December 6, 2010 Everyone Is Lying To You On Facebook
I mean this in a tongue in cheek way somewhat.
The reason I say this is because of this question I got one time on a karate forum (More about THAT experience later)
“What are your thoughts on pushing information out to people on the web?”
This is a fair question but it details a common error when it comes to social networking. Social networks are not I repeat NOT TV, radio and press. What I mean by this is they are not to be used for “advertising.” Yes you can advertise on them as in buy the advertising but to use Facebook to push information is simply the wrong way to do it and to be honest constitutes spamming or flooding in some ways even if the person has “liked” your page. I see over and over people adding Facebook “friends” and subsequently sending page requests they are who we in the digital world call “Friend Whores.” These same people wonder why 4 people turned up to their gig or other event.
Why would you take anyone that says they “liked” you on Facebook seriously?!
This is something people have a lot of difficulty understanding. You have to allow for people on social networks telling you what they think it is best for you to hear and best for them to tell you; not their inner dialogue. So you have to take each “like” as at best a fading flicker of interest.
Some people will like you because they like you - they are genuinely fans. Some will do it to be nice; they don’t like to say no and they don’t like to be seen as rude. Some will like you because they want to be liked and they want you to like them or they want to reassurance that you won’t dislike them. Some people clicked the wrong button. Most people do it to be polite because they know you or they know a mutual friend and might meet you at some point and what if asked them why they don’t like your page - that would be awkward. It gets awfully complicated – because social networking is about human relations and not broadcast.
Just because you push the information out doesn’t mean you have your fans’ or friends’ attention in fact it is highly likely they are blind to it. Why? Because when you scan a newsfeed your mind filters out what isn’t important. The other thing you have to remember is that Facebook can filter stuff out for you. We tend to look for the people or topics we have the most connection with.
Social networks are a conversation medium not a place to shout about your wares – don’t do it you’ll ruin the integrity of the environment. It isn’t a numbers game.
Social Media | tagged facebook, fans, interest, like, music business advice, music business connections
Reader Comments (10)
Very good points! But I would argue that Facebook had no "integrity of the environment" to begin with. It's a blank slate, and people can make of it what they will. Some people don't mind "spam", some people will opt out of it. The market will decide which Facebook pages succeed.
There are points here that I agree with somewhat like "It isn't a numbers game," but I think it is bold to say - especially at this time - to say that the integrity of the social media space will be ruined by people trying to market products. At some point, we all have to ask for something. While some tend to "need" to ask more than most, that should not take away from the point.
As we are advising music acts on how to properly use the social web to be effective AND non-offensive to promote their music, it has to make sense. We cannot be telling people to use social media to connect with fans, then telling them "oh, but don't tell them you have product to sell." What does make sense is HOW to do it.
Leena, this article is pretty weak. You're leading with a provocative statement and following with very little to back it. If this is your opinion, you need to tell us why we should believe you. Facebook is yet another channel for artists to interact with friends or fans. That's all. You're trying to make something out of nothing.
I use Facebook and I don't 'look' for fans. If they are interested they find me. That's all I can ask from it, and because people are interested I will continue to 'push' relevant information to them. And I think my friends expect that.
Best of luck on the next post,
Rory Lake
This is a numbers game, and it's kind of amazing you don't realize that.
The entire industry runs on numbers. Everyone is judged by numbers. Businesses live or die -- mostly die -- by numbers. Numbers are the most important part of the music business. All that stuff about fan relationships is true, but it only matters insofar as it can be quantified. Fan relationships that cannot be measured aren't there. Fan relationships that do not convert aren't helping.
If you're not playing a numbers game, you're really not in this business at all.
Your points are not well stated. "Likes" on Facebook are very important as far as visibility on Facebook goes. Let's just say for the sake of arguement that you're "friends" hit "like" only to be nice. Rather they actually like it or not is irrelevant. But others who come across the page will look at those "likes", and the more people you have that like your page, the better chance you have of them actually engaging in the content on the page. That's simple marketing. We have a tendency to like what is popular or what seems to be popular. On another note, the grammatical and spelling errors in the article do not add to the credibility.
Hi there thanks for your comments I will bear your feedback in mind. If you wish to check my credentials you can find a summary of my career so far here http://positivelymusic.weebly.com/about.html
You can find examples of work in my blog in the form of scans and screengrabs in my blog where you will see campaigns from P!nk to The Mirror Newspaper to Take That e.g.
http://positivelymusic.weebly.com/1/post/2010/08/mirror-covermount-cd-campaign-instant-music.html
I will add further campaigns in due course.
Whoops what I meant to say is I will address any issues in another blog post - bit late here in the UK and I have just come back from Barca...!
