Google Plus has now reached the #2 spot amongst social networks by surpassing all but Facebook. Independent bands and musicians have to keep up with the current tech trends. This article will discuss three useful tips on how to use Google Plus for bands and individual musicians.
Organizing Your Circles
“Circles are groups of people you share content with. The names of your circles and who you add to them are visible only to you, though you can set whether the list of people in all of your circles is visible in your public profile.”
Circles are the Google Plus way of organizing and adding contacts similar to Facebook’s categories of Close Friends, Acquaintances, and such. With Google Plus however, you can define your own Circles which gives improved organization options. It should be noted that your Circles are private, so others cannot view or be offended by your organizational choices. Taking the same approach as Twitter, adding a person to your Circles let’s you follow their news feed as opposed to Facebook’s requirement for confirmation. These people go into your Following Circle so you can see their feeds but they don’t have to add you as well. Every other Circle will contain people who also add you to their Circles, but you get to control what they see. But how can we use Circles to organize our contacts? Well to start with you can create a Circle for Fans and a separate for your Special or VIP Fans. These VIP Fans can be people who regularly share what you post online, or always attend your shows in their area, buy the most merch, or even just donate money to you to be listed as a VIP Fan. It’s your choice on how to pick them. Next, you can create a Music Network Circle to encompass all the industry contacts you get.
Again, the benefit of using Circles is not just organization, but being able to decide what each Circle gets to see. So whenever you make a post on Google Plus, you will have the option of deciding what Circles to share it with. If it is something extremely personal, you could share it with your Family and Friends Circles. In regards to your Fans, you can make it so they see band/music related posts, where your VIP Fans get to see special announcements like pre-orders for a new shirt design or your new album.
Google Plus About Page
The Google Plus About Page is another crucial benefit of using Google Plus. For starters, it is already SEO friendly as far as Google search goes. Load your Introduction section with good descriptive keywords to help rank higher in appropriate searches. You can even mention some artists/bands you have a similar sound to and you may end up in search results for those artists/bands. One caveat with Google Plus is that you can’t use hyperlinks in your Introduction text. Google search results will show with them stripped out completely. Instead, you two sections to add links into: Other Profiles and Contibutor to. Now Other Profiles should be pretty self explanatory just on the name alone. This is where you link your Facebook, Twitter, and other social network goodies. Contributor to is where you’ll link any sites you write posts for regularly. This does not mean your social media site posts, but rather blogs or websites you may be writing articles for. In the end, try to pick your three best links for each and have them first. Google search results that include your profile will only list the first three.
Google Plus Hangouts (on Air)
This is a great feature for artists/bands. It is similar to Ustream where numerous people can tune in and watch your feed, but it also adds the ability for you to hear, see, and interact with other members in the Hangout. Essentially Google Plus Hangouts is a free video chat option on steroids. Originally there was a limit of 10 members I believe, but with the addition of Google Plus Hangouts on Air you can now stream live video to any number of audience members. Even better is once the Hangout is over, the video from the Hangout will become available on both your Google Plus account and Youtube account.
So what benefits does this provide artists besides the marketing implications? Well for one, you could broadcast part of or a whole show on a Hangout for people who can’t come see you. Once you have a large number of fans watching your broadcasts, you could try putting up a “tip jar” link for them to send you tips, or even charge a virtual admission fee prior to the event and send the Hangout link only to those people via a Circle. Perhaps perform a new original song in your studio and broadcast the performance to get fan reactions. If you perform any covers you should check the Youtube Copyright Center first before broadcasting a Hangout featuring those. Another thing to note is the addition of Studio Mode. Essentially this is to improve the quality of live streams in regards to music performance. So when you are playing a song for a Hangout, make sure you use this.