The OurStage Marketplace is temporarily closed for a site overhaul. Marketplace will re-open when the new version is ready in early 2010. Watch this space for the latest news concerning the re-opening of the OurStage Marketplace. In the meantime, Marketplace News will be offering artists advice on how to use the tools available on OurStage to secure opportunities and grow their fanbase.
While most bands know the importance of having a presence on different online social networking sites, many underestimate the importance of having the links to all of your different pages on each site. Even if all of your sites display the same music or same information, knowledge of your complete online presence is important to talent buyers and fans.
Talent buyers and other industry professionals interested in working with an artist need to easily identify the scope of an artists online network for many reasons. First, they want to get a sense of how many fans an artist has and how good an artist is at online self-promotion. Second, they need complete social networking information in order to effectively promote artist collaboration. For example, if a band is playing a show at a venue, the venue might want to become their friend on MySpace or Facebook, add the band to their top friends or share their profile. The venue might also want to “@reply” the band when they tweet about the show.
It is also important to include social networking links on your profile so your fans can know where to find you. Fans who discover you on OurStage might want to be your fan or friend on MySpace and Facebook or follow you on Twitter. They are more likely to reach out if they don’t have to search you out on these sites individually. This is why OurStage offers artists the opportunity to display links to their social networking profiles on sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, iLike, ReverbNation, Sonicbids and YouTube on their OurStage profile.
To fill in your information, log in to your OurStage profile and click on the “Overview” tab. About halfway down the page, under the ad block, there will be a “Links” block. To add link to the “Links” block, click on the “Edit” button in the “Links” block. You should see a lightbox that looks like this:
Add your social networking URLs to your OurStage profile!
Enter the URLs for your social networking pages in the corresponding spaces —remember to include http://. When you’re finished, the links box on your profile should look like this:
Your fans can find you anywhere!
Now your fans and business contacts can easily find you on all of your chosen social networking sites. Be sure to tune in next week for more advice on how to get the most out of your OurStage experience.
