[James Nighthawk]

Some of you have followed my thread about twitter and facebook and how I have found each of them over the last year as ways to promote my music:

http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/songwriters-resources/facebook-twitter-6-months-in-views-and-experiences/

As I am promoting my album release, I have now looked into the "other" social networks. I have signed up for pretty much everything, and will see which I take to and why. Here is the list!

Google+
Tumblr
Pinterest
MySpace (the "new" version)

and of course SoundCloud and ReverbNation...

Initial findings:

-Tumblr and Pinterest are VERY visual. So pushing audio content might be tricky. I see them as more instagram type places.
-Google+ is a mess. But, people refollow readily and seem to engage a little. So I am following all the music types I can and whoring it about on there: musically speaking!
-The new Myspace is very slick and pretty. I was very impressed. Until - I uploaded a song - the audio codec is TERRIBLE as as such my songs at any bitrate, MP3 or wav, sounding like arse! So deleted those straight away!

So, for now, any users of these networks, please chime in with thoughts and advice to maximise their potential, and of course enjoy my time clicking around there

Ta! JNx

[Ramshackles]

tumblr is great for 'non-word' blogs. Videos work well there.

I have a tumblr that is more of a dumping ground for any good music I find that I want to be able to find again

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/musicfantastic

Im starting to think that keeping web presence to a minimal is better...this probably comes from playing gigs.
Basically, at a gig , people want to be told one place to go (not a list). Say it and they will go there, so having a proper website is good.

Outside of that I would generally stick to only facebook, and twitter (if you can keep a steady stream of interesting tweets). They are the defacto ones to gain followers. I've never heard anyone say 'whats your tumblr/pinterest?'. I've been asked exclusively, either 'whats your facebook' or 'whats your website'.

Tumblr seems pretty much the domain of blogs/picture blogs...the only musicians you find on there are those treating it as their 'proper' wesbite (linked up to a .com domain etc)...

[James Nighthawk]

Good points ramsy. And I have follwed your tumblr

The best thing possible is a hub website, which has social network links on the homepage. That way people can pick and choose. At gigs at the moment I simply mention FB and twitter. Once my website is live properly (a matter of weeks I hope!) I'll simply say "head to jamesnighthawk.com". Plus it'll be on the ol' flyers and business card-type-things.

The "other" social networks are more an experiment. I agree that spreading thin for real audience is a risk. But. For online surely the more bases the better?

For instance, today on Google+ I joined a songwriting circle that aims to promote unknown artists. In one afternoon I have received three YouTube subscribers, four comments, and two FB shares. This is free publicity for a big of clicking around while I had my cornflakes this morning 

[anthonyceseri]

Some of you have followed my thread about twitter and facebook and how I have found each of them over the last year as ways to promote my music:

http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/songwriters-resources/facebook-twitter-6-months-in-views-and-experiences/

As I am promoting my album release, I have now looked into the "other" social networks. I have signed up for pretty much everything, and will see which I take to and why. Here is the list!

Google+
Tumblr
Pinterest
MySpace (the "new" version)

and of course SoundCloud and ReverbNation...

Initial findings:

-Tumblr and Pinterest are VERY visual. So pushing audio content might be tricky. I see them as more instagram type places.
-Google+ is a mess. But, people refollow readily and seem to engage a little. So I am following all the music types I can and whoring it about on there: musically speaking!
-The new Myspace is very slick and pretty. I was very impressed. Until - I uploaded a song - the audio codec is TERRIBLE as as such my songs at any bitrate, MP3 or wav, sounding like arse! So deleted those straight away!

So, for now, any users of these networks, please chime in with thoughts and advice to maximise their potential, and of course enjoy my time clicking around there

Ta! JNx

Glad to see you're taking the web by storm
It's good that you have a presence on all of those sites. And that's interesting to know about the new myspace... I haven't heard many people comment on that.

[James Nighthawk]

Updates:

The New Myspace actually tweeted me. They are "aware" of issues with their audio player for user uploaded content and looking to resolve it. So that is something. I will try again in a few months and see where they are

Pinterest, is, perhaps unsurprisingly, useless for a musician. It is all about arty photographers and graphics people. But I tried 

Now. Tumblr. This might be something. I am using the search function to follow people that hashtag bands I like. The refollow rate is fairly healthy. I am posting a mixture of pictures, blogs, links and the occasional song or Youtube video from me (one a week max of these). And I am getting some of my stuff "hearted" and/or "reblogged" (Tumblrs equivalent of "sharing")

As such, this has potential.

