Social Media Promotion For Musicians – 3rd Edition

Social Media Promotion For Musicians Third Edition shows you:

    • How to increase your fan or client following via social media
    • The best way to promote yourself, your band or your music using Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn
    • The most overlooked items on your website that are essential for getting gigs and reviews
    • The secret to email newsletters, the most important online tool for marketing to your fans that you have
    • How to craft posts that your fans want to read, and will send to their friends
    • How to brand yourself even if you don’t think you have one
    • How to develop an online strategy that will never be outdated
    • The secrets behind successful Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter posts.
    • and much more!
Read An Excerpt
BUY THIS BOOK

What It's About

 

Social Media Promotion For Musicians Third Edition was designed specifically so artists, bands, musicians, engineers, producers and songwriters can use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok to increase their fan or client base, then market and sell to them without seeming pushy or too salesy.

You see, just using social media isn’t enough; you need to know how to turn it into a marketing tool to promote yourself, your band or your music, and there’s a definite way to do it that not very many people (yet alone musicians) know about. That’s where Social Media Promotion For Musicians Third Edition comes in.

This book will show you:

    • The secret of branding yourself and your music so that you’re instantly recognizable online or off
    • How to increase your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter influence to increase your fan base and turn your casual fans into the hard-core uber-fans that can make a career
    • The secret to getting more YouTube views, which also increases your chances of going viral
    • The two website sections that most artists and bands don’t even include but are the keys to getting gigs and press
    • How to use the often overlooked features of both YouTube and Facebook Live that allow you to play private concerts, conduct lessons, or allow backstage looks and meet and greets that fans absolutely love
    • How to start and grow your mailing list, the most important tool you have for sales and marketing
    • The best times to post to get maximum views and engagement so you actually connect not only with your current fans, but potential fans as well
    • and much, much more

Most artists, bands and musicians don’t know how to brand themselves, and Social Media Promotion For Musicians Second Edition shows you not only how to find your brand, but to develop it as well.

You’ll also learn why a blog can be an important promotional tool, the difference between the major platforms, and how to set one up. Then you’ll learn the secrets that make a blog successful.

You’ll also discover about how to promote yourself via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. This includes crafting promotional posts that work, the secret behind hashtags, finding the right hashtags for your promotional needs, and promoting your brand across all social networks.

Finally, you’ll learn about how to get your music on popular playlists to increase your profile and your streams, and includes a brand new chapter on marketing to TikTok.

There’s so much more packed into this book that it can’t all be described here.

Kind Words From Readers

This is one of those “must have” books for musicians. Bobby Owsinski’s online marketing strategy is uniquely responsible for much of the current success I’m enjoying with my music. Sure the music itself is pretty great, but great music alone isn’t enough; people have to be able to find it and hear it online. The ideas in this book have enabled me to attract more fans and listeners around the world than I ever could have imagined.

Jef Knight

Social Media Promotion For Musicians is an excellent, straightforward, no nonsense  practical manual for anyone in the music business looking to effectively use social media. I highly recommend it.

Chris Boardman – award winning film and television composer

Cutting-edge, life-changing material. This is a “must-have” in today’s highly fluid music world! Extremely valuable, especially for those who find social media and self-promotion daunting. Very heady concepts are de-mystified to optimize return on time spent in the social media universe!
Paul ILL – LA studio musician

A key point, too, is that it’s all explained from a music entrepreneur’s viewpoint, which makes examples in the book far more relatable and adaptable to your circumstances than the often starchy case studies provided in social media books aimed at Fortune 500 company wannabes.

Clive Young – review in Pro Sound News

Social Media Promotion for Musicians, book by Bobby Owsinski, is a must-read how-to manual for anybody in the music industry who wants to push their business to the next level. It provides a thorough overview of how to use a range of platforms efficiently and creatively to boost your social media presence, and Owsinski clearly knows his stuff. This book is a great choice for music entrepreneurs.
Mike Sorenson – review on Acoustic Fields

While there have been many books written on how to make the most of singular social media platforms, Social Media Promotion For Musicians is a comprehensive guide with a ton of interesting and valuable information. In this day and age there’s a ton of competition out there, and you’d be wise to put Bobby Owsinski’s tried and tested wealth of knowledge to work for your band (or brand).

Jason Bakker – review in Metal Arcade

…and dozens more like it!

