If you want your band to succeed it’s imperative that you keep your fans updated on everything your band is doing. It’s all about the three P’s: promote, promote some more, and keep promoting. It’s important for bands to always have something going on. Especially new bands. Fans, as well as record labels, like to see bands that are productive and active. If your band doesn’t always have something going on, people are going to forget about you quickly.
The Internet has made it extremely easy for bands to network with their fans. There are tons of social networking sites out there, and it’s up to you to make good use of them. The days of sending mail to fans or giving out your phone number (big no-no), are long gone. Everyone is on the Internet, just like you are now, and that’s exactly where your band should be.
Don’t make the mistake of only having a profile for your band on one site. For example, every band has a Myspace profile these days, but don’t just stop there. Not everyone is still using Myspace. There is are droves of Facebookers and Tweople (people on Twitter) that are probably never going to see your band on Myspace because they just don’t use it anymore. So you need to cover all of your bases.
This is where things can get messy, however. It’s time consuming to update your profile on all of these sites each day. That’s why you need an organized system. Every day (or night) when you have free time, make a list of the bulletins you want to post online. Whether it’s promoting a show or just letting people know what you are up to. I suggest writing all of your bulletins in a word processor like MS Word, then login to each of your profiles on every site, and copy and paste your message into each one. This will save you lots of time.
You should consider branding as well. Big companies have been using branding for decades. Your band is also a company, whether you see it that way or not. You should have a consistent theme among all your online profiles. Try to use the same colors, the same promotional tracks and post the same info/updates. This way, no matter where someone finds you online, they will immediately recognize your band.
Scheduling is really the key, though. If you don’t schedule time in your day to do work online promoting and communicating with fans, you’re going to have a hard time keeping up. Setting aside an hour or two each day should be sufficient. That’s plenty of time to login to each site, make any posts you need to make, and then check your inbox and reply to any messages you’ve received.
You should also search online to see if there are any forum boards for your local area. Anything that has to do with bands, upcoming concerts or events. Join the forum and become an active member. Don’t just spam people with stuff about your band, but actually get involved and use the forum for other things to. Establish relationships with other forum members. You’d be surprised how much awareness you can raise for your band when you are an active member of a popular forum, especially in a local community.
