3 Steps To Creating The Perfect Custom Thumbnail For Your Videos

It's surprising how influential the thumbnail graphic is when it comes to getting people to click on your video. That's why it's much better to choose your own thumbnail when uploading to YouTube or Vimeo, rather than letting the service pick one for you.

Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that explains how to create the perfect thumbnail image in three steps.

"One of the easiest ways to get more views is by having an appealing thumbnail image. 

When you upload a video, YouTube usually selects three screen grabs from which you can select the thumbnail. The problem is that it’s likely that none of these provide an image that instantly tells the potential viewer much about your video. 

A customized image can now be used as the thumbnail instead of the selections made by YouTube or Vimeo. Here’s what to do:

1. Find the perfect still shot. Search through your original video (the one you had before you uploaded it to YouTube) until you find that one shot that perfectly describes what the video is all about. This might be an action shot, or it could be a close-up of a face or product, or it could be anything that grabs the viewer’s attention. Whatever it is, make sure that it’s relevant to the video. When you’ve found it, export it as a jpeg or PNG image, or even take a screen grab.

2. Add text. Use an image editor like Photoshop, Pixelmator or GIMP to add text to identify the video. Make sure that the text is large enough to read easily on a small screen found on a smartphone. The file size should be less than 2MB.

3. Click on the Custom Thumbnail icon and upload. This can be found on the Info and Settings page, which is accessible from the first icon (the first one) at the bottom of the video viewer. Viewers will now see your custom thumbnail."

You can read more from Social Media Promotion For Musicians and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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An Overview Of Email List Service Providers

An email list as an integral tool for building your brand and your following. It's vitally important that you choose the right email service provider though, since that will impact how and when you email. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that contains an overview of the more popular email service providers available.

"When I wanted to send one of my first email newsletters to a list of only about 1200 (which seemed large at the time but is really tiny in grand scheme of email lists), I was astounded to find that my Internet Service Provider (ISP) wouldn't allow me to send to more than 100 addresses simultaneously from my business account. That meant that I had to split my list up into 12 batches, which made the job take a lot longer than it should have. After a number of calls to my Internet service provider at the time, I discovered that just about every ISP limits the number of email addresses that can be attached to an email in an attempt to keep spam in check, yet I knew that there were companies that sent emails to millions of addresses at a time every day. How did they do it?

That’s when I found out about Email Service Providers or ESPs. ESPs have an agreement with the various Internet service providers to make sure that their customers aren’t what we would consider spammers. While the odd few may push up against those boundaries, ESPs go to great lengths to make sure that you don’t fall into that category by constant checking spam reports and large email address imports, then making you personally verify that your lists are opt-in and not purchased or just skimmed from a forum.

That said, the only limit to how many addresses you can send to hinges on how much money you want to spend, since almost all ESPs work on the same principle - the greater the number of email addresses, the more it costs.

Here’s a list of email service providers to investigate. Each has their pros and cons, so it’s best to check every one out thoroughly before you commit. Since most of them also have free 30 day trials, you can try before you buy to see if a particular service is what you’re looking for.

TIP: Some email list providers are free if you only have a few hundred addresses. Even with a volume that low, it's so much easier to use an ESP than your own email client. Try it. You'll wonder how you ever got along without one.

As stated above, all of them have a nice selection of professional-looking email templates, but how they’re customized is slightly different, so be sure to check that out. Of course, if you already have a web designer that can design a good looking HTML newsletter, the templates won’t matter as much to you as the other features.

Mailchimp.com

Aweber.com

Campaigner.com

Campaignmonitor.com

Feedblitz

MyNewsletterBuilder.com

iContact 

WhatCounts 

Constant Contact

Get Response

Vertical Response

BenchmarkEmail

PinPointe

MyEmma

These are only just a sampling of the popular ESPs available, and you can also find a number of email list review sites that will give you a ranking and allow you to easily compare services. 

TIP: Even if you compare ESP features carefully, the best way to really find out which one will serve your needs is to use it for a bit first with the free trial they all offer."

I currently use GetResponse myself after trying out just about every one that's listed above. It has the right combination of features for me, but may not fit for you. Like most other services, whatever you feel has the best combination of services and ease of use is what you should use.

You can read more from Social Media Promotion For Musicians and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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5 Legal Requirements Every Email Newsletter Must Have

You may not know it, but there are a number of things that are legally required in every email newsletter that you send out. While most email services automatically address these, it's still important to know what they are and why they're enforced in the first place.