Let's Look Inside

Table Of Contents

Introduction    13

1. It’s Called Promotion    15
The Meaning Of Self-Promotion    15
Why Fan Data Matters    17
A Personal Story    18
Social Media Promotion And The Music World    19
The Current Music Business Structure    20
The New Audience    21
Online Word Of Mouth    22
The Theory of 22    24
8 Advantages Of Social Media Over Traditional Media    25

2. Your Social Media Strategy    27
It’s A Big Social Media World    27
The Problems And The Solutions    28
The Big Picture    29
Developing Your Online Strategy    31
Don’t Depend On An External Site    32
Relying On Too Many Sites    34
The Center Of Your Online Universe    35
The Steps To A Successful Online Strategy    36

3. Developing Your Brand    39
What Is A Brand?    39
Artist Branding    41
The Three Pillars Of A Successful Brand    42
8 Steps To Discovering Your Brand    43
Developing Your Brand    44
Why A Trademark Can Be Important    47
Acquiring A Mark    48
I’m With The Brand    49
Brands And Social Media    50

4. Creating Your Killer Website    51
The Elements Of A Successful Site    51
The Site Name    51
The Visual Design    52
The Navigation    54
The Content    55
The Bio or About Page    55
The Contact Page    55
The Subscribe Page    56
The Press Section    56
The Booking Info Section    59
The Social Media Connections    60
The Sitemap    61
Cross-Browser Compatibility    61
Web Optimized Images    62
Website Killers To Avoid    63
What Visitors Hate    63
Setting Up A Quick Website    64
Website SEO Techniques    65
Meta Tags    66
Placing Your Name In The Title Tag    66
Placing Your Name In The Description    67
Placing Your Name In The Text Body    68
Keywords    69
The Importance Of Anchor Text    69
Site Speed    70
The Value Of A Fast Page Load    70
Content Relevance    71
Measuring Your Backlinks    72
The Importance Of Deep Links    72
The User Experience    74
Website Measurement Techniques    74
Four Free Website Audience Measurement Tools    74
Website Performance Metrics    77
Summing It Up    78

5. Creating Your Mailing List    79
Mailing List Overview    79
Email Is Not Dead    79
Four Reasons Why Your Email List Is So Important    80
Using A Mailing List Service    81
An Overview Of Mailing List Service Providers    82
The Email Subscribe Form    83
Lists    84
Manual Entry    85
The Subscribe Form    86
The Welcome Email    87
The Double Opt-In    88
When People Subscribe    88
Crafting A Successful Email Newsletter    89
The Objective    89
The Subject Line    90
The Salutation    91
The Copy    91
Your Call To Action    93
Social Media Sharing    93
Your Signature    94
Legal Requirements    94
The Best Times To Email    95
The Best Day Of The Week For Email Marketing    95
Selecting The Time To Send Your Email    97
Frequency Of Emails    97
Gig Reminders    98
Building Your Mailing List    100

6. Using Facebook For Marketing    101
Facebook By The Numbers    101
Facebook Basics    102
The Difference Between A Personal And Fan Page    102
The Personal Page    102
Your Facebook Fan Page    103
The Cover Graphic    104
When To Start A Fan Page    104
Facebook Promotion Overview    105
What Should I Say?    105
Crafting A Promotional Post That Works    106
Post Creation Rules    108
The Best Time To Post    110
The Studies    110
In Practice    111
Scheduling Posts    112
Post Frequency    114
How Facebook Determines What’s In Your News Feed    114
Improving Your Edgerank    117
The Facebook Like    118
Understanding The Like Button    119
So Why Worry About Likes Anyway?     120
How To Get Facebook Likes    121
The Land Of Fake Likes    124
10 Best Facebook Posting Practices For Artists And Bands    125
Facebook Video Basics    127
Facebook Rights Manager    127
Designing A Video For Facebook    128
7 Tips For Publishing Facebook Videos    129
Using Facebook Live    133
Seven Ways To Increase Your Facebook Fan Engagement    134
Promoting Posts    136
An Overview Of The Ad Manager    137
Placing Your Ad    138
Facebook Policies Everyone Should Know    142
Other Best Practices    143

7. Marketing With Twitter    145
Twitter Basics    145
Following And Followers    146
Twitter Etiquette    147
Your Twitter Profile    148
Using Twitter For Promotion    149
What Should I Say?    149
Crafting A Promotional Tweet That Works    150
The Hashtag: The Secret Behind Successful Tweets    151
Selecting Hashtags    152
Hashtag Sites    153
Rules For Using Hashtags    154
Other Uses For Hashtags    154
Tweet Frequency    155
The Best Time To Tweet    156
Scheduling Tweets    157
Twitter Measurement    158
Useful Twitter Tools    159
Using Contests To Increase Your Followers    159
Twitter Rules For Contests    160
20 Twitter Tips And Tricks    161

8. Marketing With Instagram    163
Instagram Best Practices    164
What Not To Do On Instagram    165
How To Build Your Instagram Audience    166
Hashtags: The Key To Instagram Promotion    168

