By now, you’ve heard of and maybe even used Twitter. It’s different than MySpace and Facebook, and it offers some really great marketing opportunities for your brand, especially when using a new Twitter Bot that I recommend from the very reliable software company Skootle Corp.

Here’s some questions we’ll answer:

1. What is Twitter and why do I keep hearing about it?
2. How can Twitter help my company or music group?
3. What marketing tasks can I automate and why?

Twitter is essentially like a status update on Facebook. It’s service is very simple, you let your friends know what’s going on with you or your company. For example:

Nick Jag is using the new twitter bot

It’s that simple! The catch here is that there’s a limit to how many characters (under 140) you can put in your updates. This makes it very different than a blog because the update doesn’t have to be particularly meaningful (as it should for a blog). It’s simple, and it makes people who want to be move involved in your life, feel as though they’re more involved.

To recap, when you login, your profile shows the updates from the people you’re following. Each of those people also have a public page that displays their update history. What makes this whole process really useful is that Twitter is available on your cell phone and other mobile devices in several ways to keep you connected!

Now, some marketing angles of Twitter, and the Twitter Bot.

As a marketer, using services like these takes extra time and thought, but it can be worth it once you’ve got the ball rolling. The reason people follow each other is because they want to be involved in another person’s life. Why would they want that? Well, basically they find that person’s life interesting. Same reason some people care about celeb lives that are featured on reality shows. In the end, it offers a type of drama/entertainment element. This is one of the main reasons people use Twitter. Another reason is completely different – Networking! Many professional users use Twitter to network with others and share ideas. Either way, value is added for the follower. Depending on what you would like to market on Twitter, whether it be a band, t-shirt company, corporate brand, or other, your followers are going to need value from you.

If it’s entertainment value from sharing your life activities, your updates are pretty self explanatory, but most people reading this post won’t have followers that care too much about their lives (maybe popular bands and other groups), but otherwise, you’ll fall into the networking category. Don’t mistake Twitter’s simplicity for a lack of networking capabilities. Getting product/service feedback, sharing links, etc. is extremely easy with Twitter because the updates go directly to your followers, who’ve specifically asked for you to update them.

In addition to the niche-followers of your brand, Twitter offers a huge network of users where you can obtain new followers that just happen to stumble upon your updates. This type of marketing is similar to MySpace, where Twitter users find your brand through other Twitter users… Viral Marketing! Of course, it pays to have systems that enable you to extend your marketing beyond your reach, such as a Twitter Bot. There’s quite a few kinds, but auto friend adders and messagers can really come in handy. The typical approach is to create an interesting user who works or in some way is associated with your brand. This enables you to talk freely about the brand without compromising the integrity of the user/follower relationship.

In my experiences with this Twitter bot, given the right message, you can launch your brand to new heights, especially now since Twitter is still relatively new and this bot just emerged. With my exeperiences in the past, this is the only software I would trust and recommend as the company has proven themselves time again with other similar products, most of which I don’t post in the blog, but the new Twitter bot has a lot going for it and the brands that use it.

Facebook: 65 million unique visitors, quickly rising
MySpace: 54 million unique visitors, on a slow decrease

With numbers as scary as these, MySpace is making some big changes to try and improve their share of the lost market. The biggest one, they’re getting rid of founder and Chief Executive, Chris DeWolfe and replacing with former AOL Chief Executive, Jon Miller. With Chris’ leave, MySpace’s big star, Tom, might soon be leaving as well, voluntarily. With these changes, MySpace is most likely to take shape as more of an entertainment provider and less of a social network.

Jon Miller had a huge history of turning things around for AOL by letting non subscribers use AOL’s content, something that seemed forbidden in their previous business model. As more visitors came through, AOL standardized their internet advertising model and showed a great return on the drastic changes. Unfortunately, that return was too late for Jon Miller as he was fired from AOL, essentially before the numbers were in.

Considering his strategies and history, Miller will most likely be making those drastic and needed changes to MySpace as well. News Corp wants to see some new strategies for the MySpace monster since its $300 million advertising deal with Google is up soon, leaving MySpace grasping for advertisers. One of their biggest issues from the start was not allowing the little companies to come in and advertise, as Facebook realized was an increasing trend (with Google Adwords) and took advantage of by creating a similar system to well known Adwords system, even allowing you to track page views and other statistical information, as with Google Analytics.

