Tweet Tweet Twitter and Beyond

Now class since we last talked about Myspace and Facebook in great detail it’s time we turn our attention towards Twitter. What, if anything, separates it from the other two? It is fast and easy to use. Micro blogging in 140 characters or less is very appealing to those of us on the go. Yet again though, the same question arises that I have with Facebook, who are you tweeting with? Are you just tweeting with friends and co-workers and how does that help your band?

I admit, when I first heard about Twitter I thought it was a tool for bored people to write about the mundane details of their lives. “Took my dog for a walk” or “Just went to the bathroom” were the things I imagined reading.

Luckily, I was wrong. Okay, I have actually read those things but I think they were posted both in jest and as a way to get attention. Twitter has emerged as a new creative outlet, proving that it matters what the average person writes in 140 words or less. Twitter influenced the outcome of a presidential campaign, made Ashton Kutcher more popular than CNN, has a TV show based off of it, and is currently dominating the PR world as they try to get a grip on it.

Many articles have touted the importance of Twitter and Facebook for businesses, but why does Twitter matter to your band?

There are a lot of artists on twitter, not to say there are not on Myspace or Facebook too, but they seem to be more visible on Twitter then anywhere else. Are you using twitter to keep up with what a band is doing that day, in a way, that you don't use Myspace or Facebook?

So who exactly is on Twitter? Eight percent of American adult Internet users and particularly young adults according to Dec. 9 report from the Pew Research Center. Of those users, 2 percent said they use Twitter on a daily basis.  

What they found was that Twitter users make up 10 percent of all female Internet users, versus 7 percent of Internet-using men. Tweeting is also more popular with those in the 18-29 age category—14 percent, versus 7 percent of 30 to 49 year olds, the next most popular category.

Now you may be asking why all of that mumbo jumbo is important. Well, as an artist you have to know who your target audience is. Being in a band is no different then being in any other kind of business. Your music is your product and you need to sell it. But who do you sell it too?

Maybe I should write a piece about niche marketing at some point and talk in more detail about this form of marketing and business practice, but for now let’s just say that not everyone from every age bracket is going to like your music. So you need to decide who is most likely going to buy your music and tweet with them.

If you think your music appeals to a teenage crowd then great! Twitter may be the ideal place to spend your social media time. With every teenager having a cell phone in their pocket, you are only a quick tweet away from their attention. Now, how long you can hold that attention has long been a problem for record labels and their parents alike, but at least you have a platform to reach them with.

On the upside, teens are using their mobile phones to share photos and stories, to arrange get-togethers and to micro-coordinate their schedules; on the downside, they are using them to cheat on tests, wriggle around rules and fire off sexts.  

Understanding how youth use mobile phones is vital to creating effective social media plan based on the reality of how the technology is used.

If on the other hand you believe your fan base to be a somewhat older crowd, and by older I mean in their early to late twenties, then Twitter still may be a good way to reach those fans as well.

The problem with Twitter lies in it’s easy to get online and read tweets without every responding to them. Since it’s so fast and easy to use, most users never reply to your tweets. It’s hard to gauge exactly how many people saw or read your tweet, or if it was overlooked.

Just over half of Twitter users retweet posts—18 percent of them on a daily basis—and send direct messages. Forty percent share photos, 28 percent share videos, and 24 percent let others in on their whereabouts.  

So where does that leave you as an artist?

An old saying of my Father comes to mind when thinking about Twitter:” If you don’t tell people what’s on your mind how they are suppose to know?” Same goes for a band too. If you have a show coming up, an appearance, heading to the studio, etc why not broadcast it to the world. It takes time, thought and effort to write a blog and then post it on your website, Myspace, Facebook etc. With Twitter in a quick few taps from your cell phone you have just informed everyone with little to know time involved at all.

As we have discussed before time usage is important when thinking about social media. Twitter is so fast and easy to use that it would be hard to get bogged down with it compared to Myspace and Facebook.

Using Twitter shows you are tech savvy, it’s free exposure, it’s an influential tool, it’s growing daily, it can open opportunities, reaches a key audience, provides real-time news, and is easy to use.

My advice to you as an artist is this: If you are taking the time to use Myspace and Facebook to promote your music, why not take a few seconds and post a tweet about it too!

Next time we will take about all of the little known or new social media outlets that are getting attention and starting to transform the way the big boys are doing business.