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How to Use Facebook Live to Promote Your Music

You’ve no doubt seen that little “Live” button on Facebook. Maybe you’ve even joined a Facebook Live video or seen other bands using Facebook Live. Right now, live video (on any platform) is one of the most powerful tools available to you and it presents an incredible and unprecedented opportunity to connect with your audience, create some great content they will love, and even make good income. In other words, live videos are a promote your music powerhouse that will let you grow your fanbase and connect with your fans on a whole new level.

So today, I’m going to walk you through how to use Facebook live as a tool to connect with your fans, grow your fanbase, promote your music, and make some income.

Why Use Facebook Live?

It can feel like new social media features are popping up every other day, so why should you dedicate time to Facebook Live?

As you probably know, Facebook uses an algorithm to determine what shows up in everyone’s newsfeeds. And those algorithms make it notoriously difficult to get posts on your artist or band page noticed. But right now, Facebook is giving live videos a lot of priority. In other words, Facebook live videos are more likely to show up in your fans’ and followers’ newsfeeds. And we could all use a little more exposure for our music 🙂

Facebook Live videos > Uploaded videos > Shared YouTube videos

As far as video content goes, Facebook Live videos get priority over videos uploaded onto the platform, and uploaded videos get priority over YouTube videos. And in most cases, video content in general will get more engagement than text or image posts. That means live videos are at the top of the engagement pyramid.

There are a ton of reports out there pointing to the higher engagement and audience retention rate of live videos as well. Typically, Facebook live videos have a higher average watch time than uploaded videos and they get three times the engagement.

And finally, any kind of live video lets you engage and connect with your audience and fanbase on a deeper level. While a lot of social media channels can still feel pretty impersonal, in a Facebook Live you’re talking directly to your fans and responding to them individually by name (more on that later), and that is an incredible opportunity.

Try these social media post ideas on Facebook:

How to Use Facebook Live: What You Need

There’s not many prerequisites for doing awesome Facebook Lives. A phone and a good internet connection is about all it takes. But there are a few things you may want to add on to your live set up to up the quality.

Especially for musicians, audio quality is really important. So it may be worth your while to invest in an external mic for your phone. This doesn’t have to be anything crazy high-end, but the little boost in audio quality will only make your performances better.
There’s nothing worse than your phone falling over in the middle of the best part of the song you’re playing… So a phone tripod or mount is another fairly inexpensive way to up the quality of your Facebook Live. You can get decent tripods or mounts for less than twenty bucks on Amazon, so there’s no real excuse for shaky video.
And finally you need a space that has decent lighting and a quiet, distraction-free environment. Any old well-lit room will probably serve your purpose, but you can also find inexpensive lights online if you feel like your space isn’t up to your standards.

Once you have that, all you need to do is go into Facebook and choose the “Live Video” option. From there you’ll be able to set your privacy settings and create a post description. This will show up in your fans newsfeeds so tell them what’s going on and why it’s gonna be awesome. Press the “Go Live” button and your fans will start coming in!

Live Video Ideas Your Fans Will Love

Live videos are a great form of content marketing. It’s a way to engage with your fans while also promoting your music in a way that just feels fun. There’s a lot you can do with a live platform, so let’s go through a few ideas.

With anything, your best bet is to try out a few things and gauge your fans’ reaction. What kind of lives do they get really excited about? Which lives get the highest attendance? Which get the most engagement?

You can find all of this in your Facebook analytics. To access them, just click on your “Insights” tab. There you’ll be able to see all kinds of stats that will help you make decisions about your live videos. Pay close attention to the “Average watch time.” Ultimately you want your fans to stick around on your lives as long as possible, so experiment and see what you can do to get this number up. You should also look at “Peak live viewers.” If you click through you’ll be able to see how many people were watching at what time. Pay close attention to any large drop offs and try to improve to keep people watching.

Okay, now onto the live ideas!

Small Performance

One of the most natural options for musicians is to simply do intimate performances with just you, your instrument, and your phone. This is a great option for singer-songwriters, but it can work for bands as well – take turns giving each member a chance to do a solo live.

The key to these small performances is to go back and forth between performing and chatting with your fans. This direct engagement is what will keep them hanging around and what elevates a live video from a YouTube video.

Band Jam or Practice

Next, you can turn your band’s jams or rehearsals into a Facebook live video. This gives fans a little look into what goes on behind the scenes in band life. Plus it doesn’t take much effort on your part – you’re already rehearsing, so why not just set up a phone and stream it? These are a little less personal than the one-on-one concerts we talked about earlier, but you can still take breaks and chat with your fans from time to time.

