There’s been some of talk on whether Facebook is a good way to promote shows, taking the place of Myspace or Jambase.
Among its pluses, Facebook allows you to directly target an audience to a degree almost unheard of before. You can specify age ranges, education levels, zip codes, interests, relationship levels (just invite single people if thats your bag), along with many other categories. Your Led Zeppelin cover band can target people that are fans of the original… lets see television pull of that trick.
Another advantage is that you only pay per click. An impression (the ad being loaded on a page) you are not charged for. That way you can be relatively sure that when you pay, the person has seen your ad and made a conscious decision to engage. A side benefit is that many users will see your ad for free.
While Advertising on Facebook can be useful, it’s important to keep in mind some issues and limitations. Beacuase Facebook is predominately grown from university students and professionals its demographics are a bit different then Myspace’s. And because the age group is predomantly 15-25 you’re wasting your time if your music doesn’t appeal to that group (though obviously if you are not appealing to the youth or college market your band has bigger problems…).
One final point - being able to utilize specific advertising is probably more useful in large markets. In smaller markets the number of users in specific subsections maybe too small to be relevant.
3 Responses So Far
1
Jo Jo Music
Mar 12, 2008 at 11:39 am
Thanks Dan. We used this advice and were able to advertise on facebook for like no cost due to a small number of clicks on our ad. So we basically got some free banner ad space space for our gig, so fine by me, I’ll take that trade off!
2
nick
Mar 12, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Simple numbers can back up the usefulness of advertising on websites such as Facebook. I believe Facebook is in the top 10 of the most visited websites on the web. With that kind of traffic, those who wish to share or advertise their music will no doubt get interest. As the write above states, there is little, to no cost for this for modest advertisement.
I remember reading a news article about Facebook on Venturebeat, specifically having to do with new membership numbers, and the current skinny on Facebook. This was an old article, I think from last year. The article goes on to spit out plenty of statistics. I remember that the older age groups were beginning to join Facebook at impressive numbers.
3
Peter
Mar 14, 2008 at 1:18 pm
If for nothing else than having a bunch of folks see your bandname, Facebook ads are probably worth it. Like Nick I’m pretty impressed the with number of my friends in their 30’s who are now on Facebook. These folks don’t go see as much live music but are maybe more willing to pay for music than the younger demographic…
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