There seems to be a lot of debate on just how effective Twitter marketing compares to MySpace and Facebook for bands and businesses in general. Drum roll please....I have some results.
According to this recent article, businesses are now including their Twitter accounts in their email marketing more than Facebook. In January 2009, Facebook held over a 2-to-1 margin on Twitter. What does this mean? Businesses feel that Twitter is more effective in, not only getting their message out to their customers, but to connect with their customers.
Here is a real-life example of Twitter's effectiveness:
This very website, Bandology.net, started a mere 19 days ago. At the top of this blog post is an actual Google Analytics page for the top ten sites referring visitors to Bandology.net (click on it). As you can see, Twitter has brought more visitors to Bandology.net than any other site by a wide margin. Out of the 3,865 visitors to the site, 2,820 were referred from other sites. Out of those 2,820, 57% (1,609 visits) were from Twitter. MySpace and Facebook (combined) account for 15% of the referred visitors to this site. As you can see, Twitter is far more effective with Bandology.net marketing than any other site (at least in the first 19 days).
This matches the trend of businesses using their Twitter accounts more in email marketing over Facebook or any other social network. Twitter seems to be more effective for businesses as well.
Bands, this means you better have a Twitter account and you need to use it effectively (future blog post about this topic). Twitter is great at getting the latest news out but it's also a great way to connect to fans on a personal level.
8 comments:
Twitter is still in its infancy. There is no telling what Twitter will turn into but it's a good idea to start building your Twitter network now.
July 31, 2009 at 3:44 PMI might add that Twitter can be far more useful in you as a band follow those who follow you (except for the obvious spam types). Nothing worse than seeing a band who as 2,000 followers but follows 6 or 10 or 20 people - don't even bother.
July 31, 2009 at 3:59 PMDo so selectively but basically follow back those who choose to follow you. Block the spammers.
Tim,
July 31, 2009 at 4:09 PMwould a band whose members all have personal Twitter accounts in which they use to promote the band still be as effective as having a separate account just for the band? Or does it matter just as long as they are being proactive at promoting via Twitter?
Completely agreed. I think a lot of bands are still not using as effective as they could be. Lots of label are using it more effectively with post about their bands. Band member personal accounts post idiotic and sometimes perverse things.
July 31, 2009 at 4:25 PMI would highly recommend bands having a band Twitter because it's much easier for people to follow the band account and to find it. And keep the posts band-related but don't repeat the same things over and over.
July 31, 2009 at 5:16 PMPersonal Twitters for each member is good as well but I would advise against Tweeting about partying and being drunk all the time.
Twitter did us all a great service by going after spammers now. You can also report spammers now.
I wholeheartedly agree with this post and the comments so far. While I signed up for Twitter even in it's earlier infancy, I never really started to utilize it until a month ago. In that time, following the right people, being active in tweeting (and retweeting for that matter), it has definitely increased the amount of traffic that I am getting to my web series. Even Tim found out about my show via Twitter, and that was because I retweeted a post he made. Twitter definitely is about quality over quantity, as referenced by an earlier comment. Shekinah definitely made a good point that labels are utilizing Twitter more efficiently than bands right now.
July 31, 2009 at 5:30 PMAs for the anon question about multiple accounts: I have two, one for my show, and one for my personal use. At this time, they may contain the same tweet information, but, ideally, they will eventually be their own entities - the show account would be information relevant to the show, my personal account may contain info about the show, but would have other information as well. Your last statement is the best though: it may not matter as long as they are being proactive and promoting via Twitter. Shekinah makes a good point about not having the band members post idiotic and perverse things - at the same time, it is technically their personal account... Take that as you will.
Patrick, I forgot to mention retweeting (RTs). Not only does it help you make better connections with people/bands/labels, but it also comes in handy when you need something retweeted.
August 1, 2009 at 9:20 AMIt's all about building a micro-blogging community and spreading the word (your word or a fellow Tweeters).
I enjoy how Tim Towner was one of my first followers on Twitter. :)
August 3, 2009 at 8:47 PMPost a Comment
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