What exactly will happen? It’s hard to say 100%, but without advertisers dropping $30,000 for a handful of ads at a $5.00 CPM, MySpace will probably be getting more into the smaller advertisers, similar to how Facebook and Google work and concentrating on the ability to target ads better throughout the network. The problem is getting users who have left MySpace to come back and they certainly won’t do it for friends or social networking, users who have left are using Facebook for that. The only solution to increase their share is to become an online entertainment provider, similar to YouTube, to drive new traffic back to the site in hopes of something more than just networking. How Miller will actually do that will be interesting. Exclusive videos, artists, and shows work to some degree, but wouldn’t come close to being the fresh strategy that MySpace needs to turn themselves around. Free content seemed to be the theme with Miller as he worked on turning AOL around, but MySpace has all the content you need. Recently, MySpace picked up on an increasing trend – users listening to music on YouTube, using it as radio like Pandora, just without any interupting ads. With MySpace’s huge share of music and independent and signed artists alike, they have a great change of making something out of it; only time will tell, though.

So what does all of it mean to marketers and bands? Well, basic strategies won’t change much, but ultimately, know that the internet is moving more and more towards interactive and engaging media. If you can post a video instead of a picture, do it! If you’re not on Facebook yet, join! And most importantly, pick an overall theme for your brand. People need some type of call to action to tell them what to do, otherwise they get lost. Such might have been the case with MySpace, it was a social network with its own music section, then videos, classifieds, schools, calendars, politics, celebrities, causes, and the list goes on. It became so many things that perhaps people lost sight of what they’re actually supposed to do on the network. It is possible for websites to be too overwhelming, and if any site wins in that category, it’s MySpace. People need objectives, even in entertainment.

This is easier for bands, usually, but businesses have to get creative with this one. A typical objective is to buy my product, but visitors don’t want to hear your sales pitch. To work around this, sites use free content as bait and subtly try to talk visitors into purchasing something. A better strategy is to somehow position your product so it becomes the entertainment. Ultimately, that puts a lot of the marketing efforts into your product development – why is your product/service different and why will people care to talk about it. If you can positively answer those questions, then you’ll no longer have to pitch your product/service online, but instead just feature it and get it out there!

For several months now, I’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with yet another company that scammed me – Friendleak!

Friendleak (“Jordan Sparks” the CEO) contacted me way back when they first started up their affiliate program, asking if I was interested in promoting them. In an effort to maintain quality software for the users, I requested more information about them and got a demo of their services to ensure that it works as they say it does. I spent a couple minutes with it and it seemed to have worked, so I thought I would give it a shot.

After several user purchases, I began getting a couple complaints from users about Friendleak not responding to their e-mails, at least not initially. And last time I checked, Friendleak owed me several hundred dollars. I decided to check my commission panel on their website and, great, it was deleted. I needed to contacted Friendleak.

On September 15th, I had almost 300 dollars in commissions. Several emails later requesting my due payment, by mid-October, they had let me know that they deleted my account and asked if I had saved the records? Wow, what a responsible company… I told them to just pay me $200 (I was feeling gracious and thought this would help them get the job done). They informed me that I was included in this month’s (October) payout for the amount of $200. Great, right? Would have been except that I haven’t heard back from them since, and we’re now in December. Whatever you want to call it, it’s fraud.

There’s really no excuse for not returning e-mails and not paying affiliates, especially months after it is due. So in conclusion… do not use Friendleak.com, Stay Away!

If you’re interested in how their service actually works, they claim it “automates point building and builds up the points for you in just minutes” on websites where you add people and build up points. The current problem with this is that most of those sites have become EXTREMELY spammy. Generally, the only people who are requesting to be your friend are commercial spam profiles that can even get your profile marked as spam if they leave flaggable comments with malicious code (especially if they’re phishing accounts).

Final word, don’t bother with friendleak; and when you are considering purchasing and downloading a product from any site you’re not sure about, always send them an e-mail first. A legitimate company that truly wants your business will usually respond the same day. And if you can’t find an e-mail address (Friend leak doesn’t even have an e-mail address listed) you should press your back button.

Another note about Friendleak, they have numerous promotional articles that list Jake Solochek as the writer, living at 3200 Hartley Rd. #298 Jacksonville, FL 32257. There’s a phone number listed as well, but when called, they say it’s the wrong number. Either way, Friendleak appears to be lying. They also claim they’re an LLC, yet I can find no business records in Florida nor Washington where they claim to be from in their promotional articles and affiliate program agreement.

