Quick question regarding Facebook

[MrBoingBoing]

Hi all,

Just a quick question for the musos on Facebook:

Do you keep your 'friends' list strictly for those who you know face-to-face, or do you let fans/listeners/other musicians 'befriend' you? Or is a Facebook 'page' better for that?

Cheers,

Simon.

[Synthetic Aurality]

Wish I could help, I only use Facebook for people I've actually met. I keep thinking I should start a "band page", but.. just more work. :( When I get famous (lol), then I'll revisit it.

[RJT]

When in bands.. We use Facebook to promote our live shows.. It helps bring people out and in turn, puts more cash in our pockets. It's a marketing tool.. And a free one at that. If you take the time to invest a little (time) into it.. It pays off. The one band I was in became recognized via Facebook and ended up being the primary reason why they ended up making it somewhere. The reality is, nearly everyone has a Facebook page.. Therefore, it becomes the best way to reach out to new potential listeners.. Did I mention that it's free advertisement? And you don't even have to get off the couch to do it.

Now that I've completely strayed from the topic.. I hate Facebook.. But have one. Only for people I know face to face.. And a very select few others that I have gotten to know well over the past few years.

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

I'm running into this same problem.

I would consider myself an avid "facebooker" as I'm always promoting something, posting about this and that...just count up the number of plates I'm constantly spinning and you'll see I'm pretty much connected to facebook all day long.

Now the thing is, I've got a personal account where I post music stuff, yes...but I also post pictures of my latest vegan food creations, pictures of me and my wife, landscapes, etc.

I get at least one friend request every couple of weeks from someone who I know is a musician, but I've never met or will "like" any of my pictures of my kale chips or sunsets. Are they real friends? Not really...but should I add them because I'm a musician too? I mean I have music pages...you can obviously "like" those pages, right? Or do you really want to be friends?

This is where I draw a blank... nonono:

Cheers,
-S1gns

p.s. Anybody from AO is an exception to this rule...you are all my friends! :hug:

p.s.s. One solution would be to "respond" to the friend request by sending them a message saying "Hey you can like my music page!" and paste the link, then delete their request. I've done this before...multiple times.

[sup909]

Yeah, I keep facebook strictly for friends and family, people I have met in real life. I really use Twitter more for the connections with other musicians since those conversations are sometimes most beneficial when they are public as opposed to "private".

I have a page for my work, but I never use it. It is just too much work to continually try to create a feed that interests people.

[RJT]

I'm running into this same problem.

I would consider myself an avid "facebooker" as I'm always promoting something, posting about this and that...just count up the number of plates I'm constantly spinning and you'll see I'm pretty much connected to facebook all day long.

Now the thing is, I've got a personal account where I post music stuff, yes...but I also post pictures of my latest vegan food creations, pictures of me and my wife, landscapes, etc.

I get at least one friend request every couple of weeks from someone who I know is a musician, but I've never met or will "like" any of my pictures of my kale chips or sunsets. Are they real friends? Not really...but should I add them because I'm a musician too? I mean I have music pages...you can obviously "like" those pages, right? Or do you really want to be friends?

This is where I draw a blank... nonono:

Cheers,
-S1gns

p.s. Anybody from AO is an exception to this rule...you are all my friends! :hug:

p.s.s. One solution would be to "respond" to the friend request by sending them a message saying "Hey you can like my music page!" and paste the link, then delete their request. I've done this before...multiple times.

I've had a few of them, myself.. More specifically, from other members of various forums I have or still currently belong to.. There are a few I will gladly add.. Most of them producers, film composers, studio engineers, or someone floating in that realm of work.. The last musician I added wouldn't leave me the hell alone, lmao. Every day I'd wake up to at least 2-3 private messages from him.. I noticed musicians who play instruments as a primary source of audio creation (more so guitarists) have this need to tell you about how great they are. That gets old.. Quick. Haha.

[GaryG]

We use Facebook to promote our live shows ... And a free one at that. ... The reality is, nearly everyone has a Facebook page.. Therefore, it becomes the best way to reach out to new potential listeners.. Did I mention that it's free advertisement?

