Both indie artists and signed-up musicians need to be visible on social media platforms to stay visible to their audience. We know how hard it can be to keep a steady flow of your social media marketing strategy, especially when you just want to focus on your music. Sharing your events, promoting your latest release, maintaining your profile… An active social profile doesn’t come that easy, yet, well-thought social content will, with no doubt, help you grow your online audience, bring people to your concerts, and attract potential producers and managers.
Be visible. You have to show yourself on platforms where most people hang out. That is to say, those online platforms that have billions of daily users: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Once you have these covered, take a look at the upcoming platforms to see if you can reach out to more audiences or if it is worthy of your time to invest in being visible on them. Trying is a must; being one of the firsts in the next best thing can give you a nice kickstart.
Be consistent. One post is not going to change anything, even if you put your heart into it. A post a day will create consistency and keep your followers up to date. Regularity will create curiosity about what will happen next. After a month of consistent visibility, you will likely gain more followers than you had till that point. Most followers of artists want to enjoy real content, live update makes things real. If you keep yourself visible to them, they will most likely mention you to their friends, or share your posts on their profiles.
Tip: Prepare a bunch of posts at the beginning of the week, upload them, and schedule release dates on platforms that provide this kind of service. For other platforms that you have to release material manually, set up alarms throughout the week to publish your drafted articles so that you don’t have to wait for the inspiration fairy to come while you are running to the station to catch the train to go to your rehearsal on that horrid rainy Wednesday morning.
Be tidy. All profile information should stay up-to-date. Post the news anytime possible. Include the latest album/single releases, concert dates, group descriptions, and photos with your latest look. Keep your biodynamic by always adding a link to your latest promotion. May that be a video, single, album, merch. Have your interviews at hand.
Tip: Sometimes less is more. If you are not highly active on stage, take the “latest gigs” out of your news section. Nobody needs to know your last concert was in 2019 summer if your current aim is to have more recorded material at hand.
Repeat, repeat, repeat. No wonder why we still remember radio and TV commercials from our childhood. Repetitiveness is the key when it comes to staying in people’s minds. There is a line between being recognized as spam and being an active social media user. Be active on a daily basis, a post or two, in at least a couple of hip platforms. Even if you don’t get visibility in the beginning, consistency is the key!
Share what’s cookin’. Keep your fans updated about what you’re creating, recording, releasing, or anything else that counts for the artistic improvement of your project. The end product is the goal, but a path that leads to it is equally worth sharing. You can awaken their curiosity by proving that you are a hardworking, trustworthy artist. This will make them want to follow you more, and once your product is out, they will support your hard work with sympathy.
Share yourself in action. Make sure to share moments from when you perform. Not every post you put online needs to have a well-lit picture. Your sweaty face with smudged makeup after your most exciting performance is going to attract people as well as your pictures from the heavily produced perfectionist photo shoot session. You can share your moments live, or you can post some photos after the event. Your online followers on social media need to be able to have access to this kind of real-life content. Make them feel they are with you as much as possible. You can also motivate your audience to share their own photos of your performance, to create a stronger online community.
Be real about behind-the-scenes. The days of overly happy profiles are long gone now. That doesn’t mean Grunge is coming back either. People tend to be more transparent about their lows and highs on social media. Think about it, any decent Hollywood star is giving credit to their makeup artists nowadays. If you are not deeply involved with him, could you figure out who was the costume designer of Frank Sinatra? Those days are gone now. Talk to your fans about the magic behind the scenes, and support the people who make you look/sound/live the way you are. Make your audience see how interesting, teamwork needing, hardworking, rewarding, or frustrating the life of a musician can be.
Make good use of the tags. Add in every post of yours the correct tags to make yourself more visible to the right audience. #canon2020 might be the most lively tag these days, but that won’t bring as much audience that will likely follow you after they see your post as #singersongwriter or #djonbudget. Find popular tags that your future fans might already have an interest in, tag the name of the venue you played, the brand of the instruments you’re using, the musicians you’re playing with, the name of the city or the festival, etc. People who don’t follow you yet are right around the corner, waiting for the related tag.
Be high quality. Your profile pictures and cover images should have the correct sizes for the platforms. A low-def cover image on a Facebook profile will push people away immediately. A post suitable for Facebook might not have the best layout as Instagram content. This is why, here in AlbumCoverZone we have a customizable press pack ready to use to market your latest single on all major platforms. Once you’ve prepared your album and put it on sale in various marketplaces, you will need a comprehensive marketing strategy and most of it will be oriented around social media services. AlbumCoverZone.com offers a customizable banner pack that includes professional marketing materials for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for only $29!
