How is Your Social Media Mindset?
I work with so many music artists who hate social media. They resent that it takes them away from doing what they want to be doing, which is creating music. They feel the constant pressure to post, be active and to engage and that can make them reject it completely. We have all heard stories about: a singer who posted a cover and it went viral on the Internet, an artist who was discovered by a record label via their TIK TOK profile or a band who were put together from a management company finding them all individually on YouTube. We know these things happen but still the prospect of using social media to promote music is off-putting for some artists.
Is this you? Do you hate it? Do you resent being told to do it? Would you rather ignore it and hope it goes away?
If so, how about we reframe your mindset around social media?
Consider that social media provides you with a FREE advertising and marketing tool. We don’t get much for free these days and if you have ever looked into PR campaigns for your music you will know how much they cost. You also have CREATIVE CONTROL over your brand and the message that you want to put across. You, the artist, are in the drivers seat. Social media gives you a STAGE on which to perform your music. Whether you use it in a ‘Live’ capacity or to show off your pre-recorded performances it gives you a PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITY. After the two years that we have all just lived through with gigs and festivals being cancelled and heavy competition for limited slots this is not to be overlooked. You can interact and engage with your followers too. This is not something you send in the post and hope someone opens it. Moreover, hope someone considers and discusses it. It opens up COMMUNICATION that you can take part in.
When you look at it like this, why would you not use it? Let’s face it, no one is going to discover you via your TIK TOK profile if you don’t post on it and your music is definitely not going to go viral if you don’t put it out there.
If I put all the words above that I capitalised and made bold into a sentence to reframe your social media mindset we have the following;
‘Social media gives me a performance opportunity that I have creative control over, on a stage that opens up communication with existing and potential fans.’
I left out the FREE word because it does cost you something, it costs you time. So, how can we make it as time efficient as possible? Here are a few suggestions;
Set up an area in your living space ready for filming. Make sure you have a suitable backdrop, lighting and vibe for your music. None of this has to be expensive, you can be resourceful, you are a creative being! If it is always ready for you to just jump in without having the excuse of setting up the space you are more likely to do it regularly.
Document what you you are already doing. You will be writing, rehearsing, travelling, gigging etc. anyway, so film it all on your phone and you can cut it into snippets for reels and posts later on. This will help consistency.
Change your clothes and film some more if you are on a roll, no one will know it is the same day. Get ahead of yourself if the mood strikes and film some footage for future posts.
Use useless time, like commuting or waiting for an appointment, to edit posts and save them as drafts. Having drafts will help you maintain a social media presence on days that you don’t feel like creating posts.
I think the most important thing is to make it easy for yourself.
These are just a few time saving ideas, please let me know if you have any other strategies that work for you.
And in case you still need convincing, remember that ‘social media gives you a performance opportunity that you have creative control over, on a stage that opens up communication with your existing and potential fans’.
I hope that reframe has helped and motivated you to go and post about your music. Tag me so we can follow your journey!