Singers and songwriters often spend years creating an album. It takes dedication and patience to write original music, record it in the studio, make sure the instrumentalists and singers harmonize flawlessly, and try out countless variations of mixing and mastering. Given all that effort, you want to make sure your hard work gets heard – and a great way to do that is via social media. Here’s how.
1. Create your profiles.
If you already have Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube profiles, you’re ahead of the curve. If not, you’ll need to create your profiles. You may have a limited space to talk about yourself, but use some of that prime real estate to tell followers that you have a brand-new album and include a hashtag for your album or band name. Now you have a way to build an engaged community of fans and soon-to-be fans, talk to them directly, and control the conversation about your music instead of relying on reviews and press.
2. Engage with fans.
In the past, musicians didn’t get to meet fans unless they went on tour or performed at local venues. Now you can talk to hundreds of fans with one post and you can have one-on-one conversations without even meeting in person. Dedicate time to reading and responding to comments and posts tagged with your hashtags or fan-generated hashtags. Search for your name or album name to see what else people have written and thank them for sharing your music or the kind things they’ve said about the album. People will be excited if you retweet, share, or regram their posts or listen and comment on their covers of your music.
3. Host giveaways or contests.
Never underestimate the power of a free t-shirt, autographed album, or other merchandise. Incentivize people to share reviews and content about your album on social media by hosting giveaways or contests (just make sure to review the legal rules and regulations for each social media platform). Host a contest where people share their best interpretation of your album art, a cover or mix of your song, or fan art. As an added benefit, you can use their contributions to fill up your social media content calendar with diverse, creative, and engaging content – just ask for their permission to share it first.
4. Share exclusive content.
People want to see never-before-seen content that isn’t available on your website or anywhere else. Give the people what they want! If you’re still making your album, start documenting the process with photos and videos of you writing and working on the acoustic versions of each song, recording it, choosing the final song, and designing the album art.
You can still post behind-the-scenes content even if you’re done recording. If your album hasn’t been released yet, tease ten seconds of some of your favorite songs from the album, release singles in advance, or post your album cover and album art. Already released your album? Share the story behind each song (like who that love ballad was about), videos from live shows, and even your day-to-day life as you promote your album or work on new music. Try to share different types of content on each platform so people want to follow you on all of them.
5. Promote posts.
You don’t have to pay to post content on social media, but purchasing ads and promoting posts can, well, pay off. If you want to maximize visibility, it’s beneficial to put some money behind your posts and run ad campaigns. You can target people who like your genre of music, similar musicians, and other people you identify as your target audience.
What are your tips for using social media to create a personal brand and generate buzz? Let us know in the comments!
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