How many social media platforms?!!!

Oct 6, 2008

How many social media platforms?!!!

Okay, so you’re on MySpace. And you’re probably on Facebook too. You might be using Twitter. You certainly should be.

And then there are the other social media platforms – not the least of which is your blog. Wordpress? Blogger? Vox? Mog?

For music, you’ve got Last.fm, Imeem, ccMixter, Jambase, Grooveshark, Virb, PureVolume, Amie St, FameCast, Buzznet… and then there are your photos on Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa… your videos on Youtube, blip.tv, muzu.tv, Vimeo… bookmarks and news on del.icio.us, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Digg… profiles on LinkedIn, Ning, Disqus, LiveJournal, Bebo, Hi5, Plaxo, Ma.gnolia, Yahoo Groups… not to mention Tumblr, Upcoming.org, Eventful, Posterous (I looooove Posterous), Pownce, Brightkite, Xanga, Jaiku, Friendster, FriendFeed, Diigo, Kwippy…

It’s actually all a bit much really. Just how social do you need to be?

An argument could be made that actually it’s important to be on most, if not all of these websites, and more besides. A slightly better argument could be made that it would be nice to occasionally make music and earn some money too.

But social media platforms are not just a necessary part of our lives these days, they’re an important way of connecting and communicating with our colleagues, customers, friends and audiences. Because actually, that’s what social networking means: connecting with other human beings. The technologies are just there to make it all a bit easier to do so. Honestly.

But because you’re in the kind of business that requires constant communication (particularly outwards, but listening helps too), it’s possible to feel a little bit overwhelmed and overworked by all of these things. Fortunately, there are a few services that should help you cope.

My top pick is AtomKeep. This is a service that allows you to build a profile on a single site, and then pump it out to as many of the platforms that you have accounts with. It’s really cool, clever and intuitive. As long as you can get over the creepy feeling that you’re giving all of your identifying information and passwords to a single organisation, they will save you lots of time and effort.

Then there’s Artist Data. These guys are even more finely tuned to what you do. You can upload your gigs, your recordings and information about your band – and they’ll push it to lots of music based media sites.

Sending updates to lots of different services simultaneously can be easy with Ping.fm – and Posterous will act as a shortcut if you want to alert a bunch of different sites and services with a single email.

But the simple fact is, there will have to be some decisions made about your social media strategy. A good place to start is to read the writing of Chris Brogan. Chris is certainly the high profile social media strategist du jour. He writes good, clear sensible stuff and it’s worth paying attention to.

But ultimately, you want your own social media strategy to be tailored to your people and your conversations. Who are your audiences? Where do they hang out online? How can you find them and connect them together? These are the questions you need to ask – and then you have to think about the law of diminishing returns.

If none of your people are using Bebo – then you might as well save yourself a bit of time and lay off Bebo. If you have a primarily Facebook crowd – then you probably want to be paying a bit of attention to communicating on Facebook.

It’s about customisation. if you’re going to be spending time on social networking – you want it to be time well spent.

So – what platforms do you use? Are they the right ones for you? How many is too many?

Table of contents for Questions

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20 Comments. Write a comment or link to this post

Blake Raab

Nice article. There are definitely many to consider. I came across retaggr (http://www.retaggr.com) awhile ago and really like it for its ability to show all of your “identities” in one place.

Oct 6th, 2008
Pat

Andrew if you had to pick just 5 social networks to be on what would they be?

Thanks,
Pat

Oct 7th, 2008
Sam

Blogged about this issue and referenced this article.

I just don’t have the time to repost things on fifty different sites so services like Atomkeep or even Friendfeed seem pretty important. Targeting at musicians is kind of strange. I wonder big that market is. And what the business model of these features/services is. Advertising supported businesses will have trouble in an economic downturn.

Paid is the new free. But the only people willing to pay in the music industry are musicians themselves. For exposure with no ROI. Reference the Sonicbids business model.

Oct 7th, 2008
Audun

I’m into Secondbrain (www.secondbrain.com) right now, but ultimately it is about being where “your” crowd is.

i.e.: Plurk, looked good, but i skipped it, since all my friends were on twittter…

Oct 7th, 2008
Liz Hamill

It certainly is good to ask the question about who your audiences might be and how to connect up with them. I am still learning. I am now on many social networks and have attracted different kinds of audiences to each one. For example, most of my Facebook following hardly know what Twitter is except for 4 or 5 tech professionals. And still I find that on my very listener specific blog most followers come from Twitter. I found Chris Brogan through your blog here. And wait for your posts to see how it all applies to Music 2.0 or 3.0+.

Oct 7th, 2008
Trent Partridge

Like article
I am an Internet Marketer, Certified Search Engine Optimizer(SEO) and a Social Media Marketer(SMM) and soon to be author. I have signed up to 300+ Social websites testing how they work with traffic, SEO and Internet Visibility.

Do I think you need to sign up for 300 Social websites? Hell No!

But I think it is important that you identify which ones have an effect on all three components that I test above.

I think often with Social Media people choose the ones that work well with themselves in combo with traffic. Which is great! But you have to look at the other key variables that can create good Internet Visibility and SEO.

