On an indie level it’s even more crucial to have a social media campaign, so you can connect with as many fans as possible. Here are 8 ways musicians can build their social media presence.

1. Build a consistent posting strategy.

Building a consistent posting strategy is a key to building a social media presence. Consistency will also keep your fans engaged with your music. If your social media accounts go too long without any updates, your fans will forget about you and your music. Social media accounts that have more consistent updates are highly correlated with an increased amount of followers. The best way to create a consistent posting strategy is to get use a scheduler such as the auto scheduler built into Hootsuite. It can put all your updates in for the week, put them on a scheduler, and forget about them. That way you don’t flood your fans’ timeline with overload of information.

2. Tailor your content to the social media platform you’re using.

Some platforms perform better with visual content such as Instagram and Facebook. Other platforms such as twitter performs better when posting live content. It’s best to tailor your content to the right platform you can make the biggest impact on your audience.

3. Engage in one on one conversations. 

It’s really important to engage in one on one conversation because it creates an instant connection with your fan base. If a fan reaches out to you, engage in a one on one conversation, you never know where that connect may lead you. Please note that time is of the essence when reaching out to fans. Studies show that fans expect musicians to respond within one hour.

4. Utilize special giveaways and promotions.

Giveaways and promotions are a great way to build your social media presence. Rafflecopter is a great tool to facilitate giveaways for your fans. By using Rafflecopter you can choose the submission options that best suit your social media campaign. You can choose to have your fans tweet about your music to get an entry to your giveaway. This can help you build a larger fan base relatively easy. In my experience, make sure your giveaway is something that is in line with your message and audience. One last tip on giveaways, do not be the musician that offers a free cd as a giveaway. Make sure your giveaway is a personal experience, not a product.

5. Share useful and valuable content.

It’s not enough to just promote your music. You need to share content that is interesting and valuable to your fans. If you are in the midst of creating an album, it’s a good idea to share footage of you creating the album. Fans love to see behind the scenes footage and it allows them to feel like they are apart of your movement. It’s also important to utilize a 80/20 rule when posting content. 80 percent of the time share useful content, 20 percent of the time share promotional content. Most musicians only share promotional content and wonder why they don’t have the fan base that they need to get to the next level. Please don’t be that musician.

6. Find, follow, and connect with musicians in your market.

When building your social media presence, you must link up with others. Retweet influencers in your market, share other musicians post, just build a relationship with people. Twitter has an amazing search feature that you can use to find artist in your market to follow. Go to the search field, add musician plus your city, and press search. You will find all the musicians who have listed musician in their bio. Another under-utilized tip is going to Reverbnation and using the charts to find musicians to connect with. When using Reverbnation, select the chart option, put in your zip code, and the result will appear. You can even filter results by genre.

7. Use email marketing.

This may be a little advanced for some but it’s really important to use email marketing when creating a social media presence. You do not own any social media platform and relying solely on them to build an audience will lead to a major disappointment. I have seen hundreds of accounts banned for “lack of conduct” and all their hard work creating their huge following is over. Another problem with using social media is its reach. On average, your content will only be showed to about 5 percent of your fans. To get the other 95 percent of your audience to see your content you must pay for advertising. This is why it’s critical to use email as a tool to stay in contact with your fans. Email marketing is the cheapest and you have the most control over what content is seen by your fans. Another good thing about email marketing is that you can use it to put together presales of your albums and concerts. You can use Rafflecopter to get started with email marketing.

8. Hire a social media firm.

Hiring a social media firm can take an artist with no buzz to a star. It takes a lot of work for musicians to create new music, rehearse, do interviews, and do everything else that goes along with being a musician. Outsourcing some of the work can make your life easier. Please note, not all social media firms are created equally. To be on the safe side, I included my top 5 attributes to look for when hiring a social media firm.

1. Naturally Curious

A great social media firm should be curious about your brand. They should be excited to hear about what you got going on and how they can help.

2. Writes in Your Voice

When I observe some celebrities’ accounts, it’s so obvious that their account are being handled by someone else. A good social media firm should be able to write in your voice.

3. Responds Quickly to Your Fans

If a fan asked a question or comment posted on Twitter or on your brand’s Facebook Page or blog, it should be answered right away. Great social media firms know this and will answer questions quickly and promptly.

All the content on your blog, Facebook page, Twitter profile, YouTube channel and so on, has to support your business-related goals. At times, musicians may find it difficult to separate their business goals from their creative goals. Having a good social media firm will ensure that all of your content is in align with your business goals. But, it’s imperative that you give your firm all the details of your goals. You both need to be on the same page. Create a timeline with your firm that outlines what they can do and in what amount of time.

5. Respects Confidentiality

A social media firm will require all passwords to your social media accounts. It’s important to discuss what can and cannot be shared with your fans. Several musicians have had photos, music, and even sex tapes leaked without their permission. Make sure you have a talk with your social media firm about confidentiality before they start running your account. If you implement all 8 strategies in this blog post you will see an explosion in your social media presence. It can lead to more sales, brand extensions, and even a record deal. Use these strategies and watch your career take off. Good Luck!