Some quick-firing tips on how to get noticed on YouTube

• Be creative with the actually video content
• Be creative with your video titles and descriptions
• Optimize your titles with relevant keywords (keep it relevant to the video content as well)
• Do research to determine what the buzz is among viewers and work from that
• Share video with friends via Facebook and/or Twitter
• Video content needs to be enjoyable and not an annoyance – this will help when people promote your video via word of mouth

Band: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros   Photo Source: The Music Ninja

On tour with loads of gigs and chicks – that’s the rocker scene I dream of on a daily basis. The other thing I dream of, is, success with promotions and my music. The online world made this effortless and fun at the same time. Lady Gaga kills this space as the “Mother Monster” entertaining and engaging with her “Monsters” (fans). They feel loved and included. After all, it is the fans that come first. Write your music, perform your music and connect with your fans.

1. Facebook

Fast, free, easy, effective and fun! Some of the many descriptions you could connect to your experience with Facebook. To me, this is the number one choice in terms of marketing and the promotion of your band or music. Some of these bands or artists has got millions of fans. Just imagine having the ability to communicate with all your fans in a single space. Will someone please say marketing joy?

Following below are some solid proof to why exactly this method is so effective – the band/artist and their Fan likes:

International Bands/Artists

• Linkin Park – 18,521,914 likes
• All American Rejects – 306 425 likes
• Usher – 10, 051, 639 likes
• Katty Perry – 14, 795, 149 likes
• Green Day – 9, 774, 643 likes

More local…

• Die Antwoord – 186 565 likes
• Kurt Darren – 60 034 likes
• Prime Circle – 129 504 likes

Still doubtful about the power of Facebook marketing and promotion for your band or music?

Why Facebook?

• The largest Social Media platform with more than 500 million users, settling this as the number one strategy for all bands and artists
• Eases and promotes two-way engagement. Build some rocking relationships with your fans and let them know that you “love” them
• Keep them updated on the latest events and venue dates
• Post photo albums of past gigs and festival shows. Provides your fans the opportunity to post fan photos and allow for comments on those – I like to call it “the feedback mechanism”
• Share articles, findings, neat songs, good videos and so on from other sources – link outside sources to your Facebook Profile and inform your fans via their news feed
• Upload your videos directly to your Facebook Page
• Easy to create and set up
• Integration of Facebook applications to add to your efforts and success
• Drive web traffic to your website

2. Twitter

This is a big one! If you haven’t heard or the word ‘Twitter’ before, where have you been hiding all this time? One massive network of connected people following each other. Why make this fuss about something so simple your asking? Easy. Below are some fabulous images and timelines which highlight facts and figures about Twitter.

Images Resources: viralblog Written by Laurens Bianchi

Why Twitter?

• Connects you to other Twitter users around the world
• Easy to inform your audience with you Twitter ‘presence’ – market your music
• Great opportunity to follow hundreds of people and get the message across
• Collect great insights and tips from other artists/bands on Twitter
• Create an opportunity for your Twitter network to engage with each other
• Share articles, videos and information that get published on your site or blog, with your followers. Great tactic to drive traffic to your website
• Run promotions
• Research opportunities – determine your niche or the needs of your audience
• Stimulates feedback which leads to instant relationship building efforts
• Good relationships created on Twitter will ultimately build your reputation

3. Youtube

Founded in 2005, this is by far the world’s most popular online video community. Making sharing and viewing possible across continents. YouTube has become a household name! Insane opportunities arose in the viral marketing sphere. Subscribe to different Youtube channels and get updates of the latest videos published. Upload your concert videos to YouTube, and entertain your audience right from their living room.

Youtube Competitors

• AOL
• Hulu
• MySpace
• Videojug
• Vimeo

Watch this video of Lady Gaga to see the massive success she achieves on her videos posted on Youtube!

Why Youtube?

• Largest online video community so exposure will be to the max
• Skip to a specific playback time in the video. More control over the videos
• Autoshare options that automatically post it to your Facebook, Twitter or Google Reader account
• Bigger upload with high quality options
• Mobile integration
• Links in video descriptions – increase YouTube referral traffic to your website

4. MySpace

Another platform that has been with us for quite some time now. Young and vibrant users have embraced this space to engage and communicate with their favourite artists and bands.

