How To Use Social Media As A Musician And Grow A Following

June 18, 2014

This post is based on an interview I did with Sarantos who is an up and coming soft rock musician that has built a great audience on social media. Check out his site Melogia.com and subscribe to his YouTube channel to check out some of his music.

Many people contact me asking for help in promoting their music. I have to admit that there is no easy answer to this. The music space is very crowded and it is extremely difficult to get your name out there in the entertainment industry. One piece of great news is that the Internet and social media is helping to democratize the industry. If you use social media intelligently, you can grow your own following online. This article has a number of tips for how you can get started.

You Must Be On YouTube

If you are a young music artist, it might be difficult to get on TV or the radio, but there is no excuse to not be on YouTube. YouTube has millions (maybe billions) of people watching and your job is to make sure that people who would potentially like your music would be able to easily discover your music on YouTube.

Instagram And Facebook

Whereas YouTube is great for promoting your music and videos, Instagram and Facebook are great for sharing visual content like photos. People love sharing pictures and good pictures can get quite a bit of shares on social media.

Additionally, Facebook allows you to maintain a fan page to help your fans stay in touch with you. Every musician should have a fan page.

Social Sharing

Whenever possible, in addition to getting people to follow you on different social networks, try to also get them to share your music with friends. When it comes to social media, there is a big difference between sharing and following.

When people follow you, it is a great way for you to keep them updated with what you have that is new. You can easily notify your followers or subscribers about new songs, concerts, or anything else you are doing.

Sharing, on the other hand, helps you get more exposure to new potential followers. When someone shares your music on their social media profile, all of that person’s followers see that share. A single share can mean exposure to hundreds if not thousands of people.

Building An Audience

As an independent musician, you must build and cultivate your own audience. Building a following doesn’t happen overnight, but you should begin working at it sooner rather than later. You will be glad that you got started as early as you did. Your audience is yours and they follow you because they like your music and what you have to say. They are typically quite loyal.

When I say audience I mean email subscribers, YouTube subscribers, people who like you on Facebook and follow you on Twitter and other social media websites. When you have an announcement or a new song release, your audience will initially make up the bulk of your listeners. If they like the new song, some of them will also share it on social media, giving you extra marketing and exposure that you will need at that moment.

Be Genuine

Social media is all about being your real self. Be genuine and let people know who you are. As people follow you, they will want to get to know you. If you let your personality shine, it will help you build an audience of people who not only like your music, but feel like they know you, and are cheering for you.