For musicians, the digital platform is allowing us to reach audiences without having to step out into some random early week night show, slugging it out to no one but the sound engineer and enthusiastic bar staff. With social media, your band can now be found easily, and allows for audiences to get to know you on a more personal level. So if you find that your band is struggling to get exposure on social media, or you haven’t even made an account yet, take note!
Sharing is Caring
First and foremost social media is about being social with your connections. This means creating engaging content and conversations with your fans. It also means sharing your friends content and promoting via your own band page. If you’re into supporting your friends when they play – even if you don’t feature, there is a big chance they will reciprocate with your next show promotion. Promoting bands you love, but don’t know personally and tagging them into the post can also forge new relationships and might just get you that next support slot.
Giveaways can grab the attention of many audiences, because who wouldn’t share a post for the chance to win some awesome prizes? Giving something back to your fans can result in a big increase in followers, and is also a nice reward for the people who have stayed loyal to your band. Try a giveaway with any merchandise or CDs that your band has and post it up. Make sure you ask your fans to either share the post or tag a friend to enter, as this allows for your band to gain a bigger reach in the social media world!
Spread The Word
In recent years, Facebook has made a big play in the advertising game, which is even more advantageous for your band. Not only can you post up tracks, schedule tours and link fans to merchandise, but also now thanks to Facebook Ad Manager, you can set up advertisements for your band to gain exposure. Yes, this requires some funding, but with the right audience targeting, you can gain profile/post reaches at around 20,000 people for as low as $50. Now that’s a lot of people that your band is being exposed to at a minor expense.
Camping Grounds
It is important to try and attract new and fresh followers to keep your fan base growing. Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Youtube are all unique ways for your music to get found by millions around the world. These services promote new and upcoming musicians who are looking for a bit of exposure, through hosting your music on their website. What’s great about these sites is that they also adapt a social element into their framework, so audiences can leave their feedback, which can generate discussions amongst followers. If you don’t have one of these accounts, well you need to sign up now.
In A Snapshot
You may ask, “What’s the need for Instagram? There’s not much use for a musician.” Instagram is one of the biggest mobile social media platforms available at the moment, and is a perfect way to interact with fans; giving them insights into your band’s everyday life. Try and give fans a sneak peak at rehearsals, recording sessions, or even just shots from shows. Audiences like to see the behind the scenes action, try and not hide everything! Instagram is also a great way to get your band exposed. There are a number of different ways to get noticed on Instagram, but one great way is to find bands with a similar genre to yours and begin following their fans profiles. This allows for audiences to see your band on social media almost instantly, and most times, will result in a follow back.
Can I Get A Shout Out?
There are thousands of active users currently on Social Media who actually make a living from being popular. One way to get your band exposed is to find an account that has a large following, and see if they can write a post about your band. Whether it is a link to your Twitter page, or a post about your new track on Soundcloud or Bandcamp, finding the right shout out user can land your band a lot of new fans. The best part? If you actually start a worthwhile conversation with someone i.e. on Twitter, you’ll automatically get a shout out for free when they respond.
Call To Action
Fans love nothing more then when musicians interact with them. Social Media is a perfect way to chat to your fans on a personal level. Simply spamming your page with links to your music and gigs will not cut it. You need to give your band a voice, a persona, and talk to people all around the world. Mentioned earlier, Twitter forms as a perfect social tool to respond to audiences, as you can give a quick 140-character response to questions by simply adding your fans twitter handle into your tweet. An easy and effective way of creating this interaction is by creating content that has a “call to action”. A call to action could simply be asking users to share your post, or even join a debate. In short, you are basically creating a dialogue between your users.
Keep It Consistent
When you have your bands identity online, it is essential that you keep your profiles consistent across all social media platforms. Don’t confuse your audiences by not updating your Instagram account for a few months. Make sure all accounts are regularly monitored, and that new content i.e. photo-shoots, song streams etc. are continually being uploaded.
So what are you waiting for? Get your band out there! Let people know what you are up to. Offer free EP streams. Most importantly, keep your image looking professional.
Check out the following social media platforms we think are best for bands.
Facebook
Youtube
Bandcamp
Soundcloud
Twitter
