Twitter-Nation

A few short years ago Myspace was king. Successful bands both major, minor, and everywhere in between grabbed on and ran with it. Now, some bands are finding great success by joining the Twitter Nation. If you have never even heard of Twitter, you are probably not from the USA and/or don’t do much online social networking. Basically, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform – you write small ‘tweets’ that can be about anything you like, within a 140 character limit. You can also ‘follow’ other Twitterers, so that their tweets appear as a sort of feed on your own page.

The key to a good Twitter initiation is probably in who you choose to follow. Because the barrier to posting is so low, you can tweet the smallest thoughts or observations, or quickly share a link that caught your interest. If you follow someone who is doing interesting things, then these glimpses into their daily life can be very revealing (on the other hand, if you follow someone who only documents how many times they floss, the rewards may be somewhat less, unless you’re a dentist).

Part of the beauty of Twitter is the simplicity of following and communicating with other users. When the bands tweet about a song they are working on or an upcoming appearance, the tweet automatically appears on the public timeline where everyone can read it.

"Twitter is more simple and accessible because we do not need to sign in from the website or have a Blackberry or iPhone to access it," says Raygava from Raygava et al. "I used to access it from my mobile phone as long as it was Java enabled and had installed applications such as Tiny Twitter."

Which means the bands and their fans can - and do - communicate anytime, anywhere.

"The fans can receive the update or information about the band faster because, let's face it," says Ricky Siahaan from Seringai, "now almost all mobile phones are Java enabled and there are many Blackberry or iPhone users."

This means that even during shows, bands can take requests from fans wherever they might be by reading the tweets.

But one of the things about modern technology is that, unlike traditional media, it is interactive. This means that it becomes about more than just promoting events or reporting what the band is up to - it also means hearing back from fans.

Indie band Sore is one of those using Twitter to try to be more interactive with their followers, often by responding to others' update status. They sometimes even send out topics for their followers to discuss: "Need your opinion, do you think you will buy a limited-6-song EP (mini album) with a special book as a bonus, for 70,000 IDR?" When one of the followers replied, "@SOREband it's good, but don't u think it's a little bit expensive how about 50.000? I think it's reasonable, I guess", the band replied: "@Kathie_ciHuyy the price will be ranging between 50,000 to 70,000. We'll see."

With this kind of interaction, the replies will appear on the public timeline or in the fan's profile, which might spark interest among other users connected to the fans. These users might then start to follow the conversation and, later on, the band.

Yet even as Twitter is growing, it has not replaced the main show - Facebook or Myspace - in connecting to fans and promoting bands.

"Twitter might be more useful for maintaining communication with fans or the network, but that can only happen if the band already has a community," says Raygava. "Facebook is more effective if what you're trying to do is promote the band, especially if the band is still a new band that is trying to reach more new listeners."

With all of Twitter's pros and cons, the bands believe that Twitter will be the next best thing.

"More people are now signing up to Twitter, as seen from the increasing number of followers," says Ricky Siahaan. "So we are positive in couple of months it will be big."

And "big" means more potential followers to attract.

After all, what sets Twitter apart is that any followers on Twitter really are interested in knowing what's going on. And any band that has been making music for a while will have probably accumulated a not insignificant group of fans who are interested in what they do on a daily basis. So indie bands and followers: tweet and be tweeted.