Five Tips to Strengthen Your Social Media Presence

Blog post by Riti Walia, BMus Popular Music student and Digital Ambassador:

Let’s be honest – in today’s world social media matters a lot for musicians. Artists are expected to have an ‘image’ and identity apart from the one they create with their music. But for many artists, fostering this connection with their fanbase online can still be quite daunting.

So let’s break this down – why is social media so important for artists? For starters, it’s a great way for an artist to increase their visibility and promote their music. With paid adverts, regular posts and targeted content, social media can really boost an artist’s following. Apart from that it is a direct link between the artist and their audience. It allows the artist to understand which part of their content resonates more with the audience and why. Knowing that information is a vital tool!

Every artist should at least have an Instagram handle, a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. While there are loads of other social media platforms that can be used, such as Twitter, Snapchat, SoundCloud, Tumblr etc., I do think those three are essential. So here are five ways to strengthen your presence on those platforms:

1.   Post Quality Content

A lot of people believe that posting quantity over quality helps their presence on social media. That is not true! Choose what you want to post with consideration. It is better to have one really eye catching post a day rather than 10 below average ones. People like to look at quality content and that’s the truth. Try creating an aesthetic and thinking about what you want the audience to take from that picture/video. Some very good editing apps that can help with this are VSCO, Snapseed, Afterlight 2 and Huji.

(Picture editing with Huji).

(Picture editing with VSCO).

2.   Identify YOUR audience

All social media platforms now have tools to analyse your post engagement. This gives you a chance to see who your content is being enjoyed by the most, down to their geographical location, gender and age. Use that information! Think about what you could do to engage a different kind of audience or perhaps what you can post to strengthen the audience already there.

(Instagram audience analytics from a paid promotion).

3.   Stay Active

It is definitely good practice to post regularly. By creating schedules for posting and deciding your content in advance, it’s possible to stay active without being on your phone constantly. Staying active doesn’t necessarily mean constantly sharing music – you can post pictures, go live and interact with followers, post short rehearsal videos, post stories, collaborate with other artists on their socials, or perhaps even post about one’s personal interests. Try and engage with your audience in different ways and keep them in the loop. Like many things in life, consistency is key.

4.   Use Paid Promotion

A lot of people completely underestimate how helpful paid social media promotion is. If you do this the right way the output can be quite significant. With paid promotion the key is making sure you’re aware of your goal, i.e. Is it bringing traffic to the website/channel in general? Is it bringing traffic to a specific post? Is it expanding the reach of the post? Are you looking for impressions or engagement? Thinking about what you want the promotion to achieve can really optimise its results and will help you decide what kind of paid promotion to do. Secondly, make sure you have a target audience. Thanks to app analytics it’s possible for you to identify a specific audience. Depending on your goal you can either target to engage with that audience more, or a different audience to widen your fan-base. With all these tools, paid adverts can really boost your social media presence!

5.   Optimise Your Profiles

Having your social media accounts linked to each other visually is extremely important. Try and keep a similar aesthetic across platforms – it looks professional. Make sure the artwork is correctly sized for each account. There are loads of websites which can help you do this such as Image Design Tools, Infographic Makers, Logo Makers, Quote Makers, Collage Makers, Cover Photo Makers etc. Also keep all your information up to date and accurate such as your bios, latest music and dates for gigs and events. Your social media accounts should be a tool to strengthen the impression your music has left on the audience, so make the most of them!

(Left to right: bülow’s YouTube channel, Lucy Deakin’s Instagram handle, Porij’s Facebook page).

12 February 2020