SEO copywriter: Musicians should turn to a variety of social networks for promotion
Sansone presents his case study at Ly Michael's in Chinatown.
For a plurality of users, MySpace is all but dead. But for musicians, the social networking site remains crucial for maintaining connections with fans and venue owners, according to a lecture by local SEO copywriter Ron Sansone.
Before a modest crowd of a dozen-and-a-half on hand to hear Sansone’s talk on social media and music, organized by the Philadelphia Standards Organization, he presented a case study observing new media marketing practices implemented for his own local band.
According to the speech by Sansone, whose day job is with the Philadelphia branch of global digital branding company Razorfish, MySpace can be a powerful central hub for promotion when flanked with a multitude of additional social networking sites.
Sansone illustrated the fractured, niche nature of social networks created by their sheer abundance but offered advice for musicians hoping to score gigs and impress fans on the Web. Promote your band on as many networks as you can, he said, and you will reap the benefits of each network’s “highly targeted, captive audience.”
Formed in 2007, Sansone’s alt-rock band Super Consumers began as many do: with zero fans and an aspiration to play bigger and better shows. By connecting with their audience, club owners, promoters, and other musicians online, the band has lead a successful promotional campaign.
Two years and a lot of log-in passwords later, Super Consumers has gained an online fan base of more than 2,000. They book one to two shows each month, including gigs at the Trocadero Balcony and Main Stage. The band has been featured in Philadelphia Weekly, and they have an upcoming live performance on Radio 104.5 FM.
Sansone eschewed the need for owning a branded domain name such as SuperConsumers.com which they don’t. Instead, he insisted that musicians create a well-woven network around a central hub, in this band’s case, MySpace. Why MySpace? Account figures have been dropping since Facebook became king, but as Sansone argues, the antiquated networking site still rules club owners and promoters simply because it’s too much work to leave.
Sansone recommended taking advantage of networking sites’ best features. Facebook, TheSixtyOne, and ReverbNation were important for fan interaction. PureVolume, last.fm, Virb, Sonicbids, and CD Baby helped get the band’s music in its audience’s hands. Last, SonicBids and EIY assisted MySpace in making crucial contacts at venues.
Considering that like the music industry, many industries are being turned on their head by online models, Sansone’s lecture offered an important universal takeaway: It’s a great time to be D.I.Y.
@TechnicallyPHL on February 20th, 2009
@apirwin We talk about last.fm in this morning’s coverage of a local lecture on social media and music http://tinyurl.com/de457y
elbergel on February 20th, 2009
Great read.
If promoters and other bands are the only ones remaining on MySpace, then what is the benefit of using MySpace as the hub, rather than SuperConsumers.com?
By establishing a .com as your hub, you can still benefit from having the “cloud” of social networking sights feeding into your main page. Also, there are distinct benefits to using a standalone website for this purpose, including skirting MySpace’s strict coding restrictions, creating a purchasing page, and the fostering of a mini-social network of fans based around the website’s own message board.
Christopher Wink on February 21st, 2009
I think I agree that a dotcom is the best place for a hub, but I think there’s a valid point in MySpace remaining valuable to musicians because, well, it once was. …It’s simply the easiest, cheapest model and just something you do, which appears one of the most effective ways to keep users active. We’ll see MySpace die, without any innovation from them, but it’s harder than it seems it should be.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Stay up.
Marilyn on February 25th, 2009
Hey, I was there. Very informative presentation that I have yet to write about myself. I agree with most of his assessments except his dislike of Twitter, though.
Cheers,
Marilyn
@phillymarketing
Brian James Kirk on February 26th, 2009
Marilyn,
Drop your link here in the comment section when its done and we’ll check it out.
Daniel Craig on May 8th, 2009
Hi there, I was looking around for a while searching for data hubs and I happened upon this site and your post regarding SEO copywriter: Musicians should turn to a variety of social networks for promotion | Covering the Community of People Who Use Technology in Philadelphia., I will definitely this to my data hubs bookmarks!
Camilo on June 26th, 2009
Another valuable site for all local bands where they can upload their music nd get free radio play is http://www.aroundtheway.com. Its a social network site with a radio station embeded into the site.
George on July 7th, 2009
With the advent of other social sites myspace is losing out. It’s great to see how they are trying to turn things around! Thanks for sharing.
Alex Miller on November 27th, 2009
I dislike MySpace music. MySpace is too dirty with spam; I saw that some tools like this one: MySpace Music Plays Increaser allow so called musicians to get popularity on MySpace with black advertising. I think that really cool musician doesn’t need black advertising, it will be popular anyway, event without fake plays. So if MySpace is full with black web promotion, it is place of bad musicians. It is my opinion. waste only
resveratrol health benefits on December 15th, 2009
Right use of keywords make your search easy. I find your post to be exteremely useful for all those who are internet savvys
metaldetector on December 17th, 2009
Hi bloggers should not be driven by ideology of opionion but should be driven by whatever is best for the business or the business principal being discussed. Business blogs should share good ideas with other business people; political blogs, for example, are about preaching to the choir and dissing the opposition.
iphone repair on December 17th, 2009
it it happens …… The musicians will change entire network environment …….
metal detector comparison on December 24th, 2009
What’s up for discussion here is whether we should make an entirely new SEO
High PR Blog Comments on December 29th, 2009
Thanks for giving such a wonderful portal. this website was not only knowledgeable but also very stimulating too. We find a limited number of bloggers who are capable of write technical articles that creatively. A lot of people search for content with regard to this subject. I searched through dozens of blogs to find knowhow with respect to this.Looking to many more from your site !!
JP on January 4th, 2010
Speaking of SEO, a really great way to trick search engines would be to write lots of really generic-sounding comments on blogs with a link back to the site for your black hat SEO scheme. Oh, this will also probably get you blacklisted by Google.
dental internet marketing on March 17th, 2010
JP,
comment kahuna does just that! real comments are always the best though.
Grand Junction Chiropractor on May 25th, 2010
This article rings true in so many ways, you should use facebook myspace and others as well in order to get your music the exposure it deserves!
music social network on June 9th, 2010
yes! i agree to this article., great love it
back pain products on June 18th, 2010
I personally believe that youtube is the best social media network musicians can get promotion. Many well-known celebrities/musicians today started from youtube. Just like Marie Digby and Arnel Pineda, the new vocalist of the band Journey.