(live Twitter Stream of @iamjayali)

We all know what happened to Myspace. Friend Bots, comment SPAM and really just a lot of  noise.

The problem is that it seems musicians are not learning from the past. Especially in the hip-hop genre (sorry to call you out, but it seems like you keep coming back like, well, use your freaky on the weekend imaginations).

Last night, as I put the iPhone on the charger I get a buzz. It’s a Twitter DM (I still get them to my phone because I have a lot of clients and close associates that like to get in touch quickly that way). The Tweet below for everyone to see:

(DM from PROMOMAN to check out his brand new free download)

Here is the issue I have with this one Tweet and I’ll get into more specifics in a minute.

Yes, @PROTOMANIA I am following you so that opens up the communications channel to send DM’s. But before you send me some track from you and a producer I never heard of, maybe you should have started a conversation with me. Maybe you could have noticed that I just got off an hour and a half call with 200+ musicians on music marketing and merchandising.

You could have asked how it was. Sorry you missed it. Then slipped in the, “Hey man, I know you are busy but I’d love your feedback on this track because…“

You should also know that I don’t review artists here. I plug some Label 2.0 members every once in a while, but that’s the extent of it.

Lastly – don’t send me bullshit links from spammy sharing sites. Use something professional like BandCamp or SoundCloud. Or, look at hosting the tracks on your own domain (here’s a great price on hosting!) or use Amazon S3.

Here Is the Overall Problem With Artists And Twitter

Twitter is a two-way communication platform. That means a discussion, talking back and forth. Yes, it is a platform for you to communicate with fans. To share messages. I certainly do. I use it to announce calls, new products, new posts. But I also use it to talk to musicians, bloggers, friends and others. I use it to share helpful information, fun blog posts, videos or cool stuff that I think my followers will like.

Chris Brogan wrote a homerun post called “Stop Talking About Yourself.” This is certainly a tough concept for the ego-centric music business to take in, but here is some knowledge for you to take in:

“Check your last 10 blog posts, your last 10 tweets. Are they all about you. Are they all about your products, your services, whatever it is you’re pushing? How many are about you versus those that are about others (either directly about them or empowering them)?”

• Are you empowering your fans?
• Are you involving them in some way – maybe the creative process, a contest, soliciting feedback, etc?
• Are you building and strengthening relationships with music industry professionals (I know more than I can count that love to chat, respond and help on Twitter – are you spamming them with listen to my music requests or looking for build long term relationships)?

Get back to basics in your music marketing approach. How are you going to make people care about you? Then they can care about your music.

Stop using Twitter like Myspace. Learn from the past and build real relationships. Build a real career, a real business.

Who’s down with that?

-Greg

We all know Twitter is blowing up. We know that it is helping artists like Amanda Palmer make some cash that her label can’t help her get. We know that Trent Reznor got so personal that he had to discontinue using the service. We even know that Chesterfrench and Asher Roth talk to each other from time to time.

We also know how accessible the service is through mobile phones, whether its texting to 40404 or using a mobile app on an iPhone or Blackberry. The most popular thing we have done so far with our artists and events is to integrate relevant real time Tweets into live shows via a laptop and a projector. Using a free download called TwitterCamp you can instantly setup an auto-updating screen of Tweets that use whatever phrase you put in.

photo by Adam Tinworth

There are 2 major advantages of using this at your shows:

1. Involves the crowd through interaction. Having a fan Tweet from the front row gets him/her involved in the show. People can  talk to each other, meet each other and share media like Twitpics and 12 Seconds Videos.

This has been great at some Rock For Hunger shows where we had bands Tweet from backstage, post updates on money raised for charity and announce drink specials. It also allowed us to answer questions, engage with fans and let everyone at the event see that we were paying attention to everyone.

2. Expanding your reach beyond the show. Remember that when you Tweet, all of your followers see that message. Now think about a crowd of 300-500-1,000+ that send messages with your band name attached. Every one of their followers will see that message and have the ability to connect with you, retweet the message and check out your page.

TwitterCamp Features:

TwitterCamp was made by Daniel Dura and it runs of Adobe Air. You need to have Adobe Air installed on your computer and then install Twitter Camp to run with it.

Once you download it, you get some cool options to customize the appearance of the application and also what phrase you want to appear on the screen.Customizations include having a custom logo as well as colors.

To Hashtag or to Handle

Everyone has differeing opinion if it is better to use a hashtag (#) or a twitter handle (@) as the magic phrase that lets a Tweet appear on screen. My 2 cents says to use a Twitter handle as a band and here is why.

As a band you want people to check out your page and then your music as quickly as possible. Having your fans Tweet with @yourbandname gives their followers a quick way to click on the link to your profile, check it out and then head over to your website. Using a hashtag there is an extra step involved and for every step that you put in a visitor’s way, you lose out on a large percentage of potential fans.

Installation

1. Download and install the Adobe AIR runtime.
2. Download the TwitterCamp.air file here.
3. Locate the TwitterCamp.air file and double click on it. Follow the installer instructions.

Involving your fans is something that can be truly powerful to build trust with your audience and get them excited to come to your shows and participate. Creative artists can have fans request songs in the set via Twitter. Rappers can use context for freestyles and DJ’s can take requests and announcements this way as well.