Stream Gigs

This is probably the least personable option. I’d recommend only streaming gigs from time to time – you want fans to actually come out to gigs, not just watch them on their phones, right? With these lives, its best to recruit a friend to be your live camera-man instead of just setting your phone up on a tripod. This can make the experience more engaging and interactive.

Announcements

If you have a really important announcement that you want your fans to know about, make the announcement in a live video to take advantage of the priority they get in Facebook’s algorithm! This way, you can be sure more fans actually see the post. As a bonus, give your live viewers early access or a special discount.

Q&A’s

The music is great, but it’s important to connect with your fans on a human level as well, so try putting down the instrument and just chatting with your fans. Let your audience submit questions beforehand and take some questions live as well. Some bands will get in a schedule where they do a Q&A ever month so fans know what to expect.

Vlogs

Another cool idea is to take your fans behind the scenes with live videos. Maybe bring them live into the studio, or backstage as you prepare for a gig. Talk them through what you’re doing, tell them a funny story that just happened, show them something cool behind the scenes, or give them a sneak peek at something you’re working on.

Facebook Live for Musicians: Best Practices

Okay, now that you have some ideas for live videos, let’s talk about some best practices. These are just some tips that will help you maximize your live videos and get better watch rate, engagement, and even make some money.

Show Up

If you really want your live videos to be successful, you need to give yourself a schedule and show up. Whether you go live once a week or every single day, make a schedule and stick with it.

Why? If you go live intermittently, you’re just hoping your fans are online when you hit that live button. But if fans know that you go live every Thursday night at 7PM, they might plan to be on Facebook just to catch your stream.

To start, use your analytics to see when your fans are online. What days of the week are your fans most active? What time of day? This is going to be different for every audience.

You could even give your live sessions themes. Like “Songwriting Sunday” where you hang out and play around with song ideas and write little ideas live. Or “Throwback Thursday” where you cover a bunch of older tunes that have inspired you.

Use a Tip Jar

There are musicians who are actually making a decent amount of money from Facebook Lives. All you need to do is set up some kind of “tip jar” (PayPal is an easy option) and link to it from the description of your live video and in the comments.

Next, set up a notification or have your computer right there so you can see the donations coming in and thank your fans personally by name. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but this little bit of personal gratitude can go a long way and show your fans that you really do appreciate their support. You see this all the time on Twitch, and it’s really easy to implement on Facebook as well.

If you want more ideas of how to use your Facebook live videos to drive music sales, make sure you check out this article next.

Build a Relationship

A good Facebook Live is not just about entertainment or putting on a good performance. You need to use lives as a chance to build a relationship with your fans.

Relate to your fans, get to know them, and answer their questions. Respond to them and use their name. Talk to them and with them, not at them. You want it to feel like you’re all hanging out on a Friday night together.

Over time, you’ll even get to know some of the regulars who show up all the time. Greet them by name and follow up on a conversation you had in a previous live. Remember, live videos are a rare opportunity to get an *actual* two-way conversation going with your fans, so take advantage of that and be real.

Promote Your Live Sessions

You’ll get the highest attendance if your fans know a live is coming, so post at least once announcing your upcoming live. You can even do a little cross promotion on other platforms like Instagram and Twitter so fans can follow you on Facebook and be ready when you go live. While Facebook does save live videos so fans can watch them after the fact, you’re going to get more audience retention live.

Duration

Facebook Live broadcasts are 90 minutes in length. While you don’t have to stay on for the full 90 minutes, you should try to make your live sessions at least 10 minutes. Facebook staggers notifications so you want to give it enough time to notify all your fans that you’re live.

Encourage Engagement

As with any kind of Facebook post, more engagement will always equal a greater reach, which in turn helps you get more fans on Facebook. So encourage your viewers to like, comment, and even share the live video throughout the broadcast. Try asking direct questions to get fans commenting. And something as simple as saying “Like if you agree,” can help boost the engagement.

How to Use Facebook Live

Facebook Live (or any form of live video) could be a great tool to incorporate into your social media plan. If you’ve never tried a live before, give it a shot this week and see how it goes! It will probably take some tweaking to find a live format that works for you, your schedule, and your fans, but with all the popularity of live video these days, it’s worth giving it a shot.

Let me know what you think – have you tried live videos on Facebook or any other platform? What kind of response did you get from your fans? Do you think it’s something that you’ll incorporate into your career?

For more great tips and tricks to promote your music, check out this free ebook.

We also have some great music promotion courses here, so take a look and see if they might be right for you.

