While traditional outlets, such as a great festival booking or a single that catches the attention of Drowned in Sound are still a surefire way to get noticed, what options are there for bands who aren’t quite there yet but want to spread the word as far as possible?

Just like anywhere else, the power of a friends’ voice online cannot be underestimated.  A recent white paper entitled ‘The Influencer: A Consumer Voice With Legs,’ confirmed the concept that online influencers have an ‘inherent’ desire to participate in word-of-mouth recommendations and although that currently still primarily takes place offline, the digital music environment offers a particularly convenient way for these influencers to share the music they are loving online.  A link on a Facebook page, a quick tweet; the power of these cannot be underestimated and the key is to reach out to those powerful voices, the ‘leader of the gangs’ and get them to love your music and more importantly, share it to others who trust their opinion.

While this may not come as a great surprise, what is surprising is how many of these influencers may be hidden away in your own friends list.  If even a small proportion of the thousands of friends sitting on your MySpace page are the kind of people who like to prove they are in the know (and trust me, there will be many,) it takes little more than a simple but personalised recommend a friend campaign to spread the word further than you imagine. The power of the influencers is sitting in your own contact list; it is simply up to you to learn how to use it.

If you’re a musician and you’d like help with your social media campaigns then visit our dedicated Online Music Promotion website – Indigo Sky Music.