Social Media Guide for Guitarists

There is a surprising dearth of material online on how guitarist and musicians can develop a social media strategy for themselves. By doing this, not only would they be able to stay informed and keep themselves in the loop, but also be able to showcase their skills and abilities in a better manner, and of course, promote their business (for free) if they want to.

Using tools such as Facebook and Twitter is easy, simple and quick to set-up and use, and can be a great source of (highly-personalized) news from around the industry. As a guitarist, I genuinely feel that by ‘liking’ all the right pages and subscribing to the right people, Facebook has allowed me to stay updated and on top of all industry news and trends, and keep abreast of all the happenings and updates, and I’m sure it can do the same for you. From learning about the upcoming gigs near you, to knowing about when and where your favorite band goes on tour.

In addition to the updates, the first-hand news and the ability to remain on top of the happenings in the industry, musicians from all over the world are using social mediums to contribute their bit to the industry, while at the same time promoting themselves as international artists. And that really is the beauty of social media, it lets you shine and show yourself and your guitar-playing skills on an international level. Igor Preskyanov (Iggypres on Youtube) is the perfect example of this, and there are tons of other artists harnessing the power of social media as well.

Why Guitarists and Musicians Should Use Facebook and Twitter

Here is my personal list of reasons why musicians and especially guitarists should be more social:

1. Get the latest news and updates.

2. Get updated with any and all happenings in the world quickly.

3. Get a chance to enter competitions and giveaways.

4. Be entitled to Facebook/Twitter-only discounts and rebates from your favorite vendors.

5. Promote and showcase their music, skills and talent.

6. Be part of the community and the discussions, have themselves heard.

7. Gain invaluable business exposure.

8. Be introduced to bands and have a chance to perform with them.

9. Get a chance to be part of the music scene, and the industry in general.

Facebook for Guitarists

Personally, the new Facebook changes, and the shift to ‘Timeline’ hasn’t been that well received, especially from a musician’s perspective. And I tend to agree, the timeline update would’ve been good had Facebook let the ‘welcome pages’ of before to live. Instead, now there are no more of those fancy welcome pages that musicians (including yours truly) used to redirect traffic to our websites, collect email IDs and other CTA marketing stuff. It has become harder to get more likes and be easily able to redirect traffic to your blog, but nonetheless, Facebook remains a great tool for any musician’s social marketing strategy:

1. Add a Facebook ‘like’ box to your website/blog, so that visitors can become Facebook fans right from your website.

2. Conversely, make sure your Facebook page is completely filled out with any and all information about your website and that you’ve filled out all information properly.

3. Use the cover photo. It is a great feature of the Facebook UI refresh, and gives you an opportunity to be really creative. Add a compelling photo of one of your gigs, or your band mates doing crazy stuff.

4. Add your FB page URL (short URL) to all your posters, CDs and all other material.

5. Get some Facebook ads – they’re pretty cheap and because of the timeline, more and more musicians (and other organizations) are using Facebook ads. They’re effective and having a few ads could have your page get a lot of traffic.

6. Content is important, post all your Youtube videos, kickass jam sessions, songs, behind-the-scenes pictures and footage, tour information and all other material in your FB page.

7. Use large images in your Facebook posts, as images can be used as advertising and diverting traffic to your blog.

8. Follow other brands (Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, Jackson have great pages), other musicians and guitarists, artists and other people from the industry. Facebook is an invaluable source of information!

9. Facebook now lets you add milestones to your timelines, for any big event, like a record release, a big tour or a gig, signing with a label or an awesome review from the Rolling Stones Magazine. You can add these milestones as key moments anywhere on your timeline, and include an image with it as well.

Additional read: This article from Inside Facebook is an excellent read on how musicians are using Facebook to market themselves. Its old, and hence from the pre-timelines era, but should be good for ideas.

Twitter for Guitarists

Twitter does come with its caveats and pitfalls though. Around 90% of the highly-annoying people in Twitter have the urge to tell people about every single one of their moves – from what they might be eating, what they might be feeling, how many times they chew their lunch and how many steps it takes for them to get from the living room to the kitchen. It’s annoying and uninteresting, and usually ends up with people being put off, giving Twitter somewhat of a bad reputation. But it is still an immensely powerful tool when used the right way.

Like Facebook, Twitter too is a great tool for musicians, in terms of marketing and information. Here’s how:

1. Twitter’s dynamics and the way it is set up means that you get the latest news on Twitter easily, in real-time and as it happens. Each tweet is limited to a 160 characters and hence is precise and to the point. Because tweets are short, you can ingest a lot of information in a relatively short time.

2. Twitter connects you to your favorite artists, musicians, and friends directly. You can interact with them, tweet with them and they can even respond to your tweets.

3. It gives you access to first-hand information. Often times, you’ll hear something in the media only to find it to be totally false and made-up and immediately falsified by the artist himself.

4. You get access to exclusive information, behind-the-scenes pictures and even videos. You also get to learn about limited edition guitars and the ability to know about these products as soon as they’re announced gives you a much higher chance of being able to get these instruments.

5. You can win stuff on Twitter, just like Facebook, and participate in giveaways, promotions, discounts and rebates.

6. By having an active following of ‘Tweeps’ (aka. Twitter users) yourself, Twitter, in combination with Facebook, can be a great tool to market yourself and/or your business. You can use it to showcase your guitar-playing prowess, promote your music, and build an online following.