Here are the 5 legal requirements that every email newsletter must have, which have been excerpted from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book

"While it may seem that it’s entirely up to you about what’s contained in your email, be aware that every mass email blast that you send now requires several things by law. These are:

1. Easy opt-out: You have to provide an easy way for subscribers to unsubscribe if they want. Once a subscriber opts out, you then have 10 days to stop sending them messages (although most expect it to happen immediately), and the unsubscribe option needs to be available for at least 30 days after the e-mail is sent. Most ESPs will automatically remove the address to a “do not send” list if the subscriber chooses to unsubscribe.

2. Identify your topic: The subject line of your e-mails has to clearly and accurately identify the content of the e-mail. Any misleading or bogus subject lines are construed as spam.

3. Return address: You have to include a legitimate return email address, as well as a valid postal address. Some ESPs even make you include a phone number. If you don’t want people to know your home info (I don’t want to broadcast it myself), open up a PO box, and get a Google Voice number if a phone number is required.

4. No email address harvesting: You can’t collect addresses from chat rooms, discussion forums, or blog comments. Once again, people must opt-in and give you permission to send something to them.

5. You can’t offer a reward for forwarding: You can invite subscribers to “forward this newsletter to a friend,” but you can’t entice them to do so with offers of money, coupons, discounts, awards, or additional entries in a giveaway. 

Remember that spam is a serious business. It’s not only bad form, but you could be held legally liable as well."

You can read more from Social Media Promotion For Musicians and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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12 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Post On Social Media

As I've said many times here and in my book Social Media Promotion For Musicians, just being on a social network doesn't mean that you're using it effectively for promotion. There's a mindset that's need before you can use any network as a promotional tool.

Here are 12 questions to ask yourself (thanks to this Time article) before you post to any social network that will help you focus your content for greatest impact.

1. Is the message educational or entertaining? Stop if it doesn't fit these categories.

2. Is the voice correct? Remember to stay within your brand and not get too personal.

3. Is it too long? Shorter posts get more engagement.

4. Is the URL correct? You did remember to include a link, right?

5. Should I target a specific audience with this message? Sometimes it's better to just address a specific portion of your audience or fanbase.

6. Did I use the right keywords and hashtags to maximize exposure? Keywords and hashtags are still important.

7. How many times have I already posted something today? Too many posts in the day may mean that this one could be ignored.

8. Did I spell check? Something that people notice immediately.

9. Will I be okay with absolutely anyone seeing this? Stop and rewrite if you feel the slightest bit uncomfortable.

10. Is this reactive communication or is it well thought-out? If you're angry, take an hour to calm down before you post.

11. Did I make the most of visual content—images, video, slides? Visuals increase engagement on almost all platforms.

12. Did I make the most of my update text—headline formulas, polls, quizzes? You only have so many chances for attention so make the most of them.

The best way to use social media as an effective promotion tool is to post great content. Follow these 12 questions and you'll always be sure that you're in the ballpark.

You can also read some excerpts from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book on the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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Your YouTube Channel Checklist

If you have a YouTube channel (and if you don't you really should create one right now) you can optimize it by utilizing its features to the fullest. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion for Musicians book that outlines the things that you should be sure are taken care of.

"☐ Branded Channel Art

The channel art is the banner at the top of the page where you can display a customized graphic. YouTube suggests this graphic be 2560 x1440 pixels so that it works on all types of televisions, tablets, smartphones and computers, but what YouTube will show on most computer browsers is 1546 x 423. This is known as the “safe area” and is where you should place any critical graphics information since anything outside that area might not show up on a device with a smaller screen. The graphic can be up to 2MB and in either a JPG or PNG format. The Channel Art upload section is accessed by clicking on the pen icon on the top right of graphics box. You can access a template for the channel art, as well as a design tutorial, by clicking on “How to create channel art” at the bottom of the upload pop up box.

☐ Channel Description

You access your channel description from the About tab underneath your channel name. After the About box pops up, select the pen icon on the upper right to edit. From here you can enter or edit the description. Be sure to include all the information about your channel in the description, such as what to expect from the video content as well as who’s involved (like the members of a band).

☐ Website link

The website and social medial links are accessed in the same manner as above; through the pen icon on the top right of the box. Here you can add links to websites, blogs and social networks. The first weblink you entered will appear on the lower right side above your channel art, as will the social network icons. The others will appear in the About box.

