Musedash » twitter

What’s the most important tool: Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube?

Hilke — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:14:40 +0000

This week Ariel Hyatt asked a couple of her colleagues music marketers which of the three big social networks is most important: Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube? Of course, there is no clear answer. I advise you to read the whole post, but I highlighted the bits that I found the most thought-provoking.

The truth is these three work in concert with one another and it is vital to use all of them.

Get really good at using the one that you like the most and make the most sense to you. Mastering one Social is better than doing all three half-way.
(Ariel Hyatt)

I do believe that Twitter is only half as powerful without blogging. At 140 characters Twitter is made to send people to links – these may as well be links to your content situated some place where you get the most benefit.
(Rick Goetz)

The first step in deciding which tool is most important is figuring out what you want to achieve. If you are unable to tend to all three platforms named above, the best way to figure out which platform is more important to you is to spend some time using it – without promoting yourself.
(Corey Denis)

A lot of my developing acts view Twitter as a priority because a lot of early adopt/hardcore music fans live there. However, Facebook moves the dial more than Twitter for most of my established acts.
(Cassie Petery)

(Go here for the whole article)

Some Facebook, Twitter and video tips

Hilke — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:49:23 +0000

These are Musedash’ weekly reading tips:

10 Best Practices for Bands on Facebook

reach out to other artists: share some links with bands you’re tight with
take your fans backstage: give them a peek into the inside story
ask for input from fans: you can use Facebook Questions for that
be visual: share photos and videos
make everything an event: an event for all your shows and even for TV appearances or album releases
don’t ’sell’ all the time, but make people feel connected
don’t forget the basics: band name, bio, contact info, etc.
offer exclusive content: you can set up a ‘like gate’. If a fan likes your page, he can get exclusive content
check out some tools: such as BandPage, Damntheradio, and of course, Musedash

Read the whole article at Mashable.

4 Fresh Ways to Share Video on Twitter

Another interesting Mashable post.

There will be no new MySpace, only fragments

Hilke — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:10:23 +0000

Some weeks ago Bas Grasmayer wrote an intelligent post on Hypebot about the ‘new Myspace’. A couple of years ago it was easy: MySpace was THE platform to put your music on the internet. However, this changed. MySpace is almost dead (as a social network) and there doesn’t seem to be a player that can take up its role.

Bas explains why:

Technical issues / MySpace’ quality issues: we all know how horrible the interface was
Competition on the social front: platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress and Tumblr took over, because they are just better for the social aspect. Unfortunately, music doesn’t take the same place on these new platforms as it did on MySpace
Competition on the band page and audio hosting front: Soundcloud and Bandcamp are really great platforms, better than MySpace ever was. YouTube is in fact the n° 1 audio hosting site…

That’s just the way how it works today: not one prevalent platform, but a fragmented situation with different high quality services: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Tumblr, maybe the new kid on the block: Turntable.fm … Not an easy task for a musician and that has always been the basic thought of Musedash: offering an answer to this fragmented situation. we put all the pieces and fragments of the online music space on one dashboard for the musician. From a more technical point of view, Musedash is the window to all the music APIs for musicians. Essentially, musicians produce 5 types of content: text (short ones in updates and longer in ‘blog posts’), pictures, videos and tour dates. We just push all these content types into the APIs of music services and give back the relevant data from these APIs.

However, we know that we are not there yet. First we need a lot more users and feedback to improve the service (feel free to sign up or to invite other people if you are already using Musedash). At this moment we have the following improvements in mind:

improving usability (obviously)
adding more typical music services: Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Tunecore, Fanbridge,… (unfortunately not all these services have the right API functions (yet))
adding a mobile version with top-notch usability
making a bridge with your existing band website: Google Analytics, Wordpress or Drupal plugins, etc.
improving the statistical data and reporting

I hope that in the future we can paraphrase Bas Grasmayer’s conclusion:

The king (MySpace) is dead. Long live ~~the king fragments~~ Musedash!

Daily routines: efficient time management

Hilke — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:46:11 +0000

Using your time efficiently as as business-minded musician, that’s mainly where this whole site is about. This week Michael Brandvold posted 10 Things Every Musician Should Do Online Every Day. It is very close to what I do every day. Let’s review the list with some comments.

