Setting Up Your ReverbNation Profile
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Setting Up Your ReverbNation Profile
By now you’ve gotten to know the ins and outs of what ReverbNation offers, so it’s time to get started with setting up your profile. There’s a lot to get accomplished, and it’s important to get as much content uploaded and all the steps of completing your profile done now so you can get any marketing campaigns up and running and to take full advantage of being a ReverbNation member as soon as possible. Just click the “Profile” tab in your Control Panel to get started.
After you click the profile tab, you’ll notice two main columns: on the left you’ll see links to fill out all the elements of you profile: your artist information, status, songs and video, show management, MySpace & Facebook synchronization, photos, press, blog, and buzz tracker. As you fill out each section, you’ll see your progress change in the check list on the right. Let’s go through each step and begin filling our your profile.
The first thing you’ll want to fill out is all of your artist information. Click the orange edit box in the right corner of the General Info box to access the forms and to add general information: your band name, website home page, band members, the date the band was formed, musical genre, main location, email and booking contact, paypal email and any Label or manager you are associated with.
You’ll also want to add links to any of the major social networks you have a profile on – MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, and any other network you use. This way, if a fan finds your profile, they can then add you as a friend on their favorite network of choice to keep updated with your news and bulletins. Just use the drop-down boxes to specify which network you are linking to, and add your profile link. Click the “Add Another Website” link to add as many links as you’d like.
Next up is your “About” section – this is where you’ll want to write (if you do not have one written already) a full-length description about your music and band. Include your history, development of your sound, milestones, member information, other bands that you sound like, and of course any other information or anecdotes that you might want to include. When you click the edit button, you’ll notice a neat visual-rich text editor that will allow you to format your “about section” (very similar to any other text editor like Microsoft Word). Be sure to space your content out in short paragraphs, highlight important words or phrases with bold, underline, or italics, and add hyperlinks back to specific pages on your website or other network to entice readers to learn more about you.
If you’re familiar with HTML, you can click the “Source” button to directly add HTML code; for example, if you already have a preformatted “about” page on your website, you can simply copy the HTML code from there and add it here to save you from having to format everything all over again. You can also add code to include pictures, YouTube videos, and banners – most code will work here without a problem and will make your about section even better.
Next you’ll want to post your “status” – these are updates that people see when they visit your ReverbNation profile. If you use Facebook or Twitter, you probably already know the concept of posting status updates. Some times this is refferred to as “micro blogging”, but basically it’s posting a short message about whatever it is you are currently thinking about or doing in 120 characters or less. For example, let’s say you’re about to play a show; a status update could be something like “getting out gear ready to rock the faces off of Boston” or something like that. it can be ANYTHING really – the point is to update your status on a regular basis as a way of interacting with visitors to your profile.
Speaking of networks like Twitter, one of the cool efficient tools that ReverbNation has is the ability to sync your profile status with MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter – so you only have to update your status once (here in your Reverb profile), and the update will be sent to all of those networks as well. You can imagine the amount of time and work of having to login to each network you can save by using this feature.
For cool ideas on how to write interesting “Tweets” and updates, take a gander at this article written at evolvor about how musicians should use Twitter.
Note: Throughout your ReverbNation profile (for example, adding songs and shows) you’ll notice settings that will auto-update your status – so when you add a new song or show, it will post this addition to your status automatically.
Now it’s time to add songs and videos to your profile! This screenshot shows the buttons you can use to upload a song, add a video (you will need to have the video already uploaded to YouTube and have the link to the video handy), and then how to edit the song & video settings after a successful upload.
You can also quickly remove songs as well as move the position in which they appear in your profile.
To upload a song, click the Upload button; the following screen will appear which gives you several settings and options for how your song will appear in your ReverbNation profile.
