The art of social media
Understanding the art of social media & the nuances of connecting with your audience online can be easy if you are naturally good at “working the room” in real life.
I personally don’t do a great job in huge crowds or talking to people naturally, I have to really work at it! Give me a stage & a microphone, however, & I am in my element.
I have heard more than a few of my fellow musicians say the same thing so it’s no surprise that social media & marketing can be the more challenging aspects of an artists journey, as that is essentially sharing your music or your creative life, with others OFF STAGE, en masse!
The Pros of Social
These days, thanks to social media, we are one step closer to our audience which is a GREAT thing.
We can access our audience direct without having a label or PR team BUT, with this power comes great responsibility!
As emerging artists, we are now in charge of our promotional endeavours, using a very new set of constantly evolving tools, & to be honest, it’s quite scary AND overwhelming as it is A LOT of work!
So, what are the ways we can make this social sharing & promotional process easier??
The Art of Social Media & The Science of Social Media
I like to look at social media in two parts, the art & the science.
In the first two posts, we will cover the Art of Social Media.
What & why you are wanting to share, (what you want your audience to do), how to create a story to tell & how to craft a strategy, using your story/message, so you can be consistent.
In the last two posts, we’ll cover the Science of Social Media. Which platforms to use, how often & when to post, tools to use to automate the process, what types of posts are best for you & how to gauge what is working using analytics.
Flip the script!
When working with artists, I try to translate all my business ideas into “musician speak” to help get the left brain right brain switcher happening. A lot of us often see marketing & promotions as non-creative. The trick that will set you apart is to actually MAKE the process super creative & tell a story. YOUR story.
The story of your music, who you are as a person, what inspires & interests you in the process of living your creative life.
Social media serves two main purposes.
To educate & inspire. As creatives, we generally provide the inspirational soundtrack to other peoples lives & our social media should be the visual representation of that.
It may seem boring to you to share that you have a rehearsal or are practicing a particular vocal riff or what tea you are drinking for vocal health, but you need to remember that anyone who isn’t living a creative life is CRAVING an insight into those who are.
So where to begin?
I created an Artist Development Blueprint which outlines the 7 steps (7 C’s) to developing yourself as an artist.
We’ll be using these steps to help us focus & create a unique plan for your social media experience.
The quick overview is this:
Clarity – know who you are as an artist & what your creative goals are.
Craft – work your strengths & get help with anything that needs attention
Create – make some great creative content (whether that’s music or social media strategy & posts)
Collab – form a Creative Squad to help you on your artistic journey & get trusted feedback from
Connect – find & build your audience then share with & nurture them!
Cashflow – what you need coming in & going out to make or promote your music
Confidence – build confidence by seeing results, knowing what needs to be done & reviewing all elements of your creative journey regularly
These steps can be applied to EVERYTHING you do creatively & overlay them so you can understand where to begin with social media.
Let’s apply them to social media…
Clarity – know who are you as an artist & what your message is for the world? What are your goals for social media? It can be gaining more likes/follows to apply for funding, build an audience to sell your music to or invite to gigs, drive people to your website or simply building awareness of your brand/music.
Craft – work out which platforms are right for you based on your audience & what types of content are right for you as an artist. Video, graphics &/or pics. Look for inspiration from artists that you like, What are they doing to share their music & connect with their audience?
Create – make a 30-90 day promo strategy based on your goals (to get new followers, ask people to follow you!) & make your graphics, videos, posts in batched as far in advance as possible.
Collab – reach out to a social media strategist or even a friend who is great with social media to help you or just to get a second opinion & bounce ideas off. You can have a session with me to review your social media plan or develop your strategy further. Book a free 15 minute chat to discuss what I can help you with & how.
Connect – get your posts out there! Remember to interact with any engagement/comments you get. Also, make sure you are engaging with other peoples posts too. A good rule of thumb is to comment on three posts others have shared, to each one you share. Make time to do this!
Cashflow – are you going to promote posts? Work out a budget for this & craft your strategy around this. It may be a case of running a boosted post for $5 per day over 3 days, no matter how big or small, you need to have the budget to do it & test a few different boosted posts to see what works. You’ll need to budget to run it a couple of times & target different segments of your audience or try different copy/graphics to compare what is working & what isn’t.
Confidence – comes from knowing there is engagement & by reviewing & analysing your analytics. Consistency is key. It will take some time to build an audience & have them want to share in your music & journey just like it does any relationship!
So what next?
Next week we delve further into defining your ideal audience & the platforms that they are hanging out on, along with what content is best for you to create to share your music through.
To make things even easier for you & delve further into creating your own social strategies, I’ve created a Social Media 101 worksheet. It’s broken into 4 parts & each week I’ll release a new segment with the blog.
Grab the first worksheet here: “Social Media 101 Worksheet – The Art of Social – Part 1“ which has exercises to help you gain clarity & craft your social media strategy.
You can also jump into my free Artist Development Blueprint 7 Day Mini Course that gives you a more in-depth overview of developing as an artist from all angles as outlined by the 7 C’s.
Get into both the worksheet & the course!
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below!
See you next week for Part 2 of the Art of Social Media.
