Building a songwriter web & social media presence
- Mar 12, 2016
- 7 min read
Hello fellow song-writers and musicians.
It certainly has been a busy 2016 so far. Just thought I’d send out a few ‘notes’ (pun intended!) regarding one of the "other sides" of songwriting. This blog is about my experiences building a web site and social-media presence.
I am a songwriter who decided to finally record, post and publish my original 'Easy Listening' instrumentals. My first compilation of four songs, aptly titled "The Longest Journey", was completed last month.
Given the fact that I knew little about building a web site and on-line presence when I started this journey, I thought my experiences might provide some helpful perspectives.
Part I – Building a web & social media presence
For all us 'Do-It-Yourself' types, here is a rundown of the past 6 months:
1. Build website
If you are an artist / song-writer / band / musician and want to build a website, take a look at wix.com.
Wix has a seamless process to on-board you, and make it very intuitive to select and personalize a songwriter / musician template. I basically picked the template I liked, then customized the heck out of it. You'll be done in no time.
There is room for lots of photos and, of course, your music. I use the Wix music app (with upgraded features/cost) to make music available on my site, with the added option of pushing music to iTunes and Spotify, etc… if you wish. The Wix music app is really neat...you build your cover art for albums or singles (you do not need to be a graphic designer!), upload the music and presto, instant on-line music presence!
I like the way Wix lets me toggle between creating the site and viewing it (i.e. almost like a beta version) before publishing it. Just be sure to also check the desktop version of what you are creating vs. the smart-phone version, as the frame & sizing between the two are significantly different. You will want to modify & crop your smart-phone version content to ensure only the essentials get displayed.
And, if you really blow it (like I did, on more than a few/many occasions), Wix keeps a handy record of all the versions you’ve built, so you can simply go back to an early version, re-load, and then publish. Just remember, once you hit ‘publish’ (vs. only ‘save’), it’s live! As I mentioned above, you can change things up as often as you wish.
Wix also offers domain & hosting services. After getting a domain name and choosing a hosting package, I was up and running in no time at all. Wix also has some nifty SEO (search engine optimization) processes where you can label and tag your site + pages so they appear logical and sequential (vs. random and disorganized) when your site shows up on search engines.
Further, it is really easy to link your social-network sites (e.g. FB, Twitter, G+, etc…) into your site, and this all adds/enhances your web & on-line presence. There is also a social-media ‘streaming service’ I use, which allows my FB and Twitter (and other) posts to be nicely organized & presented…I put this on my Home Page so the visitor can quickly scroll through what I’ve posted / tweeted / re-tweeted.
One available style for this social media ‘streaming service’ is a rotating 3-D 'info cube'.
While this is super cool (really, if you get a chance to try it on your own Wix site, give it a shot), it left me with the impression that I was being assimilated by the Borg! So I opted for the more vertical + scroll style. More on social media links in below section…
Finally, Wix has a great app for Blogs...this is my first blog, and it was basically write/save/link/publish plus some design modifications. You can go all-out and super/hyper link your blogs to many popular social-media feeds.
Overall, IMO, Wix is a very good website builder / hosting company, geared towards artists / songwriters / musicians, etc…, with a responsive customer service and competitive pricing.
2. Getting other social media links up and running
OK, we’ve all heard of Facebook and Twitter, right? But, just because we’ve heard of these, doesn’t necessarily mean we use them (right?). When it comes to social media, I was (at first) a little uneasy about extending my song-writer presence to FB and Twitter. One thing I did was talk to people who knew quite a bit about building and navigating an on-line presence (thanks Gareth Wood and North Easton).
After establishing a FB and Twitter account, it wasn’t all that bad…as a matter of fact, it is rather remarkable to see the local, national and global communities of musicians and song-writers. There are many, many musician and song-writer FB Groups that are very interesting and helpful.
One FB Group I actively follow is Ottawa Regional Writers Group. This is one of the Songwriters Association of Canada's Regional Writers Groups. It is amazing how easily one can get connected into these social sites, and how welcoming these sites are to new-comers!
