10 Essential Twitter Habits For Your Band

1. Register for Twitter.com - Create both a band account and each band member needs to create an account. Use the band member accounts to be interactive with fans while the band account would be used for band "Tweets" such as new songs, new shows, new blogs, etc.2. Twitter Widgets - Make sure you add Twitter widgets to all of your sites so people can easily find and add your Twitter account. You can select various widgets to use for your MySpace, Facebook, Blogger and other accounts.3. Fan Interaction - Use your band member Twitter accounts to directly interact with your fans. Be spontaneous and let them know what you're doing. Answer their replies (@replies) and direct messages (DMs). Ask your fans questions and reply to their responses.4. Tweet, Tweet, Tweet - With your band Twitter account, make sure you post band-related topics like when you post new songs, write new blogs, update your show/tour list and add new merchandise. Use bit.ly.com to shorten your link URLs to use less of your 140 character limit. This site also gives you statistics on who is clicking on your links. You can also re-Tweet all of these band-related topics on band member accounts.5. Activate Phone Tweets - In your "settings" tab in your Twitter account, activate your phone to use outgoing texts to update your Twitter account. This is great if you're on the road because you can still interact with fans on your phone. You can have a Twitter conversation with fans through your phone without them ever knowing your phone number.6. Tweet Pictures - Once you activate your phone Tweets, register for Twitpic.com and you can take pictures from your cell phone that will update your Twitter account. Fans LOVE seeing pictures of you and of your daily life. Send them pictures and you will get more fan interaction.7. Contests - Twitter contests are becoming popular amongst record labels, street teams, merchandising companies and websites. Make sure you run band Twitter contests by making sure people are using your Twitter account. You can count replies or refer them to one of your sites to find out how to win. By having Twitter contests, you increase the amount of people that will "follow" you on Twitter which increases your fan exposure.8. Tweet-Ups - This is just a fancy name to meet up a group of people by giving them a location via Twitter. If you're on the road or in your hometown, surprise fans by offering a "Tweet-up" so fans can meet you. You can also use it for surprise shows, acoustic shows or other promotional needs.9. Twitter Onstage - A creative way to get fans to add you on Twitter is to tell everyone, between a song, to add your band and/or band member accounts on their Twitter. Fans can do all of this from their phone. They simply have to text "follow (username)" and hit send. Your fans are now following you. The bigger your bands followers the more influence you have over them to get out information fast.10. Co-Founder of Twitter - Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, recently wrote an article on Billboard.com about how bands can use Twitter to their advantage. Read it!Have you used another Twitter technique for your band or music that I didn't discuss? Leave a comment and tell me or email me at: markstone424@gmail.com. Or add my Twitter account at www.twitter.com/markstone424.