This is a guest post by Neil Vineberg, CMO, ThingLink
(@nvineberg)
Using photos as a design element in web design is a powerful way to connect with fans. Great fan connections start with compelling photos. Bandzoogle makes it easy to add your best images to your website and also supplies a wide assortment of stock images that make your Bandzoogle site look awesome.
By using ThingLink, Bandzoogle users can make those personal and stock photos interactive with audio and video players, social links and social sharing.
What is ThingLink?
ThingLink is a free app that turns any photo in a platform for content and sharing. By activating a ThingLink account alongside Bandzoogle, you can make your website photos interactive. Add music and video players. Sell merch and albums inside photos. Place any interactive photo as an app on your Facebook fan page. And fans viewing your interactive photos can share them across their social networks and embed them in blogs and tumblrs, extending the power of your Bandzoogle site through images that live across the Web.
Who is Using ThingLink?
ThingLink has been popular with labels and artists like Van Halen, Keane, Evanescence, Seether, Blink-182, Gorillaz. Hundreds and thousands of bands like JCQ from the UK and Conveyor from Paper Garden Records in Brooklyn, NY, also make images interactive with ThingLink.
Why Interactive? It’s all about Engagement
Fans like to discover stuff. If you’re building a fan base, Interactive images can help you engage fans in content discovery and position content (an audio player song sample) on an image right next points of sale (shopping tags for Amazon, eBay, iTunes, BestBuy and more).
Thanh Nguyen, digital marketer at Atlantic Records, who has promoted albums by Jason Mraz, Simple Plan, Christina Perri, and Bruno Mars, uses ThingLink to “aggregate and link back to all of the band’s social properties” and he suggests that promoters “customize the offering as much as possible...make sure the content is compelling.”
Nick Lippman, manager of Rob Thomas and Matchbox 20, sees ThingLink as a way of “promoting the different avenues an artist and a brand are trying to get out simultaneously, such as single, new video, new tour dates, fan club opportunities, contests and more - all in one place!”
Go Facebook Interactive
In addition to adding interactive images to a Bandzoogle website, ThingLink is a DIY editor for creating apps for Facebook pages. Now any interactive concert poster or CD cover with links can appear as a Tab (App) on your Facebook Fan Page. Here’s how.
Lynn Grossman, at Secret Road Music Services, used ThingLink on Facebook to preview tunes from Songbook, the new album by Ingrid Michaelson. “We came up with the idea of publishing an embeddable online songbook that would preview a song a day, offer downloadable lyrics to the song and have her talking about the meaning of each song leading up to the day of the release. The goal was for people to engage with the songbook daily for 2 weeks and to share this experience on their social media sites. Thinklink proved to be the perfect solution.” The click through rate on this campaign was >80%.
What Can You Add With an Interactive Photo
- Showcase your videos, sound clips and social links inside a photo.
- Add iTunes, Amazon or Topspin sales tags to an album cover image.
- Add a Bandzoogle tag featuring your band’s URL so viewers can link back to your Bandzoogle webpage
- Create a Tab on your Facebook fan page featuring your interactive image.
What Can you Do with your Image App on Facebook
- Post a concert tour poster withinteractive links
- Publish a concert image with sound or video links
- Turn a merch package image into a store with sales tags.
What Kinds of Tags can you use on your images?
Check this slideshare of ThingLink Rich Media Tags.
In addition to these awesome tags, you can add any URL and up to a 1500 character description to a tag and it will show up as a tag.
Get Started with ThingLink
Sign up for a free account at ThingLink.com. Bandzoogle users will receive a free year of ThingLink PLUS when you use coupon code “ILuvBandzoogle” during the signup for PLUS.
Setting up Bandzoogle and ThingLink
Now that you’re signed up on ThingLink, here’s how to make your Bandzoogle images interactive.
1. Locate your Thinglink account embed code.
2. Copy the embed code to clipboard.
3. Open your Bandzoogle site and go to Bandzoogle's “Design & Options”.
4. Click "Footer Text" on left side menubar.
5. Paste the contents of the clipboard to the Footer Text box. If you already have some existing contents, just make sure that you don't overwrite them, but put the code after the content.
6. Click Save.
While you are logged into Thinglink, log into Bandzoogle at the same time. You can edit your images at Bandzoogle as long as your Thinglink.com account is also open. To add Thinglink to your images just click the View Site button first.
Read more at the ThingLink Blog.
For questions about ThingLink, visit support.thinglink.com.
Why not share this with your friends?
Build a stunning band website and store in minutes
- Promote your music on your own unique website.
- Sell music & merch directly to your fans. Keep 100%.
- Grow your fan base with built-in marketing tools.
Free 30 day trial, no credit card needed.
Comments