First, enter the song name; you can then click a box if you want the song to only appear in your ReverbNation Electronic Press Kit (RPK) if you have this service enabled. Then, browse your computer to find the MP3 track you wish to upload. Note the file size – your limit by default is 8 MB; high fidelity Mp3′s and songs over 4 minutes are usually too big to upload, and ReverbNation will either tell you that the file is too big or will truncate the track if it’s too long. You can upgrade your ReverbNation account to include the Mega-Song Storage service to upload songs that are of a larger file size (up to 25 mb) or songs that were previously truncated
Next, choose how you want your songs to be presented in your ReverbNation profile. Choose one of the four options for every track you upload:
- Download & Streaming – users will be able to listen to your track and download the track for free.
- Streaming Only – users will only be able to listen to the track.
Fan Exclusive tracks – when you choose the Fan Exclusive options, visitors will only be able to access these tracks by “becoming a fan” of yours on ReverbNation. In order to activate these options, you have to activate the FanReach service in your ReverbNation profile. We will be discussing FanReach in a later tutorial, but for now, head on over to the FanReach tab and activate either the free version of FanReach or go ahead and sign-up for the FanReach pro service.
After activating FanReach, you can choose one of the two options, again:
- Download & Steaming – users who become fans will be able to listen to your track and download the track for free.
- Streaming Only – users who become fans will only be able to listen to the track.
Now, in order for users to become fans of yours on ReverbNation, they will have to either login/signup to ReverbNation or enter their email address; after they receive a confirmation email and click the activation link, they will then have access to either listen to or download your Fan Exclusive tracks. Their email will then be added to your list and you can follow up with the fan in later mailings, again which will be outlined in the FanReach tutorial.
You can probably see how this is a very powerful system to get visitors of your profile to sign up to your email list. The more songs you add either for download or for streaming increases the opportunity for them to become super-fans of your music. I highly suggest adding as many songs as you have to your profile to give the visitor a full experience of your music and what you bring to the table.
In addition, the more songs you have available for download as fan exclusives, the more of a chance they’ll become a fan to grab the free downloads. If you’re just starting out in the music biz, this is the best way of building your list and fanbase, hands down. You might think you’re losing out by giving songs away, but having that email address at your disposal to communicate with a fan later has a dollar amount attached to it that you might have not thought about.
Think about it this way – what is the smarter business decision: Selling 1,000 tracks or obtaining 1,000 emails?
If you sell $1,000 tracks, let’s say on iTunes for $.99 each, you’ll receive around $700 in your pocket (after iTunes fees you get about .70 per track). Now, that’s all good and it’s great to have money NOW, but just because someone purchases a track does not mean they’ll ever know about anything else you ever do. They may never buy the full album, never buy a t-shirt, and never attend a show. YOU don’t get any information about the fan or any way to contact them.
Now, if you give away a track in exchange for an email address, you get something in return that is worth far more then $.70 – you get the opportunity to communicate with that fan over email about anything and everything you ever do – including selling them products like albums and T-shirts and tickets to a show – for as long as they stay subscribed to your email list (which could be for LIFE!)
So, you might have gotten no money today for giving away the track, but next month you might be able to sell them the full album (10 songs, @ $.70 = $7.00), or two months a T-shirt (maybe $5 of profit) or a $10 concert ticket. If fact, that fan might spend $50 on you in a year, every year for the rest of your life; when you approach things that way, you can see how much that email is worth in the long run.
When it comes to picking the options for uploading songs, I tend to offer the following suggestions:
1. Make 1 song available for streaming and downloading. This is CRUCIAL to get someone to give you a chance, without asking for anything out of the gate. People love free stuff, so if you can get them to at least download one track, you’re halfway there. The song will probably land in their music player and iPod, and at some point, they’ll listen to it. Maybe not at first, but they will. And maybe after throwing their iPod on shuffle, they’ll hear the tune a few times and start to LIKE it, in which case they might come back to your website, MySpace, or Facebook page and seek out more information of your music.
2. Make at least 1 song available as a fan exclusive. The more you can afford to give away, the better this will convert into email subscribers. So let’s say that fan that downloaded the first free track comes back to listen to your other songs, and sees that you have more free tracks in exchange for your email. BAM! They’re super excited to get more songs, and you get their email. By now the “experience” you are creating has been a very positive one, and you’re on your way to obtaining a fan who will, in the future, spend money on your music and products to experience more of what you have to offer.