I shoot photography also. When I post a pic on MySpace I get good response, but when I post on StumbleUpon sometimes I get crazy immediate response. With popular media site Flickr I get life time legacy views. And today I am finding TwitPic has a good view response and is solid for SEO and Internet Visibility. When I look at all 4 of these sites StumbleUpon and Flickr works better for views, SEO and Internet Visibility.

The key here is all our from different Social Mediums:
MySpace- Social Network
StumbleUpon – Social Bookmarking(News)
Flickr – Social Media Sites
TwitPic- Micro Blog

Now I wish there was a sound Social Network Aggregation Program or websites where I could monitor, post and create interaction with all my key websites but that isn’t happening.

So what do I suggest for all those 1000’s media platforms? Keep doing what you are doing but also add Social Media websites. Take 10 minutes and create a sound profile with strong keywords and links to your other websites within the new Social Media website. You will find it might not gain you tremendous traffic but it will be phenomenal for SEO or Internet Visibility.

My favorite websites for my overall strategy of branding, marketing, traffic and Internet Visibility

Twitter
Friendfeed
Reddit
Propeller
StumbleUpon
Simpy
Furl
Jumptags
Propeller
Blogger
I89
Flickr
Squidoo
LiveVideo
Youtube
blogmarks
Truveo
Digg
DailyMotion

There are so many others but these are the ones I use. Again I am not on them 24/7. I am not some super human man but I do use them strategically.

I am completing an ebook called ‘Internet Marketing For Music Artist, Models and Entertainers.” It will be available November 1st 2008. I have a great bonus package also. The new website will be complete next week. MusicAndModelMarketing.com

Oct 7th, 2008
J

Hmmm-surprised no mention of ReverbNation-they’re one of the bigger ones as I understand…great tools!

Oct 9th, 2008
Matt

All very interesting stuff Trent, we certainly are working to sort our SEO and internet visiblity. I’ve started a new digital tv channel for music, in fact we’re still finding out feet we’re that new. The idea is to make one social network that is dedicated to music. You can do everything that Myspace and Facebook can do but it’s all about music. Alongside this we do weekly shoots which are broadcast online free and most are available as video and audio podcasts, which you can subscribe to. The idea is to create a platform for all the great music out there on the live scene, creating exposure for artists who may not normally get exposure. We do signed and unsigned, with a new competittion for unsigned acts to gain the opportunity to have a free BeatCast Sessions studio shoot/multitrack recording session, based on their popularity, which is measured through members of the the group they create on BeatCast.

As I say it’s very early days, any thoughts/comments welcome.

Oct 13th, 2008
chris

Don’t forget Utterli http://utterli.com

Oct 13th, 2008
rachael

Thanks for your informative post. There are lots of great links provided here that I did not know about and I look forward to exploring them.

In regards to an earlier comment, I will add that i use Revernation, not fully, though I only have a farily basic profile there, but it appears to have a lot of great features tailored towards the needs of a recording artist or band. I don’t have an album to sell which is why its not my priority site, but I am a live performer and I work in studio, so its handy to have at least some music site to link to for info on my performance calander and demos etc. As well as my own website, I have FB, and others which all link to one another. I only use as many as I can comfortably manage personally.

Video is my recording format of choice, so I my network ‘hub’ is from You Tube. Mine is just a home video channel, there is nothing produced about my videos at all. Its a virtual scrapbook. But I do use the videos to promote other projects or to get jobs locally, and I have great success with attaching videos to emails or resumes. It give people a human view to who I am or what I can do for them. I have a videos that promote my music as well as ones that will make you laugh, think, or cry.

I often make great connections with people world wide as well. I have recently given permssion for song that I wrote about Breast Cancer, to be placed on an upcoming album for a website based out of New York, called Stupid Cancer. The first complilation CD sold 50,000 copies and raised funds for youths with Cancer, and I have the honor of being on the next album, to be released this year. All because I made a video of me in my kitchen, singing my original song about breast cancer, and then posted it it on You Tube.

I have read a few of your posts, and will be adding you to my watched blogs list. I will also go see Chris’s site and make sure to bookmark it.

happy new year~

Dec 26th, 2008
Trent Partridge

Good stuff Rachael and congrats with song on Breast Cancer CD great accomplishment.

Also Matt your site http://www.beatcast.tv looks great love it. I will

My book ‘Internet Marketing For Music Artist, Models and Entertainment’ is out at http://www.musicandmodelmarketing.com . Special price for another day or so. My book 4 other ebooks and 4 videos. Great standard info at crazy price right now. Download today tons of info.

I would highly recommend everyone and anyone to use the Social Network Aggregaters mentioned above. They are crazy sick tools that work and the search engines love them. I mean really love them! Sorry I mean really really love them. I have now used them for like 9 months and now getting contacts from all of them.

Happy New Year and please be safe

Dec 27th, 2008
cyncominc

?????? ????-????? 2008 ???? ?? 200 ??. ???? ????????. ??????!!!
+7 960 200 9209

Mar 8th, 2009