As musicians, there is nothing better than receiving the love and admiration of your fans. Their praise and applause can make the struggles worth it. However, it is not easy to reach that stage and become famous.
As a band, it is crucial to make good music, but it is equally important to market yourself. In a world where numerous artists are trying to get a foothold, you need to differentiate yourself. Of course, your music will lead the way.
Marketing and promoting your songs is the next best way to create awareness about your band. In all honesty, you may find it tough to juggle so many different hats.
Between your practice, recordings, and gigs, you may find it hard to learn another social media marketing skill. However, it is essential to make time so that you can elevate your band outreach.
Why is Social Media Marketing Essential?
In today’s times, you can take it for granted that your audience is spending significant time on social media. It is true, regardless of their age and genre.
Everywhere you go, you will find people glued to their Instagram or Facebook accounts. They are constantly scrolling through their feeds, and they like to stay updated. Despite several platforms singularly dedicated to music, YouTube still dominates the world of streaming services.
With a presence on these platforms, you can ensure that your band gets the maximum visibility and can connect with the right audience.
How To Engage in Social Media Marketing?
Social media allows you to engage your followers when you are not releasing new music. Moreover, it creates an unparalleled extent of awareness and its reach.
Here is how you can go about it.
Start by Building a Profile
Your profile is the first window that pops up when someone searches you on any social media platform. Your profile page not only offers you the opportunity to communicate more about your band but also allows you to share a lot of other information. For instance, you can link your latest music albums or details of your tour in your profile.
On social media platforms, choosing the right pictures can also make a difference. The best part is that you can change it to inform your followers about a new release or tours. Make sure that your pictures are uniform across all the mediums for easy recognition.
Be Authentic
Through social media accounts, your followers expect to peek into the life of band members. They are not there to see you sharing other people’s posts.
The golden formula is to post 70% of informative, creative, and entertaining posts. These posts should invoke conversations and give a glimpse of what the band is all about.
For instance, you can post pictures from behind the scenes of a new video that you could be recording. Apart from updating your followers about your new commitments, it will also create a buzz. Ensure that your fans and followers are in the loop and know what’s happening with the band with your regular updates.
The rest 20% content of your social media feed can be other people’s posts that you would like to share. You can keep the last 10% for promotions. However, that should be subtle and not direct.
Post Content of Your Band in Action
Your band’s ardent followers follow you on social media to catch that one glimpse of you in action. Especially when you are touring, and they are unable to attend your live performance.
Posting short videos of your live show can make their day. If you do not have enough content, you can always ask the attendees to share their pictures and videos. Tagging your fans who share your content is an excellent way of connecting with them.
For Instagram, you can even club a couple of short clips to make a video using an instagram video editor app.
Schedule your Posts
Apart from ensuring you are putting out the right content to engage your audience, you also need to post it regularly. Understandably, your life as a musician or a band could be hectic and leave you with no time to be regular on your social media feed.
The best solution is to consider a schedule for your posts. It will allow you to plan your posts in advance and also give an idea of how your feed will look with time.
You can also use online tools to understand the best time for sharing your content. These tools help reach the maximum people by merely selecting the right time to post.
Know Whom To Tag
Tagging other musicians, brands, or venues can enhance your reach by manifolds. It becomes all the more relevant if you are a new band and want to create more awareness among the masses. This way, you can increase your chances of getting an influential follower or a re-post from them.
Interact with Your Followers
If you follow your favourite actor or musician’s social media profile, you would know the excitement of a chance to interact with them. It could be a reply to your comment or choosing your question in an ‘ask me anything session. It could become a moment for you to savour for the rest of your life.
Offer your fans such possibilities to create buzz and also to tell them that you are listening to them. You have to prioritize their questions related to your tours or endorsements. Try to carve out some time in a day to respond to such queries so that there are no missed opportunities.
Let’s Talk about YouTube
While YouTube is not strictly a social media platform, it is a must-have for bands and musicians. It is the top streaming service for music, and not having your channel could be detrimental to you.
Apart from publishing your songs, you can also share cover songs to give a glimpse of your band’s musical range. Moreover, it will also help in gaining more followers with time. You can use any open source video editor to edit your recorded videos.
You will find a lot of space on YouTube to share written content. Use it to your advantage and promote all your upcoming tours and current endorsements.
Conclusion
In today’s world, your band’s presence on social media is no longer a matter of consideration. It is a must-have. With the tips given above, you can define your social media strategy and execute it to your benefit.