Not a whole lot of news on MySpace really. The limits and overall techniques from the book still apply. Of course, we have the new redesign and you may have noticed a couple of things relocated. Most notably, many of your networking links are under the main “More” button near the top.

There’s been a lot of hype that MySpace has been “dying,” usually from tech blogs and web stats…

Okay, what to take away from this graph (Alexa.com). We can see the blue line representing MySpace’s page views over the past year, and the other for Facebook. Now, you’ll notice MySpace has a drop in page views, one that would seem to be significant too. There are two reasons for this. To understand the first, we need to take a trip back one year…

Last year, MySpace was really flourishing, about at its peak most would say. What came with all this traffic was a huge surge of spam and MySpace began hard captcha tactics about the end of 2006 and really pushing captcha in 2007. What became of this was a significant decrease in spam, and ultimately page views (from spammers). Of course, you’ll still see spam on the network, but if you think back a year ago, you may remembering opening your mailbox and seeing 1-5 new messages a day!… a rare find now.

Secondly, how does Alexa.com (where the above data statistics are from) work? Glad you asked!

From Wiki:

Alexa ranks sites based on visits from users of its Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer and from integrated sidebars in Mozilla and Netscape.

Why is this significant? It’s important because Alexa gets most of its data from people that install its toolbar and or widgets. Most people that install these do it for a reason – to get their website up in the rankings on Alexa.com. People that have websites are very tech-oriented, and it’s been well known that the tech-oriented people favor Facebook over MySpace, which is precisely what this graph shows.

So at the end of the day, both networks are still very popular and excellent sources of networking. Neither should be left out of your campaign since they are both the two largest social networks and offer your brand huge growth potential if applied right.

It’s really simple to sign-up:

http://www.rockthevote.com/demrockracy/

When you sign-up, you put a widget on your profile and convince your fans to register to vote. The first 25 to sign-up and get 150 people to register will be featured on TouchTunes jukebox playlists (thousands of restaurants, clubs, bars, retail outlets, etc.). The top three finalists will be featured on Rock the Vote’s MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/rockthevote. And the winner will have a chance to win a pair of Gibson guitars and perform at the Rock the Vote Ballot Bash at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The contest starts today, ends on August 14th, and the winners will be announced the following day.

To many this may sound difficult, but it’s really a matter of incentivizing (is that a word?) the registration to your fans. What can you do for or give to your fans? Why not play a concert, print lots of these forms out and give anyone who fills the registration form free admission? A private concert on the beach or in the woods or something… get creative! Good luck!

http://apps.myspace.com

Some MySpace Apps I found to be interesting to bands would be:

1. Playlist.com Music Video Playlists
2.  My Top Artists
3. Music (by Qloud)

Businesses won’t find too many useful Apps just yet since the number of users for any good networking application is low, however that does present some opportunities as well, you’ll just have to be creative. There are several random news applications in several different areas (sports, music, etc.). If you can find a news App that relates to your business’ area it would be a great idea to talk to the creator and try becoming a part of their news. Make friends while these App owners are small, notice the trends, who’s rising fastest, and when they get to the top, they’ll be more likely to listen to what you want!

We have developed our own App, and although it’s geared more towards the 14-year-old teen, some of you may find it useful for driving that personal touch to your users on your MySpace Profile. The App is a survey Application. It allows you to browse, add, and create questions that you answer. Your survey is proudly displayed on  your MySpace page. If you’ve been on MySpace for just a few weeks you’ve probably seen many of these – it’s very popular to send them as bulletins also.

The survey could be a great way to connect your about information to your user without looking so commercialized with a lengthy about paragraph where most users will read the first 5 words and move on. They think they’ll find something juicy in your survey, so make it funny, make it personal, and make it entertaining – they’ll enjoy it, and they’ll learn more about you – something that will help your brand ladder positioning without doubt.

http://www.myspace.com/survii

Let us know if you find some good Apps to use for  your band or business. Post them below!

http://www.myspace.com/garrettramquist

Garrett, only twenty years old, has recently released his first EP, “Twenty Thousand Dreams” containing 7 tracks, my personal favorite being “Storm.” His light, but catchy songs bring back the nostalgic and popular bands of the 90’s. The melodies are simple and inspiring – something that’s sure to have wide appeal.

