9 Tips to Promote Your Music on Social Media

Let’s face it, social media is a huge part of being a musician. It’s wishful thinking to believe that all you need to be successful in this industry is to make great music. To grow your fanbase and keep from boring, or even losing existing fans, it’s essential that you keep everything up to date and put out content that is truly engaging. The battle is not just to get more followers, it’s about gaining true fans who will support your journey and stick with you as you evolve. 

With social media, you have access to millions of people looking for the next big thing. To be that next big thing, you have to at least let them know you exist.

9 Tips to successfully promote your music on social media

There's no doubt that creating good music requires skill, but that's where some musicians stop. Communicating with fans and promoting your music on social media, is a tremendous opportunity for bands and artists.  Here are 9 ways to promote your music and grow your following on social media:

1. Create a solid strategy

Marketing yourself doesn’t have to be a difficult task. To maximize your potential, it helps to come up with a comprehensive marketing plan.  Once you have a solid marketing strategy intact, you can streamline your efforts in the most effective way to gain the most success. 

2. Keep your branding consistent

For your overall social media presence, you have to be consistent with your image. Once you decide what vibe you’re going for, stick with it. Keep that branding the same on all your social media platforms. On that note, make sure you have the same name across all of your platforms, too. It’ll make it significantly easier for your audience to find you when your handle is consistent across platforms. 

3. Find which social platforms work for you

Not all social media platforms are created equal. Some of us use Instagram all the time and can’t seem to figure out TikTok and vice versa. So, it helps to divide and conquer. If you don’t see yourself being able to keep up with a TikTok account, pick a platform(s) that you can keep up with. It’s important to focus your efforts on reasonable goals you can actually obtain. 

With Soundcharts social media monitoring, you can track all social media data in one place. We compile the data of all social platforms to create a single view cross-channel breakdown of your digital following. 

4. Be consistent with how often you post 

We all have that one artist we follow who posts 10 times a day and, in turn, annoys the hell out of you every. single. day, clogging your feed. Don’t be that guy. Posting too much is one of the biggest ways to be sure to lose your followers just as quickly as you got them. Make sure you’re utilizing the various features each platform has to offer. With Instagram, for example, if you’ve already reached your max for posting within your feed, throw some posts into your Instagram Stories to keep everything running smoothly. It also helps to map out how often you want your posts to go out in advance to avoid getting ahead of yourself.

Here’s a good rule of thumb for how often you should be posting: 

Twitter: 1-4 times a day 

Facebook: 4-7 times a week 

Instagram: 1-2 times a week

5. Connect with fans

Social media is hands down, the best way to interact with your fans. A great method for doing this is to let your audience in on the creative process. For example, do a campaign where you let your fans submit their own artwork via Instagram for a chance to have their art as the next album cover. Or you could post a snippet of a song you’re working on and let them decide the name. Things like this make your fans feel like a part of the music rather than just a consumer. 

6. Spread out your content

If you have an album or song coming out soon, split that event up into a bunch of posts. Hype it up way in advance and keep reminding everyone about it across all your platforms. The key here is not to be too excessive with it, so you’ll need to find a happy medium. Once you find your flow, this is a great way to build some anticipation and keep your audience engaged at the same time. 

7. Schedule your posts in advance 

Having so much content to share brings up one issue. You’re busy being a musician and doing musician things, so how can you find the time to keep up with all the posts that need to go out? Fortunately for you, there are tons of resources that can schedule your posts to go out for you. Automating this process is a huge help with keeping to a set schedule while you focus on what you really want to be doing. 

Each platform has its own set of scheduling tools available to you, but services like Sprout Social, Pagemodo, and Hootsuite are fantastic resources to help you do this, too. 

8. Be authentic 

The best thing about social media is being able to connect with your fans in real-time. To really connect with them, you need to be your most authentic self. Your audience can tell if you’re not being real with them and will be sure to stop engaging with you. This is a good place to start getting familiar with which posts perform the best on your socials and go from there. Focus on what works and don’t waste your time with what doesn’t. The more personal and genuine your content is, the more your fans will be able to connect with you. 

9. Sync up your post across all platforms

If you post an announcement for your upcoming song on Instagram, make sure to push it on your other platforms as well. Consistency is key here, and the goal is to reach as many people as you can.

Hint: If you have some features on your new track, make sure to tag the other artists involved. Once this is circulating throughout all your platforms, the artists who worked with you will be sure to share and repost it on theirs as well,  increasing your reach by a landslide. 

Conclusion

Establishing yourself on social media takes a lot of time and effort. Don’t be discouraged if everything doesn’t take off at first. Remain consistent in your efforts and it’ll all pay off. Social media is a long game, and the only way to win is to be patient, streamline your efforts, and keep at it. 

About the author:

Randi Zimmerman is a Writing Ninja & Content Specialist at Symphonic Distribution and is thoroughly addicted to all things music and coffee.