☐ Social Media Links
Make sure that you connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your YouTube channel.

☐ Channel Icon (picture)

The avatar is either a picture of you, your band, or product that appears on the upper left of your channel page. The avatar can be up to 800 x 800 (you’re able to crop it) and 1MB in size, although the smaller the file size the better, since it will load faster. The picture is stored with your Google+ account, and you can also access any pictures stored there to use as your avatar.

☐ Featured Video or Trailer

Another thing that you can do is feature a particular video or trailer at the top of the page when someone who is unsubscribed visits your channel. Simply select the pen icon on the top right of the box, select a video, then hit save. You can see what both subscribers and non-subscribers see by toggling Unsubscribed trailer and Subscriber view next to the edit icon.

☐ Playlists

YouTube allows you to create multiple playlists, which can have a great influence in how your fans consume your content. If you have a fair number of videos, you might want to create different playlists for different parts of your fan base, since each may have a different desire of what to watch. While your superfans will want to see everything you upload, your casual fans may be more selective. You can select the order and layout of these playlists, or create a new one, by selecting the edit icon on the top right of the playlist box."

It's easy enough to have a YouTube channel without using many of the above features, but it will be so much more powerful if you do as it connects with the rest of your online presence.

You can read more from Social Media Promotion for Musicians and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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8 Steps To Discovering Your Brand

We all have a brand, but most of us just don't know what it is. Branding yourself, your music, your band or your product is extremely important if you want to become a success in the music business however, so it's important that we discover what our brand is - and the sooner the better.

Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that provides 8 steps that you can use to look inside yourself, your music, or your business to begin to discover your brand.

"1. What name are you using? Am I using a business name or product/service name that’s most comfortable to me now? Can I name the service I provide something other than a generic name? Is the name easy to say and remember?

2. What makes my business or product stand out from everyone else? What do I do? How would I like to be perceived? If you’re a service business, list your core specialties, then narrow it down to 3, then narrow it to 1. If you have a product, list its benefits, then narrow it down to 3, then narrow it to 1.

3. Who do I wish to serve? How do I do it? Describe the people that you currently do business with or are your customers. Describe the people you would like to do business with, or the customers you’d like to attract.

4. What is the current image of the business or product? How do my current customers describe it? Ask a variety of people, then extract the commonalities.

5. What’s my customer service like? How do people feel when they work or interact with me? How do they feel if they come to me with a problem with a product or service that my businesses has provided?

6. What does my business stand for? Is there a cause I really believe in? What are my values? What really matters to me? What would I never do?

7. What’s the look of the business? What colors represent the business? Is there a certain type of clothing that represents the business?  Does the business name or product suggest an image?

8. Is there a current brand that I identify with? Why?"

If you can answer these questions, you're well on your way to not only discovering your brand, but developing it into a powerhouse as well.

You can read more from Social Media Promotion For Musicians and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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5 Tips To Get Bloggers To Write About Your Music

It used to be that just one good review in a magazine could sell loads of albums. Even a bad review could be really good for business if it was in a publication like Rolling Stone.

That's all changed since magazine reviews have become pretty irrelevant as the music world has moved online. Now its the music blogs like Pitchfork or Stereogum that can make the difference not so much in sales, but visibility to a new audience.

Sometimes those larger blogs are tough to break through, but the smaller bloggers still provide more of a one on one chance to state your case.

But how do you approach bloggers in the first place? There really is a right and wrong way to do it, so here are 5 tips to get a blogger interested enough in what you're doing to actually post about it.

1. Read the blog for a while to become familiar with the theme and feel. You can turn the blogger off completely by sending something cold without knowing the backstory of the blog.

2. Make some post comments without any overt marketing. Just try to move the conversation along on a few posts. The idea is for the blogger to recognize you as someone who contributes regularly and adds to the conversation. 

3. Only after the blogger becomes familiar with you is it safe to reach out about what you’re doing. If you're a regular reader and contributor, the blogger is much more likely to read a press release or take a listen to your music. 

4. Sometimes asking a question about your project gets a response. While many bloggers are too busy to answer every email, many go out of their way to accommodate a regular reader and contributor. As a result, it's perfectly okay to follow up after you've sent something to the blogger and there's a good chance he'll answer. 

5. Never hard sell, just inform. Hard sell is a turnoff in general. Don't do it. It's okay to state the relevant information, but keep the superlatives like "Best band ever!" out of the equation.

