To me one of the most helpful things about twitter thus far has been the ability to get instant feedback after I DJ. Â If you are already familiar with twitter then you may already be doing this, but for those who are just using it on a basic level, this should help you out some.
The most obvious way you’d get feedback is through your mentions (or @ replies as they were formerly known), but that only works for people who already follow you / are fans of you. Â The downside to this is that the feedback is generally biased in some way (even though it may only be subconsciously). Click on through for instructions on getting instant feedback…
So to get the most raw feedback, the easiest thing to do is perform a search of the venue name that you just played. This example is using the default twitter interface, but if you’re using a software program/mobile app, the process is generally the same.
The first step is to type your venue name into the search bar at the very top of the twitter website interface (or wherever it may be on your software application). Â Here, I am searching for the place I played recently, Mosaic. Also note the button which will let you save the search, which will come in handy if you play at the same venue frequently.
Twitter will produce an instant list of tweets that contain the word, such as this:
As you can see, if your venue is a common name you will need to sort them until you find someone specifically mentioning where you played. It’s also a good idea to note the person’s location if you find someone mentioning you.
So what’s the point of all this again? Â Primarily it serves as way for you to get unfiltered feedback. Â I try to do this after every gig, usually the next morning (people tend to have conversations on twitter about shows after they are home and away from the venue). Â Be warned though, you may not like what you see sometimes! Â I once saw a guy pretty much bashing me, complaining that I played to much “old music” and that I might be one of the worst DJs he’s heard. Ouch!
So what do you do with this kind of feedback if you receive it? I flirted with the idea of sending him a message, apologizing that he didn’t like me, and sending him a link to an updated mix with new music. Â Then I asked myself “what’s the point of that?” because it’s difficult to overcome that kind first impression. Â Still, his feedback has been valuable because I now pick and choose my nights to play “throwback” sets and have altered the timeframe I play those sets. Â Think about it: he was the only person that actually tweeted his complaint, but there is a very good chance others in the club that night felt the same way, just not strongly enough to put it on the internet. Â So even though the initial feedback was negative, in the end it yielded a positive result. Â I also realized his complaints were a key reason that other people like me as a DJ.
Of course the greatest benefit comes when someone tweets something positive about you.  This opens the lane for you to gain a new fan by sending them a mention saying thank you, and asking them to check you out on a regular basis.  I’ve gained several followers this way, and unlike a healthy percentage of my followers, these new additions are actually fans.  This is a great way to achieve organic growth on twitter and build a healthy list of true fans.
This is really just the basic level of searching on twitter, in future posts I’ll discuss how you can get even better results, so stay tuned!