Someone has just reblogged my Two Door Cinema Club review. She is a TDCC fan. She will have friends that are. As such, shit can go viral. Perhaps. So I am sticking with tumblr and spending 15 minutes a day here.

Moving on

SoundCloud is now my fav hosting site. It is probably cross pollination (posting links on Tumblr, Google+, FB, twitter etc) but I am getting between 3 and 12 plays every day now. Without really trying. The embedding and sharing of SoundCloud is better than any other site I have used, plus it is very iOS compatible.

I have also joined some "groups" on SoundCloud. You can add your songs to groups, pretty much just playlisting yourself for people that like "acoustic" etc. Whether this is helping with play tallies I can't be sure. In fact, my "kitchen sink" approach here is making it hard to pinpoint what tactics are working best.

Just a general update for those that care about these things

[Ramshackles]

+1 for the soundcloud hosting. By far the best for easy embedding on your website/facebook/tumblr....
Looks nice too.
I don't really use it outside of that though..I don't do much following or group joining or anything really

Tumblr is interesting and there are a few pro bands who use that for their main website (ed harcourt is one). Lol that you followed me...I really do just use it to dump music I find that I want to come back too ..don't even know how to interact with people etc

I abandoned myspace quite some time ago...I wasn't even aware they had given it a make over...
I don't think it will really change much though. They were just a little off the mark with that site and the only reason I think it really took off in the first place was 1) it was (one of) the first of these types of site. 2) Good name...

Im swinging further and further towards just gravitating to a main website and facebook (with soundcloud for hosting) and ignoring all else in the social network crowd. 3 gigs into our 'career' and that has got us more mailing list sign-ups and song plays than all the previous years of just messing around on the 'net
Live, for me, is still the best fan-building tool...

[James Nighthawk]

Live, ftw, of course!

But not everyone goes to gigs. (Nearly) everyone Facebooks.

But, conversely, gig-goers are the big voices in the music world, the "you have to check out this band/act" people that shove new music at their friends.

I have a gig Thursday. I have half a dozen mates coming. Two or three of them are bringing a small crowd each. These are the people we need, the influential types.

And I hope you are right re personal website, having dropped a pretty penny on my site which should be live soon. Your logic is good and similar to mine. But no harm driving people to it from multiple sources

 

[Mackofficial]

Hey James,

Just read your posts, thanks I have found them really useful!

I have kept my social media to a bit of a minimum until I was confident I had a demo of 4 or 5 tracks I was really happy with...I am pretty much there now, phew! Thanks goes out to guys on here who have provided me with helpful feedback.

I really like Soundcloud and have found this the most useful so far. I will follow you now.

Thanks again.

Mack

[KEROUAC1957]

Just thought I'd mention some pretty good luck I've had with Soundcloud recently. I'm not sure if this something out of the ordinary but about the middle of last week I had around forty followers. I then hit upon an idea.

I decided to go down another users large list of people they follow and to just follow anyone who has over 1000 followers. I figured that this gives you potentially more connections with other users as it's possible that you will appear as a link on their page either as a follower or as someone they follow (assuming they follow you back).

So in the space of a few days my followers went up by about another forty and less than a week later I'm up to 141. So over 100 in a week.  Is this unusual? I don't have any completed songs on my page but just works in progress https://soundcloud.com/paul-dukelow

I'd be interested if someone else wants to try this and see if it works for you. The total people I follow is around 800 although I'm not sure what it was before this experiment.

[Alan Starkie]

KEROUAC1957 :

Thanks for that idea -

I added 550 people last night and got over 50 followers over night plus many comments and listens on songs.

I'm going to continue with this strategy now.

Alan.

[KEROUAC1957]

That's great Alan. I'm glad it works. I haven't continued with the process for now as I'm waiting till I have some finished songs. But I'm guessing this creates a snowball effect and the more followers you get the more exposure you have.

[Alan Starkie]

Quick addon to last post -

TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS!

[KEROUAC1957]

No I'm getting a buzz from all the notifications. It's exciting.  

[Alan Starkie]

Well this is great. 12 hours later and 130 new followers.

This really is snowballing - fantastic.

I'm going to leave the updates for a while now and just see what happens.

Laters folks.

[Boydie]

I know this is stating the obvious but I thought I would throw it in to the pot...

Don't forget to choose people that are in a similar genre/style to you to maximise your chances of getting "meaningful" followers - ie people that want to listen to and appreciate your music and not just other people doing the same thing trying to expand their lists

Ie don't just choose someone with a big following without listening to make sure you are a "fit" to their music

Although whatever way you look at it the results from these 2 examples are very impressive