3 Tweets You Should Never Send When Networking In The Music Industry

Twitter is a powerful tool for musicians. We all know that it can be great for not only keeping up with what your competition are doing, but also for networking with other people in the music industry and fans alike.

As with any tool though, there is a chance you will use it wrong. While powerful, it can also help you get the wrong messages out there a lot faster, and give people a bad impression about you and your music.

Sending out the wrong kind of tweets can do more hard than good, and there are a few kinds of tweets which seem to pop up again and again. Today I'm going to look at three of those tweets, so you know what they are and will hopefully avoid sending them out.

With that in mind, here are three types of Tweets you should avoid, and what you should do instead.

Directly At A Follower Or Non Follower:

@FollowerName, I've just put out my new album so make sure you buy it. And tell all your friends too. Let's make this a hit!

Why This Doesn't Work

If you're tweeting this to a fan who has already expressed interest in your new album and wants to be informed on when it is coming out, this kind of Tweet could actually be a good thing (except I would also replace the text “make sure you buy it” to something more subtle, such as “you may want to grab a copy 😉”. You're giving them the information they want, and will likely make a sale from it.

This tweet becomes an issue though when you start sending it to random people who aren't following you on Twitter. It's also spammy when you send the same kind of tweet to your followers over and over again.

For example, your new single has just come out. You send out individual tweets with each of your fans tagged. Fair enough, they're following you so they should be ok getting a tweet like this every now and then. If you go on to send two or more tweets like this about the same release though, this becomes an issue.

@FollowerName, just reminding you that my new release it out in case you haven't bought it yet. Get it now and let's get it out there!

Once you've tagged someone in a promotional tweet like this, you don't need to send them a handful of other similar tweets. They've got your message, and if they want to buy they will. Pestering them to buy if anything will turn them off doing so, and make them unfollow you.

What You Should Do Instead

As I mentioned, just the one tweet to people who actually follow you should be fine per release. Around that, you can update your Twitter with promotional material, things related to your music and the like. It's better to keep fans interactive with good quality updates, then mention your release here and there alongside it. If you've set up a good sales funnel on your websites, people will notice you have a new release anyway without you mentioning it too much.

At A Record Label:

@RecordLabelName You need to sign me, I'm the best musicians coming out of my area! Give me a chance & you won't be sorry!

Why This Doesn't Work

The above tweet doesn't work on so many levels. First of all, any decent sized record label gets a very large amount of requests like this every day! If they were to go through and listen to every person who says they're the next big thing, they wouldn't get time to do anything else. Furthermore, they wouldn't get time to listen to every act either, and they'll have a back log of music they need to listen to from weeks or months prior.

What I'm trying to say is, these kind of messages get ignored. You're basically sending an unsolicited demo. And as I've discussed before, this is a waste of both of your time.

Second of all, you're focusing all on you. Most businesses (yes, a record label is a business, as are you as a musician) won't get into partnership with another business unless it benefits them. Partnerships need to be mutually beneficial for it to work out.

Now, most businesses need to see hard figures before they even think about any potential collaboration seriously. This is especially true with record labels. So unless you approach them with facts about selling lots of units and doing lots of gigs, chances are they won't take your seriously. And if you are doing that well, most likely a record label will have already sought you out.

What You Should Do Instead

If you're aiming for a record deal, your best bet is to focus on pushing yourself as an independent musician. At this stage, most record labels which could push you far won't pay much attention to you. Quite simply, there are other acts out there who are further along in the development stage, which would be cheaper to put to market, and have an already proven fanbase. These are the acts that will get signed before you.

So focus on yourself, and for now put record labels to the back of your mind.

At A Musician Advice Website:

@MusicSite I'm a really talented act coming from *my area*. If someone could just give me a chance I can be huge. Please help me.

Why This Doesn't Work

The above tweet doesn't work not only because it's all focused on the musician, but because it's totally targeting the wrong person. Remember, you're tweeting at the owner or a music advice website, or someone who works there. These people aren't there to personally work with acts in the managerial sense. They can give advice to musicians, but most music bloggers don't work directly with acts to push them individually.

The only time they do this is when they also run a consultant or management program alongside that. And guess what? That's never a free service! This is because it takes a lot of time and energy to work with people individually, so like any other service, you usually have to pay for the value you receive.

Therefore, sending these tweets are again a waste of your time.

What You Should Do Instead

Unless you're willing to pay to have a music consultant or music manager / marketer push you, than you should use these musician advisers for what they're good for; mass given advice! They often put up free guides on their websites with tips and tricks you can use in the music industry. So have a look at these sites, and learn everything you can from them. Some will even reply to the odd email personally when they have time, so also shoot them a brief message for advice in your personal situation and you may get a answer.

Conclusion

So there are three tweets you should never send to people and what you should do instead. I hope you see why each of these tweets can do more harm than good to your music career, and you'll avoid sending them any time soon.

The biggest take away from this guide should be that you can't make it all about you. Think about what the other people would want to hear, and if it's not directly benefiting them, then don't send it.

So what other tweets have you seen to be ineffective in the music industry? Are there any tweets that people send you which you feel should be added to this list? If so let me know in the comments. And share this guide if it's the truth!