9. Marketing With YouTube    169
YouTube By The Numbers    170
Music Discovery On YouTube    170
Creating A YouTube Channel    171
Optimizing Your YouTube Channel    173
Branding And Design    173
Channel SEO    175
Your Channel Name    175
Custom URL    176
Keywords    177
Feature Other Channels    178
Optimizing Your Videos    178
Video SEO Basics    179
Video Branding    184
The Key To Viral Videos    185
Don’t Believe The Half-Life    186
Optimizing Video For Mobile    186
People Watch Longer On Tablets    187
Making Money From Your Videos    188
Enabling Your Account    188
Selecting The Ad Type    189
How Video Views Are Counted    191
How Video Views Are Monetized    192
View Variables    192
How Content ID Can Earn You Money    193
Creating Online Video Contests    194
Video Analytics    195
Tips For Increasing Your YouTube Engagement    196

10. Using LinkedIn For Marketing    199
Setting Up Your LinkedIn Profile    200
LinkedIn Networking Tips    203
Ways To Find People    204
Upload Your Email List    204
The People You May Know Tool    204
Join A Group    205
Ask For Help    205
LinkedIn Posting Tips    206
Updates    206
LinkedIn Pulse    207
Post Updates With Images    207
Promote Your News    208
Using ProFinder    208

11. Setting Up A Blog    211
Blogging Overview    211
Blogging Platforms    212
Blogger    212
WordPress    213
Typepad    215
Medium    216
Tumblr    217
Which To Choose?    218
Blog Design    218
The Template Or Theme    219
Layout    220
Header    220
Profile    220
Your RSS Feed    220
FeedBurner    222
Feedblitz    223
What To Write About    224
Post Length    227
My Writing Method    227
Applying The Method To A Blog    228
Photos In Posts    229
LinkWithin    229
The Secrets To A Successful Blog    230
Why Blogs Fail    232
Blog SEO    234
Using Topic Clusters As A Content Strategy    235
Promoting Your Blog    236
Popular Blog List Sites    237
Tying Your Blog To Your Website    238
Using A Blogging Platform As A Website    239
Making Money With Your Blog    240
Google Adsense    240
Affiliate Programs    242

12. Playlist Marketing    245
Getting Your Music On Popular Playlists    245
Playlist Promotion    247
Submitting Your Music To Streaming Services    248
Treating Spotify Like A Social Platform    248

13. Posting Frequency Strategy    251
Posting On Social Media    251
Facebook    251
Twitter    252
Instagram    253
LinkedIn    253
Posting On Blogs    253
Updating Your Website    254
Newsletter Frequency    255
Posting Videos    256
Releasing Music    256
Fewer Songs More Often    257

Glossary    259

About Bobby Owsinski    266

Chapter 1 Excerpt - Developing Your Social Strategy

Developing Your Online Strategy

There are a lot of online elements that every artist, band or brand has to be involved in these days in order to be an effective online marketer. It’s pretty easy to get confused and either not know where to begin, or throw yourself scattershot at all of them, which usually means that your efforts will be ineffective when it comes to promotion. If we just look at the major components, it looks something like this:

Your website
Your email list
Facebook
Twitter
​Instagram
Music releases
YouTube video posts
Blog posts

Throw in any of the 100+ additional networks available and it’s no wonder why artists, bands and music execs become bewildered by it all. We can make things a bit simpler by separating these components so they fall into one of three categories; content, interaction and tactics. If we break all this out, it looks like this:

Content: the places online where you place the material that you generate, like information about your band, music, videos, or blog posts. Interaction is all the social networks where you might interact with your fans and followers. These include:

Your website
Your mailing list
Your blog
Your videos on Youtube and other video sites
Your music files on Soundcloud or other music hosting sites

Interaction: the places where you regularly communicate with your fans, followers, clients and customers. These include:

Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Pinterest
Bookmarking
Any other social network

Tactics: everything required to define and refine who you are and your position in the online world. These include:

Branding
Strategy
Measurement

All this gets more interesting when we put into the form of a Venn chart on the left and watch how the categories intersect.

As you can see, where all three category circles cross, a new element pops up – promotion. This isn’t possible without all three elements combined, which goes to show just how synergistic they all are. Use only one or two and you fall short; use all three and new possibilities for promotion arise.

Chapter 3 Excerpt - Developing Your Brand

Basic Tracks – Preparing For The Session

While the music that you play or create is totally up to you and outside the realm of this book, what we can deal with is the second part of the brand – your image. Here are some steps to take to refine your brand.

1. Make sure your brand image accurately portrays your music and personality. If you’re a biker band, you probably don’t want a website that’s all pink and flowery. On the other hand, the pink works great for Katy Perry. Likewise, if you’re an EDM artist you wouldn’t want your site to show the woods and trees, although that could work well for an alt rock band from Minnesota or someone doing music for meditation.

