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Social Media for Musicians

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By Tim Ellerbe IIPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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Social Media for Artists

Today I want to talk about the benefits of using social media platforms to your advantage. Most social media users have no idea of the real power of the medium. For the Music Artist, Social Media is one near perfect way of gaining fans and new listeners. With a few smart moves and much consistency, you can grow an audience quickly.

There are many different social media platforms. The more popular ones are Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram, although there are many, many more that are unknown yet equally effective. I will speak on that more later. So let’s look at the top three. Facebook is the big man on campus, playing host to at least 2 billion subscribers. Nearly every major and minor social media and streaming service connects directly to this one. Facebook also has the option of making personal, fan, and business pages. If you want to gain listeners quickly, this platform may be your best bet. For fan and business pages you can also run boost and Marketing campaigns. Boost campaigns allow you to spend a small amount and reach several hundred, or in some cases several thousand potential fans. The only problem here is that there is no guarantee that those you reach will be interested. That is not to say it cannot garner interest. A lot of boost posts cater to your immediate vicinity, so if you are doing a music genre that is popular in your town, this may work for you to draw new fans to your shows and your other pages.

Howeve,r I would recommend Facebook marketing becuase this allows you to target a specific niche and even a microniche of followers who are looking specifically for what you do. And you can set your marketing budget to reach others on a daily basis rather than the one time Boost posts. So keep that in mind.

Next we have Twitter, which allows subscribers to give quick messages to followers. It also allows you to post pictures and links and to use it as a business page. I personally like Twitter because it allows me to chat with some of my childhood heroes. Favorite actors and musicians are readily accessible and you can probably gain more attention from their fans if you are witty and business savvy. A word of advice. Be professional. Do not visit other's accounts and troll for fans. That is rude and will most likely get you blocked.

Finally we have Instagram which is primarily a picture sharing site. However, you can also post videos, links, and hashtags to your heart’s content. The hashtags are particularly effective because they automatically draw in those who are interested in what you have to share. Use this wisely and you can gain a steady growth of followers daily. My word of advice here is to not oversaturate your page. Less is more. Give them a taste, not a meal.

As I mentioned earlier, all of them now have the capability of being used as business pages. What that does for the Artist is give them the ability to develop and implement marketing campaigns. These campaigns can draw in many more followers than usual. And the campaigns can even be tailored to attract only fans of your specific genre or micro-niche.

A micro-niche is the very stripped down definition of the style of music you write. Setting up your campaigns to only reach that specific demographic increases your chances of reaching what are commonly known as Superfans. I would advise music listeners who are specifically searching for your particular style. In order to reach out to them, I would advise defining your micro-niche. For example, if you do Rock, then determine if it is hard rock, punk, etc. Then break it down even further until you have a pure definition you can then advertise to those looking for you. And they are indeed looking.

I myself am a fan of Instagram because that is one of the few remaining social media platforms that allow you to attract visitors simply by using hashtags. You can be very specific and use as many as you require. I have gained a ton of new listeners doing that alone, but it can be beneficial too if you have great content. One thing I do is I use the video feature to do short clips of me rehearsing a song, performing one onstage or just having fun in my studio. Those clips gain a lot of views because people love shorter videos. That will attract more actual followers too. Keep that in mind.

I spoke earlier of other platforms that are less popular. A lot of my music is monitored by a site called MondoTunes that uploads my new material to at least 39 additional social media platforms. I don’t have personal pages on many of them, but that is only because I have my own dedicated webpage. Not to mention that it takes a lot of time to maintain that many personal pages. I would recommend choosing the ones you like best and picking one or two days a week to upload new content. Then give the content time to work. As my business coach is so fond of saying, “You want to give them a taste. Not the whole meal at once.”

As you maintain your pages, be sure to watch the analytics which are available. Make yourself familiar with those because they will show you what attracts and what repels listeners. Once you determine what is not working, make adjustments. Eventually your social media platforms will be running like a well oiled machine. For more information, check out the links below. In the meantime, kepp making great music and keep sharing it!

Be sure to visit me at the following links

http://www.timellerbe.com/

https://beat.media/the-art-of-networking

https://www.facebook.com/tim.ellerbe

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKUpCoXntI5EaNgzXg63rPg?view_as=subscriber

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About the Creator

Tim Ellerbe II

I am a Musician, Author and Artist. Find out more on my website timellerbe.com

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