What I think bands (and record labels / booking agencies) should do is easy: send a quick press release by email, and provide a link to a social media release (SMR), or, in other words, a page aggregating the various items you want to share (music, pictures, videos, blog posts, tour dates, etc.). To know what you should include in that page, ask yourself what people want to know about your band:

1. People want to listen to the band
   The first thing you want to do when a band contacts you, is to listen to the songs to know who you’re dealing with. So, include a Myspace player and the embed code so people can listen to the songs, and share it with their friends or contacts.
2. People need background, booking and contact information
   A quick biography and discography are mandatory, and you should also add any relevant information about your record label, booking agency and past tours / shows. Provide clear contact information; who is taking care of booking your shows, who is in charge of management or distribution, etc. The contact information should include your blog, Twitter, Facebook pages and groups, Youtube channel, Flickr, etc.
3. People want to see some action!
   Listening to the songs is great, but live performance is also important. Don’t forget to share pictures and videos (you could do this by using a Youtube channel or a Flickr pool).
4. People want to see the band playing live
   Now that we know how your band sounds like, we would like to see you playing live! So, try to include a listing of the upcoming shows and tours. This list should also include links providing more information about the shows, the venues, or how and where to buy tickets.
5. People like to have recent news and updates about the band
   If you have a (myspace) blog, a tumblr page or a Twitter account, show their feeds on the social media release page! People love to read more about bands, especially when they’re on tour or in the studio recording their upcoming album.

So, that is basically what I would put in a social media release for a band (but it could easily be used by record labels and booking agencies to promote new releases, upcoming tours and booking offers). Some last quick thoughts:

• Don’t forget to include logos from the band, the record label, the booking agency, sponsorships and any other (relevant) endorsement .
• If you have great reviews or interviews, share them in the SMR and / or highlight the best quotes.
• List some relevant selling points.
• Provide quick links to your online presence: Myspace, Facebook (pages and groups), Last.fm, Flickr, Youtube, Twitter, etc.
• Make the whole thing easy to share and embed. Use ShareThis, RSS feeds and widgets.

Feel free to comment if you have any idea or suggestion, I’d be happy to update this post with your thoughts!

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This article could apply to all kinds of events, but I’ll focus on concerts because that’s the field that I know the best. We’ve booked a lot of DIY (Do It Yourself) concerts in the last five years, and we did use every possible way to promote it. From oldschool flyers/stickers/posters to social media, we tried everything we could. MySpace was our first step into social networking sites, until we tried Facebook.

So, this post is about Facebook and why I think it’s good for events promotion.

Before the concert

• When you create an event, you can add the precise location or address and Facebook will generate automatically the link to Google Map, MapQuest, Microsoft and Yahoo maps. From there, your guests can print the map and easily get the directions to the venue.
• All the information added to the event will be embedded to an iCalendar file that your guests can download (and import to their calendar software). I discovered that function some weeks ago and I think it’s really useful! I downloaded the iCalendar files for every show I’m attending, and they got automatically included into my iCal.
• The Wall can be used to answer questions from your guests. They can also use it to arrange meetings, ask for a ride or a place to crash after the concert.
• With the RSVP (literally “reply, if it pleases you”), you’re able to know how many people plan to come to your concert. Our experience has shown that many people are marking themselves as “Attending” and don’t come to the event. So, don’t trust this too much.
• If your event is set as “Open”, your guests will be allowed to invite friends (on Facebook) to the concert. This option is very useful because your guests can invite people you don’t know, and spread the information about your show to their network. This viral diffusion can help you to reach a lot of new people real fast.
• When we create an event on Facebook, it’s hosted by our group (the Disobedience Collective). This is useful because we have a fanbase, a niche where we can start our promotion. The rest is just word of mouth and In Real Life interaction.
• Don’t forget to add pictures, videos and links to the bands that are playing. Useful things to provide to you guests could be: links to Myspace/Purevolume/Last.fm pages, links to the bands websites, pictures and videos from lives performances, links to website where they can order tickets, etc.

After the concert

• Guests can submit their feedback (suggestions, remarks of just kind thoughts about the concert) on the wall and you can interact with them.
• Guests can browse the guestlist to find people they met at the concert.
• Guest (or you) can upload pictures (and tag people in it) and videos from the concert. They can also share links to their Flickr or Picasa accounts.

  
  

But don’t forget

• Use oldschool offline promotion: word of mouth, posters, flyers, stickers, advertising in zines, getting your concert in the events calendar in nightlife publications, etc.
• Use online promotion: post the flyer on message boards and webzines, use your status-message and screenname on MSN and instant messaging services, send the flyer by email to all of your friends (and friends of friends) and ask them to forward it, spread the word about your show on Twitter and Myspace, etc.

  
  

These are only a couple of ideas, feel free to share yours!

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