The DOs & DON'Ts of Social Media

Social media. We love it, we hate it. As artists though, we’re pretty much at a point where social media is a requirement if you’re going to make it as an artist. If I’m being frank….some of y’all need to get it together. Every single day I see artists making critical mistakes on social media, let’s take a look at some things we should and shouldn’t be doing on social media. The Basics

Trying to grab new followers whether on Twitter, Instagram etc can be a slow, arduous journey, some artists put themselves behind the curve though. Make sure you have a relevant bio as it’s the first thing a new potential fan will see on your page. If you’re currently running a campaign for a project make sure there’s something about it in your bio. Next I’ll be talking about spam, but you have to make sure that you’re pushing yourself and your content to some extent too.

DON’T Spam

I know what you’re thinking reading this, “Sto, it’s 2017, everyone knows not to spam, you’re just wasting my time.” Now wayment. First spam comes in a number of forms. You got your usual spam like, when you immediately follow someone and a mixtape or Soundcloud link pops up in your DMs/mentions almost instantly. However with the evolution of the internet, came the evolution of spam.

One form of spam myself and others see all the time is when you go to an artist’s page or Twitter and all there is to read are links to their latest album. Whether it’s a friend, or a publication, solely sharing your music, does very little to appeal to new potential fans. More on that…..well right now.

DO Get Involved This means following people. Engaging with your fans. Use your social media as an actual platform for yourself and your team, not just for your music. We’ll talk more about networking later, but in doing so, you should be following publications you enjoy and if you can, follow their writers as well. Engage with these places and people and make your presence known (no that doesn’t mean send them your project). Don’t be afraid to lead a discussion and get your fans involved. One of my biggest annoyances of social media is this “me me me” mentality. If we aren’t promoting ourselves, we’re bashing those we don’t like. You’ve heard it before, promote more of what you love instead of what you hate. An artist you like dropped a project the same day as you? Believe it or not there’s nothing wrong with sharing that project too. I understand music is a competitive space, but if you’re so much so that you can’t share another artist’s music, getting where you want is going to be difficult.

Lastly………………

STOP BUYING FOLLOWERS/FRIENDS/LISTENS/REPOSTS/SHARES ETC.

It doesn’t work. If myself or someone else sees that an artist (or anyone for that matter) has 15k followers, but no interaction on their page or tweets, that means they probably don’t have an organic following. Listen I get it, it’s cool seeing your statistics be on the higher end of things, but those numbers don’t mean anything if they aren’t buying your music, if they aren’t attending shows, if they aren’t interacting with you. I said last week and I’ll say it again here....you have to be patient. None of us are blowing up overnight, it’s a process and it starts with slowing down and organically engaging with people and building your network. For more tips & tricks in indie music promotion, freelance writing or just nerd things in general follow me on TWITTER. -Sto