This unit explores how social media platforms and websites can be used to help profile your work, engage with new audiences and develop income streams to help support you as a musician.
Considering the extent the Internet and social media have penetrated our lives, it is not surprising that some marketing professionals refer to certain parts of the population, particularly younger generations, as ‘digital natives’. Whether during a global pandemic or not, it is important to keep your fans engaged digitally and hopefully attending your online gigs. Keeping up to speed with the latest approaches to digital marketing of your musical activities is critical to your success.
‘Content marketing’ is widely used to engage fans, and fan engagement with social media, for instance Facebook, creates ‘pathways’ or ‘Journeys’ which hopefully end up with their attendance to your online gigs. ‘Content’ could be anything that can be posted to social media, such as snippets of news, examples of your work, links to interests that you share with your fans, and announcements of upcoming performances which will be available online.
If you have not done so already, then establishing and maintaining a presence on Facebook, Instagram or other social media platforms where people can interact with you is a top priority. Establishing and maintaining a website can also be useful, as it offers further possibilities for engagement with your fans (e.g. by setting up an online shop to sell your music and merchandise). Once these facilities are established, linking and coordinating your social media presence and website are important.
Finally, some social media platforms and some website hosts give you access to ‘analytics’ which can give you an idea about what content interests your fans most. Weekly digests on the number of engagements with your social media pages can help you understand which of your online activities draws the most interest, or mouse ‘clicks’. Some users have found purchasing social media advertising such as post ‘boosts’ are an effective way of developing a fan base.
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