Facebook has become a powerful tool that can be used to develop the kind of meaningful relationships that can lead to a loyal fanbase. Facebook recently changed its site to a structure not liked by many but in my opinion made it much more useful as a networking tool. This post is mainly for those who have yet to try Facebook and casual users. Some of you regular users may find something of value as well.

1. Connecting with real friends. Facebook kinda forces you to create your profile with your real name so its easy to find old acquaintances you went to school with, ones you haven’t seen in a while or even family members you’ve lost contact with. What better way to start building your network than with people who already know and care about you? Facebook enhances this social communication.

2. Making new friends. In my experience with Facebook, when you ask someone to become your friend, they assume that they already know you and will usually ask, “do I know you?” This is a great thing because it forces you to develop a real connection. You have an option to send a short message with your friend invite and you should use it. Don’t push your music or try to sell them anything. Just say something like, “I’m looking to network and make new friends.” People are trying to sell them stuff always trying to sell them something, so they don’t need another strange person, that they don’t care about, saying “DOWNLOAD MY MIXTAPE!!!” Comment on others’ status updates and make an effort to truly make a genuine connection. Find the interests of other people first and they will return the courtesy.

3. Building from your network. Facebook starts you off by allowing you to set the base of your network. This can be the city you live in, but could also include your school or place of employment. This can help you really fine-tune your search for people you want to connect with. You should always build from your home base!! The friends in your city or town will be the most valuable to you as you start to perform and promote your music. Facebook puts a 5,000 friend limit for each profile so be aware of this as you’re expanding your network.

4. Update and upload photos regularly
When you upload pics and videos, they are displayed to everyone in your network. If these are pics and videos of you doing stuff like, creating music in the studio, or recent performances, it can’t draw comments from others without you aggressively pushing your music on them. This is how you find people generally interested in what you do.

5. Join and create groups:
I’m sure that you have a hobby or thing that you’re truly passionate about. It doesn’t have to be music related. Something that you can talk about forever. What ever it is, odds are, there is a existing group of people in Facebook that have that share that same passion. You want to join those groups and participate in the discussions. You want to generally build a sizable network of people that are not in the industry because other artists won’t buy your music!
You can join as many groups as you like and even create your own. I don’t suggest creating one yourself until you’ve built a network of at least 300 friends. You can then invite these friends to your group all at once. The reason you should wait until you have a sizable number of friends before you create a group is because people won’t join a group that has very few people in it. There is no limit to the number of members that can be in a group. Don’t create a group about your album or record label.There’s nothing for other people to discuss in a group like that. For example: someone created a group called “hip hop purists”. That group has over 30,000 members in it. It’s great because it’s members are all people that love hip hop. Now, if you’re the creator and administrator of that group, you can moderate discussions, engage your members and send a messages to to the entire group.

Facebook also has a feature called “Facebook pages”. These allow you to create a page that contains playable music and other media but I haven’t found them useful in my opinion. Because not enough people join them if your unknown. Groups are much more effective in my opinion.

There are many social networking sites out there but I definitely advise you to not miss out on the usefulness of Facebook to grow and organize your social connections.

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