Facebook for the Musician – More Friends Than Likes?
Earlier today, I wrote about the emerging importance of the Facebook band page. I noticed another thing while looking at bands’ Facebook presences: Many bands–singer-songwriters especially–have more friends on their profiles than likes on their band page. Why? Because the profiles were more valuable a few years ago, and many musicians ignored their pages.
Ari Hest might have made the same mistake I did: He gave his profile the more valuable url name: www.facebook.com/arihest.The shorter URL should have been saved for the band page, but at first, the profiles had more options. Now, the band page is more usable for us, and Ari had to make his band page www.facebook.com/arihestmusic. I made the same mistake, valuing my profile more than my page. It made sense a few years ago. My profile’s URL is www.facebook.com/mikevial. My band page is www.facebook.com/mikevialmusic.
Ari Hest also has almost 5000 friends, but only 3033 likes. (He might also have multiple profile pages.)
Now that the Facebook band pages are more usable, many of us will have to make an adjustment. Soon, we will be able to update our pages on our mobile phones, and when that happens, the full transition will be complete.
For businesses this is extra important: Don’t make a profile, make a page!
Seriously, many of us will be turned off by having to “friend” a business. Some people are extra sensitive to sharing their “friendship” information with a corporation. I constantly get a friend request from a local business, but I always deny it. I don’t want the business having access to my friendship circle. If that business had a page, which it doesn’t, then yes, I’d “like” it. Then, I can (in theory) control my involvement with the business’s page.
Since a singer-songwriter is a person, a profile page might still work for a while, but it will get tapped out at 5000 people and is then useable. And shouldn’t we interact with our friends? A page has no limit to “likes” or fans. I think it’s more suitable in design for fan interaction.
Right now I’m blessed or cursed, operating two Facebook things for music, a profile and a page. Oddly, only 300 people of my friendship circle like my page, which has been dormant for months. I wonder if this will change as I use my band page more.