2. Keep it honest and simple. Don’t try to be who you’re not, it’s too hard to pull off. You are who you are and people will either love you for it or they won’t. While you can concoct a backstory where you were taught a new form of music by aliens, then honed your technique in the jungles of Brazil, that just sets your brand up to fail if you really can’t live up to the image that’s been painted. Best to keep things simple and be honest about who and what you are and where you came from. If people like what you do and can relate to you, that will shine through and your fans will not only find it interesting enough, but will be totally fascinated as well.

3. Differentiate yourself. While it might seem tempting to proclaim that you’re just like Coldplay, that doesn’t immediately make you their equal in the eyes of the public. The fact of the matter is, there already is a Coldplay, why does the world need another one? It’s their brand, not yours. The only way that a brand can be successful is to differentiate itself from the competition. A great example is the seminal punk band The Ramones, who decided that all their songs would be as short as possible and played without solos. There must be something that makes you unique in even a small way. If you can’t find it, it may be time to go back to the drawing board.

4. Keep the look consistent. Consistency of product and image are the key to branding. That’s why you need to use the same logo and fonts and have the same general look and feel across all your promo for it to be effective. That includes your website, press kit, blog, newsletter and all social media.

5. Create a remarkable logo. This is a requirement if you’re planning to promote your brand. You need this for your website, social sites, merchandise, press kit, promo and on your stage during gigs. In short, it has to be part of everything you do. You may start promoting yourself without it, but it’s a big plus if you already have a logo. It separates you from the newbies. Just as an example, here are a few unmistakable musician’s logos in Figure 3.1.

If you’re a musician without a band, a producer, songwriter or engineer, it doesn’t mean that you must also have a logo as well (although it would be better), but at the very least, use the same font for your name on your blog, website, newsletter and anywhere else it might appear.

6. Great photos are a necessity. You need first class photos for posters, merch, website, social networks, press kits, and a lot more if you want to build your brand. This is as important as the logo – you need a great photo in order to begin any kind of promotion. Have you ever seen a Facebook page or website of a major artist without an artist or band photo?

7. Give away samples. Learn this phrase well as it will be repeated throughout this book.

Your music is your marketing.

That means that you can’t look at your music as your product. It may bring in some money eventually but not all that much in the grand scheme of things. Remember that 90 to 95% of the money that a major artist earns is not from recorded music. It’s from concerts, merchandise, publishing and licensing.

TIP: Don’t be afraid to give your music away. It’s your best marketing tool and the best way to build your brand.

8. Cool is never declared. You cannot proclaim how new and unique you are. If such a statement is in fact true, people will find out soon enough and tell the world. You can use quotes from other people, but telling the world that you think you’re cool does not make it so.

These are not the only steps that you can take, but they’ll take you a long way to creating a brand image that works for you.

Chapter 7 Excerpt - 20 Twitter Tips And Tricks

20 Twitter Tips And Tricks

 

Now that you’ve read about all the ins and outs of Twitter, let’s summarize with 20 tips and tricks:

1. Set up your profile. Your bio should include who you are and what you tweet about.

2. Be sure to use a photo of you, not a baby picture, celebrity or avatar.

3. Include your website or blog link in your profile.

4. Use fewer than 120 characters in any tweet for greater response.

5. Place a link in every tweet.

6. Don’t use more than two hashtags per tweet.

7. Stay away from bashtags or anything negative.

8. Use link shorteners like Bit.ly, Tinyurl, or Ow.ly to make more room for text and links.

9. Use a Twitter client like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to see all your Twitter feeds in one place and obtain Twitter analytics.

10. Don’t worry about your number of followers. If your content is good, they will come.

11. Find your favorite brands/bands/artists/companies on Twitter and follow them. Tweet them your feedback.

12. Find people talking about your band, music or brand and follow them.

13. If someone mentions your brand/company/you, be sure to respond.

14. Set up Google Alerts for topics of interest to tweet.

15. Tweet live from events. Tweeting from events keeps your followers and positions you as an expert.

16. Balance tweets, replies and retweets. Too much of a good thing is too much.

17. Tweet photos. A picture is worth a thousand words.

18. Don’t feed the trolls. You’ll always find a person who wants to pick a fight. Don’t get in the ring.

19. Whenever someone mentions you, add them to a “Fans†list. Follow them closely and tweet them separately about gigs, videos and song releases.

20. If you use Hootsuite, create a search stream for any mentions of your band, song or video, including any misspellings.

TIP: Make sure that you add a “Follow Me†Icon to all your online pages to give people outside of Twitter a chance to follow you.

Buy This Book