Here are some helpful hints to help determine where you should stake your brand:
- Your target audience is already there: If your fans/potential fans are on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Mixi, Pinterest, etc. chances are that you should too. It’s an easy way for people to share about you and for content to become viral. However, it’s important to understand the nature of each of these sites... just because people are on the sites doesn’t mean that they’ll care about what you do on them. Whatever you do, it should resonate with the target audience there.
- When you have more than one audience: The same principles apply above if you have more than one target audience. For example, promoters are more likely to check out your ReverbNation than a casual fan.
- Can you do it well?: If you don’t have time/the ability to create something of quality, perhaps you should wait until you can (or at least grow the skills before pushing the site). You don’t want to fragment your brand by creating several poorly managed, out of date websites. These do reflect on your band. Instead, focus on what you can do well and have time to keep fresh, relevant, and looking good.
- Bring it all home: Whatever you decide to do with social media, make sure you loop those fans back into your own website/email list. Social media sites come and go but people should always be able to rely on your website and mailing list to get reliable content when they stop using social media sites. Don’t wait until Facebook becomes the next MySpace before you jump ship. Make your brand-controlled sites the ultimate destination for fan related content.
Related links:
LastStopBooking.com
