Tips from RootMusic on how bands can optimize their Facebook presence

This is Matt Conn's first guest post on the Bandzoogle blog - Matt is the head of business development at RootMusic, a cool tech startup based out of San Francisco. Matt works with labels and artists like The Grateful Dead, Pitbull and Bad Religion to enhance their visibility on Facebook. Matt writes about how to use Facebook to harness the power of social networking - he also proudly holds Foursquare mayorships on 3 MUNI lines in San Francisco. Using RootMusic's app can be a complement to your Bandzoogle site and help generate traffic and action on both destinations. Let us know in the comments if you have experience with it, and if you have other tips and tricks on how musicians can optimize their Facebook presence.
In an age when the music industry is rapidly changing, connecting with fans on the Internet has become essential to an artist’s success. Facebook is the largest social network in the world, and having a presence on Facebook is one of the most helpful things an artist can do to bolster their career. Everyone has a Facebook profile, and by setting up a fan page and adding apps like BandPage, both big name artists and local musicians can share their music with new fans from around the world with the click of a button. On Facebook, fans make your music a social experience. Here are a few tips for getting the most out of Facebook:

1. Make a fan page - not a personal profile!

A common mistake that musicians make is setting up a personal profile rather than a fan page. Facebook prohibits users from having multiple personal profiles, so it’s better to have a personal profile for yourself and set up a fan page for interacting with your fans. Rumor has it Facebook is going to disable adding apps to personal profiles - so you won’t be able to add music players to a personal profile. It’s much easier for fans to “like” a page than to “add a friend,” and musician pages are catered towards adding information about your band, such as members, hometown and genre. Pages are easy to use and can be administrated by several people, instead of just accessible by one person.

2. Add the BandPage by RootMusic app

BandPage is an app for promoting your music on Facebook. It’s a well designed app that draws in fans with a sleek design and the ability to customize colors, backgrounds and upload banners. You can have everything in one place: music, tour dates, Twitter feed, blog posts, your wall, bio, contact info, videos and pictures. Fans can share music, videos and shows with friends, allowing new people to hear your music for the first time. This app has proven to increase the number of likes you receive as high as three to five times. You can make your tracks go viral through via optional Autoshare, which posts to your wall every time you update your photos, shows or music.

3. Extra apps

There are also a ton of apps out there that can make an artist’s page look better, increase fan engagement and provide a better all around experience. The trick is to find the best apps for your page - having too many apps can make your page seem cluttered and can confuse fans. Facebook also offers feedback on how many daily likes you get, post views and post responses so you can watch as your fan base grows. A great app is the “Ustream” app. With Ustream.com, artists can stream live video feed, whether it’s a live show or just the band jamming in the your living room. Fans can connect through a live IM chat to the artist on the app. It’s a great way to interact with your fans and give them a personal touch. The “Polls” app is also a great way to directly gauge what your fans want. You can ask them what they thought of your latest album, where they want you to play, or what merchandise they want to buy from you.

4. Add tons of content

On Facebook musician fan pages, bands can write a blurb about themselves, connect to their website, and list all the basic information about their band, including band members and influences. It’s a great way to let your fans know who you are and what your music is about. For example, with BandPage, you can upload music, videos, pictures, bio, contacts, shows, blog posts and Twitter feed. Generally, the more information you have, the better!

5. Promote, engage and share

Through your personal profile, you can suggest your page to all your friends, who in turn can suggest the page to all of their friends. Don’t forget to keep on updating your page - let your fans know when your upcoming shows are and be sure to tell them what you’re up to! You can share all your content directly from your BandPage and other apps by posting new songs, pictures, videos and shows to your wall and friends’ walls. You can invite fans to events, post links and let everyone know about the status of the album you’re recording. Fans can respond to your comments and like what you’re doing. Just be sure not to get too post-happy and start spamming your fans’ walls - then they might hide you from their feed.

The great thing about BandPage is that it can link to your Twitter, Artist Data and blog, so you only have to update once and everyone who’s connected to Facebook will know about it. And whenever you’re sending out e-vites and emails, you can link to your BandPage page.  And with Facebook Analytics, you can see exactly what is and isn’t working on your page. Just click the “Insights” box on the left hand side of the page. You can see the break down of who your fans are by age, gender and location, as well as what people are clicking and commenting on.  It’s becoming more and more important for musicians to directly reach out to their fans, and Facebook is the perfect tool for doing just that. Facebook has become an important destination for musicians on the Internet. The best part? All your fans are already there, waiting for you to join them.