If you have used a Twitter screen in your live shows, know of other solutions to doing this or have questions on how you can use a Twitter Screen at your event, please leave a comment or shoot an email to marketing@genyrockstars.com.

-Greg Rollett

I love Twitter. From connecting with bands andupcoming talent to promoting events virally via a RT or 2, leaking songs on the platform, to just well, meeting people that I would never have the chance to network with.

If you were skeptical of the service and its purpose, you may want to read this.

A new NPD Group study finds that active Twitter users buy 77% more digital music downloads on average than non-users.

I found this information from Billboard.biz this afternoon and started thinking about some of the implications.Here is a list of some reasons that I think Twitter is becoming the go-to source to sell stuff and get in front of a crowd that buys stuff.

Early Adopters - Many of the key influential people on Twitter are early adopters. They were there well before Oprah and Ashton and were influential in driving the direction of Twitter from “I had bacon and eggs for breakfast” to

“yvynyl: Listen to Samara Lubelski. Her new record Future Slip is coming out next month on Ecstatic Peace! http://tumblr.com/xqy24q53y”

Apple heavy – Those that are regular tweeters are on the cutting edge of technology. They show their love for Apple products and buy new phone upgrades like its the second coming. This also means they are frequently in the iTunes store looking for updates and browsing at the apps, music and movies. More eyeballs = more opportunity to sell your stuff.

1 Click Sales – Those that receive a Tweet about a new musician, album, song are only 1 click away from going to the artist’s web site, Twitter page or sales page. Those that still read Spin need to read the article, go to the store and deal with a physical purchase. Not knocking Spin, but knocking out steps gives people less of an option to second guess a purchase.

The Buddy System – Retweets (or RT’s) are the recommendation engine of Twitter. If you can spread a few RT’s about your release you open up the flood gates for people to at least recognize your brand. If you have 1,000 followers and Tweet something, 1,000 people see it. If one of your followers who has 10,000 followers RT’s your Tweet, now it opens it up to 10,000 more people. Imagine if you get that train moving with 10-20-50-100 RT’s. This is where the fun starts.

Exponential Growth. Twitter is growing and growiing fast. It is also growing in a wide rane of demographics. Some suggest that its the older crowd that is adopting faster than the Gen-Y’s and teens. If that is the case, awesome! This older demographic is the one with all the money to buy your music. They are now at almost 20 million unique visitors a month. That Oprah mention didn’t hurt!

There is so much you can gain from becoming an active member on Twitter. It doesn’t take much effort and the tools to use the platform help you manage and stay on top of replies, messages, mentions and other searches.

Get started in the conversation. Don’t be oversalesy, this isn’t Myspace Bulletins and Comments Part 2 – its real conversations, between real people.

Oh, and feel free to follow me – @g_ro.

-Greg

Twitter is taking the nation by storm, from Ashton Kutcher taking on CNN to Oprah and even a mention in Desperate Housewives, you cannot avoid the 140 character madness. So what are these big shots doing and sharing onTwitter and how can you learn from what they are doing to implement it into your marketing plan?

Viralogy has  a Top 10 Musicians on Twitter List that came out earlier this week and I had to come over and not only check it out but comment. On the top of the list is none other than Diddy, followed by John Mayer and Hammer. Check out the rest of the list here.

(photo from a screen shot at Viralogy)

Diddy – With just under 1,000,000 followers Diddy no doubt has star powers and qualities as people really want to know what he is up to at all times – and that is pretty much all he does, play on his ego.

What can you learn from Diddy? Well, if you are a big enough star, people love to know about whatever stuff you are up to. However for an indie band, I would suggest staying away from strictly promotional messgaes. Remeber how effective Myspace bulletins were? Yea, no one pays attention if you keep making it about you, you, you.

John Mayer – Mr. Mayer has hit the million mark and follows, well 47 people back. Now I understand that following a million people back would be a terrible way to look at what your Tweeps are up to, but man I feel like that is severe fan neglect. John does however give his followers a better glimpse into his life, with TwitPics, plugging friends and talking about his relationships.

What can you learn from John Mayer? Give people quality content and they will respond. In the last 20 minutes the man has had over 100 replies to one of his questions. Use this angle to help build a 2-way communication channel with your fans. Ask, contribute and give quality stuff.

Hammer – Hammer is the Social Media man! Hammer talks to everyone and anyone and has built a nice loyal army of followers and promoters in the process. Hammer has updated over 3,500 times and I can guarantee that over 50% of those has been a reply to a fan, to a comment or a RT, spreading a message with his great influence.

What can you learn from Hammer? If you find ways to filter information, using tools like Tweetdeck, Twitter Search and Hootsuite, there is a way to respond to everything that is relevant and make your fans feel appreciated and wanted. This is a huge step in building relation ships with them and making them loyal to your brand.

Let’s open it up to you guys.

Who do you think are the best musicians on Twitter and what can you learn from them and apply to your own music marketing? Leave you answers in the comments!

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For more on using Twitter like a Rock Star, check out this awesome Twitter course!

-Greg Rollett

(p.s. follow me on Twitter here)