While social media is a critical component to any musician’s overall marketing strategy, it needs to be done so effectively, or it is likely to become another source of time and frustration, rather than THE source responsible for moving you closer to achieving your goals.
There are quite a few simple pitfalls that musicians often make while using social media that need to be avoided.
By doing so, you will set yourself on a path towards an effective social media presence and a more loyal fan base.
Mistake Number 1: Self-Promotion is the Only Form of Communication (Or, Content is NOT Varied!)
Research and studies say that mixing up the content is KEY! But sadly most artists are too busy SELF PROMOTING and they totally forget this.
Most artists use text but forget the whole wide world of photos, videos and other sites to integrate into their strategy!
A good general rule to use is that only 1 in every 10 posts should be self-promotional, with the rest focusing on mixed media content focused on sharing your interests and passions with your fans and followers.
My social media pyramid will help you stay the course and you will never push out boring content ever again!
Mistake Number 2: Lack of Branding
I see this all of the time, artists do not think about how they look across their most important social channels – your Twitter is red, your website is blue and your Facebook has no elements that tie into your brand.
Matching your branding across platforms is KEY!
Using your logo is a great anchor to set a specific look, feel and color scheme in place.
Here is an example of an artist with strong branding (notice the common look and feel across all pages which help to make her more distinguishable):
Mistake Number 3: No Newsletter!
Every single study you will read still points out one fact.
Your newsletter is where you will make most of your money
I know you either don’t have a newsletter or you have a newsletter which kind of sort of sometimes goes out once in a while because you are:
- 1. Too scared to over communicate with your fans and you don’t want to overwhelm them, making them want to unsubscribe.
2. You don’t feel you have anything interesting to say, for example you have no shows, no studio time booked and absolutely no “music news”.
3. You feel you have enough to do with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. etc. etc. and so you don’t even bother with the newsletter.
The only thing you are affecting with this attitude is your bottom line.
What in the heck does the newsletter have to do with social media?
Your social media should feed your newsletter in every way possible. You should never give away music without getting an e-mail address in exchange, you should always have a widget for people to sign up to your newsletter across all your platforms (i.e. your website, your blog, your Facebook fan page, etc.).
What other mistakes do you see musicians making while using social media?
Let us know what mistakes you’ve made, or have seen others make often that musicians need to avoid as well in the form of a comment below.
Subscribe for more!
Back to The Blog