The big announcement created a massive buzz amongst the online community: Facebook and Myspace attempting the merge!

Myspace made the announcement today that they will be ‘mashingup’ with Facebook, which is a new feature that will allow Myspace users to create a personalized stream of entertainment content, via the information in their Facebook profiles! – perezhilton.com

Myspace CEO Mike Jones explains:

“We are thrilled to further our collaboration with Facebook through Mashup with Facebook. This new feature is a great illustration of our strategy around social entertainment and enabling the real-time stream. The stream is one of our most popular features on Myspace, and it is now delivering an even richer entertainment experience of relevant content for our users to enjoy. I’m particularly excited because so many people will be able to have the immediate satisfaction of enjoying their own entertainment program that they have customized themselves as well as connecting to all their passions and to the Myspace community at large.”

Why MySpace

• Easy and fun way to communicate with your audience
• Well known especially in the younger markets
• Free and easy to maintain and manage
• Space to upload your gig photos and videos
• A possible merge between Facebook and Myspace gives this strategy some reconsideration

5. Blogs

Some online participants feel that the world of blogs has died off, but, that’s their opinions. In most bloggers’ opinions, this is the opposite case. With the implementation of share features and social bookmarking, the blog world erupted like never before – and with good reason. Blogs are probably one of the most effective ways to attract your audience with fresh, rapid and regular content – the key factor in the online world as we know it.

Make sure that your blog promotes interactivity by allowing commentary sections. You will be loved by your biggest fans.

Why Blogs?

• Relatively easy to set up
• Inexpensive setup especially for young vibrant bands and artists
• Search Engine Friendly and allows for optimization of content
• Easy access channel to information, gig guides videos and the likes
• Creates awareness and boosts relationship building
• The comment section allows for feedback, ultimately connecting you to your audience

6. Websites

The most well-known form of marketing strategy known by all online users, and it is basically how the internet got started years back. Creating your awe-inspiring website is the first step towards marketing success, and this will form your basis. As a band, you will have to use or loose your chances in terms of the site design. Flash websites allows for amazing interactivity integration – even for adding your videos or sounds to the site. The safer option will be to look into HTML5 and CCS3 when planning your site.

If you are serious about this option (believe me you should), take carefull measurements and planning when hiring a web designer or developer. You don’t want to end up with some cookie-cutter website that doesn’t comply to the Web Standards set out by the W3C. Remember to add those social bookmarks so it gets linked to your social accounts.

Why Websites?

• Well known to most niches
• Position you as an expert to get your message across to your audience
• Social Bookmarks can be added to your site, linking you to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and your blog
• Sufficient space to add enough information or contact details
• Far more cheaper and flexible than print marketing
• e-Commerce Opportunities – make money with an online merchandise store
• Enough opportunity for growth and expansion

7. E-mailing

Direct mail is a powerful tool for building your reputation or getting your message out. Creating and managing a direct mail campaign can seem a little daunting. Don’t feel alarmed by this, because it might be the valuable strategy you’ve been looking for all along. You might even stand out from the bunch, as these types of marketing strategies don’t get implemented by bands and artists that often.

Get creative and get those mailers out to the audience – in other words – use this very small window to grab the reader’s attention.

Why E-mailers?

• Fairly easy to design and carry out
• Reaches targeted audience if well-managed
• The majority of people own at least one Email Account, making this a must use strategy
• Connect the mailer to pages on your site – great way to increase traffic to your site
• Easy method to inform your audience on gig dates and songs released on the internet
• Your fans could forward your mailer to any of their friends or co-workers

Rocking Conclusion

There are so many reasons why you should make use of online marketing strategies to promote your band and your music. Jump on the bandwagon – take on the effort – and make this a huge success. Come on, I challenge you!

• Add the “youtube” attribute to your data feed. In this attribute include the YouTube video ID for each one of your products with a related YouTube video review. Video IDs are the values that follow the ‘v=’ in the YouTube URL of the video.

• Include UPC, ISBN, brand, and MPN information in the tag of your YouTube video review.

Here is a picture of the Nikon D90 with YouTube videos: