It pays dividends to have your Facebook Page optimized to perfection. For artists, social media should always be the main ingredient in any of your social media marketing strategies.
Effectively combining content marketing and SEO best practices — your Facebook Page will become your second home behind your website and will create a lot of value for your brand.
There’s a direct relationship between a well developed social presence and a high search ranking and optimizing your Facebook page is the first step in that process.
Let’s go over 10 facts that make Facebook a must-have for artists and music professionals.
Facts About Facebook
- The Undisputed Champion of Social Media — Facebook is the leading social platform. Reaching 60.6% of Internet users. (Facebook, 2018)
- Facebook has 2.45 billion monthly active users, 1.62 billion active users visited the social network on a daily basis. (Facebook, 2019)
- Facebook has more than 80 million small businesses around the World using Facebook pages. (Facebook, 2018)
- Seven out of ten, 69% of adults in the U.S. claim that they use Facebook. (Pew Research Center, 2019)
- 65% of Facebook users are under the age of 35. (Statistica, 2019)
- 96% of active Facebook users accessed the platform via mobile devices. (DataReportal, 2019) That means that only 4% of Facebook active users logged in on desktop devices to use the social media platform.
- Users spent an average of 58.5 minutes on Facebook each day. (Recode, 2018)
- 86% of U.S. marketers use Facebook for advertising. (Emarketer, 2018)
- 78% of American consumers have discovered retail products to buy via Facebook (Kleiner Perkins, 2018)
- Facebook is the most popular channel for businesses to share video content at 81%.
Facebook has been a powerhouse online and throughout Social Media for the better part of the last two decades. Creating a plethora of opportunities for brands, businesses and artists alike.
The social media giant is showing no signs of slowing down. Although other platforms like Twitter and Instagram have their uses. Facebook has cornered the market with Facebook Pages, Groups and its Events features.
When it comes to artists, if your supporting team can tap into the value that Facebook presents. You will be able to take advantage of the value that is being created from Events to Facebook advertising.
Your Facebook page allows you to have a centralized hub on the platform, while also participating in Facebook groups which can be utilized for networking and aligning with like-minded individuals.
Ivy Gray-Klein of corey flood, a band based out of Philadelphia says,
“I might make a post on my personal account about needing a show in a certain city and make it public,” she says. “Then friends of mine will tag their friends who may have resources or connections in those cities. It may sound kind of trivial, but having that more personal connection really helps, like recognizing you have a lot of mutual Facebook friends with that person… Especially within DIY, leveraging that community can be helpful. I don’t have a professional booking agent who has established relationships with venues.”
The Facebook events feature, in my eyes, presents the most value.
Morgan Schaffner, the marketing manager for AdHoc says,
“People’s decision to attend a show is often based on social reasons, and Facebook does truly make it very easy to see which of your friends are ‘attending’ a show… I think it’d be very challenging to as easily find such a large target audience.”
Some people may view Facebook as a place for family, friends and keeping up with co-workers. For artists and music professionals, the Facebook event features can give you access to every city, town or college in the World. That is why advertising on the social platform has created this love ~ hate relationship.
Devin McKnight, a guitarist who has performed with Grass is Green, Speedy Ortiz, and produces his own music as MANEKA says,
“I don’t really want to be on Facebook at all, but I feel like I have to because of my band. I don’t know how much it helps, but I do know the event invites kind of have that market cornered. No other platform really offers that.”
Facebook may have a 50–50 split on its branding with some users but the value it creates remains to be undeniable and unmatched.
How to Setup a Facebook Page for Prime Optimization
After you complete your setup, Facebook will navigate you through a series of steps to optimize your page.
The first step will be to fill out your ‘About’ section. This is a section that you don’t want to forget or leave blank. You can use this section to establish your voice, introduce yourself, explain what type of music you create, share your history and/or what you like to do.
Once you have a filled out your ‘About’ section, feel free to add some images to your profile. You can select a profile picture and a cover image.
After completing these basic steps, you are ready to begin with your Facebook strategy for artists and music professionals.
Your cover image on your Facebook page can also be used as a section to upload videos of performances or other useful content. Such as announcements, communicating with fans or followers. Your cover image is the first thing people see when they visit your page. This allows for the opportunity to be creative with your videos and announcements.
The next step is to build your links. You will want to link all your other social media accounts to your Facebook page. There are also HTML tabsthat you can plug into Facebook to show your other social media feeds directly on your Facebook page. This allows fans or followers to engage with your other content without actually leaving the platform.
If you haven’t started your other social media accounts, now is a good time to begin. It is comparable to online real estate, where you want to claim and build up those platforms to your advantage as an artist or music professional.
The goal is to get your fans and followers to engage with your Facebook posts, but you also want them to visit your website, buy tickets for shows, purchase merch and sign-up through email to receive your press releases.
You can also setup a signup form on your Facebook page through a HTML tab, so that fans and followers can receive future press releases. This option allows them to directly opt-in. That is why it is imperative to link or “anchor” your Facebook page to an actual website.
Your success on the platform isn’t dependent on having a central website as an artist or music professional. It is although, held in high regard, as Facebook provides the services and the means to connect your website to your Facebook page.
Having a website is a way to establish a central hub on the Internet where you can be creative and list all the necessary information that people will need to know to follow your brand.
The goal is to create a website, while also keeping in mind that you will be sending your Facebook fans and followers to the central location to complete an action or engage with more content.
Always remember, while building your website you will want to put the most essential information to the left (we read left to right) or at the top of your website (we scan top to bottom).
If you need a website, you can start one for free at this site ? or this one ? there are other options as well, so feel free to do your research.
Your website is considered to be the most important of your online real estate. It is a central hub where you can control of every aspect of your brand, the information you choose to present and it is where you can put up products on display.
A great user-experience is non-negotiable, you don’t want to confuse or frustrate your fans and followers when they visit your website with an already pre-determined plan of action.
Simplicity is key and clarity is even better.
After you have built a great Facebook page, you will want to keep it going with new and value packed material. As an artist or music professional this is your bread-and-butter. It is a great opportunity to build your brand as Facebook get better all the time.
Feel free to take a look around on other Facebook pages to see what other people or brands are doing. Including prospective venues or other artists you can see yourself working with in the future. There’s nothing better than being inspired by the inspired.
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