If you want additional tips and tricks about promoting yourself or your music online, check out my Social Media Promotion for Musicians book. You can read excerpts at bobbyowsinski.com.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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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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.

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you. Thanks!

The 3 Elements Of An Artist's Online Promotion Strategy

If you're an artist or band it's very easy to be overwhelmed by all the options online. That's why you need a solid strategy to make sure you don't spend more time than is necessary, and really getting the promotional value you want from your online presence. My Social Media Promotion for Musicians book lays out a strategy for this, and here's an excerpt that provides an overview of the 3 elements of online promotion that should bring it all into focus if you have any confusion at all.

"There are a lot of online elements that every artist, band or brand has to be involved in these days in order to be an effective online marketer. It’s pretty easy to get confused and either not know where to begin, or throw yourself scattershot at all of them, which usually means that your efforts will be ineffective when it comes to promotion. If we just look at the major components, it looks something like this:

• Your website
• Your email list
• Facebook and Google+ posts
• Twitter
• Music releases
• YouTube video posts
• Blog posts

Throw in any of the 100+ additional networks available and it’s no wonder why artists, bands and music execs become bewildered by it all. We can make things a bit simpler by separating these components so they fall into one of three categories; content, interaction and tactics. If we break all this out, it looks like this:

1. Content: the places online where you place the material that you generate, like information about your band, music, videos, or blog posts. Interaction is all the social networks where you might interact with your fans and followers. These include:

• Your website
• Your mailing list
• Your blog
• Your videos on Youtube and other video sites
• Your music files on Soundcloud or other music hosting sites

2. Interaction: the places where you regularly communicate with your fans, followers, clients and customers. These include:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• Pinterest
• Bookmarking
• Instagram
• Any other social network

3. Tactics: everything required to define and refine who you are and your position in the online world. These include:

• Branding
• Strategy
• Measurement

All this gets more interesting when we put into the form of a Venn chart as in Figure 2.1 and watch how the categories intersect.

Figure 2.1: A Venn chart of your online presence. 

As you can see, where all three category circles cross, a new element pops up - promotion. This isn’t possible without all three elements combined, which goes to show just how synergistic they all are. Use only one or two and you fall short; use all three and new possibilities for promotion arise. That’s not the strategy though, only the general overview."

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

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3 Steps To Creating An Online Contest

One of the great things for an artist about being online is that there are so many options for promotion. A great one is launching a contest. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that outlines general contest basics.

"Artists, bands and musicians are always looking for ways to increase their fan engagement and contests can be a good way to do that. A white paper from Launchpad6, a site that specializes in conducting all kinds of online contests, had a number of suggestions regarding conducting a successful one with video. The following three ideas from the paper are worth considering.

1. You need a premise. A premise is the basic idea of the contest itself. Here are some ideas to ask yourself first:

• Is content for the contest readily available or easily created?
• Is that content interesting?
• Is the content shareable?
• Is there enough passion for the idea?
• Is an element of voyeurism involved?

2. You need a prize. Cash is always king when it comes to attention, but sometimes smaller more niche prizes can be more alluring to your target audience. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the prize appeal to my target market?
• Will my market find the prize valuable?
• Are there any other smaller prizes that I can offer?

3. You need promotion. Your contest won’t get any traction if it’s not promoted and you get people to enter. Here are a few ideas to consider:

• Create a video for the contest and seed it around the web
• List your contest in directory sites
• Don’t forget social media
• Try partnering with a blog or industry publication or anything that has more reach than you do."

Be aware that many platforms have very strict rules about contests, so be sure to read them before you launch. In most cases, it's much easier to use a third party plugin to help even though you may have to pay for it.

You can read additional excerpts from Social Media Promotion For Musicians and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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6 Steps To Branding Your YouTube Channel

Branding is incredibly important for an artist or band and how to discover and develop it is something that has been touched on numerous times in this blog. Your brand can be enhanced greatly if it extends to your YouTube channel, which is something often overlooked. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion for Musicians book outlining 6 steps to branding your YouTube channel.

"There are a number of areas that are available on your channel that enables you to emphasize your own design or brand. Let’s look at them:

1. The Channel Art: The channel art is the banner at the top of the page where you can display a customized graphic. YouTube suggests this graphic be 2560 x1440 pixels so that it works on all types of televisions, tablets, smartphones and computers, but what YouTube will show on most computer browsers is 1546 x 423. This is known as the “safe area” and is where you should place any critical graphics information since anything outside that area might not show up on a device with a smaller screen. The graphic can be up to 2MB and in either a JPG or PNG format. The Channel Art upload section is accessed by clicking on the pen icon on the top right of graphics box. You can access a template for the channel art, as well as a design tutorial, by clicking on “How to create channel art” at the bottom of the upload pop up box.

