Facebook Networking for Musicians
I got my first off-Broadway subbing gig through Facebook. Ok, well that isn’t entirely true but I do credit my utilization of the social networking site as a major factor in procuring that gig. A friend gave me the number of his friend who was the full-time drummer on the show. We met, I went and watched the show, and that was that. I sent him a friend request and we stayed in loose touch for a while. Then, eight months later he sent me a Facebook message: “Let’s talk about you coming and subbing on the show.” Now that I think about it Facebook has been instrumental in my acquisition of lots of great playing opportunities in the mere 16 months that I have lived in New York…
Just Another Networking Tool…?
Here is an industry secret: all of us trying to freelance as musicians know that we will get the best gigs by sending resumes to high-powered music contractors and then waiting by the phone. Right? In reality, the only way a contractor will even look at your resume is if you are referred to them by someone they know and trust. So how do I get referred to someone who will hire me? Through networking. I recently heard Broadway contractor John Miller say that we “are all each other’s contractors.” By establishing a professional and pleasant rapport with other players, you can increase the probability that they will refer you to someone else, who will refer you to someone else, and so on. This is how freelancing works.
But you know this. I don’t have to preach to the choir about how to network. The traditional methods of networking are all well and good, and have served us well for many years. However, with the advent of Facebook and other social networks, it is easier than ever to find people, connect with them, and stay in touch. These three tools are what Facebook is all about. Used properly, the site can turn into a gold mine of resources and, hopefully, paying gigs.
Finding People
I started using Facebook to find people when I met a music director at a social gathering and then couldn’t find her email address. I wanted to follow up on being introduced and send her my resume as she had expressed a possible upcoming need for a drummer. The Facebook friend search led me right to her and I sent her a message to follow up our previous conversation. Connection made. I now make it common practice to seek people out using this method. Sometimes, however, this can be tricky because unfortunately, there are more than one Carl Allen in the world and you may not want to send the same message to 26 Carl Allens in hopes of getting the right one. They will probably be generally polite about it but nonetheless it is a massive waste of your time. Several months after moving to New York and starting to make connections, I began to notice that upon seeking someone out, we had mutual friends! This was encouraging on two fronts: first, it meant that I had common ground with the person that I was attempting to connect with; I was starting to become a member of a specific community. And second, it cut down on the “point-and-shoot” method of finding the right person when I typed in their name.
Connecting With People, or: “OMG I’ve hrd so much about you you are amaaaazing will you hire me????????”
Facebook was created primarily as a social networking site and most of us use it as just that. We casually interact with our friends and family members, writing witty messages in internet shorthand, posting photos of last night’s bender and videos of your cat standing on two legs, discovering which Twilight character you are, etc. But if you plan to use Facebook as a professional networking tool, you must use the same professional etiquette that you would in any other professional setting. So here are a couple of etiquette guidelines that may help Facebook work for you:
Rule 1 – Private Message First
When initiating contact with someone who doesn’t know you, avoid sending a friend request until you have properly introduced yourself and established at least a basis for a relationship. When you are “friends” with someone on Facebook, all of their information is available for you to view (and yours for them). It can easily come across as stalker-esque if someone gets the impression that you are just going to snoop around their profile once they accept your request. My rule of thumb is to let the other person decide when to initiate the friend request at least until you meet/work together in person. If John sees that I’ve contacted him and we have 45 mutual friends he may decide that I’m worth that level of familiarity right away. But he might not. So what might that initial message look like? Here’s a basic format that I often use:
Hi Sharon, I see that you will be MDing the NY production of Tony and Tina’s wedding. Congrats on the gig! I just wanted to introduce myself and find out if you have a drummer in mind. I’ve been subbing off-Broadway recently and working with several cabaret singers in town. Would you mind if I emailed you a resume for your files?
