How To Set Up A Google+ Band Page

Finally Google+ now makes it possible to set up an artist, band or brand page. This isn't as cool as it could be, since the customization possibilities are still limited, but it's still way better than the personal pages that everyone had to have prior to November 7th.

Here's what you do to get started (thanks to Mashable for the list):


1. Sign in to your Google account and then head to http://www.google.com/+/business/. 

2. Pick a Category.
You now have to select which category you fit into. This one might be a little difficult in that so many categories can fit. As you'll see in number 3, each main category has subcategories that conceivably could work if you're into the many areas of music that exist.

3. Add Info
Enter your band or business name and website info, then select the subcategory that suits you best. These sub-categories are dependent on the main category you choose. If you're a band, you can use "Music Band" under the Entertainment category. On the other hand, you might want to be classified under "Celebrity", "Arts and Entertainment" or "Music" under the Product or Brand category. It's too early to know if this selection will make any difference at all in your traffic.

On the same page, select who can view your Google+ profile. The default is any Google user, or you can restrict this to 18 and older or 21 and older.


4. Add A Tagline and Photo
You have only 10 words to summarize your business, then you can add an image. Describing what you do in 10 words is actually a pretty good test of nailing the true essence of who you are and what you do.

5. Get the Word Out
At this point, Google offers you the ability to tell your personal Google+ circles about your new business page.

6. You're done! 
On your new welcome page, Google generates a link to your Plus page (which is a string of random characters instead of a vanity URL). You can also get a Google+ button for your site. It's now up to you to start adding people to circles (different to personal pages, the defaults include "team members," "customers," and "VIPs") and get posting.

Now I must say that I've tried a few times today to create a page for one of my blogs without success. I kept on getting an error that never said what was actually wrong with the data that I entered. That said, most people haven't had trouble creating their own brand, band or business page, so go to it. Now is the best time.

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

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An Instant Band Page With Onesheet

For a new artist or band, not only is it important to get your music together, but your online presence is equally important as well. If you have the dough you can hire a company to integrate all of your social media on to a new custom website, but that takes time. Most artists couldn't be bothered with programming their own site, and even if they could, that takes time as well. Time which could be better spent creating great music.

Now comes Onesheet, a site that can get your artist page up and running in literally only a couple of minutes. The brainchild of Artistdata founder Brenden Mulligan, Onesheet sucks in all of your social media data from services such as Songkick, Twitter, FanBridge, SoundCloud, Moontoast, Sonicbids, Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook and more and displays it on tabs on the page. You can then upload a picture as a background, then easily tweak the layout and info box to give you an instant band page. The best part about Onesheet is that once you set it up, you don’t need to update it because it’s  fed by your other social media sites. When you update them they update Onesheet to keep it up to date.

There are a couple of downsides that I see with the service, but they're minor considering the positives. First of all, your URL is a subdomain of Onesheet. In other words, it's "onesheet.com/yourname" instead of your own custom "myname.com" URL. The other is that the layouts are all the same except for the background image. Still, if you need something online right now, and I mean RIGHT NOW, this is the one service that will do it quickly and extremely easily. Oh, and it's free too, at least for now.

There's more info on Onesheet in the short video below.

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

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for daily discussion of music, recording, and production tips and tricks.