Just in case you’re not a rock star or superpoet like us here at LA Snark, we thought we’d share Tom’s email to the MySpace artist community. It basically gives them a heads up of the newfeatures on the site (that look a lot like certain out of the box features of Facebook.) Personally I think it’s a smart way to go, as Facebook has yet to build artist pages that can also double as an artists’ home page in a Facebook./band-name kinda way. Take it away Tom:
Hello Artists,
Long but important message!
MySpace has had a very valuable feature since 2007 — the status & mood update — which I’ve noticed that bands/musicians/comedians are really under-utilizing.
I think musicians, filmmakers and comedians have not been using this much for two reasons:
1) Lots of you are still on the classic home, which does not emphasize the status update. Not sure really why.. resistant to change guys? But the % of artists that are still on our classic home is markedly different from the % of regular users of the site. Regular users have adopted this in mass, but artists have not.
2) Unlike regular profiles where the status shows right on the top of the page (mine, for example: myspace.com/tom), for band/filmmaker/ comedian profiles, the status does NOT show on the page.
I started asking around and I realized that because of these two things, artists did not understand how this status update feature works.
First, I’d like to encourage you all to move to the new Home (the link to convert is on your home page right under the link that shows your profile url). Click “Home” then look under your URL and click the “New Home Skin” link.
Once you do, you’ll see what over 85% of regular site users see – the new home page (well not so new, it launched in Sep 2007!) That home page features status updates very prominently right at the top of the page.
Whenever you update your status, it appears on the homepage of every user. It works just like bulletins, but its shorter–instead of allowing you to post a big message, the status post is just a short message. And in today’s world, where millions of users are accesing MySpace via mobile devices, your fans are more likely to read these short messages.
Your status updates can point people to your blogs and bulletins, and can alert users to new song updates, new photos, or anything you want to tell your fans. But the real key here is not to constantly MARKET to your fans, but rather to let them in on your personal life.
Let’s imagine you’re the Beatles. (Nice eh?) Updates could be like this: “Pete Best just left the band.. trying out some cat named Ringo,” or “John is thinking of getting married.. some girl named Yoko,” or “we are backstage at the Ed sullivan show.. about to go on, wish us luck!” These sort of personal, NON-PROMOTIONAL updates are what really engage your fans, and gets them interested in you as people. It makes them pay attention, which means they’ll pay attention when you DO market to your fans. If you hit them over the head with constant promotion, they tune you out.
That’s not all. We now have a widget that bands can put on their page, which allows you to display this status post ON your profile in case your fans missed it on their home page. To get the widget, click here– after clicking, look to the right for the embed code you can grab to put it on your profile. To see how it looks on some profiles, check out: Nico Vega, Meiko, Christina Milian, Jordyn Taylor, Tila Tequila, ForBiddeN
The group Nylon Pink has the coolest implementation I’ve seen of this. They put up status widgets for every band member on the main band page. This gives them a way to promote each band member and gives their fans a way to see whats up with all the band members right from the main band page. Nice girls!
Lastly, you can even update your status via mobile, so that you always keep your fans up to date, no matter where you are. To do that, go to m.myspace.com on your mobile browser. The status update is the first option you’ll see right when you login. If you prefer to update via text msg, just activate your phone by going here. And then start texting your updates to 69772. Or, if you’re an Iphone or Blackberry user, you can get a special app for your phone. (More info on those apps here)
Thanks,
TomP.S. More is coming, we’re doing a lot to improve the experience for artists, including increasing the number of songs that every artist can put on their profile, so keep your eyes & ears open.
