Raising your hand if keeping your social media channels updated and compelling feels overwhelming. It’s okay; I understand! It’s a lot of work to keep your online presence fresh and engaging, especially if you’re also trying to create music. This is why social media management campaigns are one of the most popular services we offer.
Many musicians hire a team to help them bring their artist brand to light and take the daily work off their hands, but not all Social Media Managers (or SMMs for short) are created equally. Our goal is to ensure that when we post something, it sounds exactly like YOU would say. We want to make it so similar that not even your besties will be able to tell the difference. This takes effort to pull off well.
Our team at Cyber PR manages social media for a wide range of artists and companies, and we often find ourselves explaining what a social media management campaign entails. Many are wary of letting someone else post for them, with good reason. You put a lot of work into your music and gathering your fans – you don’t want to confuse them with posts that don’t sound like they came from you!
In this post, I want to assuage some of these fears and give you an insider’s look at WHAT WE DO for our clients during a social media management campaign. If hiring someone to handle your social media is not your bag, there are helpful hints on how to get better at your own daily posting, content strategy, and our social media content management tool so you can rock it like we do!
Laying The Groundwork
Setting a solid foundation is crucial for social media success. Sadly, many social media management companies dive in and just start posting—this is NOT a social media management campaign—this is just someone posting to fill your calendar. The most critical part of any social media management campaign is what happens before a single Tweet, Instagram, Newsletter, or Facebook post goes out. We have to get to know you—as an artist and as a person—before we can start posting for you.
The groundwork is designed to help you understand who you want to portray on your social media (your brand pillars) and who you are actually speaking to (your fan personas).
Your Brand Pillars
Your brand pillars each identify an important characteristic of your musical essence and expand upon why this is relevant to your artistry. Each brand pillar answers the question “who?” Our SMMs start by identifying your brand pillars to help you articulate who it is you are, and who you are trying to draw in. Next, each pillar gets incorporated into your social channels.
We will work with you to create content that attracts more fans and supports your brand. An SMM will also post regularly on your socials so that you don’t have to get into the daily tedious grind and you can spend your precious time doing what you love – playing and making music.
Your Fan Personas
Each fan persona we create defines in detail the characteristics of your ideal fan. These inform which communities of fans to target and which markets to aim for by answering the question: “Who is your typical fan?” We build them by looking at each of our clients social media analytics and conducting deep interviews about our artists’ observations and experiences with their fans. To download a powerful exercise to help you figure out what your fans will like, click here. We also look at artists who are similar to you and see what their fan communities are like and research hashtags and location.
Hone Your Narrative & Select Social Media Themes
This is the most crucial part. Without a cohesive narrative, you have no social “strategy” just a bunch of posts. We curate four or five themes for each artist as part of our plans. We keep the content tight and do not stray too far from them. Music is always the first theme, and we add topics that fit your brand, including your hometown, charitable causes, the outdoors, the road, etc. This way your feeds stay coherent, and new followers can immediately grasp who you are and what you stand for.
The Social Media Content Intake Process
Our social media management campaigns are handled by a team of one or two SMMs. We send an in-depth questionnaire asking dozens of questions about your current social media strategy, such as what types of content you like (and dislike).
We ask you to share your favorite artists, videos, quotes, and content. After you return the questionnaire, our team meets to analyze it, and we begin building a personalized content calendar. Next, we set up an in-depth meeting via phone, Skype, or in-person, in order to go over the questionnaire and begin to really understand your voice. Together, we go deeper into your interests and influences and discuss what kind of content you want us to add to your current posting schedule. We also look deeply at your analytics to identify other social media users it might be fruitful for you to engage with, and what online conversations you might want to join. If you are going to take a stab at making your social strategy more cohesive
Dropbox or Google Drive
We ask our artists to create a Dropbox or Google Drive folder to gather personal and professional photos that surround the themes we outlined for them. We can use this folder to create their content calendar, which is an easy way for us to pull content to post.
Social Skinning & Special Graphics
Next, we ensure that your brand is cohesive across all channels and that all sites are optimized and skinned. It is important to visualize releases, blog features, show announcements, and crowdfunding campaign countdowns. Our SMMs create unique visual content that fits with each individual artist’s brand. To do this, we have an in-house graphic designer, but many great, easy-to-use apps like Canva will help you create awesome graphics.
