Hey, bands! How can your fans find you?

It's no secret that I'm a sucker for a well-maintained web presence. Whether you're a member of a band, a music promoter, or the social media manager for a venue, keeping the fans in mind should always be one of your top priorities. Let's get down to the basics. Established bands and budding musicians, this one's for you!

• Just starting out with your band? Well, all you need is a name to create your very own Facebook fan page! Listing all of your members' names and what they play as well as contact info and a brief, attention-grabbing description will make your page a one-stop shop for all of your listener's needs. Later on, you can add apps that will give you the chance to share your tunes with the masses, and you can create an event list and invite all your friends to attend your next rockin' show. These pages are incredibly valuable if you're hoping to get a bit of press about your band in the future too.

• Thinking about doing this music thing for a while? Looks like it's time for you to invest in a website! But why make a site when you're already running things from your Facebook fan page command center? To answer your question, try searching for Reptar, the Athens band that's been blowing up the scene for the past year, on Facebook. Hard to find unless you're already a fan, right? Bands that share names with other popular places, creatures, items, or ideas will often be lost in a sea of pages on everybody's favorite social networking site. A simple website featuring links to all of your pages, channels, and feeds plus a small tour schedule display will work wonders for the fan doing a Google search for your band. And there's no need to be worried about the cost either. Run your site through a blogging platform (like we do here on Blogger), and you'll just have to pay around $10 a year for your domain name. It's almost too easy!

• Once you've established yourself with a bit of a fanbase, you'll want to keep in touch with all those awesome fans you meet. Let them know what you're up to on the go with a Twitter page. The best thing about Twitter is that you can easily alert your followers of any time or venue changes quickly, no matter where you are. Your most eager fans can even sign up to get text messages of your latest tweets straight to their phone. Also, the Twitter community supporting the music scene is huge, so you'll have a chance to make some great contacts there as well.

• Ready to showcase your talents on the global stage? What your band needs next is its own YouTube channel. Grab a friend with a video camera and get to filming! Whether you're just uploading footage from your last show or you're showcasing a brand new music video masterpiece, it's always a good bet to nab a channel purely for the purposes of showing off what your band can do. Be sure to tag your videos well, so they'll be easy to find too!

Remember, every little thing you do could make a difference! You never know who might stumble across one of your band's pages and fall in love with your sound. Good luck, my friends!