August 5, 2018/4 Comments/by newartistmodel

Music Marketing

Musicians: Here’s How to Sell More Music with Facebook Live

Facebook Live videos are getting a lot of attention recently. And with good reason – it’s a great way to promote your music. And right now they are at the top of the algorithm in terms of reach and engagement. In other words, Facebook prioritizes live videos in the newsfeed.

There are a ton of articles out there explaining how to use Facebook live, so today I want to dive in a little deeper and discuss how you as an indie musician can sell more music with Facebook Live. Because that’s what we’re all aiming for, right? 🙂

There’s no direct “buy” button that will let you sell through Facebook live videos, BUT you can use Lives as a tool to drive fans to support you financially. Let’s take a look.

Take Donations During Facebook Live Events

One of the most direct ways to make money through a Facebook Live is with a little “tip jar.” This is just a link to someplace where fans can donate some amount of money while they’re watching the live video.

So how do you set this up? First, you need some way to accept donation payments. This is different from a typical store where fans trade money for some physical or digital product. Instead, fans will be giving you “tips” simply because they want to be able to support you or to show their appreciation for the awesome Live you’re doing.

It’s pretty easy to set up a PayPal.me link via PayPal. Just go to PayPal.me to create your link. You’ll be able to customize your link URL and donation experience and in the end, you’ll have a link that you can add to your website and a link that will let you send fans straight to your PayPal.me page.

That said, there are other services like Ko-Fi that have a similar function.

Donation Best Practices

Of course, having a donate link and actually getting a decent amount of donations are two different things, so let’s go through some best practices that will help you make the most of this virtual tip jar.

Write up a description of your live video before you start. Ideally, this should tell fans what you’re doing or what the live video is all about. Create a shortened link if necessary and place the link to your tip jar right in the description of the Live video. Some people also post the link in the first comment as well.
If you want to use a virtual tip jar during your Facebook Live sessions, I always suggest keeping the donation open-ended – in other words, you should let your fans decide how much they want to support you. There’s always the chance that a fan may want to put in $10, $20, or even $100 (yes, it’s happened before), and if you limit them to $5, you’re limiting your own earning potential.
Let fans know the tip jar is there. You don’t need to be obnoxious about it or overly promotional, but something as simple as saying, “Hey if you guys are enjoying the performance you can click the link in the description and give me a tip,” can be very effective. Don’t beg, just call it out a few times during the live.
Give an incentive for tips. If you don’t feel comfortable asking for tips, do something to give back. Something as simple as thanking fans by name can make everything feel a lot more authentic (set up a notification that will alert you every time someone donates so you can thank them in real-time). Other musicians will even do something special for people who donate like taking a song request.

Try these social post ideas on Facebook:

Use Facebook Live Videos to Promote Other Products

Whenever you have something new and cool available, it’s really easy to do a Live video to promote it. In addition to getting more visibility in Facebook’s algorithm (aka more fans will see it), it also allows you to show fans just how excited you are which can make announcing new products, music, or tours a lot more genuine and authentic. Here are some ideas:

Do a Live on the day your album drops to play through all the songs. Include a link to your store where fans can buy and download the album. In between songs, take some questions from your fans so you have a chance to tell the stories behind your album.
Give Facebook Live viewers a special discount. Set up a secret coupon code that you only share during your Live session. That way, fans feel like they’re part of an exclusive and special group. Plus, there’s nothing like a discount to incentivize a purchase. This could be a discount off your album or merch, or even a code that will get them an extra sticker or pin for free. This is one of the best ways to sell more music with Facebook Live.

Sponsorship

If you have a large enough following, sponsored live events can be another way to bring in some income. In other words, a company would give you money in exchange for mentions and reviews in your live videos.

You see sponsored content a lot in the YouTube space, but some companies are making the jump to sponsor live videos as well since they get so much visibility.

Attracting sponsors is going to be a combination of building an engaged audience, releasing great content, and networking your way to potential sponsors.

Sponsors are looking for an engaged and targeted audience to put their product or service in front of. So the first step is always building your fanbase.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you use a certain pedal all the time and it’s genuinely something you love. Make some videos and posts about it. Maybe it’s an in-depth video review you post on Facebook. Maybe it’s a tutorial on how to get a certain sound. Or maybe you just share photos of your set up. Tag the company to hopefully get on their radar. Some companies may reach out to you if they see you’re already using and posting about their products, but it’s also something you should be working on the networking side as well. Do you know anyone who knows someone in that company?

Sell More Music with Facebook Live

Hopefully, that gave you some ideas of ways you can use Facebook live to promote your music and engage with your audience. While Facebook Live has been around for a little while already, it’s still evolving and new ways to use the platform are popping up every day. So don’t be afraid to experiment and see what works best for you and your audience!

