1. You can checkin at a venue you’re playing to let fans know that you’ve arrived and to remind them of the event.

2. You can request help or ask for suggestions from local fans by checking in at a location near them and posting to let them know what you need. Maybe it’s hanging up flyers or doing some last minute promotional help (or maybe you need to mobilize your street team quickly), the fans will immediately know where you are and what’s going on.

3. You can check in at venues where you’re viewing others’ shows and give fans an opportunity to see you outside of your element and connect with them on a more personal basis. This is also a great way to connect with new fans and say hello.

4. You can check in anywhere else, be it restaurants or local sights, and let fans come and say hi and get that personal connection that, in this day and age, really help sell an artist.

5. If you play a certain venue regularly, you can get with that venue and create a promotion on FourSquare, whether it be a coupon for events or drinks for fans that come to your shows.

Have you used FourSquare for promotional purposes yet? How did you use this valuable tool?

The site was built using WordPress.

For example, you can load all of your Facebook and Twitter posts in one column and Threadsy will update those in real time. Threadsy attaches an icon to the post so you know if it came from Twitter or Facebook. You can then choose to reply via Twitter and Facebook (or post to both at the same time) from the Threadsy interface.

We gave Threadsy a test run this morning and loved all the features. The real-time streaming for both Facebook and Twitter worked beautifully. And if someone posts a link to Twitter to a video or photo, you can view it within Threadsy itself without having to even click on the link given. We watched a few YouTube videos from the interface via links through Twitter without a problem.

We also liked being able to respond to emails from within the interface (we used Gmail and another email address via IMAP), as well as control our email inboxes without having to leave the site.

The interface is very intuitive. The left column gives you all of your new emails, notifications and replies (we found the notifications for Facebook were much better than Facebook’s own current notification system). The right column gives you your streaming status updates and tweets.

If you would like to sign up, you can do so now at Threadsy.com.

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Like what, you may ask?

1. Branding. As an artist, you want to have your own unique identity. A pre-made template will not give you any sort of branding that a dozen other acts don’t already have. A good web developer will be able to help you identify the look and feel of your site that is uniquely you and help you sell your music for what it is, considering things like genre, sound, your own personal style, etc. You can’t get this from a pre-made templated site.

2. Updating. A good web developer can help you update your site, but can also set you up with something that lets you update your site yourself. Maybe some of the pre-made template selling sites can do that, but at the same time, a good web developer can set it up so that your content displays in a way that matches your site. You don’t get this sort of hands-on experience when you’re doing it yourself with a template.

3. Professional expertise. A good web developer knows the web and knows what code to use in order to get you better search engine results, appeal to more fans and be accessible on a variety of mediums, including multiple browsers and on mobile phones. A good developer will also know how to place certain key elements on your site so that they get emphasis when the site loads. A good web developer will make sure that all graphics on your site are optimized so that it loads quickly. Need I say more?

4. Cost. Now here’s where many artists think they can’t afford a good web developer. Let’s say you set up a site with a company that charges $10 a month for the site (this is what we refer to as site “leasing” since you don’t really own the site). If you pay $10 per month for that site and have your site up for three years, the total is $360. That might sound good, but did you know that there are web developers that will give you that PLUS full ownership of your site (which many companies won’t give you) for a one-time charge that is considerably less than that?

5. Search engine optimization. This was touched upon in #3, but a good website developer can create your site in such a way and optimize it so that it’s easy to find in the search engines. Need some keywords about the type of music you make? You can get your site set up so that those keywords get Googled properly. This involves helping you with content, as well as coding the site with good accessible WC3 validated code.

6. Technology. A good web developer keeps up with the latest technology and will make sure that your site utilizes it. If HTML code changes, a good web developer will use the latest and most accessible code available.

7. Usability. Want a website that your fans can find and use? A good web developer knows how to create just that. Whether it’s from knowing how to place content in key positions on a page to making the navigation of your site as easy to use as possible to knowing how to code a site so that it reads well on a mobile device, a good web developer will make a site that your fans will want to come back to.

8. Support. A good web developer will give you the support you need in running your website or will even be able to offer you updating services, as well as services such as building HTML e-mail newsletters, uploading images and creating new content.

If these are things that might be important to you in the development of your website, let us know. Sunrise Promotions has over 10 years of experience developing websites and will give you a site that not only you can be proud of, but that also works for you.

Contact us today!