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. (Personally, I use ReverbNation’s Facebook App.)
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.
Comments
[...] 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/
I have a question. I have a facebook profile and band page. When I am logged it seems like I am logged in to both… how do I know which one i am sending messages from or adding friends to
I sing and dance I wrote a song with my dad Jan Berry when he was alive
I walked through the door with some mail from my mail box I found
A letter in side so opend it up and began to read it I couldn’t believe the message in side what every happend to 4young boys that we once were having fun in the sun the suffers rule there taking over school
Then why don’t we get together agian my friend
Dear friend I’m weighting you this letter hopeing we could get together sooner or later dear friend my true friend some day if the world should I’ll remember you
FaceItPages has an easy app that enables you to create Facebook band pages with music, video, photos, etc. http://www.faceitpages.com/facebook-band-page.php
Already got a Facebook Page for our band. Is there a way I can add music tab directly to the band page and not to my personal profile? I'm not talking links – those I got figured out with the help of http://www.soundcloud.com but I'd like to get a tab at the top were "video", "photos", "discussions" etc. are
Hi The Norm — Yup, there are several companies that help you to it. ReverbNation is just one, and SoundCloud and Nimbit are two more that let you add a music tab to your Facebook Band Page. You just need to synd both accounts up. Good luck!
-Mike
How can I alert visitors to my profile page of the existence of my band page and/or how can I place a My band tab on my profile page (I already have one on my band page but noone ever sees it as they always go to my profile…..er…which has no music on it ! please help !
Great question. Most of the "Band Page" apps available used to plug into both Personal Pages and Facebook Pages, but Google stopped that last year. You may have to get creative. For example, uploading a profile image that directs people to your band page, or placing text elsewhere within your personal page that does so. It's definitely not ideal…. I'll keep my eyes peeled for another solution. Does anyone else know of a way?
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2 Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DmESHffPhLuM%26feature%3Dautofb&h=9f27b” target=”_blank”>http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2 <a h…” target=”_blank”>Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DmESHffPhLuM%26feature%3Dautofb&h=9f27b
A must watch
Awesome solo by Kashan Admani
Really, that's poetry what you just wrote. I don't understand exactly, but I feel it. Are those lyrics to a song? I'll never know. I never seem to get back to read replies to my posts. Whoever wrote that has a big soul and a big heart.
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