8 Tips To Start Marketing On Google+

Google+ has become the hot new girl in school and everybody wants to be her friend. It's getting traction because it's a Google product, but only to a very small degree. Google has had other products die before (Google Video, Google Buzz, Google Wave) despite their reach, but this one is different. Something just feels so right about it that people seem to be flocking to something they really didn't want or need - another social network.

That being said, it's still too early to put up anything but a personal page, since Google has informed everyone that current artist, band or brand profiles will deleted when they introduce their official brand profiles sometime in the near future (take that as a warning - don't do it yet).

That being said, there's no time like the present to begin planning your Google+ marketing. PRNewser offered these 8 marketing tips. Some are a bit lame, but worth a quick read anyway.

1. Be prepared. Have your brand’s profile ready and put up as soon as permitted.

2. Update your content on various media sites. Google+ has a smoother design to integrate feeds from multiple sources, so review your content on YouTube, Twitter, and other social sites. It should be up-to-date and relevant.

3. Keep an open mind. It may seem like just another task on a lengthy to-do list, but Google+ can prove valuable in new ways. Don’t begin by thinking in the Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn mindset.

4. Take advantage of improved editing control. Facebook’s limited status editing, which only offers deletion, is expanded on Google+, to allow changes to updates once posted.

5. Get your brand’s name out there now while everyone is in love with the site. Once glitches or aggravations come about, the public will be loud and vocal about Google’s failings.

6. Make your name as a Google+ pioneer. Just as Ford Motor Company has been heralded as the first company on Google+, use early adoption as proof of your social media credibility.

7. Add rapidly to your circles. People who are using Google+ are spending a lot of time on the network to get better acquainted. Search for those you know, and don’t know, to follow.

8. Finally, enjoy the process. This tool is in its infancy, so use other’s mistakes to learn the best practices, and have fun while you are at it.

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Who Uses Social Networks?

A few days ago I quoted some stats from the Pew Internet & American Life Project regarding Facebook use. Today we'll look at some of the other interesting tidbits that came from the studio regarding social networking. It really gives you a good idea of exactly who is using the most popular social networks.

• 92% of those that use social networking use Facebook, 29% participate on MySpace, 18% are on LinkedIn and 13% use Twitter.

• Overall social networking usage has nearly doubled from 2008  to 2010.  Back in 2008 26% of adults were utilizing a social networking service (SNS) whereas 47% of adults were using a SNS in 2010.

• Only 18% of Internet users over the age of 35 used a social networking service in 2008, but by 2010 that number was up to 48%.  

• The average age of an adult SNS user jumped from 33 years old in 2008 to 38 years old in 2010

• Social networking users skew female. A notable change showed the discrepancy actually grew from 6% more females in 2008 to 12% more female social networking users in 2010.

• The average MySpace user (32 years old)  is younger than both the average Facebook user (38) or Twitter (33) user.  LinkedIn skews the highest out of all the networks with users having an average age of 40.

• LinkedIn is the only social network that has more men than women and the disparity is rather large, with men nearly doubling the number of women.  Twitter, on the other hand, is almost exactly the opposite of LinkedIn with woman making up 64% of the total users.

• African-American users have the lowest presence on LinkedIn, making up only 2% of the total users. The highest saturation of African Americans is on MySpace with 16% of the total users.

• Hispanic users are not prominent on social networking services either. LinkedIn is comprised of only 4% Hispanics, compared to the approximate 14.5% Hispanic makeup of the national population. Hispanics do however make up 12% of both the Twitter and MySpace user base.

• LinkedIn is far and away the most saturated site when it comes to white users, who make up a whopping 85% of the user base.

• While Twitter finished in last place out of the four main sites, the frequency of use of Twitter is quite high. Facebook  leads the pack in frequency of use with 52% of users checking at least once a day, but Twitter is close behind with 33% of users checking in on a daily basis.

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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.

The 3 Pillars Of Effective Networking

Here's a great post from the Networlding blog called The 3 Pillars of Effective Social Networking. It's not referring to digital social networking however, but to real physical social contact - as in one-on-one personal interaction.

This blog violates a number of digital social marketing principles though, as all I know is the author's name is Melissa, since there's no background about her anywhere that I could find. It seems that she assumes that you know who she is already, which can be a big mistake.

Good post though, about the 3 R's (recognition, referrals and revenue) and the 3 C's of making a referral:

"People love recognition, referrals, and revenue.

Make a referral, but hope you get back:

1. Credit (for the referral, especially when other people use your contact for their benefit, they should give you public credit for the introduction)
2. Contacts (that can help you and your business)

3. Compensation (If and when appropriate)"

Great advice that applies online or good old-fashioned person to person.

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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.

FanTrail - The Next Phase Of Music Social Networking?

The recent South By Southwest conference saw a new kind of social network for musicians debut called FanTrail. It's a new kind of network based on a free iPhone app that not only allows artists to reach out to the fans, but to tap into their highly useful and valuable social information.

One of FanTrail's features, called LoveMail (kind of a dorky name) allows musicians to record short audio messages to fans, which is certainly a lot more personal than a text message that might be ghostwritten. Another feature, LoveMeter, ranks fans loyalty by measuring their music purchasing and concert activity, which could be a data goldmine during a marketing campaign.

According to an article in the New York Times,

"Using FanTrail, artists can tailor messages or commercial offers to specific groups of fans, identified by location or LoveMeter ranking. For instance, a band touring in Chicago might invite only its biggest fans there to a secret show, or offer them premium merchandise. A virtual tip-jar allows artists to collect extra money from fans or raise donations for their favorite cause.

