Doug Orey is a Student Advisor at Berkleemusic.com. He graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 2009 where he earned a degree in Music Business and Management. He is currently an avid gigging musician heavily involved in the Boston rock scene. He is the lead singer/rhythm guitarist and main songwriter for The Field Effect (www.thefieldeffectmusic.com/). He enjoys pizza and also has a beard.
In my last post I tackled some things to help you with your presence on Twitter. This post is all about the things that can hurt you when amassing a following. These things are easy to avoid and just as easy to do.
Auto Tweets
This is something I actually fell victim to. A lot of your social media is going to be tied together. Be careful not to blast your followers with multiple copies of the same tweet in short succession. For instance, my band’s WordPress Blog was set-up to push any new posts to Twitter and Tumblr. Problem was that our Tumblr was also set-up to push to Twitter! In a matter of seconds our followers were hit with redundant tweets. I quickly put a stop to this, I know personally I have unfollowed people for such things.
Ask for Followers/Likes
This is something that I see all the time. It’s one thing to promote your Facebook page or website on Twitter. Those two sources are where people can get more information about upcoming dates, news and listen to your music. Asking for likes on social media is not the way to build a dedicated fan base. “Liking” something for “Following” someone is a passive act. Seeing a high number of “Likes” or “Followers” is definitely an ego boost and feels good…but are these fans buying your record and coming to your shows, or just clicking “Follow” and forgetting about it? If you’re nearing a personal milestone such as 500 followers or 1,000 likes, it can’t hurt to point that out and maybe garner a bit more attention. Look at it as a relationship though; you don’t want to seem needy.
One too Many Retweets…
Share what YOU have to say. It’s great to retweet interesting stuff and share things your fans are saying but people are following YOU! I have unfollowed on a number of occasions because all they did was retweet things over and over. You might think, you don’t have anything interesting to say and that is where you are wrong. Conor Oberst of @brighteyesband could tweet “I prefer Skippy brand peanut butter” and 90% of his fan base will think “WHOA! Conor Oberst likes the same peanut butter I do!!!” You can keep it light, just remember to keep it you.
Don’t Think You’re Better Than Your Followers
Too often I see major stars openly dissing their fans. Most recently, Rihanna went after a fan on twitter. Not cool Rihanna, not cool. You have to remember that not everything you do will jive with your fans but never under any circumstances should you attack them. People might talk trash, but let it go. No need to go after them. You could very easily loose more fans by doing so, let them talk, no one will notice.
So these have been my thoughts on the Twitter game. This is the approach I am taking and it seems to be going well! Let me know what you all think! What are you doing to keep fans engaged on Twitter?
Doug
www.thefieldeffectmusic.com
@thefieldeffect
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Berkleemusic’s next term begins on June 25th, 2012.
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