February 27, 2018/1 Comment/by newartistmodel

Music Marketing

5 Ways to Boost Facebook Engagement on Your Musician Page

Boost Facebook engagement and get more attention for your music

With organic reach declining as a result of more content being shared, Facebook is largely becoming a pay to play platform.

While this makes it harder to reach your fans without using advertising, don’t be too quick to give up on Facebook as a marketing channel for your music. Facebook is the most popular social network, with nearly 2 billion users, and it’s still possible to increase the effectiveness of your Facebook page by focusing on engagement.

Here are 5 things you can do to boost Facebook engagement.

Use these social media post ideas to promote your music and get more Facebook engagement:

Show Your Personality

People relate to other people. That’s a simple fact and a big factor that goes into your Facebook engagement. (And a big reason why major brands have a hard time relating to an audience on a deeper level)

So when you post, try to talk in your own voice. This may be challenging at first as you get used to communicating through short social updates, but it will become more natural the more you work at it.

As a simple way to check yourself, try actually reading out your posts and asking yourself objectively, “Is this something I would actually say?”

And don’t be afraid to be polarizing! A lot of people lose their voice and are afraid to speak their mind on the internet for fear of rejection. Now, I’m not saying you have to take major stands on big world issues, but let the little quirks in your personality show.

So maybe you’re a punk rocker with rebellious, high energy, anti-establishment views. Or maybe you’re a singer-songwriter who’s also really into geek culture. Don’t be afraid to let that out on social media from time to time.

Some people may not get where you’re coming from, but some will! And that connection that goes beyond just the music is what will help solidify the artist-fan relationship

Ask Questions

Asking questions and using fill in the blank posts (or even funny Mad-libs style posts) are great ways to get people to up your Facebook engagement.

Why does this work? For the most part, a direct question elicits a response much more than a statement.

I’ve noticed myself that when I post questions on my own Facebook page, friends and followers of New Artist Model are more likely to like and respond to it, often with a great amount of detail, which leads to even more responses.

Here are some questions and fill in the blank posts you can try that could be easily adapted to any audience

Looking for some inspiration – What songs are you digging right now?
Which t-shirt design do you like best?
We’re ordering pizza from the tour bus. Topping suggestions?

Not only will questions drive Facebook engagement, but you can get a better idea of what your fans interests are so you can more effectively promote your music.

Share Engaging Photos (and Videos)

Photos and videos are the most shared type of content on Facebook and are a great way to tell stories in a quick and powerful way.

If you have songs with inspirational lyrics, try creating a nice looking photo with pieces of your lyrics using a service like Canva, and insert your logo at the bottom so those who see the photo and don’t already follow you are exposed to your brand.

Here are some other ideas:

Share photos of your gear, pedalboard, drum set up, or home studio with some information so fans can re-create your sound.
Create a short video explaining the meaning behind a song’s lyrics (remember to add subtitles)
Share a photo of a lyric sheet, lead sheet, or Pro Tools file you’re working on.

Use Your Fans’ Content to boost Facebook engagement

Social media is all about multi-directional communication. Many larger artists post on social media and let their followers respond to them, but don’t engage with those who took the time to respond.

If your fans take the time to share a tattoo, painting, or cover of one of your songs to your Facebook page, reshare it with your fans. It’s a great way to show appreciation to your biggest fans.

Not only that, but the excitement you give your biggest fans by sharing their content with other fans can drive valuable word of mouth.

There are a few things you can do to encourage your fans to post shareable content on social media. Encourage them to post photos from gigs, remixes of your songs, or covers and tag you. Maybe make it a regular thing (like “Fan Feature Friday”).

Post More Frequently by Scheduling Your Posts

When it comes to Facebook engagement, scheduling your posts in advance can be a valuable way to continually engage your fans without staying on Facebook all day.

Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer let you schedule posts in advance. This means that with a little bit of work at the beginning of the week or day, you can continue to provide posts throughout the day for your fans to engage with.
Now, it’s important that you don’t rely too heavily on these social media management tools. Social media is dynamic and it happens in real time, so make sure you block out a little bit of time every day to respond to comments and post live.

Facebook Engagement: Where to Go From Here?

There are a lot more resources available for you at the New Artist Model blog. For example, if you want to self release an album, this will help you get started. If you want help with Instagram for music, this post may be very helpful.

The New Artist Model is an online music business school for independent musicians, performers, recording artists, producers, managers and songwriters. Our classes teach essential music business and marketing skills that will take you from creativity to commerce while maximizing your chances for success.

Check out the Music Business Accelerator (MBA) a new program that will help you plan your music projects, promote your music and create a sustainable career.

February 6, 2018/2 Comments/by Chelsea Ira