Social Media is Kind of Like Exercise
It's Takes Work
Running a good social media account is a full time job for a lot of people. There are even companies, who specialise in helping other people/brands/companies doing social media well.
Therefore it's sometimes good to take a second, and recognise and appreciate that doing social media isn't necessarily fun and easy. But just because it isn't fun and easy, doesn't mean it can just be ignored.
It's one of these things that it's better to spend 10 minutes five days a week, than do an eight hours 'binge' once a month.
Social Media & Exercise
- You get better at it the more you do it.
- You might even start enjoying it more.
- It's not super fun at the start
- You might not see the results you want right away
But it's definitely worth doing. The year-from-now-you thanks you in advance.
The Good News for Musicians
The good news is that if you're a musician: people understand what you do, and what is expected of them as the audience. If they like your page, you'll tell them when you've got music coming out or you're performing live.
They already follow a bunch of other musicians, they don't mind following one more that they're into.
If they like your music, they want to know when you go on tour. They want to know when your next track is out.
You don't need a brilliant marketing strategy, because the strategy is literally: tell your audience when your stuff is out.
The Hard Part
The main work is actually building up that audience so that when you do have stuff coming out they're already there, they're already on your side, and they're excited to hear about what you've got to offer.
So how's that done?
Take Advantage of the Perceived Glamour
While to you, being a musician might not be super glamorous, logging heavy instruments around across cities or even countries, paying for expensive equipment all while trying to survive – often in an expensive city.
But.
Your Reality is Almost Everybody Else's Dream.
Everyone likes music. Everyone listens to music all the time. Everyone has had a dream of being a rock star or a pop diva at some point. Even those who never aspire to be musicians, still have thought about it ("Being a rockstar?? That's just so cool!").
Music is by a mile the most popular artform, and everybody listens to music – everybody has a favourite band or artist. It's hard to find music that you like, so when people do, they tend to want to know when there's more coming.
Everything About Music Looks Cool on Social Media
- Gigs? Awesome.
- Studios? Amazing.
- Travel? Incredible.
- Some disappointing incident/food related to excessive traveling? hahahah and then awww.
Things that work really well on social media normally include something that evokes an emotional reaction, or makes the reader cool by association, humour, or something that has practical value.
It just so happens, everything about the musician lifestyle hits one or more of these. Since social media feeds work algorithmically, this extremely 'likeable' pieces of content, are bound to do very well. You'd be surprised.
Most brands or companies, struggle with trying to get interesting visuals they can post on social media. For musicians, it's just about recognising it's all already there – and getting into the habit of using it.
Straight Up Beats Strategy
The best social media strategy for any musician is what seems like no strategy at all. Post stuff about what you're up to – and tell people when you've got stuff going on.
Typical stuff should include: post on twitter when you're at some event, post on Instagram when you're in a new city, or in the studio, post on twitter when you come across a cool song from a different artist.
What that does is it invites people, just normal people who are members of the public, into your "life as the musician".
The audience can live their dream of being an artist vicariously through you. Which works out well for everyone. The audience doesn't need to be tricked into buying your album or tickets, they just need to know when the stuff you've got going on comes out. And a link to where to buy it from. That's literally it.
By not being annoying you literally stand out so much more, than all the tricks in the world combined.
Oh, but we also recommend sending out emails for big announcements, to make sure to catch everyone.