I haven't really kept up with the debate, but: have you found your posts don't reach all your intended audience? I think Facebook are limiting the number of people your posts reach unless you start paying or something? Is this an issue for anyone?

But I'm with aoVI, have a page for freebies. And contacting my sister who obviously has lost the ability to use a phone or read an email since getting on Facebook... :sigh2:

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

I haven't really kept up with the debate, but: have you found your posts don't reach all your intended audience? I think Facebook are limiting the number of people your posts reach unless you start paying or something? Is this an issue for anyone?

This is only partially true. Facebook supposedly keeps readjusting their algorithms to determine what gets posted to your newsfeed. It's impossible to figure out. The only guaranteed way to get your posts seen by a maximum number of people is A.) Pay for them to "boost" your post or B.) Get a bunch of people to "share" your post...much like the retweet works on twitter.

I only pay for a boost if I have a major album release or something...and sometimes it pays for itself with sales, but mostly not. I end up losing money for a bunch of "views" on my post that will never translate into anything tangible. That's marketing of the new internet though. You pay for eyeballs to glaze over your art...then it's thrown out and your receipt is in your email box. ;)

[seismic1]

I haven't really kept up with the debate, but: have you found your posts don't reach all your intended audience? I think Facebook are limiting the number of people your posts reach unless you start paying or something? Is this an issue for anyone?

This is only partially true. Facebook supposedly keeps readjusting their algorithms to determine what gets posted to your newsfeed. It's impossible to figure out. The only guaranteed way to get your posts seen by a maximum number of people is A.) Pay for them to "boost" your post or B.) Get a bunch of people to "share" your post...much like the retweet works on twitter.

I only pay for a boost if I have a major album release or something...and sometimes it pays for itself with sales, but mostly not. I end up losing money for a bunch of "views" on my post that will never translate into anything tangible. That's marketing of the new internet though. You pay for eyeballs to glaze over your art...then it's thrown out and your receipt is in your email box. ;)

These comments appeal to my well-developed, and possibly renowned, cynicism

[RJT]

It's not so much an issue for me, to be honest. We often give $1 off door charge if they physically bring in a printable ticket that we'll post with the information about where and when we're playing that night. We'll often do some sort of Facebook raffles for a free shirt or something.. Offer something for someone who participates or shows up at a gig. It's some work to keep people involved.. Luckily for me.. Music IS my job. I gig with 2 bands and record other bands in my studio.. So I have some time to mess around on Facebook to keep people interested. This past weekend we played a bar gig and the guy at the door literally had to stop allowing people in because they would have exceeded the limit in case of a fire. We draw big crowds, and I attribute at least 30-40% of that crowd being there to our involvement with fans through Facebook.. Because we aren't THAT good.. But we know how to interact and be personable... And everyone likes free stuff and less money to get in, haha.

We use Facebook to promote our live shows ... And a free one at that. ... The reality is, nearly everyone has a Facebook page.. Therefore, it becomes the best way to reach out to new potential listeners.. Did I mention that it's free advertisement?

I haven't really kept up with the debate, but: have you found your posts don't reach all your intended audience? I think Facebook are limiting the number of people your posts reach unless you start paying or something? Is this an issue for anyone?


But I'm with aoVI, have a page for freebies. And contacting my sister who obviously has lost the ability to use a phone or read an email since getting on Facebook...

[toddzilla]

I've deleted my personal facebook profile little over a year ago. Too many people on there who I really don't care about enough to want to see pics of their food, dogs, and other random stuff. Plus the amount of advertisements became increasingly annoying.

That said, I did come back to create a facebook page for my music. Like RJT said, it's a great way to promote your music / shows / releases to your listeners directly. For me it's been a slow start because I don't have a personal profile I can use to invite people to like my page anymore, but I'm getting likes from people I don't know and there is some interaction going on. I've even had two bookers contact me for a show through facebook already. I haven't experimented with boosting posts or buying ad-space on facebook. I don't know if that's something I would even do because it's what drove me away from using facebook personally, and I don't want ads on facebook to reflect negatively on my music project.