Here are two useful ideas to consider for Facebook music marketing. One focuses on a simple offline approach for connecting with friends and fans on Facebook. The other is a way to increase photo views, improve edgerank and reach more of the friends and fans you already have on Facebook by using photo galleries.
And if you want to go mildly meta, both are examples of companies using blog posts to share useful information while building their brands.
Facebook Marketing Live & Offline
At CD Baby's DIY Musician blog, Chris Robley discusses a simple technique to get folks at live gigs to Like your band's Facebook page.
While attending an album release show for his friend's band Robley noticed that the group, Builder of the House, had left little display cards at each table prompting viewers to Like the band's Facebook page.
Soon the guy at the merch table dropped by to let him know that if he enjoyed the band's music, he could go on Facebook that evening, Like the band and get a free MP3. Since he was approached early in the evening with this offer, it gave him additional incentive and plenty of time to respond:
"Builder of the House brings their Facebook marketing into the real world in a relatively non-obtrusive way, silently broadcasts their band name to the entire crowd for the duration of the evening, and adds the extra human touch– a guy coming around introducing the band to each person at the show, inviting them to like 'em on Facebook, and rewarding those who do with a free MP3."
It's not a radical idea but it does go beyond shouting out your Twitter account on stage by adding a personal touch and visible reminders in the audience's space. It's also a nice example of how old school and new school approaches don't have to be treated as inherently in opposition.
Increase Your Fans' Facebook Engagement With Photo Galleries
Once someone has liked your Facebook page they may never see it again. And the odds are against all your fans seeing your posted content on a regular basis unless engagement is high on the content that is seen by fans.
PageLever's Jeff Widman wrote a guest post at Find Facebook Fans about the experience of one of PageLever's analytics clients, the MTV India show MTV Roadies.
They had been posting lots of individual pics on their fan page. But when they posted a group of pics, which Facebook automatically turns into a gallery while displaying three thumbnails in a post, they found that people were clicking through to check out the whole gallery.
This meant that posts that fans might just look at were suddenly being clicked on which increases one's EdgeRank while encouraging Facebook to show the post to more of their fans. In fact:
- "Photo album posts were clicked 12.9x more than single photo posts in the Facebook Newsfeed"
- "Using Photo Albums instead of Single Photos on Facebook increased reach by 5.1x"
That's a significant increase especially given that Facebook is making it harder for bands to reach their fans with content.
So do check out ways to connect offline encounters with fans to your Facebook page and don't forget to use photo galleries to continue connecting on Facebook.
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) blogs about business at Flux Research and is soon launching Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