For FB, I set up my own personal page (Jason DiTommaso) as well as a separate page as a ‘Musician-Band’. I had to use FB’s stock titles, and ‘Musician-Band’ was the closest match I could find. If anyone knows how to change ‘Musician/Band’ to ‘Songwriter’ in FB, please send me a note.
I find the messaging function on FB to be quite useful---a chance for a short chat, exchange of ideas or the start to potential song-writing collaboration. One habit I try to do (with some exceptions) is accept invitations to 'like' a FB page from like-minded musicians and song-writers. Sometimes, I send a short message after I accept a request to 'like' a page, which can prompt a good exchange of song-writing ideas.
For Twitter, I like this social-media tool very much though I haven’t fully maximized its’ benefits as a songwriter. I send out the occasional Tweet, but more often than not I re-Tweet relevant and useful content that I think the song-writer/musician communities will find useful. You can follow my Tweets here.
And then there is YouTube...well, that's another project that's still in the planning stages...
A word to the wise (they say hindsight is 20:20). If you are a songwriter thinking about getting a website up and running, a FB account and a Twitter account, take the time now to at least secure a domain name (especially if you are planning to use your own name) as well as a corresponding FB and Twitter name.
Ideally, your domain name and FB/Twitter and other social media names/tags should all be the same (why confuse things?). But, like I mentioned earlier, hindsight is 20:20...
3. Reverbnation and Soundcloud
These sites are really, really cool. I suspect many of you song-writers and musicians already use one or both of these sites (and I also suspect there are many, many others similar to Reverbnation and Soundcloud that I should be using!).
Soundcloud is a great place to connect with fellow song-writers and musicians, as well as a place to post your music. Much has already been written about Soundcloud---it works very, very well, and songwriters and musicians should be part of the Soundcloud community. ‘Nuff said!
Reverbnation (RN) is similar in many respects (i.e. posting your music and engaging the music community), and I really like the interaction Reverbnation offers its users. In addition to posting my music, there are excellent messaging tools that allows users to connect with each other, and other tools that help song-writers and musicians to connect into larger local, national and international communities of musicians.
For example, on any given week I may reach out to (or be contacted by) fellow song-writers and musicians on the other side of town or the other side of the planet! The exposure to different music styles continues to be rather remarkable. I’ve listened to some great song-writers across Canada, USA, UK, France, Germany, Brazil, India, and Australia (plus from many other countries!). I've listened to Canadian musicians from coast-to-coast-to-coast. It makes me especially proud seeing the Canadian flag show up on these musicians' RN home page.
Another cool high-light of Reverbnation is their ranking system. You, as the customer, can toggle this function on-or-off as you wish. It is a unique feature (and experience) and adds a different dimension to a songwriter’s on-line presence.
Lastly, Reverbnation offers links from your RN site directly into your other web and social-media pages (e.g. you website, FB and Twitter, amongst others). This is important to set up and activate early, as your FB & Twitter connections all feed into your RN page and visa-versa.
Outside of Soundcloud and Reverbnation, I have also set up social-media links and web-presence with G+ and also utilize the free musician/song-writer web page offered through the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
So, in conclusion…
It has been a great experience building a (songwriter) on-line presence. After the basics are up and running, you can continue to fine tune your on-line presence. Of course, you can also get back to songwriting!
Building a web-presence with social media links is an important part of song-writing, IMO. Equally important is the language and ‘look & feel’ of your social media presence. I try to stick with common images and themes, and re-use or re-purpose text so it is constant across my webpage, FB, Twitter and other social-media links. I also try check my site and FB/Twitter frequently, and contribute relevant content.
Personally, I enjoy listening to other songwriters’ works, and am impressed and inspired not only by the talent that I hear but also the local, national and international communities of songwriters who all share a passion for creativity and messaging through music. Could you image how much smaller the world of music would be without social interaction via the web?
The longest journey begins with a single step, and for the songwriter, building a website plus a social on-line presence is a step in the right direction.
Part II: Getting your music out there. Coming later in 2016…
Cheers…
Jason DiTommaso
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Comments