the conversation open up again. Such great thoughts!

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    • To some degree it depends on what we’re talking about – whether it’s facebook or twitter or myspace or whatever – as I said earlier – different Social Media Site, different culture.

      But what I mean about creating relationship doesn’t mean going out to coffee individually with your fans. It’s more about letting them know who you really are – not just pitch pitch pitch.

      For example on Twitter, if you pitch your music or upcoming shows 2x/day – and have about 4 or 5 other tweets that are about who you are, what’s important to you, what you find funny (and all of those can be programmed in advance using something like hootesuite or socialoomph) and then spend 15-20 minutes a day reading your follower’s feeds and RT or @ commenting on what they’re saying – in other words engaging with them – their experience is that they know you. That they’re in relationship with you. That’s what I mean by creating relationship.

      Think of it this way – when a pitcher is pitching – his goal is to get the batter to strike out. If, however, you’re just playing catch in the backyard – the intention is connection not competition!

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  5. Interestingly enough I was just wondering the other day why you would have a facebook “Fan Page” when it’s more or less the same as your facebook “regular” page. I do get that you can have discussions on the fan page but I hardly see anyone using that.

    Got any tips for why a fan page is good to have on Facebook?

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    • Kimi,

      Thank you for reading and commenting on my blog!

      A personal page is used for personal friends and comments in your life. It keeps out people that you may not want to have knowing your personal life and friends. It’s kind of a safety measure.

      A fan page allows it to focus solely on your work/business and for people to talk and share about that. Branding is keeping things consistent with adding any confusion.

      Keep it simple:)

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      • That makes sense and totally helps me understand why anyone would take the trouble to have “two”.

        Thanks!

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    • In addition a FB Profile is limited to 5,000 – no limit on FB Fan Pages. FB Fan pages are also much more SEO friendly – and anyone can fan you. You can push your blog feed to your fanpage really easily.

      I think of it like this:

      Twitter – most out there public (anyone can find me, follow me, talk to me via @artistsedge

      Facebook Fanpage – second most out there public

      Facebook Profile, Linkedin, etc – quite a bit more private and personal

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  6. Even though this post is from 2010, its information is still relevant.

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