Other Marketing Channels
Remember, the Internet is a vast, open market with new distribution methods appearing frequently. Keep your ear to the ground to find out what “the next big thing” in networking and marketing will be. Whether it's music technology or marketing strategy, you always want to stay ahead of the curve!
Facebook (www.facebook.com), the immensely popular site for social networking, is a great place to explore music connections. You can find and add musicians to your list of friends and use the Facebook events system to advertise your next gig or CD release. You can also use the fan pages to promote your music and gigs. Facebook and other social networking sites are great in that your network grows with each and every new connection you make.
Twitter (www.twitter.com) has exploded in popularity recently. If you haven't checked out Twitter, it's a new micro-blogging service that's becoming an important tool in social media. With Twitter, you post small microblogs that are limited to 140 characters. Since the character limit is small, it's perfect for posting from cell phones and smart phones. People can follow you on Twitter and learn about what you're up to. Musicians are using Twitter to expand their audience and keep in touch with their fans. You can announce gigs, new tunes, or new albums on iTunes. You can learn a great deal about new trends in technology just from following the right people on Twitter, and it's a really interesting way to get information out.
Wordpress
The other promotional avenue to explore is full-on blogging. When blogging first started, it was fairly bland, only giving you access to text-based posts. Nowadays, blogging has turned into a rich web experience. Wordpress (www.wordpress.com) is the open-source blogging platform that makes it possible for anyone to blog in style. Because it's open-source, it's not only free, it's in active development. A Wordpress blog can look like anything you want, thanks to the thousands of pre-made templates and add-ons available. A nicely made Wordpress site looks like a website, not a blog. You can add pictures, music, and video. Wordpress could be a perfect landing spot for your band to showcase their music and recordings.