Thanks,
Jeremy Yaddaw
yaddawj@gmail.com
It is simple, to the point, friendly but not too familiar, and puts the ball in his/her court. From this type of outreach I probably hear back from 7 out of 10 that I send out. The response is usually something like: “Thanks for getting in touch. Send me a resume and I’ll keep you in mind as we go forward.” Doesn’t seem overly promising. But that’s ok, and actually to be expected from someone I’ve never worked with. I might worry if someone offered to hire me sight unseen (unheard). The point of taking this step is not to secure a gig but simply to initiate a connection (out of which something may grow in the future).
Rule 2 – “Tempered Aggression”
Someone used this phrase after I had contacted him and I think it is an apt expression for the way we should approach professional Facebook networking. When I moved to New York I was suddenly much closer (proximally and professionally) to many musicians whom I had respected for years and whose careers I had followed on Broadway. My dream since 10th grade has been to play in Broadway pits so naturally my instinct was to FREAK OUT whenever I had the chance to meet or talk with one of these people. I initially think I may have come on to strongly and turned a few people off before realizing that I needed to act a bit more reserved. No one is going to be interested in you if you send them three messages a week to confirm that they got your updated resume, and voicemails asking if maybe they want to get coffee after the show or something, and drive by their apartment three times a day hoping to “chance” upon them coming home. It doesn’t matter how well you could play for them. You will never get the chance if you act really creepy. Once you have made initial contact, ALWAYS let them make the next move. You should let someone that you would like to work for know that you are serious without coming on too strongly.
Rule 3 – Use Professional Tone and Language
This may seem somewhat obvious but is worth reiterating. You don’t want to seem too casual with someone just because Facebook is a casual place. Remember, everything you say to someone you could potentially work for gives them insight into how you will conduct yourself as a professional once they do decide to hire you.
Keeping in Touch
To me, this is the most important part of using Facebook. Keeping yourself as an unassuming but noticeable presence (think watermark) on someone’s radar is a way to increase the odds that they will think of you when they need to hire someone. Once you have established “friend” status with someone, there are lots of good ways to keep yourself visible to them.
Wall Posts – casual responses to people’s wall posts can be a good way to show them that you notice what they are doing and get your name in their head (face it, this is all about psychology). A quick “Congrats on the new gig!”, or “How did your NYMF show go?” is appropriate as long as you don’t get too “stalkery” with someone you don’t know well. As the interactions and familiarity increase, then more personal comments may become acceptable.
Event Invites – If you use Facebook Events to promote your gigs (and I recommend that you do), these can be a good way to show people that you are working, who you are working with, and how often. It is an opportunity for you to say to the Facebook community “Look at me! I’m a legitimate musician and you can come check me out!” without saying that directly to anyone. Make sure that the invite looks professional, contains correct and complete information and then blast it out to everyone who might be interested. This point is important because you probably don’t want to invite a music director you just met to Aunt Sally’s 90th birthday bash, or to the debut of your death metal/screamo/punk band “Blood Cult” in Brooklyn. Use discretion when deciding who to alert of specific events. Most people get lots of these event invites and so are not annoyed by them because they have the option of just ignoring them if they aren’t interested. But again, even if someone ignores your event, they have still seen it and your name registers in their brain once more. And if someone invites you to their show, consider attending to show them that you are interested in their work!
Use The “About Me” Box to Promote Yourself – I recently saw that a friend of mine had listed his upcoming gigs in the “Write something about yourself” box. This is a great idea and I immediately stole his idea and changed mine from “I enjoy red wine and long walks on the beach” to include the dates, times, and locations of my five next performances. Much more useful. This way, no one has to go to my website or MySpace (what’s that?) to see when and where I’m playing (Extra bonus: This box is the first thing that pops up under my profile’s “info” tab on Facebook mobile).
But I Can’t Put Up Sound Clips!
