{"id":1448,"date":"2010-09-16T18:36:09","date_gmt":"2010-09-17T01:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/?p=1448"},"modified":"2010-09-16T18:36:09","modified_gmt":"2010-09-17T01:36:09","slug":"top-10-twitter-tips-for-bands-by-bands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/top-10-twitter-tips-for-bands-by-bands\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 Twitter Tips for Bands, By Bands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen up, bands: Twitter<\/a> is more than just a place to wax poetic from the tour bus and gripe about broken guitar strings (and\/or dreams) \u2014 it can also help you promote your music and connect with your fans.<\/p>\n

While you don\u2019t have to go all Kanye<\/a> with your Twitter ()<\/a> stream, hooking up to the micro-blogging site can add a whole new dimension to your act.<\/p>\n

We talked to a ton of bands \u2014 from up-and-comers like The Limousines, to indie darlings like The Thermals, to established artists like Pete Yorn and Ben Folds \u2014 about how they use Twitter, and compiled the following list of tips and tricks.<\/p>\n

Got some more clever musical uses for Twitter? Be sure to share your pro tips in the comments below.<\/p>\n

1. Build a Fan Base<\/h2>\n

So you\u2019re just about to burst on the scene, showering the populace with your synth-heavy, electropop goodness. How do you go about capturing the attention of those who will make or break you: your future fanbase?<\/p>\n

According to Brian Levine, manager and social media consultant for the emerging act Bananas for Mowgli<\/a>, \u201cUp and coming bands with little to no released music are able to take advantage of Twitter by aligning themselves with artists who share a similar fan base or aesthetic. First thing you should do is start following these people as well as the most relevant taste makers in your genre or \u2019scene\u2019 if you will. Use Twitter management tools to expand your network and be in the right circles.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Levine is doing right now for Bananas for Mowgli<\/a>, whose debut album drops on October 26.<\/p>\n

2. Collaborate<\/h2>\n

Do you follow some awesome band on Twitter that you would kill to jam with? Why not tweet at them? It can\u2019t hurt. You never know who\u2019s going to be down to hook up with you \u2014 especially if you don\u2019t try. Eric Victorino of The Limousines<\/a> was able to score a kind of collaboration with DJ Samantha Ronson by merely paying attention to mentions of his band on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep tabs on who\u2019s talking about [us] and who\u2019s mentioning us,\u201d Victorino says. \u201cSamantha Ronson and Lindsay Lohan were both talking about us once, so we just reached out to them, like, \u2018Hey, hi.\u2019 And from that came \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t say a friendship \u2014 but just sort of an e-mail conversation with her. And whenever Samantha would go DJing, we\u2019d give her a new track.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Trade a Track For a Tweet<\/h2>\n

Are you a smaller band with a pretty strong fan base? Well, use the hell outta them, we say \u2014 but give them something in return. Paul Lamontagne of Bearstronaut<\/a> used Twitter as both a method of releasing the band\u2019s new single, \u201cShannon<\/a>,\u201d [click to download] and gaining more followers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used something called \u2018Tweet for a Track,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cFans can \u2014 for the cost of one tweet \u2014 [get the song]. It gets reposted on their Twitter to all their followers, and they get the single. No money changes hands, but we get to reach as many followers as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

4. Get Your Fans to Promote For You<\/h2>\n

Similar to trading a tweet for a tune, crowdsourcing your fans when it comes to promotions can also be a boon. Brian McClelland of He Whose Ox Is Gored<\/a> told us, \u201c[Our Twitter following] really did pick up once we started talking with people, and it\u2019s kind of snowballed from there\u2026 We\u2019ve been getting some radio play, so we\u2019re going to go on our Twitter and do merch giveaways to people who call up and request a song.\u201d Get He Whose Ox Is Gored\u2019s new single, \u201cCloven Hoof\u201d here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5. Have a Personality<\/h2>\n

Yeah, your lyrics may be tight and your beats danceable, but that doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re socially literate. Pick the wittiest member of the band and assign him or her the role of official Twitterer, or \u201cTwitter Czar\u201d as Westin Glass of The Thermals<\/a> deems himself. If fans can tell you\u2019re having fun via your tweets, they\u2019re much more apt to engage with you (and attend shows, buy records, join a cult in your name, etc.).<\/p>\n

\u201cLast May, when we were doing our spring tour, we were posting on our Twitter and we were just going crazy on there,\u201d Glass says. \u201cOne of us would be sitting in the front of the van and one of us would be sitting in the back of the van and we\u2019d be just like just posting all kinds of crazy inside jokes, nicknames for all the people in the band. We were just trying to make each other laugh by posting all sorts of weird stuff that probably made no sense to anyone, but people seemed to like it\u2026. I just post jokes and song lyrics from \u201890s epic hit songs, pictures of Axl Rose and, I don\u2019t know, just whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the rest of the list.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen up, bands: Twitter is more than just a place to wax poetic from the tour bus and gripe about broken guitar strings (and\/or dreams) \u2014 it can also help you promote your music and connect with your fans. While you don\u2019t have to go all Kanye with your Twitter () stream, hooking up to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,51],"tags":[143,144,145,141],"class_list":["post-1448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing","category-music","tag-fans","tag-indie-bands","tag-online-marketing","tag-twitter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}