Simply joining Twitter and relentlessly tweeting links to your work is not the best way forward; music marketing on Twitter, if it’s just a series of uninteresting 140 character updates from someone without an established profile or follow-list can be viewed as spam and you will not get any followers. A feed that constantly churns the same link over and over can lead to accounts being banned. It’s better for the account owner to make sure that links in their profile lead to their personal website (tracked with analytics), and to establish a “Twitter presence”, i.e. tweets over a series of weeks or months that show them to be worth following, and interesting in their own right.
The explosion of social networking over the last half-decade has given musicians of all genres a new, and indeed global showcase for their talents. Perhaps the major success story in this field is the micro-blogging site, Twitter, where a performing artist can reach beyond their direct friend and contact list, and into the consciousness of record companies, agents, and even established stars who might, even in some small way, mentor and support them.
It’s important to treat Twitter as the micro-blog it is – the artist doing their music marketing on Twitter has an opportunity to report on auditions, rehearsals, successes, and also failures – marketing your music on Twitter is like marketing yourself. A performing artist never knows which tweet – and it could even be along the “who will give this sucker and even break?” path – will attract the right kind of attention. An interesting tweeter will always attract more attention than a “look at me” poster.
Twitter’s search function will offer up people to follow that have similar interests or careers, depending on how fully they fill out their profiles. Marketing your music on Twitter to these individuals or organisations is something of a no-brainer; there will already be considerable common ground, even if the relationship only ever ends up being the bouncing of ideas, or a support network.
Do not glance over the value of cross-linking when using Twitter – a YouTube playlist of a musician’s best work can be quickly disseminated to thousands, especially if your followers deploy the powerful retweet web.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, music marketing on Twitter is a two-way street; the person who offers support, advice, and constructive criticism is far more likely to receive help when needed.
This post is by no means definitive of how to do marketing on Twitter, it’s guideline to some do’s and dont’s. Tips that I have advised my clients time and again, and I wanted to share it with the MTT community. Best way to learn though, is by doing. Good luck!
Steve Nelson is Head of Digital at Amplified, a London based innovative digital media agency, serving the music & creative industries. He can be reached on @WeAreAmplified or @amplifiedsteve