7 BEST PRACTICES FOR PROMOTING YOUR MUSIC ON SOCIAL MEDIA
There is no denying that the social media landscape has become a very vital terrain for musicians especially when it comes to promoting their newly released music. Many have succeeded in effectively promoting their music whiles many more have failed awfully in their quest. The difference between the two lies in their understanding of the landscape and how well they are able to use it to their advantage.
Care must however be taken when running a social media promotion. More often than not, people tend to annoy, inconvenience, spam or intrude in other people’s space. This can result in a failed campaign and where you are unlucky, you get blocked.
Below are some of the best practices to guide you in your promotion on social media.
- Develop Friendship – Your presence on social media should not be limited to sharing links to your music and videos. It should be one that is interactive. Make friends online. Chat with people. Comment on, like, retweet and share posts of your friends. Put in effort to build a good relationship with your online contacts. When that rapport is established, getting them to listen to your music and sharing it with their friends is a lot easier. And their friends would rather download or listen to a song shared by someone they know rather than it coming from a total stranger. Avoid making people feel they are an advertising outlet
- Introduce yourself – As basic as this may sound, a lot of musicians fail to, or rather ignore the simple act of introducing themselves before dropping their music in your inbox. As far as popularity goes, never assume yours stretches as far as the four corners of planet earth, especially when you are up and coming.
Saying hello and preceding your message with who you are and what you do will decrease your chances of your message ending up in the trash. If you do an interesting introduction, it can spark up some curiosity in your recipient to want to get to know more. This can be the beginning of a great relationship with a potential fan.
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Seek opinions – Never fall for the temptation to think that people will fall in love with your song as soon as they hear it. It’s a trap. At this stage of your musical career, you should have built some decent relationship with some industry people or people with a good ear for music on social media. Seek their opinion about the song you intend to promote before you release it to the general public. Major labels hold listening sessions for songs before promotion starts. This when done will save you from embarrassing yourself, especially in situations where you are the only person who thinks your song is cool.
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Do not spam – You might think you are spreading your music everywhere online, but there is a very thin line separating your social media activity from spamming. When different copies of the same message or content is spread everywhere with the intent of forcing it on people who will not on a normal day patronize it, it becomes spam; a nuisance.
Posting the download link to your music every morning on the walls and inboxes of your contacts on social media perfectly falls within this category. If you drop a link on a wall or their inbox, it is enough. They will see it. If they want to, they will follow up.
When posting to many groups on Facebook also, be mindful of the time interval between each post, as Facebook will not hesitate to block your account.
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Ask for recommendation – This is a brilliant way for you to get more mileage in your quest to get your song out there. Getting music bloggers, DJ’s, presenters or social media influencers to recommend your music to their friends and audience adds a bit of credibility to your online campaign.
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Target a relevant audience – I have seen people promote their music on platforms that are not in tune with music or that particular genre. Musicians with little or no knowledge of the social media landscape tend to put their music anywhere and everywhere hoping their song will go viral. Well, it became a virus. Do a background check on the people and/or groups you share your music with. Are they music lovers or fans of your genre? Do they already have similar posts in the group? Or it’s a business group where articles about stocks and investments are shared? Do your homework well.
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Be polite – Greet. Say “Hi”, “Hello”, “Please” and “Thank you”. Whether you are posting directly on your wall or you are sending it as a message, don’t be tempted to think its social media so you can put your manners aside. Promote your music with decorum. Address people rightly. This doesn’t mean you should sound all formal. You can be casual at times but you should bear in mind the kind of audience you are addressing. It’s just not proper for you to address an audience older than you are with the same casual tone you would use on your peers.