The two short answers to this are “Who cares?” and “Yes, you can.” I have had sound clips of my playing on my personal website for years and I can count on one finger the number of times I have gotten unsolicited feedback about them. Sound clips can be useful if you are a band looking for gigs or a composer/producer looking to showcase your work but in general, as a freelance musician, the traditional networking route is much more fruitful. However, if you so desire, Facebook does have a “Pages” application that allows you to create a MySpace-style page, including an audio player and gig calendar. At this point, the pages application is a bit more difficult to navigate and customize than MySpace but hopefully this is something that Facebook will improve upon as its use increases.
Conclusion, or: Summary and Reiteration of Previous Material
Using Facebook is a great way to network. It is not a miracle tool for getting gigs, but if you use it to your advantage it can certainly help you to that end. Like any networking strategy, you are going to have to be patient. And persistent. And optimistic. And even though deep down you are always hustling for a gig, your goal is to come across as though you are not hustling because, like any business, working as a musician is a people-based enterprise and that is what Facebook is all about.
About the author
Great article Jeremy. What I would add to this is that all artists and bands on Facebook should implement the ReverbNation application to easily get their music on their fan page. Anytime you update it at ReverbNation it automatically updates on your Facebook.
Hope this helps!
Madalyn Sklar
GoGirlsMusic.com & Social Networks for Musicians
http://www.facebook.com/socialnetworksformusicians
http://www.facebook.com/gogirlsmusic
http://twitter.com/gogirlsmusic
http://twitter.com/sn4m
11/24/2009
Facebook and MySpace are amazing ways to stay in touch and find people from years past, but I feel they can be the single most damaging thing to a person’s career if not used properly. I’ve been careful to keep my page completely free of profanity and anything at all inappropriate. (Being friends with several college professors as well as my mother tends to help motivate that…). But even a squeaky clean page can still paint a negative picture of a person if they spend all their free time on things like Farmville, if it’s showing up on their page.
11/29/2009
Very true, M.R. By choosing to use FB or MySpace as a part of your professional network, you take on the responsibility of presenting yourself in a professional light and utilizing those aspects of the web that will work for you, instead of against you. I too know people whose profile content has certainly caused them grief in their professional lives. Those people will either shape up quickly (if the damage is not too irreparable) or risk further harm to their careers and reputations. I think this is more or less intuitive to the type of person who is serious about his/her career (and has half a brain), but nonetheless an excellent point made!
11/29/2009
Hello I enjoyed reading what you had to say.
Facebook has many advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to separating personal and professional lives, I think it can be difficult at times for musicians because many of our colleagues are also our friends. Facebook further complicates that by blurring the line between the two, no matter how much you try to keep your profile clean and appropriate-looking.
Also, people who have never met you in person can make a judgment(s) about you based on, say, your profile picture or what you’ve written in your profile. And both may not be inappropriate in any way. You may be nice in real life, but the other person already doesn’t like you when first meeting because of their preformed judgements and opinions based on what was written in your profile. Sounds unfair, yes, but it is the world that we live in today. Of course, if you wanted to solve that issue, then don’t write or specify anything at all and keep your profile blank.
11/30/2009
Who would have thought that facebook could be so useful past just staying in contact with friends
11/30/2009
I know a lot of young musicians who are using a combination of Facebook and Myspace Music to network and get there music out. However, it is important to delete all of the drunk photos and other content that might be off-putting so your Facebook can be used for friends AND professional networking.
11/30/2009
Another benefit to messaging a potential contact on Facebook is that they (and you) can see your mutual friends/contacts. Facebook, in effect, drops names for you so you don’t have to.
Naturally, they’d have to click on your profile to see this, but it’s still a nice feature.
12/2/2009
Hey very nice blog!! This was what I needed to know.
12/17/2009
Well done. Some people have one FB account for close friends, family, etc, and another that’s for professional networking.
1/6/2010
Oh yeah, one other thought: FB and MySpace have certainly been useful to me for maintaining contacts and ultimately getting a gig or two, but what I actually do is use a variety of methods of maintaining contact with people. I would never lean too heavily on any one site or method. Then again, I am not a big “facebooker”, so I don’t find it wildly fun or interesting in any circumstance.
1/6/2010
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