Leveraging your online community

The music business twists and turns and you can never be sure where your next break is going to come from.

 

The material you put into the online environment thus becomes very important indeed. Also bear in mind that since the advent of community networking sites like Facebook, it’s not just about running a website for your band, but about creating and leveraging a community of supporters using your content and the band’s activities. In fact, the trick has become how to leverage your band activity into ongoing online content in a manner that grows your community, and then to turn that community into a buying public that comes to your shows, purchases your music and merchandise, and acts as a great advert for your band.

 

Website essentials

 

For a band website, the absolute essentials are your band biography, your discography of released work, band contact details and a schedule of gigs. Since you will already be writing press/ news releases as discussed above, you will also have these at your disposal. The trick with websites of all kinds is to keep them fresh and current. A site that still has the same front page two months after the first visit is not going to generate much in the way of traffic. But if you are continually updating your content, adding stories, pictures and perhaps even MP3s and links, readers will return more regularly to keep up to date. A static web page is soon forgotten.

 

 

Regular updates

 

This is how Facebook operates, so use the same principles on the band web page, and don’t forget to keep your social media pages equally busy and up to date. There is some speculation as to whether a band needs a web page if you have a social media presence. I myself remain undecided over this, and will discuss it later on. You must, whatever your online platform, make at least one update per week. Make it the same day of the week too, for predictability’s sake. Even if you just add a new gig every week, make those changes and make them clear on your front page so that idle visitors can notice them. Use the fact that you are exhibiting plenty of online movement to recruit new fans. Make sure they can easily following you or join your mailing list on all your online platforms.

 

Originally published in David Chislett's One, Two, One, Two: A Step By Step Guide To The South African Music Industry. Download a free copy of the book at www.davidchislett.co.za.