Tip's For Music Bloggers and Tweeters

I've recently been using twitter. You can follow me FitzgeraldKC @Twitter.com. I enjoy it because there are so many new and nice people there. People on Twitter call each other Tweeple, or just tweeps for short. There are musicians, bloggers, fans, and many people who work in the music industry on twitter. They are interacting and communicating in a way that is amazing when you get down to it.

I have been studying how some people use Twitter, so that I can better understand how to use it to help promote music in general. And thought I would do a post and pass on my observations.

Here are a few tips I'd like to give to musicians, and music bloggers who have joined Twitter, but who may not know how to use it. This information can be useful to anyone who uses affiliate marketing also.


1. Read books. Read some books on Twitter and Affiliate Marketing to learn how to promote yourself and your music on Twitter.

Twitter seems simple, but it is quite complicated and new research is being done on it all the time. To stay up on what is going on I recommend reading the latest books on the topic.

Please consider this list of books from Amazon.com;

Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time by Joel Comm, Anthony Robbins, and Ken Burge (Hardcover - Feb 17, 2009)

Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets by Paul McFedries and Pete Cashmore (Paperback - May 11, 2009)

Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online by Warren Whitlock and Deborah Micek (Paperback - Nov 11, 2008)

The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein (Paperback - May 26, 2009)

Twitter For Dummies by Laura Fitton, Michael Gruen, and Leslie Poston (Paperback - Jul 14, 2009)

2. Follow people to get followers. You have to follow people for them to follow you back. Unless you are very famous and have a large following in the real world, the only way that you can get and keep followers is to follow people. So find your fans and follow them. Find those who have common interest as you and follow them. Use the search feature, search for the type of music you play and follow those who tweet about that type of music. You may gain a new fan.

I can't tell you the number of regionally known musicians who only follow a handful of people, when they could make more connections and fans by following more people.

I'm not saying to just go out and blindly follow people either, make sure you have a common interest, like the same kind of music, and other common interest. As you get more followers you will gain a sense of what works for you. But initially, to get followers you have to follow others.

3. Interact with your fans on twitter. If you have an email list of your fans (if you don't then start one) use that list to find your fans and follow and interact with them. Search them out by name, or by region, or by any other way that you can think of, but do it. Don't expect them to find you, go out and find them.

I also see some musicians and bloggers who do not interact at all with their fans and readers. As a music fan I can tell you that when a musician interacts with me, it makes my bond with them stronger. Several nationally known musicians have interacted with me on Twitter, MC Hammer being an example of a musician who interacts with his fans. The jazz musician Melody Gardot also is good at interacting with her fans.

4. Promote Your Work via Twitter. Promote your music, your blog, your mp3s, your total body of work via Twitter. Link to anything that you want your fans to know about. Link to your web site, link to your music on sites that sell your cds, mp3s and albums. It is a win, win type of of situation. You get more sales of your music and/or more exposure for your affiliate links and the fans get more access to your work.

Don't go overboard with this, but do promote your own work. And share information with your fans.

5. Use Hashtags and search. Use hashtags (a word proceeded by the hash mark or #) to locate topics, and use them to identify what you are twitting about. For example I use the following tags all the time #blues, #harmonica, #rock, #folk #reggae, #soul, #jazz, and many others. You get the idea.

Also use Hashtags to identify what you are tweeting. If you are linking to some video of your band, then use the Hashtag #video, like wise if your blog post is about #hiphop then use that tag. I am often surprised by the number of musicians who are not identifying their tweets to make it easier for their fans to find them when they search.

6. Don't only Tweet about yourself. To get a little, you have to give a little. Tweet about the kind of music you like, tweet about other's bands and musicians that you like. This will cause those other bands to possible tweet about you. That is how twitter works best, the power of it is in others blowing your horn, as opposed to you blowing your own horn. You have to pay it forward, create value for your followers and the other members of your network.

Build your network by supporting and tweeting about the other memebers of your group.

Twitter is great for networking, for getting the word out about your body of work and what you are doing now, gigs, tours shows, etc. It is a great way to generate buzz. It is cheap and it is effective. I have measured the results of my twitter links vs my other affiliate links and blog post. There really is no comparison, Twitter out performs other blogging platforms, by all measures.

If you have read this blog in the past you probably know that I blog about music. I have three music blogs, blues music is covered in SqueezeMyLemon (SML), Reggae is covered in My Inna Fever and pop and other music is covered in KK&R Music Blog. In these blogs I promote music, musicians and provide music resources as well as use the blogs as a platform for my affiliate sponsors.