How to Help Spread the Word
Think You Can't Help Promote Fiction Plane? THINK AGAIN....
If you’re like me, you love, Love, LOVE the band Fiction Plane – the music, the lyrics, the raw energy of the live shows…
God bless the record companies for picking our guys up for an album…but hello? Now what?
Well, they’re not doing much…so it’s up to us, the fans.
Here’s a list of things you can do to help build buzz for Fiction Plane. (Buzz is good. Buzz gets people to the music or the shows. The guys do the rest.)
FIRST CLASS - Things You Can Do for FREE
Download the Google toolbar with added features. Here’s how it helps: when you use the Google toolbar to search for a topic, Google records what you’ve searched for and what you view in return. Those statistics are gathered and used to rank web pages. The more hits a page gets, the higher up on the return list it goes when someone “Googles” those keywords. Yes, it’s a bit like spying, but it’s Google…and how can you NOT love Google? Plus, a lot of other big web pages are using Google technology in their searches – Google is quickly becoming a way of life for a lot of people.
Hit the official web page every day. Better yet, make it your homepage. More hits may equal more attention at the label, which may mean more promotions.
Join the Fiction Pilots street team. When FP comes near your town, they’ll send out a call for help; spend some quality time putting up posters and fliers (they send the materials to you) – it helps the attendance, which helps add to the number of folks who get addicted, which … you get the idea. (If you do a good job, they may even put you on the guest list – score!)
Tell your friends about Fiction Plane’s music. Frequently. With feeling!
Download the videos and songs available at http://fictionplane.com, http://www.mtv.com, AOL, and sample the CD at www.amazon.com and the like. Again, more web traffic….
Name-drop Fiction Plane in every chat room, web page, blog, and the like you run across. You’re just sitting there in front of your computer anyway…why not spread the word?
When playing multi-player online games (where chats are enabled, such as the X-Box pages, pogo.com, or the MSN Zone), make your screen name with the words “Fiction Plane” in them. People in your game room may be curious enough to ask you about your super-fabulous name, and then you have the opportunity to tell them about how Fiction Plane is on a mission to rule the world!
Sign up for the mailing lists for Fiction Plane and bands that they support (such as Something Corporate or Lifehouse). When signing up for other bands, MAKE SURE TO MENTION YOU’RE THERE BECAUSE OF FICTION PLANE. Builds more “’Net cred.”
Write a review (a POSITIVE one, duh!) for "Everything Will Never Be OK" on every web page that lets customers write reviews (i.e. Amazon).
If you have bought other things from Amazon, you’re allowed to make related suggestions to any entry in their catalog. Make “EWNBOK” a related purchase to all kinds of selections: Lifehouse, Something Corporate, Juliana Theory, Giddy Planks, The Samples, Nirvana, etc.
Call your local rock radio station every day to ask if they’ve added Fiction Plane to the playlist. (Being that all the radio stations are now owned by about, oh, 6 people, chances are that they haven’t added them. But popular request has the potential to be a powerful thing, especially in mass quantity.)
Check the tour schedule; about a week before the show nearest you, call the local newspaper of significant circulation and ask if they’re going to interview the “next big thing” in rock while they’re in town. After you tell them who you mean, make repeated requests to this and other reporters.
Pick up free stickers at the shows and plaster your car, house, dog, etc with them. They are excellent accessories as well!
Download the flier for "Everything Will Never Be OK" via the Fiction Pilots web site and post them in and near music stores, clubs, bars, bus stops, gathering places, watering holes...you get the idea. Never mind that they're not touring near you right now. CD sales are important!
Every time you're in a record store, WalMart, Target, etc...do what Michelle does and pull all the Fiction Plane CDs to the front of their stack! More face time...more familiarity...more sales?? It's worth a shot!
Visit the websites for all of the talk shows known to feature bands and suggest Fiction Plane as a guest.
Goto page 2...for more things you can do for free!
Fiction Plane Info Center
Click above to launch the Fiction Plane e-card and to sample songs from the new album "Left Side of the Brain"!!
