Last week I talked about some of the ways to use Twitter and some of the ways not to (like Turning Twitter Into Myspace). The post got a strong reaction on, none other than, Twitter.

Last week I also stumbled upon a really sweet plugin to showcase the things your fans are saying about you on Twitter. It is very simple and can really boost the social proof of your music. By showing that other people are talking positively about your music, you will attract and gain the trust of others that are coming to check out your music.

The plugin is called Tweet-stimonials (#twtmnls) and was developed by Jeff Sarris. It works right in your WordPress sidebar and I’ll show you how it works right here in a few easy steps.

Step 1

First, the plugin works with an extremely underused feature of Twitter – favorites. So, step one is to favorite Tweets you want to display on your site.

So, go and favorite a few Tweets. You can look in your @ replies, or do some custom searches for your songs, albums or artist names if different from your Twitter handle.

Step 2

Next is to go ahead and install the plug-in. Pretty standard stuff here for those using WordPress.

Step 3

Configure it to work with your site.

Step 4

Check out your site and all the cool stuff that people are saying about you.

More About Tweet-stimonials

From the Tweet-stimonials Website:

Be sure to watch Laura’s original video presentation regarding this concept, but the idea is as follows.

Twitter has a built-in function for flagging your favorite tweets; something that, from what I can tell, isn’t used by too many people. Well Laura Roeder presents the idea of using that same function to “favorite” all of those good things that your customers are already saying about you.

By marking these tweets as favorites, you are then able to automatically publish them to your site, making for one of the easiest and fastest ways to publish testimonials. As soon as you mark a new tweet as a favorite, it show up on your site. It’s that easy.

Laura provides excellent step-by-step instruction in her video for connecting this feed to your website, however I wanted a bit more flexibility in styling so I developed this CSS friendly plugin (with Twitter avatars) and called it Tweet-stimonials.

How Musicians Can Use It

As an artist it is really important to use social proof elements surrounding your music and your culture. Your goal in showcasing Tweet-stimonials is generally the same when soliciting testimonials from other bands, venues, producers, fans and other pivitol players in your music business.

Marketing in general becomes much easier when others are saying good things about you. Think about restaurants. When people want to discover a new restaurant, they typically ask their friends, family or co-workers and go based on their recommendations.

Same for new music. We disover new music in a very social way. Talking with friends, listening to music at a party, club, venue or radion. Getting a 3rd party to say that you are awesome helps to validate your own claims.

With this plug-in you have the capability to take someone’s comments about your art and showcase that in a very clean and not so “in your face” way.

Go Install And Report Back

I want to encourage you to go out and take advantage of this plugin. If you are using WordPress, install the plugin, go favorite some Tweets that say your music rocks, or is dope or whatever and report the link in the comments below. I will feature you in an upcoming post and/or report on WordPress For Musicians (I might have a new something, something coming out for musicians and WordPress, wink, wink).

It wil be some cool exposure for your music and more importantly will deliver some social proof to your existing site which will result in increased mailing list signups, more social engagement and hopefully more music sales.

-Greg