TIP: Your channel art should be attractive and consistent with your brand, but don’t be afraid to also feature any of the personalities, characters or content of the channel.

2. The Channel Description: You access your channel description from the About tab underneath your channel name. After the About box pops up, select the pen icon on the upper right to edit. From here you can enter or edit the description. Be sure to include all the information about your channel in the description, such as what to expect from the video content as well as who’s involved (like the members of a band).

3. Website and Social Media Links: The website and social medial links are accessed in the same manner as above; through the pen icon on the top right of the box. Here you can add links to websites, blogs and social networks. The first weblink you entered will appear on the lower right side above your channel art, as will the social network icons. The others will appear in the About box. 

4. Channel Icon or Avatar: The avatar is either a picture of you, your band, or product that appears on the upper left of your channel page. The avatar can be up to 800 x 800 (you’re able to crop it) and 1MB in size, although the smaller the file size the better, since it will load faster. The picture is stored with your Google+ account, and you can also access any pictures stored there to use as your avatar.

5. Featured Video/Trailer: Another thing that you can do is feature a particular video or trailer at the top of the page when someone who is unsubscribed visits your channel. Simply select the pen icon on the top right of the box, select a video, then hit save. You can see what both subscribers and non-subscribers see by toggling Unsubscribed trailer and Subscriber view next to the edit icon.

6. Playlists: YouTube allows you to create multiple playlists, which can have a great influence in how your fans consume your content. If you have a fair number of videos, you might want to create different playlists for different parts of your fan base, since each may have a different desire of what to watch. While your superfans will want to see everything you upload, your casual fans may be more selective. You can select the order and layout of these playlists, or create a new one, by selecting the edit icon on the top right of the playlist box."

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

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9 Twitter Etiquette Rules

Twitter is all about engagement, but if you don't follow the unwritten rules of etiquette, you'll find yourself with fewer and fewer followers. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion for Musicians book that explains the 9 Twitter etiquette rules that every user should know.

"This is a fairly simple medium, but there are certain unwritten rules that attempt to keep people from annoying one another. Despite this group etiquette, you’ll still no doubt run into situations that may make you want to scream, but keep in mind that it’s probably bugging others as well. Rest assured that sooner or later the offender gets the message and either mends his ways or leaves. Let’s take a look at what you should know.

1. Don’t use all caps. One of the things that netizens universally hate is someone COMMUNICATING IN ALL CAPS. This is considered the equivalent of shouting, is more difficult to read, and just plain impolite.

2. Don’t be rude. What’s rude in real life is rude on Twitter as well. The problem is that people are more easily offended online because they can’t see any facial expressions or body language, and as a result, what you consider to be a rather harmless tweet can kick up a firestorm. The way around this is to think through every tweet before you send it and stay away from any provocative language.

3. Don’t use an affiliate link in a tweet. Links in a tweet are a good thing, but it’s bad form to include one that’s blatantly trying to sell something or make money.

4. Don’t ask someone for a favor publicly. Just like doing it in a crowded room, it’s uncool. Better to ask in a private conversation. Use DM instead.

5. Don’t auto-DM. It’s possible to set up an automatic direct message welcoming someone when they follow you. Save your time and money as this is considered bad form. If it’s not personal, an auto-DM can do more harm than good.

6. Issue a high volume warning. If you’re going to be tweeting more than normal (like from a show, conference or event), tell your followers in advance. No one likes their Twitter feed to be controlled by one person.

7. Don’t be negative. Nothing turns off followers faster than negative commentary. If you can’t say something nice and be positive, don’t say it at all.

8. Don’t provide too much information. Twitter isn’t a place for details. There’s not enough room in the limited number of characters that you have, which means that you have to resort to more tweets, which puts you into the realm of over-tweeting. As with most things online, less is more.

9. Pause between tweets. Another thing that makes people crazy is a big volley of tweets one after the other. Take a break before your next tweet. Give other people a chance to get their tweets seen as well.

Following these online etiquette rules will not only help you keep your followers, but will keep you in good Twitter standing. It’s just a little bit of courtesy, but well worth it."

