Due to my activities and connections in the music industry, I often talk to artists, record labels, promoters and so forth. What I have noticed is that a fair number of them do not have an effective social media profile or, sometimes, do not have any social media presence at all.
Let me explain as to why you want to get this fixed.
The importance of social media presence.
In my opinion, having a social media presence might very well be more important for an artist than the actual quality of their releases. Blasphemy, I know!
Plenty of celebrities rose to fame and riches by merely using social media. Don’t get me wrong: there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Social media give you a chance to get your message (and music) out to billions of people. I am not claiming that it is an easy task to gather a lot of followers, but it is easy to make those first steps: to create an account and get your profile up and running. One step at a time. If you don’t have much time to spare, make it a little step at a time. You really don’t want to miss out on this huge audience.
Let me run some numbers by you. Listed below are the monthly active users (MAU) for some of the main social media platforms:
These numbers are staggering! If you could get a mere crumb of this pie, you’d be set!
Create your profile. One step at a time.
I talk to a lot of artists. Either they are trying to get a spot on my playlists or they are looking for some advice and feedback. (Apparently, word got out that I tend to provide great feedback and social media advice, pro-bono style. I should really fix this!)
I have met the two extremes of the spectrum: mediocre artists that were heavily promoted by record labels and marketing companies, and on the other side, really talented artists but lacking any kind of social media presence. Guess which one got the most exposure and the most Spotify plays? Exactly.
I wager that over 50% of the artists on my playlists do not have a completed Spotify profile. This really doesn’t require a lot of effort. Make sure that you or your manager control your artist page and take a moment to upload your bio.
There are more important things than to have a nice Spotify biography but it, definitely, is a good start. I would recommend any artists and producers out there to, additionally, create a presence on SoundCloud and Twitter. If time permits you can then complement that with a Facebook artist page and an Instagram account.
As to the “what, when, and where” to post on your social media, that is a topic for a future blog post but in the meantime, you can find a lot of information out there.
The most important thing: put a face to your music!
In case of any questions leave a comment or drop me an email. Thank you for reading!