Twitter - A Guide for Musicians and Bands

My last post was a pretty in depth look at how musicians and bands can help themselves with twitter. However, it was pointed out to me numerous times that apparently most bands have A.D.D. and I'll need to make this shorter if they're actually going to read it. So, here's pretty much the same How-To Twitter for Bands and Musicians guide in a nice, short, bullet point format:

Twitter for Bands (follow me at @burntees)

· Update your status in 140 characters or less (what are you doing?)

· Make sure your profile is set up with a link to your website, a short bio and a picture

· Make sure to engage with your audience by replying to users (@username to reply) – don’t just post Facebook type status updates all the time.

· Ideas on what to write:

o Anything and everything – fans want to feel connected to the artist and feel like they’re getting an inside look at their lives.

o Updates from the studio when recording

o Updates on the manufacturing process

o Reminders about shows and other band news

o Links to press, pictures, videos, music streams, etc

o Don’t always try to be selling or pushing something. It’s ok to say “new album available on itunes here (with a link), but that should be a small % of your posts.

· How do you get followers?

o Start at http://www.search.twitter.com and search your band name to find fans talking about you.

o Add links and twitter buttons to your MySpace, YouTube, and other websites

o Follow people you’re interested in; there’s a good chance they’ll follow you back

o Best way to get followers is to just engage and interact with other users

· Tools to make twittering easier/better

o For windows desktop: http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/

o www.Digsby.com – allows you to integrate all your instant messaging platforms with twitter & facebook

o For blackberry: TwitterBerry (http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/)

o Cell Phone: text twitter updates to 40404 and they’ll automatically post to your profile (you have to go to your account settings first and set up your mobile info first). You won’t be able to see replies or other people’s tweets thru here but at least you can post when you’re not in front of a computer.

o For iPhone: Tweetie (here’s a link to some others: http://theappleblog.com/2008/12/03/12-twitter-apps-for-the-iphone/)

o http://twitpic.com/ - allows you to easily post pictures to twitter

o Use these links to see more twitter applications (there are also widgets you can use to easily integrate twitter with your website): http://twitter.com/downloads & http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps

· Good examples to follow of other musicians/bands on twitter:

o http://www.Twitter.com/davebarnesmusic

o http://www.Twitter.com/davejmatthews

o http://www.Twitter.com/snoopdogg

o http://www.Twitter.com/matisyahu

o John Mayer: http://twitter.com/johncmayer/