Advice for Cover Bands on Facebook

drummer-russ

Gold Member
I have some issues with a member of our band on our use of Facebook. We have a band page and we have an ok number of followers. His view is so restricted, feeling we should only post right before and after a gig. My experience in business and looking at some articles for bands use of social media suggest that is not frequent enough, especially when we go a few weeks without a gig. Also, I am the only one that tries to thank people that like our posts or videos. Do any of you use Facebook for your cover band and do you have any advice?
 
Facebook is TERRIBLE when it comes to promoting bands unless people start sharing. Either that, or Facebook stats are lying through their teeth.

Right now, we have 178 "likes" on our FB band account. Whenever we post something, it only "reaches" about 50-60 people according to FB stats. And THEN there's a little thing where you can "boost" your post for only $5. Gimme a break. So, FB wants money from us and they aren't even willing to put an easy-to-use music widget on the site for us to upload tunes? Forget it.

I'm trying to get a website built right now for our band. The best promotion is word of mouth and possibly have the venue post something on their website about it. Also, try to have the venue share it on their facebook as well.
 
Ya we try to work with venues and we create flyers to post on FB, post on their Facebook if we can or ask them to, and drop some off at the venue a week before. We have about 340 likes and I have seen our posts reach as many as 180 people so we seem to have had some better results. I am wondering how often people post on their FB page, what they post, do they thank people for likes etc..

We also have a web page which is another real sore spot. The member that owns it does absolutely nothing to keep it up to date. I would rather not have it than have outdated schedule and really old videos from when we were just forming!
 
I think you're spot on with the FB page. You want it to be active, and engaging for your fans. You want all of your posts to be meaningful though, maybe ask what song you should learn next, or some light content like that. Don't share memes or articles that no one cares about just to use posts. Sometimes I will post all my gigs for the week, then post each gig individually the day of. You'd have to find the balance that it right for you.


Also, it sounds like some of the people don't understand how Facebook works. Each user gets an algorithm specific to them that caters what they see on their page to their interests. The more I like a band's posts, the more I'll see their content, and the more others with similar interests will see the content. For groups that don't have much of a following, or who's posts aren't seen as interesting by their fans, have the option to Boost their posts (for a fee).

That algorithm works both ways though. It ensures that interesting and engaging content goes to the top of people's news feeds, while the less interesting stuff is a little deeper.


Also, FB is not the place to upload music... it's just a social platform. It integrates into services like SoundCloud, which allows you to upload clips.
 
Thanks TC! Just the kind of feedback I was looking for.
 
We have a website, but focus more on facebook since most folks are on there regularly anyway, rather than having to intentionally look up our site.
I create most of our gig "events" on facebook, and each of us share them on our personal pages as well the week of the show as a reminder. We usually have some friends/family share them too, so that increases reach. Some venues are better than others about promoting shows, so I act as if our posts are the only ones (because they usually are).
Another member likes to make videos to post on the page for the sake of content, as mentioned above. Usually it's a clip or two from rehearsal to preview something we're working on, or hyping an upcoming gig.
Like you, we try to interact with anyone who posts a comment on our page. We get some fan photos/videos posted from gigs, and try to acknowledge all of it.
We've boosted a few event posts, and the reach greatly increased according to the stats, but it's hard to say for sure if it actually led more people to come to the shows. I suppose it increased name awareness.
Anyway, I still think facebook is the best option to promote your band since it's free and has a large audience. Like tcspears said, keep your posts relevant to the band and find a balance between posting things regularly enough to keep folks engaged, but avoid clutter.
 
FB is a hungry beast. Feed it. Feed it often. Feed it with as interesting content as you can come up with.

With my cover band I try and make sure that there is at least 1 post per week, talking about what we've been working on, teasers for upcoming gigs, pics, videos and anything remotely newsworthy, but no posts for the sake of a post.
 
posts in between show posts is totally cool to me. I do believe you can over-post, but a few posts in between to say "hello" or something engaging for the followers to get involved with is always fun.

My brother has a cover band in Reno. They will posts videos by the real bands, or sometimes ask their followers what songs they could cover next, to get them involved.
 
