Guest post by Tony van Veen of the Disc Makers Blog

Promoting your music act via social media is no time to be coy. Make it about you and all the cool things you do.

When you think about marketing as a music artist, I’m sure one of the first things you think about is social media — and rightfully so.

On social media, there are great channels: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok… So, when you are on social media, as an artist, what should you post? More importantly, what do your fans want to see in order to stay engaged with you?

Give the people what they want

When I post stuff on social media, it may be a picture at a restaurant, a picture of my dog, a picture of a landscape or a misty evening, or something I find interesting in the moment.

What do your fans want to see? Well, they don’t want to see pictures of misty evenings and restaurants. They want to see you. They want to see pictures of you and they want to see videos of you.

Go to any social media profile of large, midsize, independent, or major artists and look at what they post. You will see it’s mostly pictures of them.

If I’m a Bob Marley fan and I follow Bob Marley’s estate on social media, I want to see pictures of Bob Marley. I want to see videos of Bob Marley in concert. I want to see pictures of Bob Marley smoking weed. I want to see everything Bob Marley. I don’t necessarily want to see things that are not Bob Marley. And it’s the same for your fans.

If they follow you, they want to see pictures of you, they want to see video of you rehearsing, in concert, hanging out with your bandmates, with your dog, in a restaurant. But it’s gotta be you in the restaurant.

———

While here, also take a look at:

Serious Musicians Still Need To Make Albums: Here’s Why

How To Build Confidence As A Beginner Singer

Musician’s Guide to Online Advertising

3 Types Of Publishing Deals and How They Work

———

Don’t be humble

You know, as independent artists, we’re often humble and we don’t want to brag too much and we don’t think that fans necessarily want to see us like they might a world-famous artist. But trust me, your fans on social want to see you and the cool things you are doing with your music, in regular life, and in your personal life outside of your music. So, don’t be bashful.

Get somebody to take your pictures, take your own pictures, do what you gotta do.

Take some time and check some other artists’ social media profiles. Pick some larger artists that you like and see what they do and you’ll see how many pictures there are of them.

And if it works for them, you can copy that.

Tony van Veen is the CEO of DIY Media Group, the parent company of Disc Makers and BookBaby. As a college student, he played in indie bands, created his own LPs, cassettes, and t-shirts, and sold them at shows. Today, he collects CDs, vinyl LPs, and concert t-shirts to support the artists he loves.