If you'd like 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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Get More Video Views With A Custom Video Thumbnail

Loading a custom thumbnail

One of the easiest ways to get more views for your video is by having an appealing thumbnail image. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion for Musicians book that describes the simple process of creating a thumbnail that really sells the video.

"When you upload a video, YouTube usually selects three screen grabs from which you can select the thumbnail. The problem is that it’s likely that none of these provide an image that instantly tells the potential viewer much about your video. A customized image can now be used as the thumbnail instead of the selections made by YouTube. Here’s what to do:

• Find the perfect still shot. Search through your original video (the one you had before you uploaded it to YouTube) until you find that one shot that perfectly describes what the video is all about. This might be an action shot, or it could be a close-up of a face or product, or it could be anything that grabs the viewer’s attention. Whatever it is, make sure that it’s relevant to the video. When you’ve found it, export it as a jpeg or PNG image.

• Add text. Use an image editor like Photoshop, GIMP or even Preview to add text to identify the video. Make sure that the text is large enough to read easily on a small screen found on a smartphone. The file size should be less than 2MB.

• Click on the Custom Thumbnail icon and upload. This can be found on the Info and Settings page, which is accessible from the first icon (the first one) at the bottom of the video viewer. Viewers will now see your custom thumbnail."

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

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3 Reasons Why An Artist Website Is So Important

Many artists are tempted to just rely on a Facebook or Tumblr page as the main online point of contact, but that strategy can have a number of unforeseen problems. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that explains why.

"Unfortunately, a website many times gets overlooked as an integral piece of your digital promotional life because there are so many other places that you can use as your online focal point. Having a Facebook page or Tumblr blog, or relying on another social network as your online central focus has a number of potential flaws, not the least is control of your message. Let’s look at three scenarios where relying on a social media site as your main contact point can prove disastrous.

• Scenario #1: Our first scenario is a real-life example of a band I’ll hypothetically call “The Unknowns,” since one of the band members asked me not to reveal their true name. During the heyday of MySpace around 2004 the band was hot and eventually developed a following of over 900,000. This led to a number of record labels becoming interested (remember that they sign you for your audience, not your music), with the band eventually signing a big deal with one of the largest major labels at the time. The label immediately told the band to suspend their MySpace account because “we can do all that better in-house than you can.” In typical record company fashion, the label ultimately did very little for the band’s online presence. They did create a new slicker label-managed MySpace account, but they were not able to transfer any of the band’s previous followers, thus leaving them with a presence that was far less than they had before they were signed. Of course, when The Unknown’s album was released they had no way to alert those 900,000 followers since they didn’t have any of their email addresses, and they didn’t even have a website where their fans could go in order to discover the latest news about them. Needless to say, the album bombed and the band was dropped from the label. They never recovered that massive fan base that they had before they were signed.

The moral of the story is that if they had redirected those fans from their MySpace account to their website in order to harvest at least some of the email addresses, things might’ve turned out a lot differently, since they could have alerted their fans when the album was released. And that’s the problem with relying on an external site that you don’t control as your focal point online.

It's too easy for today's artist who only dabbles in social networking to get complacent and comfortable with the abilities of a single social network, but that can spell disaster for maintaining your fan base if you're not careful. As those artists who formerly depended upon MySpace now know, what's hot today can be ice cold tomorrow. But other negative scenarios also exist that can be far worse than the network falling out of favor.

This scenario was recently played out again early 2013 in a slightly different manner when MySpace relaunched an updated version of their site. Every single artist lost all of their followers, and every MySpace user lost their previous settings, and any affiliation with the artists they were following. All users had to reregister again, and all artists, regardless of how popular they were (even owner Justin Timberlake), started all over again with zero followers!

• Scenario #2: Let's say that you've cultivated a huge following on Facebook. What would happen if Facebook was purchased by EXXON (highly unlikely, but let’s pretend), who decides that all it wants is the underlying technology of the network, and shuts the rest down? If you didn't capture the email addresses of all your followers, you'd lose them to the nothingness of cyberspace. Don't laugh - a scenario like this could happen, but most likely on another smaller network.

• Scenario #3: What would happen if Facebook (I'm picking on them because they're the big dog on the social block) changes its terms of service, and now charges you $.25 for every fan past 100? If you're lucky enough to have 8,000 fans, it's going to cost you $2,000 to continue. Or what if they decided to limit everyone's fan connections to 100? Both are unlikely, but something similar could happen, where suddenly you’re unable to access that large fan base that you've worked so hard to develop.