We create events for each gig and post it a week or two beforehand, then as individuals we post the link of that event to our own Facebook pages, invite people to the event, and send a link of the event to the pub that we're playing in so they can share it themselves too.
We post any decent YouTube videos to the page. Recently we had an audience member say that they'd seen our videos on YouTube but came anyway as they had nothing else to do that night. On seeing us she said we were way better than she had expected us to be. We subsequently went on YouTube and deleted all of the videos we'd posted that weren't doing us justice. We're down to about 5 videos from 2 years worth of gigs but crucially all 5 of them stand up. I seriously think this is important, bands move on and when you're starting out a murky video with terrible sound is better than nothing to showcase yourselves and there's also the novelty value of having a video of yourselves to show. However as and when better footage becomes available you really should delete the old stuff, if it stays on your YouTube uploads then it's there to be found and will do you no favours.
Slightly off topic but "I've" banned anyone from making self deprecating replies on posts. Being humble is good, but "admitting" to mistakes or shortcomings in your playing in the comments of section on a video when it isn't obvious to the ear is counter productive and could be the element that makes someone think they won't bother.
In my new band our approach is lighthearted and once or twice a week we'll post a photo or humorous update.
I've never asked for advice on what to play or posted rehearsal footage of a complete song, in my opinion that takes away the 'magic' :) We did however post a short medley of clips of songs in the rehearsal room with our faces blanked out by the band logo to stir up interest when we started rehearsing and it worked with loads of people pitching in to guess who was actually in the band.

But it's all opinion. The only thing I would fight against if someone in the band wanted to do it is persistent posting of Cover Band Central articles and humorous or motivational memes......& pictures of cats &/or lunch. There's enough timewasting rubbish flying around Facebook without me adding to it so I want everything that either of my bands posts to be relevant and useful.
 
Russ, I do all/most of my band's Facebook material, band flyers, promo work, bookings, etc....(I have to do this to show my worth because of my shortcomings as a drummer.) ;P My band is right around the 330-340 range as well in "Total Likes."

Yeah it's interesting how some posts will be seen by 300+ people and some are seen by 20.

We rarely get many "Likes" or comments on ANY postings. We are a 3 piece band and I'm the only one on Facebook so it's all on me to "Share" events/postings and event invites.

Honestly....I really only use Facebook for 2 things: 1) Promote my band 2) Post photos of my cute kid for family members/friends that live elsewhere. And trust me....when I post photos of my kid, I get TONS of "Likes" and comments. When I post promos for my band....rarely anything. Maybe a "Like" from my wife. :)

I usually only post in the days leading up to a show and a big "Thank You" post after the show. We really don't do many photos, because nobody takes pictures at our gigs. BUT when we do post a "live action" photo, it seems to draw more responses. I really should post at least once a week. There is a fine line between annoying the hell out of people....and keeping your band fresh in their minds.

The main things are to always "Share" your band post on your own personal page. And as ridiculous as this may sound, always "Like" your own post.
 
1) Facebook algorithms favor those pages that post more. So the more you post, the more likely people are to going to see any 1 post.

If you only post once in a while, as your guitarist suggests, then pretty much, no one will see it.
For my small business page, I make it a goal to post once a day.

2) Everything posted on the band site should be "shared" by each member on their personal page. FB algorithms will pick up on this as a page that is getting a lot of action. And people who see the bands post on your personal pages will count toward views. One one page I manage (not music related), we have 100 likes on the page, but we got over 700 reaches on a post from numerous people sharing the post. Yes, we got 7 times more reaches than we have actual likes. It is possible.

For my business page, I share most of my business posts on my personal page. The result is I have some 300 likes on my business page, but I get a reach of 200-300 people per post.

If you have 4 or 5 band members each sharing every post to the bands page, there is little reason you shouldn't have a wide spread reach.

The more you post, the more you share, the more FB will favor your page in their algorithms.

3) So you have 3 weeks between gigs. So, have someone take 21 pictures at your gig. Better yet, have them take 50 and select the 21 best. Post a photo a day. There, now you have 3 weeks of content. You'll see the number of likes and the reach go way up by posting daily.

4) This all said, don't get obsessed with how many views or have much of a reach you have on any given day. That's not the point. The point is to have consistent updating so that when someone new comes along and views your page, they see the page is happening and an exciting page to like. If you only post once every few weeks, people are going to think either you're no longer a band, or that you don't take your band very seriously, and probably aren't very interesting to go see.
 
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Thank you everyone! Great stuff. I didn't know how the newsfeed was impacted by posts, shares, and likes! We also have a problem with old videos. Really appreciate all your comments.
 
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