Calling it a “psychographic GPS,” Richard Nichols, the manager of The Roots, imagined that FanTrail could be used for advanced forms of crowdsourcing like testing out new tracks on only the biggest and most loyal followers."

Other similar mobile services are beginning to pop up. Skygrid Groups and Mobile Roadie also have apps built specifically for artists to reach out to fans via their smart phones.

It's good to know that social networking continues to evolve, although some of the bigger networks do show some signs of stagnating a bit (Facebook anyone?).

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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 discussion on music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Music 3.0 Blog Week In Review

Here's the Music 3.0 Blog Week In Review For March 3 through 8:

What Data Should Musicians Collect?
It's the quality more important than the quantity that's important. Read more...

Does Social Networking Affect What You Buy?
A new study says not as much as you think. Read more...

Does Being Signed To A Label Rock?
The RIAA thinks so, but they're biased and their numbers don't make sense. Read more...

10 Low-Cost Low-Tech Promotion Ideas.
10 inexpensive yet effective ideas for great promotion. Read more...

Proof That The Music Industry Is Not Dead.
These RIAA charts show that music is more popular than ever. Read more...

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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 discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The New Ping Guidelines

To say that iTunes Ping has been underwhelming is an understatement. The new social feature seems like such a great idea, but also seems like it was released somewhat before it's time. In fact, one of the major problems has been the difficulty for indie bands to set up a profile, which significantly decreases its immediate social impact.

Thankfully Apple has reached the same conclusion and has come out with a PDF that contains a series of best practices, suggestions and guidelines to smooth the process considerably. I must admit that after reading the paper, it seemed like it contained some necessary information but didn't go quite as far as I expected.

It also had a number of interesting items that caught my eye. The following are right out of the PDF with my comments in italics afterwards.

• "URLs should not be included in the About section of your artist profile. This includes official artist
website URLs. URLs can only be posted in the Event feed." You mean you can't post a URL of your website, blog, or Facebook page? Apple again keeps everything tight and controlled, but in this case it's not such a good thing.

• "Video posts will not display in countries where the product is not available for sale, or where videos are not offered through the iTunes Store." In other words, Ping is a social network that's not available world-wide. This would make me think about spending more time on other social networks that would provide more bang for the buck instead of Ping.

• "Only Quicktime and MP4 files." Windows Media is not allowed, although that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, considering the animosity between Apple and Microsoft.

• "Posts should not include advertisements or links to sites outside of iTunes." The advertisements I agree with, but again, not being able to include links to an artists website, Facebook page or blog is a serious limitation.

It's still too early to known just how effective Ping will be in helping a band increase its visibility and build its fan base. But as it stands now, it seems like there are better places to spend your precious time more effectively.

It's recently been reported that Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg had dinner at Steve Jobs' house. Perhaps Jobs will learn something from the meeting that can make Ping a lot stronger product.

Go here to download the Ping Guidelines.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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

3 Pillars of Effective Social Networking

This is a repost of one of the earliest Music 3.0 blog posts in honor of Labor Day.

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Here's a great post from the Networlding blog called The 3 Pillars of Effective Social Networking. It's not referring to digital social networking however, but to real physical social contact - as in one-on-one personal interaction.

This blog violates a number of digital social marketing principles though, as all I know is that the author's name is Melissa, since there's no background about her anywhere that I could find. It seems that she assumes that you know who she is already, which can be a big mistake.

Good post though, about the 3 R's (recognition, referrals and revenue) and the 3 C's of making a referral:

"People love recognition, referrals, and revenue.

Make a referral, but hope you get back:

1. Credit (for the referral, especially when other people use your contact for their benefit, they should give you public credit for the introduction)

2. Contacts (that can help you and your business)

3. Compensation (If and when appropriate)"

Great advice that applies online or good old-fashioned person to person.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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

Social Sites And How They've Boomed

Here's an interesting graphic that shows how social media networks continue to thrive and grow. The lower the circle, the older the network.

While everyone knows Facebook, Myspace and Flickr, there are a number that you might not be familiar with that have big numbers.

Orkut.com is owned and operated by Google and is big in India and Brazil.

Wayn.com is a network for travelers and is an acronym for Where Are You Now.

HI5.com is the third largest social networking site in terms of unique visitors, but bigger in Latin America than in the US.

Netlog.com is a Belgium network aimed primarily at European youth.

Viadeo.com is a French network that's a competitor to Linkedin.

Draugiem.lv is a Latvian social network.

Multiply.com is a network with an emphasis on shared media and aims to be a one-stop shop for their users Web 2.0 experience. They have some major financial backing.

-----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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

3 Pillars of Effective Social Networking

Here's a great post from the Networlding blog called The 3 Pillars of Effective Social Networking. It's not referring to digital social networking however, but to real physical social contact - as in one-on-one personal interaction.

This blog violates a number of digital social marketing principles though, as all I know is the author's name is Melissa, since there's no background about her anywhere that I could find. It seems that she assumes that you know who she is already, which can be a big mistake.

Good post though, about the 3 R's (recognition, referrals and revenue) and the 3 C's of making a referral:

"People love recognition, referrals, and revenue.

Make a referral, but hope you get back:

1. Credit (for the referral, especially when other people use your contact for their benefit, they should give you public credit for the introduction)
2. Contacts (that can help you and your business)
3. Compensation (If and when appropriate)"

Great advice that applies online or good old-fashioned person to person.