Top Musician App Providers Respond To Major Facebook Band Page Changes
Yesterday's major changes to Facebook brand and band pages are forcing musicians, music marketers and music tech providers to quickly rethink their Facebook strategy. Timeline is moving front and center, and as of March March 31st, no longer can a default Facebook landing page be created by ReverbNation, RootMusic, Fanbridge or other outside app. Hypebot asked executives from the three top Facebook band Page app creators to respond to yesterday's announcement:
"We knew this change was coming and have put together a smooth transition for all artists using BandPage. This brings new opportunities for us as the leading music solution on FB and we've got a few things coming that we're excited to show everyone!"– J Sider, Founder and CEO RootMusic
"Facebook has evolved their interface several times since we launched the first profile page app for Bands in 2007, and each one became an opportunity to improve our product. Our approach is to look at the new set of tools and constraints, and to map them to meet the needs of the millions of Artists and Venues that have installed our facebook apps to date. We're already working on exciting modifications that will help our users maximize the value of the new layout." –Jed Carlson, Co-Founder and President ReverbNation
"Timeline's value will be more oriented around relevant content and promotions instead of static pages and media consumption. It's the right way to go, and Timeline will work nicely with features that we will be rolling out over the coming months. Right now, it gives our fan pages a little more prominence from the main page. It also offers more real estate to our clients who know to link directly to it. This way, they can capture fan connections that they'll be able to truly own." – AJ Magnuson, VP of Product Fanbridge
While trying to put the best possible spin on a shifting situation, each company also told Hypebot that additional Facebook tools for musicians will be available well before the forced shift to Timeline on March 31st. We'll share them with you as they are announced.
- Facebook Announces Major Band Page Changes & They're Probably Going To Hurt You
- How Musicians Can Benefit From Facebook's New Timeline [Ariel Hyatt]
Timeline for brand and band pages is great news for bands. Overall it will make marketing better for bands and more relevant for music fans.
One of the big effects of the new timeline pages is a move away from tabbed application landing pages, which today are very popular, but do little to engage music fans. Lets face it, static landing pages are not that interesting. The new timeline format will make marketing on Facebook more natural and conversational. The timeline formant focuses attention around your stories or news feed items which is a dynamic experience and much more interesting for fans.
A major benefit of the new timeline pages is that it will remind bands to listen more to their fans and engage them in interesting conversations around music, the road and their daily lives. This, without a doubt, results in happier fans. Another new key timeline feature is that it lets bands see their most reactive news feed posts and share them with fans more broadly. This is key in spreading the word about your band, and, as many of you know, the best form of marketing.
And lastly but most importantly over 45% of your fans are checking you out on their mobile phones. The timeline will greatly increase your band’s reach while requiring less work. One status update and you’re done. This is much better than having to buy mobile ads in addition.
All in all, these changes require that bands become more conversational with their fans but this is a good thing, no? After all, the power of Facebook and Twitter is in you sharing your stories and music with the world.
I’m really surprised that I seem to be the only one MAJORLY disappointed in the timeline change.
For starters, the timeline header isn’t ideal for branding as far as I’m concerned. Even following the exact proportions Facebook will mess with the resolution of your image after upload and it can make some images look janky.
More importantly is the time spent on developing our presence via apps. I was very impressed with the Band RX app after reading about it here. Can’t make it the landing page – what an amazing waste!
Let’s be real. The average internet user has the attention span of a toddler on a sugar high. I can’t imagine the statstics of someone clicking through to actually view an app being much better than 1 in 10.
In our Band RX I had our videos, which are one of the main ways people discover our band, front and center. Ohhh how sorry I feel for the time spent by these developers for what is doomed to the graveyard of another click away.
DISAPPOINTED!
Jay
http://theEnergyCommission.com