Quick email scan: for urgent things, I do this a couple of days (probably a bit too often to be really productive). Often I only look at the sender and the headline or the subject to see whether it is urgent.
Clean out garbage email: Once a day, I clean up my mailbox. I have 2 mail adresses, one for the important stuff, which doesn’t include much ‘garbage’, and another for the ‘garbage’ newsletters etc. Stick to the Getting Things Done rule: if you can answer in 2 minutes, do it immediately (I’m talking about the daily email check, not the quick scan from point 1). If it takes more time, put it on a to-do list. You can do this by starring the message or by adding it to your normal to-do list (I use Remember The Milk for that).
Review all new Twitter followers: I don’t do this. It might be good if you are just starting out and need to be very social with new fans. For me it is too time-consuming and I confine myself to the next point.
Do a Twitter brand review: I actively reply to Twitter mentions and respond to relevant tweets that I find with Twitter search. This is really important, because it’s more like pull or permission marketing. The preceding point is a bit pushy. I also don’t respond to everything I find in Twitter search, because it might be too obtrusive. However, Twitter is a quite open medium and most people react positively, certainly if you help them out. People are more worried about privacy on Facebook, for instance.
Facebook initial review
Facebook news feed review

I do these two things daily, but for personal matters, not really for things related to my ‘music business’. So, you should be careful to not loose too much time with it. On the other hand, it is important to stay in the loop with your personal Facebook friends and to tell them about yourself, since your music career is something that you should share with your friends (and they will tell about it to others). However, consider it as a break, and not as work, because that’s the next point.

Facebook page review: the most important part of Facebook. Join the conversation, just like you do on Twitter.
Back to email: answer the important emails that need a longer answer. However, I consider this as one of my ‘afternoon tasks’ on the to-do list and I do it after the last 2 points.
Review your RSS feeds: Yes, I read my news in Google Reader on a daily basis. The most important feeds are Hypebot, Music Think Tank and EHPO (Dutch).
Check your stats: the good news is that we are building the dashboard to see all these things in one place. The only other things you need, is you email client and your RSS reader.

And then, it’s time to focus on the big projects, such as making music…

5 minutes for Lefsetz, OK Go and KISS

Hilke — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 09:03:16 +0000

What should you read this week if you have 5 minutes?

Lefsetz does it again: he write a checklist for the new music business paradigm:

Match your music to visuals
Constantly create
Ask your fans to help
Music is your calling card: sometimes it should be free, the key is to charge for it in different forms
Forget trying to make it by the old rules
Only you will know if you’ve made it: use your own metrics

Read the whole article here. The post is inspired by an article by Damian Kulash from OK Go, which you also should read.

And finally there is an insightful post about how to use Facebook and Twitter to generate leads to your own website. It’s a case study about KISS. The problem with this band is that the amount of Facebook fans increases, but that the visits to the official website decrease.

5 minutes of DJ Shadow

Hilke — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:10:13 +0000

How ironic, last week there was too much choice in interesting articles. This week, there didn’t happen that much.

The most interesting story of the week is probably the third part of DJ Shadow’s marketing manager’s blog posts. This time, Michael Fiebach reveals Which Marketing Channels Are Working And Why. If you are in a hurry: the interesting part starts at the bold title ‘Why does Facebook work’.

Extra of the week: ‘What is Twitter?’ Some intelligent people give their point of view. The most insightful answer is probably given by Derek Sivers:

Twitter is an open platform for short messages. That’s all. It can be used for anything.

Can the traditional music industry understand the new reality (1) ? The case of Taylor Swift

Hilke — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:42:41 +0000

In the two upcoming posts I want to refer to two cases, which aren’t hot news any more, but which prove how traditional players in the music industry have problems with handling the new rules of surviving in an internet-driven digital age.

The first case is about the popular country singer Taylor Swift. Last September she was still the darling of the general public after she was rudely interrupted by Kanye West during the VMAs (MTV’s video awards). However, more recently she made a bad impression during the Grammys by embarrassingly singing out of tune. The story spread like wildfire on the internet. The Washington Post posted a sampling of Twitter comments about her performance.

@Borowitz Report Satan Chooses Taylor Swift Performance as Ringtone

@questlove dear kanye im sorry

@Borowitz Report: God Hoping Taylor Swift Does Not Thank Him

@jfdulac Wifey, listening to Taylor on the #Grammys: “She couldn’t even get into the chamber choir at my high school singing like that.”

@Borowitz Report T-Pain Hired to Autotune Taylor Swift at 2011

@idolator How suitable: that guy from #americanidol introduces @taylorswift13, who ” we have to say ” sounds a little pitchy, dawg.

@harvilla taylor swift’s career singing on live television should’ve gotten an “in memorium” nod

@Kiarri Last year the big battle was between Rihanna & C Brown. This year the fight was between Taylor Swift & pitch.

@jjjrrr Dear Taylor Swift, the music store called, you left your pitch on the counter with your lip gloss

@jeffstearns Taylor Swift? More like Francis Scott Off-Key, am I right?

@feliciapollack Taylor Swift can’t sing. She sounds like she’s playing “Rock Band” in her basement.