3. Put the rest of your music up for streaming at the very least. This way, if all the visitor does is just open your player, they can listen to all of your work to see if there is anything they like. The free song they may hate, and the second song might be just ok, but the third song on your profile they might just LOVE and could be the kicker that makes them a super-fan. Many listen to music while doing other things so if you have all your songs available for streaming, they can just hit play and listen to your tunes passively. After a few plays, they might pay closer attention to you.
A final note about uploading your songs – don’t make them ALL just available for streaming or ALL just fan exclusives. If you were to make them all exclusive, then the passive visitor won’t be able to hear anything, and might ditch you and never come back. Divy the songs up so there’s enough to please the passer-by and enough to entice those who will join your list.
Facebook Sync
Now that we have songs uploaded and are ready to rock, it’s time to sync your ReverbNation account with your Facebook page. If you don’t have a Facebook page made yet, I highly suggest setting one up here, and in a future Label 2.0 module we will discuss the ins and outs of using Facebook.
Integrating ReverbNation with your Facebook page will add the number of fans you have there to your total number of fans at ReverbNation, and these numbers will impact your Band Equity Score and fan stats.
Photos
Next, it’s time to upload some photos to your ReverbNation profile. This is pretty easy to do and self explanatory, as it’s no different then uploading pics like other social networks. Just click the upload button and search your computer for photo files. After you upload a photo, you’ll have the ability to add a short description to each.
Having photos on your profile is important – people are very visual and love to see pictures of other people. The more, the merrier – try to upload a decent amount of pics to show fans what you’re all about. If you have professional pics taken (and you should if you’re taking your career seriously), put them all in here. Live pics show you’re a real band and you actually tour and can pack bars/venues. Candid pics show you’re a real person. All are encouraged.
Press
The next part in creating your profile is SUPER important – adding any press quotes you have gotten. Some of you may be established artists that have quotes from well known publications, in which case PUT THEM ALL HERE!
Seriously, having quotes about your band and music is HUGE when trying to prove some level of credibility, especially when it comes to getting a venue or label to give you attention. If you don’t have any, GO OUT AND GET THEM! Next time you play a gig, have the venue owner give you a quote about your performance. Ask your fans to give you quotes at the very least. This business of music is all about impressing people through networking, and if you can get well known websites and publications to give you a positive review or plug, it can do wonders for you.
Add press clippings and drop any links to any websites that these can be found on, just to back it up for anyone who is wondering if the quote is the real deal.
You’ll also notice a button to “create a press kit” – this will take you to the ReverbNation Press Kit (RPK) area if you have that service enabled. If you don’t, it’s a really great way to send information from your ReverbNation profile to venues – we’ll cover this more in detail in the Tour Widgets, RPK’s, and GigFinder tutorial later on.
Blog/Buzz
Pssst…I know this is a lot of work, but we’re almost finished! The next section of your ReverbNation profile is likely to make you cringe – that’s setting up your blog. Luckily, there’s a handy little technique that is going to make you life all that easier, in fact, if you already have a blog set-up elsewhere (and if you’ve made it this far in the whole “internet marketing” world, you better have already set a blog up), I’m going to show you an easy way to use it to update your ReverbNation blog automatically.
Now, by default, it’s easy to add a blog post to your ReverbNation profile. Just hit the “New Blog Entry” button, and you’ll see that familiar text editor (similar to the one you used to fill out your “About” section). We won’t go into “how to blog” here – that’s enough of a discussion that I’d have an entire training module to get through (which we’ll be adding to Label 2.0 in the coming months!)
If you already have a blog, whether it’s a Google Blogspot or WordPress blog, or if you just use the MySpace blog, you can add your blog’s RSS feed in your ReverbNation preferences; after adding the feed, anytime you post something to your blog, it will automatically add the post to your ReverbNation profile.
Open your blog preferences; if you don’t want a blog to show up at all (for instance, if you don’t have any kind of blog set up and don’t want to show a blank/unused blog, click the “I do not want to show any blog on my page” radio button.
If you already have a blog, then click the “I would like to show a blog I maintain on another site”. You will then need to enter the RSS Feed URL in the space provided.