Content Calendar
Once we have the basics down, we start to prep some posts on our Content Calendar (also called a Social Media Organizer) This is a working document that we and the artist both have full access to. We ask our clients to take a peep when there is new content to approve and have designated columns for any comments or notes they have, as well as a column dictating approval/disapproval. When the artist and their team approve posts, we schedule your posts for you. This is a working document, so we are always ready to replace posts with spontaneous announcements along the way (such as pop-up performances, live streams of your shows, or celebratory engagement if your newest single rises to the top of the charts!). You have full access to everything we are doing, and we invite our clients to give feedback and make changes at any point. Your level of involvement in the process is entirely up to you. Some clients like to leave everything in our hands, and some stay very involved, even continuing to post themselves. This all depends on how much you like social media and how much time you have to get into the action.
Instagram is by far the most popular social media channel. It’s a great platform to build your brand, increase your following, and create compelling content. We’ve written several blog posts, including The Musician’s Guide to Instagram and Advanced Instagram Tips, that are full of advice on how to use Instagram effectively. An SMM will create and post content, utilizing appropriate hashtags and engaging in conversations to get you more followers and engagement. We suggest you post on Instagram every other day. It would be best if you also tried to post a story 5+ times daily. It’s essential to keep in mind that organic engagement is very important on this channel – which is why we do not use any automated bots for engagement purposes, as it hurts your account in the long run. Fake followers cannot be converted into fans.
Tik Tok
TikTok has quickly become a powerhouse for music discovery, making it one of the most valuable platforms for musicians. With its algorithm favoring viral content and focusing on short, engaging videos, TikTok offers an incredible opportunity to build your brand, gain new followers, and share your music with a global audience. We have written resources like Essential TikTok Tips to help you make the most of this platform.
Your social media manager (SMM) will create and post videos highlighting your music, personality, and behind-the-scenes content to maximize your reach on TikTok. They’ll incorporate trending sounds, hashtags, and challenges to increase visibility and engage with other users in comments and duets. We recommend posting on TikTok at least once daily to stay consistent with the platform’s fast-paced, high-engagement environment. Going live on TikTok weekly is also highly effective for boosting interaction and fan connection.
Organic engagement is crucial on TikTok; while it’s tempting to automate interactions, authenticity is key to building real fan relationships. Viral success often hinges on genuine engagement and creativity, so our approach avoids bots or automated tools. Remember, an active and engaged TikTok following is more likely to convert into dedicated fans who will support your music journey.
Ah, Facebook, love it or hate it – you need a Page, and posting 3X a week is recommended. However, many of our artists like to post more (depending on how active your Facebook peeps are and how much money you wish to invest in Boosting and Ads). The content of Facebook posts needs to be more in-depth than IG captions. Many studies also show that videos and images native to Facebook, meaning posted directly on the source as opposed to shared links from other platforms, and Facebook Live are most effective here, so we ensure that these elements are included when posting for you.
TIP: Never post a YouTube link. The Facebook algorithm will not show it to many people, whether they’ve Liked your Page or not.
As you may know, Facebook is virtually all pay-to-play. The algorithms are annoyingly skewed to benefit paid advertisers. Therefore, Facebook SMM is responsible for creating and managing ads for you. (Note: Ad budget is not included in our SMM Services pricing). We make an advertising strategy that drives engagement and web traffic on promotional posts, and encourages sharing amongst your audience’s networks. We also monitor Ad Insights and analytics to determine which ads produce the best results and which strategies resonate most with your target audience. Lastly, in this part of your social media management campaign, we strategize on unique activations.
Your Email List
Many companies that offer social media management campaigns do not focus on email. We do because your e-mail list is where most of your engagement and revenue will come from, so getting a professional to help you with it is a significant investment. You want to be consistent when posting on your social channels, which is especially important with your newsletter. We recommend sending a newsletter at least once a month and that you create many series of email drip campaigns. The initial drip campaign you create should warm up new fans who have just signed up to your list, though there are many other essential ones to build. Your SMM is your brainstorming buddy and writing partner. They will help you come up with a sexy name for your newsletter, assist in nurturing your list, and work to gather all of the names and email addresses that may have fallen through the cracks. Lastly, she will show you how to send your emails to your list regularly and consistently.
Knowing When to Post with our Best Times to Post on Social Media Guide
Knowing when to post is one of the most important components of managing social media. Here at Cyber PR, we are constantly researching the best times to post, as this is just as ever-changing as the algorithm. Analytics from each platform can be helpful, but there are also general tips you should consider.
As a reward for reading this giant blog post, we’d love to give you a free download of the information we use! The Best Times to Post on Social Media guide will make your life so much easier and ensure that all your social channels receive the tender loving care and consistency they deserve.
Final Note – It’s All About Your Narrative
Ultimately, our goal in a social media management campaign is to streamline your social media strategy and build your audience. To do this, we learn how to use YOUR interests, and music to create compelling content that will attract new fans and strengthen relationships with existing fans.
Click to make sure you’re posting at the most optimized times!
Subscribe for more!
Back to The Blog