@JenRBoyd Oh boy. Taylor Swift’s pitch is flatter than a pancake tonight. Bless her heart

@ianfrancisbush I am starting a disaster relief fund to get Taylor Swift a chromatic tuner.

As Lefsetz writes in his analysis, the abominable performance didn’t get much attention in the mainstream media, but the story spread quickly on Facebook and Twitter. Some even say that it might ruin her career. Taylor Swift is a product of traditional music business: a young girl who is surrounded by a team making marketing plans in a meeting room. As Lefsetz puts it in his typical style:

So you can sit in your marketing meeting, calculate how you’re going to placate radio, but there’s a shitstorm blowing somewhere you’re not even paying attention. (…) Yes, as oldsters decry Twitter as a waste of time, a place where those with no life delineate what they ate for breakfast, these same supposed peons are ripping their clients a new asshole.

In the digital world, authenticity is key. You can’t fake anything and you must deliver when you are on stage. Taylor Swift underdelivered and the public formed its opinion. People have always had their opinions, but until recently they would only say it to their family sitting in the living room. Nowadays they post their opinion on Twitter or Facebook and they reach an audience of a couple of 100 people. Those people maybe even didn’t see the show, but watch the YouTube movie and further spread the story amoung their audience.

Exactly that is the power of new media such as Facebook and Twitter, and it is a power that may be underestimated by most traditional music business people, who carefully construct a tv and radio image for a young, unexperienced artist like Taylor Swift. Don’t understand me wrong: clear thinking about your image and shaping a thorough communication strategy is also very important in new media. But be aware of the fact that this image must be authentic. You must be able to keep it consistent in all circumstances, since there could be someone with a camera standing behind every corner, ready to upload your faux pas to YouTube. Show your vulnerability, be real, and don’t grow faster than you are capable of. That is probably the lesson that we should learn from the Taylor Swift story.

I’m Sorry, But It Was Never Just About The Music

Hilke — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:06:59 +0000

This is so so true!!

I just repost the whole message from Hypebot:

“Musicians should concentrate on being musicians.”

“How can I make music when I’m expected to spend all my time on Twitter and Facebook?”

I’m sorry if this comes as a surprise, but it has never been enough to just make great music. Every generation of musicians has had to face their own challenges which forced them to go beyond creation and recording.

Frank Sinatra made movies to reach a bigger fan base. Elvis’s hips and haircut were as much a part of his success as his recordings were. David Bowie learned that image and imagery could propel him to greater heights. After Saturday Night Fever, dance steps helped propel many live shows and for a time MTV made being visual an important component of success.

Whether it’s getting in a van and giving an endless string of memorable performances or sitting on the phone for hours talking to journalists, there have always been skills beyond just making music that, if not required, certainly made success more likely. – Bruce Houghton

So when Amanda Palmer tweets her latest exploits and Imogen Heap spends hours answering questions in a forum, they are just doing a modern version – their own version – of costumes, haircuts and dance lessons.

Great music is where it all begins and ends, but in between the path to success is always changing.

Solving the bilingual problem for Twitter

Hilke — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:43:57 +0000

Some time ago I talked about the problem of speaking two languages on social platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.

Many of us Dutch-speaking social media users have to deal with a situation where we express ourselves much better in our native tongue, but we also have a bunch of international followers and we don’t want to overload them with messages in a language which they can’t understand.

I think I found a humble solution for this problem on the Twitter platform. I registered an account on Twitter, @nlds, which is short for ‘Nederlands’ (Dutch). This is the deal:

When I tweet in Dutch, I start my message with @nlds.

Only people who follow @nlds will receive the message in their stream, because this is technically a reply to @nlds

People who don’t want to see my Dutch tweets, just don’t follow @nlds.

Of course, this only works if all my Dutch-speaking followers start to follow @nlds. I’ll start tweeting about that and I hope everybody will like my idea (and retweet it).

It’s quite clear that this system can also be applied to other languages. Just look for a straightforward and short twittername. Or maybe Twitter itself should take care of this?

Nog eens Twitter

Hilke — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:05:00 +0000

Steve Lawson from Andrew Dubber on Vimeo.

In de bovenstaande video wordt echt eens heel goed verwoord waarom Twitter interessant is voor muzikanten. Andrew Dubber interviewt Steve Lawson. Ik wil zelf wijzen op twee dingen:

- Het leven van muzikanten is sowieso behoorlijk boeiend en er zijn zeker genoeg mensen geïnteresseerd om dat op Twitter te volgen

- Op Twitter kun je een verhaal opbouwen dat dan uiteindelijk uitmondt in een belangwekkend hoogtepunt, bijvoorbeeld de release van een album of een belangrijk concert.

Bekijk de video. Echt de 12 minuten waard.