The Truth About Your Online Base- The Only 4 Sites You Need
Today we’ re going to look at the four properties you need to set up an effective online base for your music. I’ m sure you already know why promoting yourself online is important( You can reach a lot of people worldwide, you can market yourself from the comfort of your own home etc) so I won’ t go into that right now. What I do want to look at however, are some of the most important sites you can use for this, and how you can use them.
I know there are a lot of people that get overwhelmed by the amount of sites they are told to set up and create. There’ s always a new website springing up that promises to be the‘ next big thing for musicians’, but how many of these sites do you really need? Truth be told, not many!!
The truth is, you only really NEED a few online properties. These are:
Your own official. com website( Your main site and online base. If you haven’ t already got your own site, you can check out how to make one here).
Facebook( Feeds people into your main website). Twitter( Feeds people into your main website). Youtube( Feeds people into your main website). Click here for an image that represents that.
And that’ s it, you don’ t really need any other social networking sites to get you more fans. Each of these sites have a load of people already interested in your type of music, and aren’ t going to promote their own music back to you like on some music specific social sites. In other words, these are the type of people that could potentially turn into true fans!
These four properties are essential for helping your get your online fan base moving. Don’ t worry about any other sites, overloading yourself with too many accounts and online properties will often do more harm then good. It will mean you spread yourself too thin, and don’ t end up maximizing the results from anything you’ re working on.
Here’ s a bit more details on how you should use each one: Main Site: Your own website is important as it’ s the property you will have most control over. You will be able to structure it however you want, making it idea for fan 14 capture, sale making, and brand awareness.
Feeder Site 1: Facebook can be used to encourage additional interaction with your fans, and allow people to share your content and further get your name out there. This is the best site out of the three feeder sites to encourage fan communication.
Feeder Site 2: Twitter is the best of the three feeder properties for gaining new fans. When done right, it’ s possible to get a decent amount of targeted followers on Twitter who have an interest in the type of music you make.
Feeder Site 3: Youtube will be used for hosting your videos. While you can always host videos on your site, hosting them on Youtube will help them gain a lot more exposure. Plus you can‘ piggy back’ off other people’ s popular videos, and get a lot more video views yourself. Nice.
If you haven’ t already got these four online properties set up, I suggest you get them going right now. All of them can help get your music out there, and help you have a much more manageable online base. Until next week.
Extra Reading: For a full on guide on how to make a music website, check out this guide. Be sure to share it socially if you find it useful.
Shaun Letang, Music Industry How To.