There are so many reasons to leave Facebook. Instead of spending time listing the reasons to abandon the site, we can sum it up with, Mark Zuckerberg is a piece of shit.

Besides that, you’ve probably noticed the diminishing returns of promotion on Facebook. You know, unless you pony up some cash.

So here are some things I’ll be doing with my own bands that have Facebook pages. I’m not 100% sure how this will work out. It might be fine and my bands will continue to pull audiences to shows. It might go horribly wrong and no one will show up to our shows. I doubt that will happen. I’ve had a few shows where I was out of town and did barely any Facebook/Instagram promotion and tons of people showed up.

But again, that’s me. There’s no judgement from me if you want to stay on those platforms. The world is a shitty place right now and if the way you bring joy to it requires using those services, go for it. For those sick of lining the fascist pockets of Mark Zuckerberg, here are some ideas.

Don’t Delete Those Pages Just Yet:

Oh, I hate it so much that this is a thing I need to do, but like going to the post office to have them forward your mail after you move, this is a necessary evil. I’m not deleting my bands’ Facebook/Instagram pages (at least not yet). Instead, I’ll add a final post to the band pages and accounts that point to other ways to track the bands. You can pin a post to the top of your page. I suggest text that the band is no longer posting on Facebook and in the comments, link out to all the services you’ll be using going forward.

Now for the services/sites/etc.

Website:

Remember websites? Well, they’re back! Make a site for your band. You can post your shows, add videos, and make a fancy slideshow. You can also set your site up to notify fans when you post a new show. WordPress and Squarespace both have plugins/features to pull this off. Post about a show and your fans get an alert.

Socials:

Twitter and Meta are trash. One requires money and the other requires money and nonstop posting. Bluesky (essentially a better Twitter) is exploding and bands (and fans) are part of the growing community. Bluesky (along with Mastodon) is replacing Twitter.

Bluesky also has a video tab for accounts so when fans find your main page, they can quickly browse your videos. Obviously not as robust as Instagram, but it’s also not run by a 40-something-year-old dude with big divorced dad energy wearing gold chains and talking about how his company needs more “masculine energy.”

As Elon keeps showing the world he’s a Nazi, Bluesky will be there to take in all those Twitter refugees. You might as well be there too.

Newsletters:

I asked a promoter once how he was able to get sell out and near-sell-out shows and his response was “newsletter.” A simple signup sheet or a QR code at your shows will give you access to your fans’ inbox. A easy (and free for smaller audiences) way to start your own newsletter is with Mailchimp. If like me you have multiple bands, you’ll likely have to pay a monthly subscription to spin up multiple newsletters and audiences. Or you could just make a bunch of different accounts, one for each band. I’m sure there are other newsletter services out there, find one you like.

Local and Not-So Local Event Sites:

Nearly every city has a news or event site with a calendar. Most of them allow you put your event on their site for free. I routinely will add shows to about 5-8 sites. Occasionally, those sites will pick your event as a “thing to do.” A recent event that was only announced two weeks ahead of time ended up on two “things to do this weekend” lists. It helped. It helped way more than the constant Facebook and Instagram posts I was putting up every few minutes. There’s also the “Do The” sites like DoTheBay. These are sites that are just about events and the reason they’re still around is because people still use them. You should too.

BandsinTown / Seated:

I’ve used bandsintown for years. For a little while the site seemed broken but it seems to be back. You set up an account for your band and gather fans. When you announce a show, those fans are notified. Major artists use the service. Seated, is newer and I started seeing major artists use it. Instead of emails, you get text messages.

It’s easy to set up and it gives you code snippets for your website (see above) for shows. So you get to send out a text message AND keep your site updated.

Bandsintown has an app, it looks like Seated does not.

Bandcamp:

If you’re making original music, you’re likely already using Bandcamp. Just keep doing what you’re doing. When you have an event or new song, you can send messages to your followers. Plus, they can pay you money for your music.

If you’re a tribute band, don’t use Bandcamp. The service is not keen on covers of songs and specifically says not to upload them.

YouTube:

You gotta put your videos somewhere and with YouTube, anyone can look at your account without having to sign in. Instagram requires people to sign in after they look at a few photos or videos. Plus you can embed your YouTube videos just about anywhere.

Put up Fliers:

I make fliers and put them up around town and more people show up than when I don’t make fliers. Is this a scientific study? Nope. Will I still make fliers and post them because it seems to work? Yup.

Keeping the Band Together:

For years I made my bands use Facebook groups to talk to one another and keep up with shows. Then we moved away from that and started using Signal. I use Signal instead of text threads because it’s easier to manage (people join and leave bands all the time) and it works on multiple platforms. Also, there’s the privacy and security aspect that I quite enjoy being a former infosec reporter.

Now what?

I’m sure I’m missing something, if I am, you can hit me up on Signal: strngwys.01 or on Bluesky: @strngwys.bsky.social and I’ll add relevant services and tips.

Now that I’ve written this, I need to put it into action. It’s going to take a while to do this. Fortunately, many of the bands are already on Bandsintown and a few have newsletters. Still, I have a job, a life, and I’d rather practice new songs than do all this shit. But it needs to be done.

Again, I have no idea how clubs and promoters will react. I’ll still have to accept invitations to collaborate on events that the clubs create for a show on Facebook. Plus, promoters and other bands reach out to my bands to book us via Messenger. So there’s that.

Maybe none of this will work and I’ll have begrudgingly return to fucking Facebook, a site I’ve hated for years even before all the recent fuckery.

But if I can get as far away from Meta as possible and take my bands and their fans with me and still fill clubs, that’s a win to me.