5 Tips For Using Instagram as a Musician in 2020
Music artists like producers, rappers, and even DJs can get booked at more clubs, concerts, and festivals using these 5 tips on optimizing Instagram to be found by promoters, venues, and talent buyers across the country.
Using these strategies, booking agents will be more likely to stumble upon your social media profiles and potentially book you to their next paid show.
It basically comes down to promotion. Today, there is no better form of free music promotion than social media.
1. Your bio is your first impression
First impressions matter! A good first impression will show potential followers that you are a serious artist, not an amateur. When you come across an artists page who has a consistent edge, it shows a strong entertainment factor. You can get more followers for free because of the promise that they will always be entertained, each time you post.
It’s important that you cover photos, profile pictures, and anything you post to your feed, are the correct dimensions for that specific social media platform. Use this always-up-to-date guide by Sprout Social to make sure your dimensions are always correct!
Use static posts (cover photos, pinned posts, etc.) as opportunities to showcase your list of upcoming gigs or bookings.
Use Facebook events to help promoters and talent buyers gauge how many people you’re bringing to the show. Be sure to update them regularly to reflect your upcoming gigs – these are also great ways to share all the details about your show or booking in a uniform way.
2. Be creative with your content
Use different types of media like boomerangs, slo-mo videos, selfies, illustrations, etc. and create contests for user generated content (UGC).
You should ultimately want your social feed to be a place where your followers can feel a part of the group. This will keep your followers visiting your profile and engaging, as well as encouraging their friends to follow your profile too.
3. Make infographics, illustrations, and dramatizations out of past content
You can create great shareable moments throughout your show which will boost the audiences desire to share photos of your performance. Also be sure to respond and repost all of your fans posts (user generated content) whenever they tag you. Reposting UGC will help create a bond with that fan.
When you repost a lot of UGC, you will attract attention from talent buyers, promoters, and book agents because they will see you as a way to get more people at the event.
Reward your most active followers on Instagram and other social channels by offering prizes for sharing your posts, tagging friends in the comments, and reposting your flyer.
4. Post consistently and go with your gut
You know your audience better than anyone, so always trust your gut (and hard data, of course) but a good benchmark for how many times a music artist should post is twice a day (if you have 10k or more followers) or once a day (if you have less than 10k followers).
Get booked on shows like The Great South Bay Music Festival in Long Island, New York and SXSW when you become fully immersed in your communities live music scene.
When posting a lot, always be sure to reread your post, tweet, or caption before it goes live. This will be sure you catch any grammar mistakes and typos.
5. Use every popular social media platform
You should have a profile on each of these platforms. It may seem overwhelming at first, but remember that not all of them require constant operation. Although, you should have a relevant presence on each. Use tricks like auto publish to Facebook whenever you publish to Instagram. You can also automatically tweet your Instagram caption and photo using automation tools like Zapier.
Here are the best social media platforms for music artists and why they’re important…
Facebook – create events to help promoters gauge how many people you’re bringing to the show. These events also make it easy to sell tickets and share the events details.
YouTube – this is technically the largest music streaming platform in the world. Be sure to upload all of your original and licensed music with a cool visual aspect.
Instagram – speaking of visuals, Instagram is the most visual centric social media platform and therefore photography should be taken seriously when posting here.
Tumblr – good for the very creative-type person. Plus, it’s very flexible by accepting HTML coding.
LinkedIn – If you’re trying to be a professional, make a Linkedin profile. This is where all the music industry business people are – and these are the people who will book you for a paid gig.
Twitter – the perfect mid-gig social media. Live tweeting is a thing, and people love it. Are you chilling in the green room with your band mates? Tweet about it!
Snapchat – people love the filters, geotags, and otherwise augmented reality that Snapchat has come to deliver. Have some fun with this and include your group!
TikTok – the preferred platform for Gen Z, TikTok is a fun way to show off your creativity with very shareable videos.
Here are the music streaming platforms that you should definitely be on:
Soundcloud
Spotify
Last.fm
Apple Music
Social media is one of the largest metrics that promoters, booking agents, and talent buyers use when deciding who to book for their next paid show or festival. When you have a lot of likes on Instagram on all of your posts, it shows them you work hard and will do what it takes to be a successful musician. Get more likes and follows on Instagram by using LikesDrip.com!