Visitors to his MySpace profile will quickly realize how much talent this young song writer has and many will become instant fans. His pages are full of activity and dedicated listeners. If you’re a fan of Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls, or Daughtry, do yourself a favor and pick-up his new EP for only $7.99, available on his MySpace profile.

—- Some Distribution Tips for Artists —-

A quick tip for those of you that are selling your music – use as many distribution channels as possible! The more channels, the better the chances of attracting new fans and customers.

Here are a few resources that should NOT be overlooked:

http://cdbaby.net/dd
http://cdbaby.net
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000668.php
http://www.musicbizacademy.com/knab/articles/sellonline1.htm
http://www.createspace.com/
http://www.ebay.com/

CreateSpace.com is actually affiliated with Amazon.com and offers on demand printing. On demand printing can be more beneficial (than the Advantage program) to artists who don’t have the time to deal with pressing CD’s from one manufacturer and shipping them to Amazon.com when requested. Somtimes this can even save money depending on the price of your CD.

First of all, thanks to everyone for their participation! Stressing that the preliminary judging was difficult would be an understatement. There were HUNDREDS of participants, many of which were extremely talented musicians. I was impressed by the quality of a lot of the music I heard and wish you all the best success in 2008.

The winner receives the following:

1. The MySpace Marketing Book, Second Edition 116 pages
2. The Facebook Marketing Book (just released) 42 pages
3. Access to the exclusive marketing forums
4. Lots of exposure, plays, and new fans
5. A complete, positive review by Nick Jag and a premium spot on the NickJag.com homepage.

You can only vote once, choose wisely! You can link others (fans and friends) to this page as long as you’re not using any type of proxy system to increase votes (violators will be disqualified). Voting ends February 29th, 11:59pm!

Vote here:

After listening to hundreds of bands, I thought a lot of you could benefit from some free music advice to enhance your music and get the most out of it.

1. First and foremost, know your target audience. Know what they like, what they eat, what they breathe! Know them and cater your product/service to their needs.
2. The first 10 or so seconds of your music are the most important. I’ve listened to some songs that took about 30 seconds just to get started! By that time, most of your potential fans are long gone. You need to hook them fast and hard!
3. Put your best song first! If you’ve ever listened to any music gurus, they will all tell you this. Whether it’s your demo, MySpace, or PureVolume, you need to have your best song first. Some bands had some amazing songs hidden away in the middle. Potential fans will give you about 10 seconds of their time to listen to the first song that plays. If you don’t have your best song first, you’re losing a large percentage of conversions.
4. If your vocals aren’t good, use Auto-Tune. I mean, if they are not 100% perfect, you need to be using Auto-Tune. Let me put it this way… If you needed to send out press photos of someone with a little acne, wouldn’t you try and clean up the photos in Photoshop? If not, how would compete with the perfect photos of the Majors? You wouldn’t, and you wouldn’t get very far. Unfortunate, I know, but I’m just being honest with you! It works the exact same way with your music. This applies to drums also! Use Beat Detector if your drums aren’t right on.
5. Spend a few bucks or some time and have someone you know (that has a cool layout) do your MySpace layout. Aesthetics play a large part with people’s perception of your music quality, especially if you can appeal to your target market in a creative way. One of the best layouts I came across (there were many) was In the Bag Productions – http://www.myspace.com/inthebagprod.

Here’s what’s new:

1. More Crazy and Awesome Searching Techniques you never thought of!
2. How to use bots, more specifically Friend Blaster Pro (with screen shots!)
3. How to get instant friends and have MySpace do the work for ya
4. How to really crank out the search engine positioning for your profile
5. More information on copyrights
6. Specific new limit numbers and information for promoting
7. New captcha information
8. Updated Resources
9. Which techniques are now the best to use (this has changed since)

The book is 116 pages now (previously 74) and is worth every penny! It will be available on Amazon.com within a week or two as a hard copy or you can buy the cheaper online version here:

http://www.nickjag.com/marketing

As an added bonus, you will still receive access to the NickJag Forums, allowing you to discuss techniques, share tools, etc. in secret! And also, if you want, I can throw in 150 free friends if you just e-mail me after you pick-up your copy.

Send any e-mails to cs(at)nickjag(dot)com

Facebook book to follow shortly!