For independent musicians, Facebook is the new frontier for fan engagement. But the twists and turns can seem daunting, not to mention the near constant changes.
So “5 Things you are Doing Wrong on Facebook” may seem harsh, but don’t worry…. these are easy fixes. That’s not to say that the bigger issue of engaging fans is a quick fix, it is not. But let’s at least start with these easy steps in the right direction.
What are you doing wrong?
1. Sending fans to random Community pages rather than your Fan Page
When you filled out profile information, what did you put down for Employment? Did you use something clever like “employed by my guitar” or “self employed and loving it?” Click that link and see where it goes. Wouldn’t you rather be sending people curious about your business to your actual Facebook Fan Page? You can link directly to it there, and you should.
2. Inviting ALL your friends to your local events
Facebook events are quickly becoming “just so much noise” because the greater community is not policing itself to take the time to target invitations. If you want your events to have impact, use them judiciously, target them appropriately, make them interesting and engaging, and follow up.
3. Exposing your low attendee list
When you create your Facebook event, you have the option to hide your attendee list. Do that. Leave that little box clicked until your event has reached a critical mass of committed attendees.
4. Tagging your photos to your profile rather than your Music Page
Did you know you can now tag a Fan Page in photos? Do that, and encourage others to do it as well. The point of tagging is so you can follow the link back to the place to connect with the person who is tagged. You want to send people to your Fan Page.
5. Not differentiating between your Profile and your Fan Page
I can’t tell the difference between Suzy Songwriter the profile and Suzy Songwriter the Fan Page if Suzy has them identified with the same name (as opposed to Suzy Songwriter Music for her Fan Page) and if she uses the same profile picture for both. What’s more, if she posts exactly the same thing to both at the same time (as happens when you use a social media aggregator like HootSuite or Artist Data), I’m going to eliminate one of them – probably the Fan Page.
And what can you do about it?
Most of these are easy fixes. Truly engaging your fans, however, takes a bit more thought and ingenuity on your part. More on that next time… For now, here’s a quick tutorial on how to link to your Fan Page as your employer.
1. From your Facebook Profile page, click EDIT PROFILE
2. From the menu on the left, click EDUCATION AND WORK
3. Click the X at the far right of whatever you currently have listed as your employer.
4. Click inside the box for EMPLOYER and type in the name of your Facebook page, exactly as it appears.
5. Click the Blue Bar that appears below the box you are typing in, and you’ll see the photo icon of your page. If you see a blue suitcase icon, you have not entered the page name correctly, or you are not an admin for your page.
6. Click ADD JOB at the bottom of the employer section of your screen
#1 by Brian on October 3, 2011 - 7:38 pm
Hi Bev- I was at SWRFA too, and saw you writing this. Very clever thanks. One question: if the artist has two similar pages and you’d drop one of them, why drop the Fan Page if you are saying that the Fan Page is really the more important one (to the artist)? Is that saying that fans actually prefer personal pages? I find that my friends and fans engage me more on my personal page – however I do think I’m just more engaging and ‘myself’ on my personal page. Any suggestions or can you clarify your point? What I like about personal pages is that I can actively Friend people. The Fan Page seems more passive (‘come to me’). If I Friend someone and try to direct them to my Fan Page, it seems like I’m inviting them to my house and then asking them to stay in the screened in porch. What do you think? Thanks!