How to Get Your Band or Music on Faceoook
I just created a Facebook Page for GarageSpin. If you’re on Facebook, let’s connect.
What is a “Facebook Page”? (i.e. not a “Facebook Profile”)
Most folks know how to use Facebook to create a regular, personal profile page. But not everyone knows about “Facebook Pages“, and if you’re a musician, band, or artist, you should. Facebook Pages were created by Facebook to enable bands, artists, businesses, politicians, whatever, to create pages for themselves within the social network that are separate from personal profile pages.
Why Should I Create a Facebook Page?
Well, it’s super easy, so why not? But more importantly, Facebook usage is skyrocketing, and it’s become one of the most popular social platforms for sharing stuff (links, photos, music, quotes, news, and random nonsense.) Rather than my writing a “Facebook for Dummies” post, you should try it yourself if you haven’t already. Check out these traffic trends (Facebook is blue, MySpace is red):
It’s clear that Facebook is currently crushing the once almighty MySpace, and isn’t close to stopping. As a musician or artist promoting music or art, you need to get plugged in. The Band Page can be used to communicate to fans, manage gig schedules, store video and event info, and other stuff. You can see an example of one by checking out my GarageSpin page.
How Do I Create a Band Facebook Page?
It takes 2 minutes:
- Use your Facebook login to access your account (or create a new one).
- Then go to the Create New Facebook Page.
- Select the 3rd radio button titled “Artist, Band, or Public Figure”.
- Then select “Band” or “Musician” (or whatever applies) in the dropdown box.
- Click on “Create Page”.
- Your Facebook Page now exists. Now pimp it out with stuff. (Note: When you upload your music, you will need to upload a driver’s license or passport photo to verify your ID.)
Facebook Applications: How to Add Music to Facebook
So, maybe you’re not in a band, and you just want to add your favorite music to Facebook. There are some alternative, and pretty cool facebook applications built to let you add music to your personal profile. Facebook apps have been created by a bunch of third party websites. Two great facebook apps are the iLike app and Last.FM app. Be sure to check them out. You’ll need to create an account with any site whose Facebook application or music widget you decide to use.
If you’re in a band, and you want to add your band’s music to your personal profile page, you can do a couple things. Once you create a band Facebook Page, you can add it to your regular Facebook profile’s “Favorites” section. You can also use one of several band Facebook applications, such as the ReverbNation App. iLike’s and Last.Fm’s facebook widgets would also work. Which one you decide to use is your call.
Customize Facebook Profile
Facebook isn’t MySpace; it doesn’t allow much in the way of free facebook layouts, facebook hacks, or the other garbage that plagues MySpace. If you want to play with your band Facebook profile, customise it with the many Facebook applications that exist. There are some ugly apps out there, though, so be careful what you test or activate.
Be Searchable
A quick word about Facebook search optimization. If you have an odd band name or last name, be sure to somehow, somewhere, include multiple versions or spellings of your band’s name so your fans can find it. For example, if your band was named “Facebook” (though I’m not sure why’s you’d do that to yourself), you might want to include variations such as faceboook, facebok, faceboo, facbook, acebook, etc in a little “keyword” section somewhere within your profile.
Unblock With Facebook Proxies
Another quick word, this time for those of you who can’t use Facebook because it’s blocked at school or at work — use one of many Facebook proxies to unblock Facebook. A proxy is usually able to grant you access to your account indirectly, bypassing your school’s or company’s filtering systems.
Go Forth and Conquer
Okay, I rambled waaaay more than I intended to about the ‘Book. Take 2 minutes to create your own page, or add new music to your personal profile. Then, connect with me so we both have more friends and feel more popular.
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[...] Mike added an interesting post today on Faceboook - Add Your bMusic/b or Band on FacebookHere’s a small readingAs a musician or bartist/b promoting bmusic/b or art, you need to get plugged in. The Band Page can be used to communicate to fans, manage gig schedules, store video and event info, and other stuff. You can see an example of one by checking out my GarageSpin page. b…/b A quick word about Facebook bsearch/b optimization. If you have an odd band name or last name, be sure to somehow, somewhere, include multiple versions or spellings of your band’s name so your fans can find it. b…/b [...]
[...] Mike added an interesting post today on How to Get Your Band or Music on FaceoookHere’s a small readingI just created a Facebook Page for GarageSpin. If you’re on Facebook, let’s connect. What is a “Facebook Page”? (i.e. not a “Facebook Profile”) Most folks know how to use Facebook to create a regular, personal profile page. But not everyone knows about “ Facebook Pages“, and if you’re a musician, ba … [...]
I’m hoping your next post is full of advice on what to DO with a Facebook page and your band’s Facebook fans. That’s the opportunity…
Totally agree. Ya gotta build a car before you can drive it to the mall — you’d be surprised how many people still have tried Facebook, and of those that have, how few know about “Facebook Pages”. (Facebook doesn’t push them too hard.) :) But yup, that’s a great idea for a next post, thanks Taylor!
With the changes Facebook has made in the last couple of months, how does this change your advice above? It seems that it's now possible to have plenty of music info on your 'profile' page (with the My Band tab). It almost seems confusing to have two FB destinations at this point. This is what I'm wrestling with at the moment. Thoughts?
wondering if you can help me with a problem i'm having. neither my new profile nor my new band page are searchable within facebook or google. i.e., i can't find either in facebook or google searches, even though both have settings set so that "everyone" can find them. privacy settings are set for public viewing. what could this be? does it just take time for profiles/pages to be searchable? thanks a lot.
hi there, my band created a facebook page awhile ago before we were aware you could design a band page. my question is , is there anyway to alter our current page so that we can add our music and use all the band apps without having to start all over and re friend all of our friends. or would we have to start from scratch with a new band page? thanks
Jon,
I'm asking the same question…did you ever get an answer? I want to "convert" my personal profile to a band page. How can I do that? Please let me know.
Thanks.
I am having EXACTLY the same problem … it's been several weeks, and neither my profile nor the band page attached to my profile shows up in searches. Very frustrating! Any shortcuts to speed up the process of the web crawlers finding us out in cyberspace???
Hi Lori: All search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) "index" pages and sites by crawling through links pointing to them from other, already-indexed, sites. Are you linking to your Facebook page from any other sites? Your blog, your social network profiles, bookmarked pages, etc? If not, create those links asap, and be sure to use the name of your band as the actual "link text" (i.e. the text that's displayed and highlighted that someone clicks on). You can also try "submitting" the page to various indexing feeds. Google the phrase "submit website" to see what you can find. Hopefully, some combination of the above will help.
Another alternative I've found to be really powerful and easy to setup is RootMusic BandPage (rootmusic.com), which is powered by Soundcloud (I think) but adds more features to create a sort of complete band-page package.
Yea http://www.rootmusic.com/ works really well, check out a write-up about Facebook BandPages by RootMusic here http://88b26.th8.us/
[...] Faceboook - Add Your Music or Band on Facebook [...]