Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

I was sick last week, so it’s taking me a minute to get back into the swing of things around here.

From ‘Leaving Social Media?’ by Lachrista Greco:

“My lit agent advises I keep the account active and I understand why. But I also know there was a time before social media. There was a time when none of us relied on this shit. There was a time before the tornado of “content creation” and “influencers” and “doomscrolling.”

Yes, “there was a time when none of us relied on this shit.”

I started my first music blog in 2001, five years before Twitter showed up (it was called Twttr back then).

Dillinger Escape Plan didn’t go viral on a social media platform, they just put on such an insane show that people had to talk about them. The old-school viral, I guess.

Music blogs, record stores, local venues, groups of friends, email lists – those things worked, and they still do.

It’s getting harder to say the same about social media.

Social media accounts are easy to make, which then makes it easy to impersonate official accounts and rip people off.

Big time jerks are pretending to work for Rolling Stone and taking money from artists in exchange for coverage.

We know this not just because someone from Rolling Stone Tweeted about it (could that be a fake account maybe?!?), but because it’s on the Rolling Stone website. And apparently it’s happening to Billboard reporters, too.

Metallica had to issue a statement back in December because scammers were streaming on, “fake YouTube channels posing to be ours and all pointing to websites that we do not run. Please remember — all of our official social media channels are verified.”

Then this weekend Avenged Sevenfold announced some festival appearance cancellations:

Metal Injection published it as a news piece, which makes sense, since the news came from the band’s official social media accounts.

But oops – it wasn’t true, at least according to the two festivals involved.

Bummer for the Welcome To Rockville and Sonic Temple social media teams to have to handle something like this on a Sunday afternoon, but hey – social media sure keeps you on your toes, right?

The posts on the A7x social media platforms have been removed, but as of writing this post (Feb 27, 2023 around 11am ET) no official explanation has been posted either on the band’s social media nor their official site.

Be sure to review all online security procedures, friends. And make sure you have an official website where you can publish announcements when shit like this happens, so your fans aren’t left in the dark!

I don’t care what sort of team you got, what gear you roll onto stage, or who took your band photo – you still gotta write a good song.

Same goes for this email marketing thing – your 10,000 subscribers don’t count for much when no one is opening them.

Write better songs.
Send better emails.

Check your social media feeds – what gets more likes? The most comments?

Make a social media post the start of your next email, like Church Road Records did back in December:

Make sure your writing and imagery are a reflection of your creative spirit:

We can see this in the heavy metal world in terms of sameness – same looking websites and social media feeds.

For a genre with such imaginative artwork, tour posters, and shirt designs, we can be pretty bland when it comes to actually promoting these things in creative ways.

Putting it all together into an email shouldn’t be difficult, as you’ve got an archive of material to work with, content you posted on social media over the years.

Remember, not everyone who follows you on social media will see every post. Hell, people who subscribe to your email newsletter won’t open every email, either.

Re-purposing the content you’ve already posted means less time thinking about your next email newsletter, and gives you a jump on the creative process.

Work on writing great songs, and turn your best social media content into an email newsletter that people look forward to and want to open.

If you haven’t heard by now, Twitter will be shutting off SMS two-factor authentication for free users. It’s the least secure version of the 2FA options (the more secure options are authenticator apps and security keys), but still, it’s confusing as hell to general Twitter users.

“Any users who do not subscribe to Twitter Blue, and still have the two-factor authentication by text enabled, will lose access to the service on March 20 if they do not opt out on their own.”

Don’t wait till you get hacked or lose access – figure out your social media lock out plan today!

Not to be outdone, Meta is joining the shit show by offering (gasp) customer support for your personal Facebook and Instagram accounts for $12/month:

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that a “Meta Verified” account will grant users a verified badge, increased visibility on the platforms, prioritized customer support, and more.

Pay $12/month for “increased visibility” on Facebook and Instagram.

Then pay $7/mo+ for Twitter Blue, which says “Tweets from verified users will be prioritized,” though that’s a feature that’s “coming soon.”

Get ready to shell out $20/mo to reach maybe 15% of your audience!

Our home base is a “link in bio” list of sites of other places where we rent space on DSPs, YouTube, and various social media platforms.

We’re just a bunch of kiosks at the mall, our vibes / vision / brand are stuffed inside a pre-built container hoping to get the attention of anyone walking by.

Yes, the kiosk is cheap and easy, and there’s the allure of all that foot traffic.

But a storefront / website gives you more creative space, more credibility, more flexibility and control.

Forget the “nobody even goes to websites anymore” garbage.

Imagine a big media outlet with a website wanted to cover your next video shoot.

They’d have a photographer on site, and a writer. Big web feature. Behind the scenes photos. Talk of the new album.

They put all those photos and text on their website.

They’ll post about your story on social media so everyone comes to their website.

Now you, the label, the publicist, and all the other sites link to their website, to find out about this new video and talk of your new album.

Yeah, or you can just do that yourself.

It might not be as pretty, or as grand, but what are you gonna do?

Wait around for a big outlet to cover you?

Spend hours posting every day on social media platforms that only let you reach 5% of your fans?

You’re already posting a dozen photos on Instagram from the video shoot, with 200 word captions.

PUT IT ON YOUR WEBSITE.

When people visit your website they can learn more about you:

• They can fall madly in love with you and your vision!
• They can watch your videos without seeing SUGGESTED VIDEOS from bands with much higher creative budgets than you!
• They can BUY YOUR MERCH, AND PRE-ORDER YOUR RECORDS.

Give your fans a reason to visit your website, because these social media platforms won’t be around forever.

In 2006 MySpace was the biggest music site in U.S.
In 2008 it was AOL Music (I know because I worked there, and we got foam “WE’RE #1” hands).

Neither are a blip on the radar today.

Own your space: set up a website today and control your brand.
Own your face: set up an email list today so you can speak directly to your fans.