The point of all of the above scenarios is that when you depend on a social network for your online presence, you’re ceding control to an unknown, unseen force that can change it’s will at any time with no regard to your online well-being. That's why it's imperative that you don’t count on a single social network for your total online presence or even your social media presence. If you rely on an external network, sooner or later you're going to get burnt. It's the nature of the Internet to constantly change, and it's too early to get a feel for the life span of even of the largest sites and networks. 

Just to illustrate the volatile nature of social networks, in 2005 MySpace was the most visited social network online with 100 million users. A mere five years later and it had dropped below 25 million, yet has recently doubled that number and is growing again. What this means is that you must pick and choose the social networks that you participate in wisely, and always engage in a number of networks in case one suddenly falls out of favor."

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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Which Part Of Your Website Is A Gig Magnet?

If you're an artist or band, hopefully you have a website. If you do, you're probably wondering if it actually helps you to get gigs. By itself, a good artist website can be a good introduction to any promoters checking you out, but there's one section that's more important than all others that's usually overlooked by more artists - the booking section.

Here's an excerpt from the artist website chapter of my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that covers the essential parts of the booking section of a website that gives it that extra punch to make it a gig magnet.

"If you’re generating some buzz in your local scene, make sure that if an agent or promoter does check out your band that you have pertinent information available on your website for them. Create a “Bookings,” “Book Me,” or “Book My Band” section on your website, which can be similar to an online press kit, but instead includes specific additions like: 

• Statistics about the number of newsletter subscribers, Facebook fans and Twitter followers you have. Remember that your social media presence is now taken into consideration by most bookers and promoters, as it’s a vital part of their marketing too.

• Average attendance for your shows. Are you regularly selling out 50 ,100, or 500-seat venues? Make sure to include it.

• The markets and venues that you play in.

• A photo gallery with lots of quality live photos, including any that include crowds in packed venues.

• Good quality live videos meaning good video quality, good audio quality, packed rooms, and minimal audience talking. Audience sing-a-longs are always worth including as well.

• A stage plot of how your gear is normally set up.

• A typical set list, if you’re a cover band.

• Quotes from the media that mention your live show.

• Quotes from venue bookers.

• Quotes from fans about your live shows.

Other than that, you should always blog and tweet about your live shows, which we’ll discuss in Chapters 7 and 8. Post about the turnout, the crowd reaction, and post plenty of pics and live video whenever you can. All of this will help create the impression that you’re a hard-working band that takes their live shows seriously."

You can read additional excerpts from Social Media Promotion For Musician (and receive a free chapter too) and my other books on the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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An Overview Of Email List Services

There's no shortage of posts here about why an email list is so important for an artist or band, but determining which email list provider (ESP) to use can be confusing. Here's an overview taken from my Social Media Promotion for Musicians book that provides a number of ESP alternatives.

"Here’s a list of email service providers to investigate. Each has their pros and cons, so it’s best to check every one out thoroughly before you commit. Since most of them also have free 30 day trials, you can try before you buy to see if a particular service is what you’re looking for.

TIP: Some email list providers are free if you only have a few hundred addresses. Even with a volume that low, it's so much easier to use an ESP than your own email client. Try it. You'll wonder how you ever got along without one.

As stated above, all of them have a nice selection of professional-looking email templates, but how they’re customized is slightly different, so be sure to check that out. Of course, if you already have a web designer that can design a good looking HTML newsletter, the templates won’t matter as much to you as the other features.

Mailchimp.com

Aweber.com

Campaigner.com

Campaignmonitor.com

Feedblitz

MyNewsletterBuilder.com

iContact 

WhatCounts 

Constant Contact

Get Response

Vertical Response

BenchmarkEmail

PinPointe

MyEmma

These are only just a sampling of the popular ESPs available, and you can also find a number of email list review sites that will give you a ranking and allow you to easily compare services. 

TIP: Even if you compare ESP features carefully, the best way to really find out which one will serve your needs is to use it for a bit first with the free trial they all offer."

For what it's worth, I've at least tried most of these on the list. I used Constant Contact for a long time, but recently changed to Aweber, mostly because it tightly integrates with a variety of shopping carts and 3rd party apps, and because each list can have it's own set of autoresponders. That said, sometimes a provider has a single feature that's important to what you're doing, which will make it the obvious choice.

