How To Pin Or Highlight A Post On FaceBook

At some point it's worthwhile to transition from a personal Facebook page to a fan page. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that outlines a couple of the cool things that you can do with your posts on a fan page - pinning and highlighting.

"Perhaps the two biggest reasons why a personal page is no substitute for a fan page is the fact that a personal page can have a maximum of 5000 friends, plus you can’t access any of the analytics (called Facebook Insights) available. 

Your Facebook Fan Page

The fan page differs from a personal page in that you can have an unlimited number of Likes and access to Facebook analytics, but it also has a number of additional advantages beyond that. These are the things other than the privacy aspect that make a fan page attractive.

• Pinning posts on the Timeline. If there’s a particular post that you’d like to appear at the top of your timeline, the administrator (hopefully you) can pin it there (see Figure 6.1). This will keep the post at the top of the page for seven days, after which it will return to the date when it was posted. This ensures that everyone will see that particular post for a week, at which time it’s probably old news anyway. To pin a post, click on the edit button on the top right of a post.

Figure 6.1: Pinning a post to the Timeline

• Highlighting a post. This is a variation on pinning, the difference being that instead of appearing at the top of the page, highlighting makes it stretch out the width of the page so it’s more noticeable (see Figure 6.2). It still stays in the same place, but it visually sticks out of the page. To highlight a post, click on the edit icon at the top right of the post and select highlight next to the star.

Figure 6.2: Highlighting a post

• A unique experience. The beauty of a fan page is that each fan gets a different experience. If someone visits your fan page, they also see what their friends are posting about you, even though it’s not posted directly on your fan page."

To read additional excerpts from Social Media Promotion for Musicians and my other books, go to the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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The Biggest Spotify Artists Of 2014

#1 on Spotify

Spotify just released it's 2014 most-streamed figures and a lot of familiar faces show up once again. That said, one surprise is the rise in popularity of Ed Sheeran, who comes out on top as the most streamed artist in general, the most streamed male artist, and had the most streamed album. Here's the top 5 for a number of Spotify categories.

Top 5 Most Streamed Artists
1. Ed Sheeran
2. Eminem
3. Coldplay
4. Calvin Harris
5. Katy Perry

Top 5 Most Streamed Males
1. Ed Sheeran
2. Eminem
3. Calvin Harris
4. Avicii
5. David Guetta

Top 5 Most Streamed Females
1. Katy Perry
2. Ariana Grande
3. Lana Del Rey
4. Beyonce
5. Lorde

Top 5 Most Streamed Groups
1. Coldplay
2. Imagine Dragons
3. Maroon 5
4. OneRepublic
5. One Direction

Top 5 Most Streamed Tracks
1. "Happy" - Pharrell Williams
2. "Rather Be" - Clean Bandit
3. "Summer" - Calvin Harris
4. "Dark Horse" -  Katy Perry
5. "All Of Me" - John Legend

Top 5 Most Streamed Albums
1. X - Ed Sheeran
2. In The Lonely Hour - Sam Smith
3. The New Classic - Iggy Azalea
4. GIRL - Pharrell Williams
5. My Everything - Ariana Grande

Spotify is an on-demand service so anyone getting into the Top 5 of any category has a measure of popularity that can't be denied. That Ed Sheeran's brand of acoustic music could be so popular shows that just about any type of artist or genre of music can make it in Music 4.0.

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It's Easy To Lose Money On Tour

Pomplamoose

Every heard of the band Pomplamoose? This duo gained some measure of fame a few years ago by doing ingenious videos of cover songs that made them YouTube stars. The pair eventually landed a number of high profile television commercials as a result, but the band's regular income still comes from videos, where a makes around $6,000 for each one produced.

Pomplamoose recently decided to embark on a 23 city tour to capitalize on its online fame, and leader Jack Conte wrote about it on his blog, covering all of the band's expenses and income. Here's what he wrote:

Expenses
$26,450 for production expenses including gear rental, lights, van and trailer rental, road cases and backline.

$17,589 for hotel and food expenses for the 28 days on tour plus a week of rehearsals.

$11,816 for gas, airfare, parking and tolls

$5,445 for insurance

$48,094 for salaries and per diems

$21,945 for manufacturing merchandise, publicity (radio, venue and Facebook ads)

$16,463 agent commission
TOTAL $147,802

Income
$97,519 in ticket sales
$29,714 in merch sales
$8,750 sponsorship by Lenovo
TOTAL $135,983

That means that the band lost $11,819 on the tour.

If you look at the expenses, it seems like the band thinks it's better known that it is (I bet you can't name one Pomplamoose song) and spent like they were a couple of levels up from where they actually are. For instance, considering that the band was playing mostly 400 to 600 seat venues, bring their own lights was unneeded, and buying new backline and road cases for the tour probably should have been filed under personal musician expenses.

Then the fact that the band stayed in hotels when most bands at this level are still couch surfing, the fact that they seemed to have paid their sidemen and crew above market level, and the fact that the band paid for radio and venue ads (isn't that what a promoter's supposed to do?), and you have a net loss when the tour could have made money.

Don't fret for Pomplamoose though, as this can be seen as more of a promotional tool for them than anything. Jack Conte is the founder of the successful Patreon crowdfunding site, so it seems that ultimately the band can absorb the loss without the bill collector pounding on the door.

It does goes to show that it's just as easy to lose money on the road as it is to make it, so watch those expenses.

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Music Tastes Of Americans

Nielsen's Music 360 report is always a good read, and the 2014 version has some great info on the music listening habits, preferences and tastes of Americans. It's a great way to spot the latest trends and get some meaningful insight in how we consume music. Here are some of things we learned.

• Americans really do like music, as 93% listens to it, spending more than 25 hours a week doing so.
• 75% of Americans would rather listen to music than watch television.

Where do we listen to music most?
   - In the car - 23%
   - While working - 16%
   - While doing chores at home - 15%
   - While doing other activities - 13%
   - While exercising - 12%

• Radio is the top music delivery system, with 59% consuming their music that way.
• 48% consume most of their music from their own libraries
• 41% from on-demand streaming services like Spotify and YouTube
• 36% from radio-like streaming like Pandora or iTunes Radio
• A surprising and important stat is that 18% have purchased a song while streaming it.

The phone is really important when it comes to music delivery, although it only comes in their behind radios and computers when it comes to listening devices. That said, 39% of smartphone owners purchased music on their devices, which was up from 34% a year ago.

Americans appetite for music is not diminishing as many fear, but although streaming and smartphones are coming on strong, it's still good old fashioned radio that we still love the most.

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Bobby O Cyber Monday Specials

It's time for some Cyber Monday Specials that can help the career of any musician, songwriter, artist or band.

Using social media is not the same thing as using it as a promotional too and Social Media Promotion for Musicians shows you how and why. This is a great manual for optimizing your personal or band's brand, your website, email list, and YouTube channels and videos, as well as all other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit.

Special 30% Off The Retail Price (you must register on the Createspace ebook store). Use code 4T9VLP26

Amazon Special Deal - Print Edition Deal or Kindle Edition Deal (only $9.97!)

The latest edition of Music 4.0 Internet Music Guidebook takes us into the world of streaming, as it lays out just how artists and songwriters get paid in this new evolution of the music business, as well as covering the new movers and shakers in the business, as well as the latest in the battle between DIY and traditional record labels.

Amazon Special Deal - Print Edition Deal or Kindle Edition Deal

Bobby Owsinski Courses on Lynda.com. The Black Friday deal continues with a free 10 days of unlimited access to check out all the video courses (there's over 3,000 of them) on the platform.

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