5 Things Your Band Needs To Stop Doing On Facebook

One of the biggest challenges in starting a brand new project, of course, is building a fanbase.  I've actually been spending a fair amount of time trying to get the word out through a variety of different methods, but of course the most effective way to do that is through "social media."  Unfortunately, the most popular way to do this is through Facebook, which is not exactly the ideal platform.  I would prefer a site that actually was designed for music fans instead of for pictures of your children, but that's just me.  Most of the music-based social media sites tend to have pretty low traffic, or seem to be comprised entirely of musicians.  So for the time being, Facebook it is.

I "like" quite a few bands on Facebook, and even as an artist myself, most of these pages piss me off.  I can't imagine how annoying it must be purely as a fan.  Here are 5 of the most annoying "marketing" "strategies" I see too often.

1. PLEASE HELP ME GET TO ARBITRARY NUMBER OF LIKES/DOWNLOADS/CHART POSITIONS!!!!11

Look, I know occasionally these kind of milestones can be cool.  Earlier this week I got 100 plays on Soundcloud in one day and it felt good.  It's one thing to set goals for yourself.  But if you are sitting at 925 likes and you feel the need to beg for the last 75, then the last 50, then 20, etc. then you are not engaging your fanbase in a positive way.  Most people don't care about these things.  Trust me, as your fan it's annoying.  Likewise...

2. IF THIS GETS 100 LIKES I WILL POST A NEW SONG/VIDEO/WHATEVER

Dude.  You're going to post it anyways.  Let's not kid ourselves here.  Your fans shouldn't have to "earn" the privilege to hear you.

3. SUPER SECRET THING COMING SOON KEEP CHECKING WWW.MYBAND.COM EVERY DAY FOR UPDATES

Building anticipation is one thing and you do have to withhold some information.  Maybe you have a show coming up that you can't announce yet or you are close to releasing something really exciting and that's great.  But just do the damn thing and post it.  Don't expect that I'm going to F5 your website all day long in anticipation of your upcoming gig in Iowa City.

4. DON'T FORGET TO SHARE THIS PAGE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!  TELL YOUR FRIENDS HOW GREAT WE ARE

You know what?  If you are really that good, your biggest fans are going to do this anyways.  The percentage of people who would actually promote your page just because you told them to is probably lower than the percentage of people who scan those fucking QR code things on advertisements.  Which, by the way, is zero.  Trust me, if anyone used those things I would have Goatse'd the world a long time ago.

5. PRODUCTION PROMOTIONS PRESENTS: SOME BIG MUSIC EVENT EVERY DAY SOMEWHERE 1000 MILES AWAY FROM YOU

This one is tough, because as far as I can tell Facebook events are based off of your personal profile and not your artist page, which means that if someone I don't know is a fan of my page I couldn't even invite them to an event if I wanted to.  But seriously take the time to create some lists on Facebook.  Group them by city, state, region, scene, whatever and work locally.  Greg Brendel might be my biggest fan, but when I'm ready to play my debut gig at the dive bar down the street on a Tuesday night, he's probably not going to make the drive from Pittsburgh to Madison to come see me play.

Unfortunately, there is a ton of noise out there on Facebook, and no matter how much you try you will still probably get grouped in with most bands who employ these strategies.  Even worse, you will get lost.  This is the truth.  But please, please show some restraint and some respect for your fans.  We have to improve the signal to noise ratio, no matter what scene you're in.  Taking the extra time to not come off as a douche will help you maintain a less cringe-worthy social media presence.