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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5 Tips For A Killer Artist Website Design

Thanks to online website builders like Wordpress, Wix, Weebly and Squarespace, it's now incredibly fast and easy for an artist or band to set up a website. That said, just because it's easy to do doesn't mean that what you'll come up with will be visually appealing. Since so much of website engagement is built around how the site looks and feels, not to mention how it affects your Google search ranking, the first and foremost thing is that your site is easy to read.

Here are 5 easy to implement tips from the Designing Your Website chapter of my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that will ensure that your site not only looks attractive, but invites engagement as well.

"The look of your site has to reflect your brand. What that means is that there’s no sense making it dark and menacing if you’re a pop band, or making it flowery and colorful looking if you’re an EDM artist. That said, here are a number of basic points to consider with your design.

1. Use the screen real estate wisely.

• Keep the most important content "above the fold," or at the top of the screen where the reader doesn’t have to scroll down.
• Watch out for clutter. Achieve a balanced layout by designing no more than three focal points by using the "big, medium, small" strategy.
• Provide enough white space around elements so that they’re visually distinguishable, but don't leave big areas of blank screen. 

2. Specify fonts that are designed for the screen.

• Sans-serif fonts (those without the little tails on some of the characters) generally works the best (Verdana, Tahoma, Arial), although some serif fonts work okay (Georgia). Stay away from Times as it’s designed for newspapers and can feel dated. Use any decorative font you want in a logo image, but stay away from browser decorative fonts (Impact, Comic Sans) that draw more attention than the copy itself.
• Only use two font families per page or site at most, and then only to contrast headings to text, or sidebar to main content.
• Format paragraphs and other content for the best readability

                 - Use text-align: left for blocks of text.

                 - Use text-align: center occasionally for a page heading or a special effect. but never for text blocks.

                 - Use text-align: right to connect form labels with their data entry boxes or to connect left-hand captions to their associated images.

                 - Use text-align: justify only if the column is wide enough so that it doesn’t leave blocks of white space down the middle. 

3. Avoid using fonts smaller than 10 point (depending on the font). One of the things that site visitors hate the most is having to zoom in to read something.

4. Fit the color scheme to the purpose of the site.

• A good bet is to select your colors based on your logo or an important image on the page.
• Like fonts, use one main color and one secondary color for a page or site; a third color might provide emphasis or contrast.
• Check for sufficient contrast between text and background, and also check that the contrast works for any color-blind visitors.
• Never use color alone to provide information.

5. Design For Mobile

Be sure that your site is built to display on a mobile browser. Don’t forget that the world we now live in is a mobile one, and it’s going to be even more so in the future. Make sure that your site looks good on a phone or tablet before confirming it as complete.

• Check the layout to be sure that everything shows up where you expect it on the screen.
• Check the readability of the text to be sure that the information on the site is useful to the visitor."

To read additional excerpts from Social Media Promotion For Musicians or my other books, go to the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com. You can also download a free chapter by filling in the form on the right.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

The Secret To A Fast Loading Website

One of the things that everyone hates is waiting, whether it's in a line at the supermarket or Apple store or accessing a website online. If you want to make sure your fans and potential fans have a good experience on your website, it's imperative that it loads quickly. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that describes just how to do that.

"Site load time can be critical to the user experience, which is why so much attention is taken to optimize the images on any site. As an image file size gets larger, it becomes slower to load, which is why ideally most images are kept well below 100kB in size. 

Optimization is a trade-off between image quality and a small file size. At some point, the image quality will suffer as the file size is decreased. Finding the ideal point is where the image detail remains sharp but the file size is sufficiently small. Here are some things to consider when optimizing the images for your site.

• Make sure that the resolution of the graphic is set to 72 dpi. 300 dpi is the standard for print (although it can go as low as 150), but that’s overkill on a computer monitor. Newer monitors display at 96dpi, so you can consider using that resolution, but anything higher currently provides no advantage and just makes the file larger.

• Save your graphics in a jpg, png or gif format. Any other format may not display and natively will have a file size that’s too large for a quick download.

• Decrease the number of colors to 32. Most color graphics won’t lose all that much even when decreased from a million colors, yet it can make a big difference in file size.

• Decrease the quality to an acceptable level. Sometimes the difference between a jpeg quality level of three and ten is so small that you can hardly tell, yet it makes a big difference in the file size.

TIP: File sizes are cumulative to a page. Remember that seven 100kB images equals 700kB, which will load much slower than if they all were half that."

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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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.