Connect with fans
Social media is a great way to connect directly with fans.
Increasingly, fans expect to develop a dialogue or relationship of
sorts with the artist, regardless of what level you are at in your
career. Social media outlets are a great way to make fans feel like
they’re an active part of a music career. By engaging with them, you
also help keep them aware of you—don’t stop interacting when you don’t
have anything to promote or you might find a dwindling fan base once you
are ready to release a new record. The better the relationship and
communication, the more likely these fans will attend your shows and buy
your singles and records.
Find your audience
Not only
are Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube a great way to connect with existing
fans, but it can also be a way to increase your fan base through online
word-of-mouth, through sharing and liking capabilities. Let the fans
you’ve developed a relationship with through social media help you
promote your music and shows.
Another
way you can find potential future fans is through other artists’ and
bands’ feeds and pages. Engaging in conversation with fans of similar
musicians is a great way to grow your audience. Reach out to music
bloggers who have written about similar bands and start a conversation
with them.
Artists who have used social media successfully
While
success on social media is difficult to measure, a few artists have
amassed and mobilized large fan bases on various outlets.
OK Go
catapulted themselves into worldwide name recognition with a cleverly
done video posted on YouTube that went viral. Across the social network
universe, #littlemonsters
are a many-headed entity that mobilizes quickly and voraciously in
support of and in defense of Lady Gaga. Ingrid Michaelson has grown her
fan base through consistent marketing through her blog, Facebook, and
Twitter.
Artists who have failed at social media
Despite
how important social media is to an artist, there is such a thing as
being too available via social media. It is possible to be too
promotional or share too much information. You could end up alienating
fans or potential fans with one too many humblebrag updates or the
hundredth entreaty to buy your latest single. A fine line exists between
making fans feel like they’re part of your career and smothering them
with too much information.
There
are, in fact, celebrities who demolish that line and abuse social media
with grandstanding, fighting and other bad behavior—which does little to
win them fans or help their reputation.
For example, Courtney Love’s meltdowns are well-documented on Twitter. Lily Allen and Katy Perry
are only two of many sparring artists who have taken to Twitter—or in
this case, Facebook—to openly fight with each other. And there’s Chris
Brown, who has had to quit Twitter over the backlash over his
insensitive tweets.
In an era where online music sharing is easy and popular, an artist should utilize social media outlets
as a tool to increase awareness and market themselves. By engaging with
your audiences, you will increase your fan base and make sure you stay
current and top of mind.
Marcela De Vivo
is a freelance writer and online marketing professional in Southern
California who specializes in social media marketing. She also writes
for David Anderson Pianos. As a blogger herself, she uses a variety of different social media platforms to effectively communicate with her readers.
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