How Musicians Can Make the Most of Social Media

As you’re setting goals for 2022 (and it’s not too late to make some new ones), don’t forget to put social media as a priority. Our Madison Records artists have learned from experience that social media can be a great way to reach new people, interact with fans and build relationships.

How does any of this help with music promotion? We live in a connected world, whether you’re connecting face to face or online. Building your number of active followers and engaging with fans on social helps with overall algorithms, which means more people see you across all platforms.

Why? The Numbers Don’t Lie

In 2022, most serious artists are sure to have a presence on social media. Reaching out to fans through Instagram, TikTok and other platforms is more important now ever before as the number of people interacting on these networks continues to grow. Here are a few numbers to put things in perspective:

· 12 new active social media users are joining every second, according to Social Media Today.
· Over 1 Billion -- the number of users on TikTok, which grew from just over a million in 2018
· 16-24 -- More than half of the 1 billion TikTok’ers are in this age range.
· 24-34 -- the average age of Instagram users

Get Out There and Have Fun

Whether you’re posting to your story on Instagram or videoing you and a friend doing the latest dance craze on TikTok, the most important thing to remember is to be yourself. Instagram and TikTok aren’t the place for polished, final versions of videos or studio-worthy songs. It’s a place for you to share your likes and dislikes, give fans a glimpse of what it looks like when you’re practicing a new riff or brainstorming lyrics for a new song, or post pictures of your dog when he's at his cutest.

As Madison Records’ own resident social media expert Juliett says, people follow you on social media because they like you as a person and they relate to what you’re posting. Then they’ll look for your music and video content on other platforms.

Looking for some good examples of how to build those relationships on social media? Look no further than the Instagram account of Like Machines, where singer and guitarist Andrew Evans gets creative with his stories. Here are a few of his most recent adventures:

· Posted a clip of him playing a theme song of a video game and asked people to guess the game
· Asked for ideas for what he should write about for his next song
· Asked for suggestions on what song he should cover (and then posted a video of him playing it, of course)

Notice what he didn’t do: share the latest Like Machines video, point people to Like Machines website, or repost their latest song, Supervillain. As tempting as it is to use your social media accounts to let fans know about your new songs, and to try to boost “listens” of your songs on Spotify, resist the urge. People will see through your tactics and no one wants to be sold to all the time.

Engage, Engage, Engage!

Letting the real you shine through is definitely a top priority, but consistency in posting ranks right up there too. It’s a good idea to set some realistic goals for yourself as you strive to build your social media outreach in 2022. For example, decide how many times a week you want to post on Instagram, and then set up a schedule and stick to it.

Once you’ve posted, don’t just let it sit there. Go back to your story, see what fans have replied and share them on your story. When people comment, take time to reply.

It's a lot of hard work to build relationships and engage with fans, but it pays off in the long run.