BandPage Experiences has been live for almost a few weeks now and we’re already learning a lot about what makes a good Experience tick. We are finding that the best Experiences are not only exclusive and unique, but are also priced affordably and time limited. It’s important to keep those factors in mind when developing your own Experiences.
In this upcoming series of 5 posts we are going to cover how and where to promote and market your Experience(s) once you have decided on what to offer your fans. This first post focuses on all the different ways you can share them on Facebook. Our next 4 posts will cover Twitter, YouTube, your mailing list, and good old word-of-mouth.
Part 2: Twitter | Part 3: YouTube | Part 4: Mailing List | Part 5: Word of Mouth
Promoting on Facebook
There’s no doubt that a musician should be active on Facebook – after all, it boasts over 1.06 Billion users, people are spending large parts of their day browsing it, and it’s one of the biggest sites where you can find fans. If you have the highest number of fans here, this should be the first place you go to promote your newly published Experiences.
Facebook is a great platform for posting rich media messages to your fans. It supports links, videos, photos, text, and more – which makes it ideal for promoting your Experiences. We recommend posting a short and genuine message to your fans, letting them know that you created an Experience for them.
Quick Tip! We suggest using trackable links like bit.ly or shortURL so you can track and measure the amount of traffic you are generating with your post, and optimize your message based on performance.
Different WAYS TO POST
Facebook supports links, videos, photos, text, and more. Mix and match different media in your posts to see what works for you and your fans. Below are some live examples of different ways to post on Facebook.
- Embed the BandPage Experiences Link
- Promote either your individual experience or your entire experiences page, depending on what your goals are and how many experiences you have.
- Example: George Clinton from Parliament Funkadelic wanted to post about one of his shows in Sacramento, so he shared his individual experience page with a message aimed at his Sacramento fans.
- Post a Related Photo
- Take a screenshot or post an image related to your BandPage Experience, and link to the experience in the text description. Images grab fans’ attentions quickly and they’ll be more likely to click through. Example: Slightly Stoopid below
- Write a Genuine Message
- Tell the story behind your offer; give some background; reach out to your fans in an engaging way. You can pair this with any kind of media – a photo, link, or video. Lay Low pairs her message with a link to her Experience in the example below.
Best Practices
- Include Rich Media: Rich media posts are more likely to show up in fans’ news feeds and get clicked on. Photo posts are especially eye-catching and engaging.
- Your Message Should Come From You: Fans respond more when your message is genuine and non-salesy. It’s always good to give your fans a story or more context by answering:
- What are you offering?
- What’s the story behind it?
- Why is it cool and unique?
- Give An Action Step: Every post should have an action step attached to it – “Check out my awesome offer!”, “Buy now before they’re sold out!” or “Go now – only 10 available!” are all good examples.
- Always Be Optimizing. Watch the traffic and engagement you’re driving from each of your posts, and optimize towards the ones that are showing results. For example if adding an action step like “Check it out now!” is getting you a lot of clicks, then keep going with that. Different ways to optimize:
- Time / Day of post
- Action step in post
- Type of media posted
- Geographic location / types of people the post is targeted at (if you’re running ads)
- “Star” Important Posts: You can star posts on your Timeline by hovering over the star shape on the top right corner. Starring posts makes them twice as wide and will draw your fans’ attention. Example: The Postelles below
Advertising on Facebook
If your post on Facebook didn’t generate the number of views or sales you wanted, Facebook offers some great advertising options.
- Promoted Page Posts: Select a specific post on your page or automatically promote your most recent post to increase the number of your fans or friends of your fans it reaches. Example: Brian Fuente can promote his post to his fan base, and select his budget and reach.
- Facebook Ads: Ads run along the right-hand side of a fan’s page. You can customize the message and image, as well as link off Facebook to your BandPage Experiences link. You can also target your ad to specific users by age, geographic location, other pages they’ve “liked”, and more.
Facebook Advertising Resources:
To recap, there are a number of different ways you can post about your Experiences on Facebook – links, text, photos, videos, and more. We recommend 1. writing a genuine message with a strong action step, 2. using strong visuals by posting media and/or “starring” your posts, and 3. looking at your viewership and clickthrough rates for posts and optimize towards the types that are successful. Ads are also an option if your posts aren’t reaching as many people as you’d like. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions you’d like us to answer!
And of course, log into your BandPage editor now to request access to our Experiences beta program.
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