The internet has opened up endless possibilities and opportunities for promotion of individuals creativity, from painters to comedians and that is one of the main reasons bands and singers should use social media to promote new material, especially if it is being released commercially. This means creating a buzz, well in advance of the actual release date!
Of course it may seem daunting, especially when you realise how much you can actually let your creativity flow, but social media gives you a chance to explore and experiment, try what works and see what doesn’t work.
If you were a singer or band in the 1970s or even in the 1980s you wouldn’t have needed to consider the internet, either to promote your songs, worry about “memes” or to release new material but now we are in the 21st century; cultures and expectations have changed and you need to use social media to promote yourself because it is what is expected. The music industry has changed beyond recognition with people becoming famous (& rich) purely from uploading 1 song on YouTube (Andie Case & Jason Derulo Car on Youtube).
Everyone is using at least one form of social media these day, it could beFacebook, Twitter or even Instagram and if you don’t use it it’s pretty much like you don’t exist. Social media is a fantastic marketing platform which is one of the reasons bands and singers really need to be using it.
Promoting new material via social media can be really easy, but most importantly you want to make sure you don’t make it a full on sales platform as that can be boring for your audience and you will lose your connections. Instead you need to aim for 80% of posts being conversational and funny with 20% of your updates being promotional.
The balance between keeping your social media promotional and conversational is tricky and yes you can do this yourself, but we would always say get some professional help. Some of the worst mistakes involve posts with spelling / grammar errors, no tags or back-links and over indulgent self-promoting. These can be really off-putting & that can affect sales / downloads & airtime!
So here are some quick tips from Rocoja
- Copy anything you are going to post into a Word Doc before posting & run a Grammar & Spell check before posting it!
- When you’re recording the new material why not share short video clips, show the gang eating lunch and maybe some back stage pictures too. These are all ‘conversational updates’ but they’re promoting your new material without being obvious about it and it’s updates like this that can work really well.
- If you’re doing a tour before the release of the new material you can tweet about the different place you are but get the potential fans / consumers involved too, share photos you take on the day and get them to do the same.
- Tell your fans where you are going on the promotional tour and where they can see you. If worded right this isn’t obvious it’s a promotional update, instead you’re letting fans know what’s going on and where they can see you, as a friendly update.
- Make sure you insert back links to your download sites
- Make sure you tag in friends in the industry, who may RT / Share your status’s & don’t be “me me me” Make sure you are sharing & RT’ing other peoples updates too.
- DON’T buy followers of fans – Fake followers on any platform act in a negative way, sometimes even causing the accounts to be sanctioned by Twitter / Facebook /Instagram. Also your true fans will feel cheated.
The potential from Social media is endless, if you know how to maximize it…
Rocoja knows how to!
Contact us for some advice info@Rocoja.co.uk
We are to help.
