Music. Marketing. Social Media.

Musicians, Twitter and Facebook are NOT MySpace!

One thing I’ve noticed as musicians have started migrating away from MySpace, is that the habits of MySpace seem to have migrated to their newly-preferred social networks as well.

Some of these habits include:

• Tweeting exclusively about “my new track” or “my MySpace page” or “my upcoming show”
• Spamming your Facebook fans and friends with event requests
• @ reply spam (on Twitter)
• Adding completely random people on Facebook, a la MySpace style

I’m in favor of musicians having a presence on multiple social networks, but I’m only a fan of this if they take the time to observe and figure out what I like to call GANP – “Generally Accepted Networking Practices”.  Each network has a unique set of these, and they can be likened to GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), as an over-arching set of accepted social behaviors.

I’ll be diving in deeper to each social space in further entries, but for this one I’ll leave you musicians with a few tips for each mentioned above.

Twitter

• Don’t auto-DM new followers (this is taboo)
• Don’t @ reply spam your followers asking them if they’ve heard your new track(s)
• Review your stream. Is it 100% about you? If so, QUIT TWEETING and take a look around
• DO deliver value
• DO engage with your fans
• DO mention your upcoming gigs, new tracks, etc… but in moderation

Facebook

• DON’T send event requests to your entire group/friends list/fan base.  If they don’t live in the close geographical area, this may get annoying.
• DON’T add random people who have no apparent connection to you or public interest in your music
• DON’T fill your status updates with the same stuff you’re posting on Twitter (mentioned above)… “me”, “more me”, “oh look, even more me”, and finally “the world revolves around ME”
• DO segment your audience and send messages and invitations as appropriate
• DO update your status with things of value and interest to your audience
• DO toot your own horn a bit, but DON’T go overboard

My personal pet peeves are pretty easy to guess from the above advice.  I’m happy to listen to a new track, but I much prefer being personally approached rather than spammed.  I’m happy to RSVP for your event, but not if it takes place 10 states away. I’m less likely to read your messages if you spam me with event invitations.  I’m even less likely to go to your event when you come around if I’ve been spammed.

Everyone has their own set of limits and preferences for each social network.  I’ve outlined my basic “rules” on my Contact Me page for easy reference.

What are your pet peeves about musicians and “the MySpace effect”?? I’m compiling a list of “Do’s” and “Dont’s” and want your advice.

Tags: Facebook, music, MySpace, social networking, Twitter

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 5:41 pm and is filed under music, opinion, social networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.