Marketing for Second Life Venues

Marketing your venue is important to both the venue and the performers you hire. I’m sure you would like to see that the money you are putting out to hire performers, pay tier and staff is being put to its best use. One of the ways to do that is to market your venue shows to get the best possible audience you can. As most of you are aware, I manage and am business partners with musician Seth Regan, also known as Mankind Tracer in Second Life. When we are promoting anything, the following are just a few of the things we do to get the information out there to the SL public.

One of the important ways you can market shows at your venue is to list them in Second Life events. This is a very critical step in marketing as the majority of fans are looking in events to see who is performing. You should list in events as early as possible. If you book the performer a month before they actually play then list it right then because the sooner you can, the closer to the top of the event listing for that time you will be. Make sure to ask the performers if they have any promotional text just for SL Events.

When you are hiring musicians to perform at your venue, consider the time you are booking them and have realistic expectations. In SL the most live shows are starting between 6pm and 8pm. There could be 40 other shows happening at the same time and there are only so many concurrent users to attend those shows. This makes marketing even more important because if people do not know what is happening at your venue then how will they show up?

In SL another great resource is SL event groups. You can join groups and send notices and group messages about your events. There are a plethora of groups out there like Musical Metaverse, Live Music 24, Shooting Star and many more. If you do not have many group spots left, you can create an alt and join the groups and then log into your alt 30 minutes before the show and send notices.

Seth Regan performing at To The Stars live music venue.

Social media is also another great way to market your shows. Facebook has tons of groups specifically for Second Life and SL Events. There are a lot of SLers that have Facebook accounts either as their avatar or under their real life name and they use FB as a way to communicate. There is Google Plus and Twitter as well but with both of those, you need to follow people for them to follow you back, there are few groups on G+ that are SL events related and you cannot have groups on Twitter. There is also Second Friends, an SL only social media website where you can create groups, a profile, blog and list events for free.

Another great marketing tool is booking performers back to back that play similar styles of music. Then you will get carry over from one performer to the next keeping people at your venue longer. Also, keep consistent events, even if it is just once a week for a couple of hours will let people know that they can count on your venue at those times to have performances.

These are just a few ideas on how to market the shows at your venue. You can also take cues from real life and adapt them to Second Life. Think outside of what everyone else is doing or not doing to come up with some fun creative ways to get the word out there and build up a regular crowd who come back week to week. Coming soon, Seth will be posting a follow up to this topic on his blog with even more great marketing tips for SL venues.

Music and Social Media

There was a Facebook discussion started today about music and social media. That discussion inspired this blog post, so thank you Rapture.

As someone who successfully manages independent musicians, social media has been a huge help. It is social media that is changing the face of the music scene as we know it.

I remember when I was a kid reading about music in magazines and seeing shows and interviews on television. Back then, if you wanted to see independent musicians perform, you had to go to your local club or bar and if you are like me who lives in a small town, your choices were very limited.


Now, because of social media, independent musicians have so many other ways to get heard and get their music to people they otherwise might not be able to with out a "big break".  The ways of clamoring for the attention of an A&R rep from a big name music company are changing tremendously.

The face of the music industry is changing and I am excited about it. The world is at our fingertips and musicians now need to consider all their options for promoting their music.

Anyone can have a website these days. A musicians website is like their business card. However it offers more than a business card.It should have the details of the musician's musical career on it, such as, their biography, pictures, samples of their music, contact info for fans and for business, links to all their social media and any other info you would want people to see.

Social media is more socially interactive and about building relationships with your fans. Places like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others are ways to reach out to fans and share your life and important news. So, which social media outlets do you use?

Social media changes and new things come out and become popular. So, I say to take some time and see which ones appeal most to you. If you feel like keeping up with it all spreads you too thin, then choose the few that you think the majority of your fan base uses the most. Not everyone is on all social media, so it is important to have several places for fans to connect with you. Take a look at the various ways each social media site connects you to your fans. If you don't do the research, you could be missing out on something great. It pays to stay informed.

"Using Social Networking has become a mainstay in my music career. With millions of people from all over the world on these websites, it changes the model of "grass roots" and provides a great set of power tools for indie artists to reach new fans and get them talking about your music." - Seth Regan

Also, this is where your management can help and I've seen some "managers" take a back seat in this role. Managers are supposed to do more than just book your shows and send a few notices around. They should be an important part of your business, the business of your music. There is nothing wrong with your manager posting on your fan page about your upcoming shows, new song releases or any business aspect of your music. They can also search for groups with in social media to post your info to in order to expand your reach. Your management is there to help your career, utilize them.

Blogs are another way to build a relationship with your fans. If you have more to say than a post on Facebook or Twitter allows on a certain topic, blog it. Maybe you have had an experience that you want to share about a gig or an instrument or anything you think your fans might like to read.

There are so many options now for indie musicians, it's up to manager and artist to work together and find out which direction is best for them.