You might be asking yourself “What’s an RSS Feed?” Again, that’s another discussion we’ll be addressing soon in Label 2.0. In a nutshell, RSS (Real Simple Syndication) takes your blog’s content and strips it down to the bare essentials of text and code – and allows you to syndicate it on another web page or through an RSS reader application.
Typically, you can grab your RSS feed by looking for the universal RSS Button that pretty much every blog uses to showcase the Feed. Here is an example:
If you maintain a MySpace blog, you can find the text link that displays the RSS feed in the right hand corner of your blog page:
In either situation, click on the RSS link; depending on your browser, you may get taken to a screen that had a bunch of funny looking code – that’s your RSS feed!
You don’t need to worry about the code – you just need to copy and past the URL into the blog preferences, hit save, and you’re done! Now your ReverbNation blog will update itself whenever you add a new post to your blog.
Buzz Preferences
Next up is your profile’s “Buzz” section; here, your ReverbNation profile will pull links from other places on the web that mention your band – this is based on 2 things: specific locations on the web that ReverbNation’s Buzz software grabs whenever your band or name is mentioned, and the keywords that are associated with your band’s name. You can pick which of these locations you want ReverbNation to check and what specific keywords you want the Buzz machine to use. Now depending on your name or keyword, this can get tricky – if you have a very generic band name like “The Presidents”, obviously the buzz section is going to update with content not related to you at all – it’s going to pull any mention of the phrase “The Presidents”.
In general, and again this is another topic that Label 2.0 is going to cover in our Branding module, it’s always a smart idea to pick a band or artist name that is VERY UNIQUE, so that mentions of the keywords in your name always pertain to you. Keep this in mind when viewing you Buzz in your ReverbNation profile, because it might not always be relevant to your band or “brand”.
Now let’s take a look at your “Fans” section. After you have integrated your MySpace and Facebook pages into ReverbNation, you’ll begin to see how you can view all the different fans you have across your various networks. All of these numbers will be available for you to filter through – your Reverb fans (remember those who opted in to your “Fan Exclusive” tracks, or those who have clicked the “Become a Fan” button on your profile), your FanReach list (those who you either added to your email list or signed up through a ReverbNation widget (more on this in the FanReach module), again your Facebook and MySpace fans, and then those who have become a Fan using the MyBand Facebook Application (which we’ll cover in the Widgets and Apps tutorial).
Anyway, you can easily take a look at your fans and, if they have a ReverbNation profile (Reverb Fans), visit their profile and communicate with them directly.
Recommended Artists
Remember, Reverbnation is also a social network, and one of the aspects of being a member is recommending other ReverbNation artists on your profile page. To encourage the Reverb community to add their own recommendations, it is part of completing your profile mission that you add some other artists who you either like or that fit your sound/genre. Consider this karma – if you recommend other bands on your profile, it’s very likely that those bands might do the same for you. Music is all about the experience and sharing that experience with others.
To make a recommendation, become a fan of the band and click the “recommend this band” option to add them to your profile page; your recommendations will appear on the right.
Comments
One way that visitors can interact with you through your ReverbNation profile is by leaving comments about you and your music. If someone happens to leave a positive comment, you can reply to it, and if they have a ReverbNation profile, visit them and interact with them further. You can also easily remove any negative comments you don’t want users to see.
This is a great way to pick up quotes for the press section as previously mentioned; monitor any comments and use the best as part of you press quotes section of your profile.
Links
Finally, the my links section of your profile editor gives you quick access to a variety of hyperlinks to specific sections of your ReverbNation profile – use these to give visitors from other web destinations the ability to easily see specific content. You can also copy and paste simple banner codes that do the same – a great addition to add to your MySpace page or website’s sidebar.
Now, your ReverbNation profile should be 100% completed – congratulations, you’re one step closer to harnessing the power of ReverbNation and getting your initial campaigns off the ground.
Just as a quick note, you can easily access and edit most of your ReverbNation profile in the future if you’re logged in and viewing your profile by clicking on the edit links in any of your profile’s section.
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