Comments on: 5 Things Every Band Should Know About Twitter

By: Owen Kelly

Owen Kelly — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:54:00 +0000

Kim, I never meant that bands that don’t tweet back deserve to fail. The more you can interact the better, however as your fans using twitter will on doubt discover, you’re only human.

Set yourself a limit, say 10 mins a day if your busy, to reply. Take advantage of public replies (using the !@username) if everyone would be interested.

No band “deserves” to fail, however nowadays there’s more to being a musician than playing music. One of those is maintaining your fanbase. However you can, just find what suits your lifestyle.

By: Sime

Sime — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:53:45 +0000

Kim, If you’re referring to my #fail – I certainly didn’t say that bands deserve to fail. I mean as part of their social media strategy, if they employ twitter and have 45,000 people follow them and they in turn follow a big fat ZERO – then that strategy is a fail. Engage your audience, they’ll love you more.

(My first demo’s were on cassette as well)

Sime

By: Kim Fogel

Kim Fogel — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:45:09 +0000

As an old rocker – I mean, as in my last demo was on a cassette tape – I think that’s a little harsh to say bands that don’t tweet back “deserve to fail.” People work all day, gig at night, have families… So maybe they don’t log on as much?

By: Sime

Sime — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:40:14 +0000

@ojkelly CAKE! can be a good thing to tweet about – Another photog shot this whilst I was “working” …I did actually think about tweeting about it! The guy who sold the cake said “if you don’t like it, I’ll give you your money back” That would have made the whole cake tweet more interesting… perhaps…

By: Owen Kelly

Owen Kelly — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:30:26 +0000

That’s right @JanePeppler nackard (or knackard) is slang for really tired. Just a bit of my Aussie slang must have found its way into the post.

I can’t seem to find the post I want to show you, however the gist of it was that you’re not boring. But you may write boring.
Take something simple as “I just had cake, it was good”. Now thats boring, but it doesn’t have to be. Say you elaborate a bit, dress it up somehow.
Maybe something like “Just had a bite from a warm fresh chocolate mud cake, burnt my tongue, but damn its tastes so good its worth it.” I don’t know about you, but if I saw that tweet I would want to ‘get me some of that cake’ I would ‘want to know who made that cake’ (HIMYM ref). At the very least, I want to SEE that cake.

You may think your boring, but chances are your not.

By: Jane Peppler

Jane Peppler — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:33:01 +0000

Good reminders. I’m quite shy about twittering because I don’t want to bore people. By the way, FYI, I think the word is “knackered,” see Wikipedia for instance: the slang expression “knackered” meaning very tired, or “ready for the knacker’s yard”, where old horses are slaughtered and made into dog food and glue.

By: Dave Allen

Dave Allen — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:00:28 +0000

Pretty straightforward and clear stuff. Here's my take on Bands using Twitter with some examples from Grizzly Bear and Chris Cornell Twitter for Musicians - Use It Wisely, A How to

By: Sime

Sime — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:14:13 +0000

@ojkelly Well – I hope to be back in Melbourne in a year or so – Then I’ll tweet you, at those gigs, from the pit! I was tweeted at a gig ages ago, someone standing against the barrier of a gig tweeted, I replied – We looked at each other, pointed and then burst out laughing…

Nice to eMeet you *followed*

Sime

By: Owen Kelly

Owen Kelly — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:11:10 +0000

@Sime, I do the same thing (tweet at gigs). Generally I’m a gig reviewer, so often i would tweet parts of my notes during the gigs. I gained a surprising amount of followers from this, proving that people do want to know. The best gigs are were the band actually tweets back, though it is very rare it adds so much to the atmosphere.

Many bands do make it big and then just disappear into a twitter void, never to be heard from unless they have a new song. These are the bands that deserve a #fail.

By: Sime

Sime — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:06:18 +0000

As a regular photographer of bands, I tweet from the “pit” often…(well, when I have a phone / device again I will!) It can provide a cool insight into something that I’m doing that not a whole lot of people get to do – as is the case with bands. I like to see this sort of stuff, which is why I do it. What I don’t like about band tweeters is most of the time if they’ve “made it” they follow nobody and don’t engage their audience at all – #fail (What’s the point?!.. Go sit in your hotel room and smash stuff)

Anyway – The very mechanical tweeting I’ve seen from some bands has actually made me think less of them. If you are a band and your PR is going to tweet for you – make sure they’re interesting. (Or at least daftly funny)