Whether it is tweeting, using Tumblr or just creeping on people, social media is becoming much more than just a thing to do when not studying. More importantly, the people over at Maximum Ames have welcomed social media.

“The social media stuff kind of went in stages. We all started discovering it for various other projects before we even got into Maximum Ames,” said Chris Lyng, bassist for local band Mumford’s and co-founder of Maximum Ames Music Festival. “Originally, the first kind of music-related enterprise we started using social media for on a regular basis was the Ames Progressive, which is now known as the Space for Ames. So we started using [social media] to promote those events. … I think that was the first Twitter account that was associated with [Maximum Ames] before that [existed].”

Lyng explained how social media’s use snowballed because of the involvement of a few key users.

“Chris Ford had done social media with Christopher the Conquered and Patrick [Tape Fleming] was using it for PCC [Poison Control Center],” Lyng said. “And then we started using it for Mumford’s as well. It just kind of built from there.”

Without social media, Lyng said Maximum Ames would not be where it is today,

“As a festival, a record label and all these projects, we wouldn’t be able to reach the people that we reach if it weren’t for social media” Lyng said. “You can put up as many flyers as you want, but unless people see things in multiple places, it doesn’t really register.”

Nate Logsdon, local musician and co-founder of Maximum Ames festival, has fully grasped this concept and using social media has even started to become a vital instrument in his work.

“I think about everything in my environment related to the festival, DG’s [Taphouse] or shows I’m booking — I think of everything as content,” Logsdon said. “A poster isn’t only a physical poster: It’s also online content you can take a picture of it.”

Social media has an incredible reach spanning the country and the world. These platforms provide a wellspring of content for thirsty fans, waiting for their favorite band’s new song. Fleming, lead singer and guitarist for the Poison Control Center and creator of his new solo project Gloom Balloon, frequently finds himself getting lost in the web of knowledge that is found through social media.

“If I sit on Twitter for five minutes and all of the sudden some band that I really like posts a new song, so I click on that then I listen to that new song, and then that leads me to something else and something else,” Fleming said “next thing you know it’s an hour later, and I forgot what that new song even sounded like so I go back and listen to it again. … It’s just endless opportunity to discover new things.”