I think while I have some time we should talk about the facebook reach metric here for a second. Bands have a very hard time getting their word out to fans to promote their band because facebook puts a premium on who gets to see posts based on how much bands pay to have a post promoted. It isnt based on who actually wants to see the post; it is based on the band, for instance, paying to have the post boosted so that the network can see the post in their time lines. For instance, our recent reach for a pair of posts has been about 4,000, which is remarkable, but in order to get that I had to tag 50 people in each picture. The untagged posts: a grand total of 64 people, combined. In order for about 4,000 people to see those posts without tagging, Id have to pay approx $7 per post, which is about the price of one CD. So, in order for me to pay facebook for one post Id have to sell one CD, or in fact 3 CDs because I make a little less than $7 in profit for every 3 cds sold. Now, if I wanted to get 5,000 people to see the same posts, it jumps to a balky $20, which is just unrealistic and a foolish expense. The most effective way to circumvent that expense is to tag people, friends, who I know have networks that will be exposed to the actual post itself. Look guys, lemme be real with you here: Bands get screwed all the time, and with everything. We are the content creators, without whom the music scene would not exist, and yet, we get screwed with everything: We all get screwed by clubs and by promoters out of money for shows; we get screwed when people pirate music, especially the ones who profit from it; we get screwed by managers; we get screwed by CD and merch makers; we get screwed by studios, labels, sound techs...; we get screwed by people in every aspect of the business; and now we all get royally screwed by social media and facebook, which makes a profit off of using our content that we post to the website, and then tries to corner us so we have to pay to get people to actually see that same content. What is worse, is that facebook bans users who use the system effectively to access their personal or fan networks, while favoring people who spend money on ads, which a lot of people wind up blocking anyway using Ad Blocker. One of the best ways you can support bands is by using facebook and social media to expose bands to new fans, and to keep up to date with what that band is doing. Have you invited your friends to like band pages? I know I have, many many times, invited 10, 20, 60, 200, 500 people to like band pages to help them get their numbers up, and in each instance it helped the band grow on the network. Do you share updates of bands on your page? I can count a grand total of 2 shares on each of the two posts we made this week. Do you like posts by bands when they pop up on your feed? Less than 12% of each person that had the posts delivered to them and also less than half of the tagged people liked the posts, even though it was clearly in their feed. We also only had 6 comments in one and 1 comment in the other. Liking and commenting assures that more people see the post. How much effort does it take, really? A big way you can support bands is by not getting bent out of shape when you are tagged in a post. Just adjust your settings so at least YOU get the post notification and can decide if you want it to show up on your wall or not. This is really the only recourse that bands have to get their info out to people, except for manually sharing on peoples time lines and in groups, which gets users banned. By strategically tagging the max 50 people on two or 3 posts per week, bands like us will be able to reach thousands of people already in the network, and not have to pay upwards of $60 for those posts to reach the same amount of people to see them, which amounts to $240 per month, which is almost what we pay for practice space each month. It is an unfair and unjustified expense that bands like us cant handle. Yeah, I know getting a tag is annoying. But so is seeing your favorite underground bands writhe in obscurity because no one knows who they are and what they are doing. It is also frustrating when people always *talk* about supporting the underground, but get all pissy when a band tags them in a post. Support the Underground! should not be a useless rhetorical statement, but a rallying cry to spit in the face of the mainstream, where fans of underground music use grass roots media networking to circumvent the paper-thin and trend-driven mainstream and commercial music scene. This is very serious, because a lot of bands have only ONE way of marketing themselves: facebook. And, unless they have a marketing budget of several thousands of dollars per year just for basic posts to be seen, then the only way for them to get their updates out to the world is by fans and friends showing support by letting them be tagged in posts or sharing those posts. Liking, sharing, and commenting are also huge ways to show support. Hey, the underground isnt going to build itself, by itself. People have to work at it. Before social media, we used to stand outside clubs handing out flyers for bands until wed get chased away. Bands used to spend the cash to send out snail mailers. Now, that time and fiscal expense can be re-allocated to the musical aspect, allowing bands to create more music at a faster pace, and hopefully more creatively because of the advent of social media. This resource can only be quelled by you, the fans, not supporting bands by not sharing, liking, and commenting on posts, and also by not allowing yourself to be tagged in an important post. That is the most critical aspect of this, because without that all-important tag feature, the only way to duplicate that sort of reach is through paid ads. It is a constant uphill battle, and now more so than ever, because fans are making less and less effort to support underground bands, even though it is as easy as clicking like on a post, or letting a tag go through. Most bands dont even care if a fan buys the bands music, even though that is the biggest short term thing one can do to support a band. But sharing, liking, commenting, tagging, invite-to-like, etc...are things that wont cost you any money, but can go a long way to support a band in helping them get out to more people without being forced into the corporate, commercial mainstream outlets and the deathly added marketing expenses. So, with that said, support the underground BY using the grassroots social media to support the bands you like. Give bands the benefit of the doubt by not getting irked when they tag you in a post. INVITE your friends to like pages; dont make bands have to pay for likes, post reach, etc...I mean, why would you want bands to fork over their money to the corporate conglomeration known as Facebook, anyway? Why make them more rich than they already are, when bands can allocate those funds to make their vision happen? So, you need to ask yourself a crucial question, especially if you are a music or metal fan: who do you really support: the music, or facebook? Facebook does NOT want bands or users to have a high organic reach; they want us to pay for ads instead, so they limit our reach to people already in the network. So, every time you do not share, like, comment, invite, or let a tag go through, you are supporting facebook, NOT the band, not the music, and not the scene. Think about this the next time you see a band tag you or when a band posts to your page. Stop being annoyed and start sharing and inviting people to like that page. Because, sooner or later, apathy from the fan base will undoubtedly lead to silence by the bands. And that means... no more music. Im tagging some key people in this, and I want everyone that sees this post to share it. Like, comment, etc...get the word out.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 14:37:22 +0000
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