Hey Steemians!
This afternoon we had a long marketing meeting to analyze all the different ways we can improve our concert marketing for 2018 and beyond. As many of you know, we are still independent and try and manage as many tasks as we can "in house" without hiring 3rd parties.
Facebook had always been an extremely helpful tool for us, but over the past 6 months the changes to the algorithm, combined with recent privacy issues has left us feeling anxious about its effectiveness going forward. We agree that we need to explore new options and rely less heavily on Facebook. Our engagement on other social media platforms is not nearly as strong, with Twitter and Instagram at approximately 5% the following of our Facebook Page (150k+). Traditional media is a dying breed, with print and radio each year becoming marginalized. What is the solution?
Music Marketing is a tricky game, because as a band we do not want to annoy you and act too much like a business. Sure we have a product to sell, and we only survive when you buy it, but all we really care about is getting people in our audience so we can rock the house. That means we want to effectively reach people who are interested in our shows without pestering anyone or spamming.
Steem, you're on the cutting edge of the digital age. We are supposed to be the forward thinkers of the web! THE WEB 3.0. So we ask you.... Where do you WANT to find out about upcoming concert dates from your favorite bands?
We are going to be asking our followers on all our platforms this same question and your feedback and engagement is exactly what we need to build a new strategy.
JOIN US ON DISCORD at FIVESTAR ENTERTAINMENT where we talk about a wide variety of topics like this: https://discord.gg/hmBhxR
I love "my bands", but do not go to concerts.
I bought records in the past, today I download and patiently watch or listen to ads on Youtube to support them and also because some of these ads do have values of sorts of their own.
You got upvoted from @adriatik bot! Thank you to you for using our service. We really hope this will hope to promote your quality content!
First off, cudos on being an independent musician! I am one also (at least trying to be one... haha!) so I know how hard it is! As for the question at hand... that's a tough one. With the ever changing world of online promotion, it's hard to tell what will work best in the coming months and years... I know I just try anything and everything when it comes to promoting online... Facebook (even though it's not working like it used to), Steemit, Chat rooms, Instagram, Twitter... It just takes time and patience to grow a nice following. Maybe you can offer rewards to your followers to get their help to promote you, like if someone gets 5 people to sign up for your emails or whatever, give them a free ticket to a show or t-shirt... cd... just something to reward promotion?
Reward promo works. We had kicked around the idea of using an affiliate link with our online store to get people to help get their friends to buy tickets. That definitely works. You're right, having a strategy for every platform is also important and we are pretty active on all of them, but I'm curious where people actually WANT to told about shows. Perhaps the answer is, and forever will be, do EVERYTHING... I just want to narrow the focus slightly and decide where to best use our marketing time since as you know, there are 10 other jobs an independent musician has to do beyond just marketing :P
Dude, I hear that... but it's a catch 22 because this person prefers facebook over twitter and that person likes instagram instead of that platform... So it's really hard to tell you which one to focus on. Facebook used to be the best because everyone had one and most people used it constantly, but they make it damn near impossible to reach a lot of people through their advertising unless you pay them an ungodly amount of money... Even when I pay to boost posts there, it only reaches maybe 20 people that probably would have seen it anyway... so it just seems like a waste to pay for the advertising on Facebook.
Our situation with Facebook is slightly different. Our group page has approximately 150k followers, and right now organic posts reach roughly 1-3% of those fans. With advertising it is more targeted, we can specifically reach people in regions/countries where we are touring and we've found it to be relatively effective. The Big problem is as you've said... it's costly plus the platform is continually changing to make it more difficult for pages/businesses to reach their audience. At the end of the day, we're going to need to spend money to "advertise" our music but I'm starting to see that the fact that we had relied so heavily on Facebook in the past to do much of our outreach and marketing is a problem in the future :(
Right... it's a vicious cycle for sure. I hope you can find a good way to market though without breaking your wallet! ;)
As long as it brings in more than we put out, it's all good right? :D Like your music by the way. You rock!
That's right! That's how you hope it works out anyway! ;) And thank you! I also loved your music as well! I tried playing violin and it sounded like a dying cow or dog... Haha! I just didn't have the touch! But it's such a beautiful instrument! I'm actually trying to learn the mandolin right now!
You got a 8.06% upvote from @childfund courtesy of @thetroublenotes! @childfund is a bid bot to help the steem community sponsor a child.
I am captivated by the violinist @thetroublenotes. Cause also I am. Be bless. Shalom
Thank you @nielfid - I appreciate that.
Thank you for upvoting my post
Very good job
We have a lot of venues where I live so I always check the marquee at my favorites. My tastes have become very grass roots and local all over again.