I often see artists who just post and push their new album or EP and not much more. Let me ask you a question. If an EP/album cover from an artist you have never heard of, continually pushed their picture of the cover in front of you, would it be enough for you to go and take a look and listen?
Have you scrolled through your Facebook feed and engaged or watched something funny and entertaining?
So given the fact that so many musicians/artists are mainly posting their music, don't you think that the average person would just scroll past it, knowing it's the same kind of content which is being posted day in and day out?
Lets look at business, perhaps a business that sells a product. If you hadn't heard of that product and they just posted a picture up and an explanation of what it is, would it be enough for you to engage in? However, if you saw a video of this product in action, showing you exactly what this product does, and it interests you, would you check it out and would think about it for a while.
Now lets take a look at some of those highly engaging stories we see on Facebook quite often, you know the ones that have a moving slide like video with the story attached. The ones where the first line captures your attention leaving you sitting there wanting more, knowing more about this person and the story, and if you found yourself watching the whole thing, you then find yourself sharing it. Am I right?
So, what other content can you create as an artist to create interest? Lets just put our latest music release aside for a moment and focus on the 'SOCIAL' aspect of social media.
As an artist you want to be known and seen preferably by those people who like and buy the major artists. You want to be able to jump up and down and say, 'hey, look at me', my music is just as good. Will they stop at your post of you music not really knowing who you are. Or do they stop at an engaging story that perhaps sparks their attention?
I don't know if you've ever heard the marketing term, 'Content is king', but I'm here to tell you, it is the content that will bring them to you, or not.
I mentioned in one other article that video is or actually already has taken over as opposed to a stand alone picture. So what does an artist do?
Firstly, get your snap chat going and create snaps of what you do behind the scenes, this could be going out for a walk, being stranded in a carpark and having to get your car towed away, (that was me only last week) posting you decorating your Christmas tree etc. It can be anything, but not just your music.
People like to be entertained and they like to see different things, they like a 'SHOW', so put on a show.
Use every possible opportunity to create content. (It doesn't have to be with an expensive camera, your phone will do the job just fine.)
Birthday's, Christmas, Easter and what ever other celebration is going on within your country or globally, create your own unique content around it.
If you don't celebrate Christmas, then perhaps other places around the world would like to know what you do, what do celebrate?
Incorporate some Christmas cheer with recording a Christmas carol with your own spin on it, and place it up on YouTube and share it around on your social media channels, do a snap of you buying your Christmas presents or video and have your own music just playing in the background while you talk to people. Now don't you think that people are more likely to comment or say something about the really ugly fairy you placed on top of your tree? They would be more likely to comment and engage.
Share your story about your life on a video with the captions and photo's of those life events as it brings people to the current time in your life.
There are so many ways you can create content and use that to engage people outside your current circle and to help build your audience. See what the popular hashtag is going on twitter for the day, and find something you can do around that hashtag to create more engagement.
On Facebook, try a boosted post to a similar artist to yourself, even if you don't like that artist, their audience may very well be yours too. But don't post your music to begin with, post your story, post something from your snapchat, post something that creates interest in which people can relate to. Funny, sad or interesting.
Scale yourself up, then on approximately the 5th post, post your music, but not an EP cover, create an engaging video.
When posting to Facebook, remember to place any ads with your correct objective. Do you want people to engage, or do you want to create lot of video views.
People don't still quite understand why video views, when the video views objective doesn't get the engagement.....I'll tell you.
Video views are there to help you create your target audience and to be able to save all the people who watched your video, whether they liked and commented on it or not.
Your following ads and posts can then be re-targeted back to those who watched your first ad.
I hope this very small explanation and ideas has helped demystify a few things for you.
There is a whole lot more as well, so start thinking outside the box and start entertaining people.
Merry Christmas Everyone. 🎄