I actually think Leena is getting at something very crucial here, and not just in regards to Facebook.
Justin, I agree with your point that fan relationships that don't convert don't count and I think that's one of the issues Leena's getting at - focussing on the wrong numbers [the overall number of people who may have clicked "like" instead of the actual number of actual fans who will become conversions].
Rory, you may be doing it the honest way and letting fans come to you, but I've seen others puff up their numbers and then start to believe them and then get mystified as to why it didn't translate into anything more. "But I have 700 friends on Facebook and 800 followers on Twitter! How come no one bought my album?"
Just in my own circle of friends and acquaintances I know bands with 60,000 friends or more on MySpace [and we all know how overinflated MySpace fan counts are] who still manage to have a few thousand fans on Facebook and yet they struggle to sell a couple hundred albums and struggle to get any fans to come to shows. Why? Most of those friends are bot-added and they simply ignore all the bands vying for their attention. Similarly, if you're a "friend whore" and combine that with an ad campaign on Facebook, it's not overly difficult to get a few thousand fans on there too but it doesn't mean you're going to sell music or merch to even the majority of those people. There's a vast difference between becoming a "fan" by clicking a button and becoming a fan by actually listening to and enjoying the music.
Sure, people may see other peoples' likes, but that all depends on them logging in at the right moment to see it in their newsfeed when they're in the right mood to check it out for themselves. In my own experience, 99% of the time I see "So-and-so likes YourBandNameHere" I may dimly notice it as I scan my newsfeed but unless I recognize the band name and already know and like them through offline sources I don't go check it and like it myself. I don't think I'm alone there.
At this point signal to noise is becoming more and more of a concern that I think people know that liking a page means more noise in your newsfeed clogging out posts you might really care about, in chatting about this with friends it seems at least some people are getting to be less willing to like a page on Facebook unless they really and truly love the band and care what they're up to. I hear more and more friends of mine talking about going through and unliking all but their very favorite bands and hiding all but their closest friends and family from the news feed even if they don't remove the rest of the people and pages because otherwise Facebook gets to be unusable and overwhelming for people who are superbusy and really just want to be able to log in and quickly see what people they care about are up to.
This isn't everyone to be sure, but it is a factor in how much weight to give such numbers.
Hi there Pyra
Thanks for the response. I will write further on this though the basis of fan engagement (AKA customer service - nothing new here!) is forming into a book I am now writing on the subject. In the meantime you may want to note the email I recieved from North Social at the link below:-
http://email.northcontact.com/t/ViewEmail/r/F0F52274993AAD50
Leena
The problem with this leena is that she is self promoting herself as some kind of expert when she really isn't.
Look at her opening statement about how she was asked a question on a karate forum. She is no karate expert, she is not an instructor, and not even a black belt. Yet she wants us to know she goes on karate forums and has respect and significance there and is asked questions.
Look at her defensive responses, telling the posted to check her credentials, then posting a link to her own website, where we can read what she has written about herself trying to convince us she is something she is not.
The problem with Leena is she regularly uses Facebook to spout her negative opinionated crap about anything and everything to the few people who follow her and doesn't understand what social media is for. Claims to be an expert in marketing music but doesn't understand how Facebook can be used of how to do it, let alone be able to advise musicians how to use it.
As noted this is a provocative statement, very weak, not backed up or quantified. Simple the opinion of a person who is over opinionated. Because she has decided she is an expert she thinks whatever she posts must be expertise and everyone should simply except it. Very weak article, also pointless. What does posting this actually achieve? It is nothing more than an opinionated rant by a less than knowledgable person.
Facebook is an excellent tool for artists to link with fans, which she doesn't realise, yet claims to be an expert who has revolutionalised the biz by making it van based.
Says it's not a numbers game. This is all to do with the fact that she has very few followers on Facebook or Twitter, and the ones she has are those ones that just follow each other, they are not real friends, followers or client.
As stated, it is amazing that someone who claims to be what she claims does not realise it IS a numbers game. As stated in a reply, if you are not playing a numbers game then you are not in the music business.
And this is someone who claims to be an entrepreneur and uses the odd word entrepreneurship as her area of expertise.
All this stuff about it being fan based is meaningless, nothing she has written has any substance and posting links to your own blog and then doing the most tragic thing anyone can do in this business, start name dropping. So weak your statements don't stand up on your own, you revert to authority by association.
Just as a low grade coloured belt with no knowledge of karate is on a karate forum making statements and then actually believing people there are asking her questions because they value her knowledge, she does the same with her so called music knowledge in these obscure self published articles that nobody would ever print anywhere and no real audience want to read.