Facebook is here to stay, and it’s essential that you start leveraging it if you truly want to build a fan base, get connections, and thrive in the music industry. It’s easy to create a Facebook profile and then say “all done,” but the truth to the matter is you need to be active on social media regularly (i.e. daily) if you want to gain and maintain a fanbase. Here are some tips to get you started with promoting your music on Facebook.
Bring Your Account To Life
When starting out, it’s important that you establish yourself as a music artist. You should obviously have a Facebook fan page separate from your personal Facebook profile that you market to your fans. If you don’t have that yet, get one now!
You should have a profile photo, cover, bio, and all other information filled out. Already done that?
Well, a dead account is worse than not posting at all. What happens when someone hears about you and looks you up on Facebook, just to see that you haven’t posted anything since last year (or even before!)? The point is, you want anyone who comes across your music and your social media accounts to instantly know that you’re still at it.
When someone visits your Facebook page, they should see consistent, relevant posts. 1-3 posts a day would be excellent (and up to 5). You’re probably thinking, what can I write about that often? …
Post All Relevant Content
At first, you should try to keep things as on-topic as possible. This means you can write about:
- Shows you’ve been to
- Local musicians you’re a fan of
- Shout-outs to musicians you follow for their accomplishments
- Updates on upcoming shows and releases
- Behind-the-scenes content
The last one especially is really important. You should let fans into your life and show them your studio, your writing and recording process, etc.
And remember: images sell. Aside from shout-outs, no one really wants to read just text (that’s what Twitter is for). Try to add pictures to your posts whenever possible. And of course videos are really important as well.
You should always be thinking about your fans’ interests in you. Pay attention to the posts they like the most and post more of that type of content.
Finally, when it comes time for you to release an album or mixtape, don’t just post about it once. Do a countdown starting about a week before it’s out and post daily. “Hey, 6 more days until _______ is released!” etc. You should talk about the music, your inspiration, and everything that went into it. That’s what fans want to read and hear about.
Facebook Groups
There are plenty of music groups on Facebook where you can network with other artists and producers and post your new releases, your music videos etc.
Just try to not simply spam your music in those groups – which is what most other artists are currently doing – but instead try to provide value and feedback to others as well by liking and commenting on their posts, as that will help you separate yourself from the crowd and then other group members will be more likely to check out your music as well. Remember that networking is key.
Also try to join Facebook groups that are more relevant to your style of music or even your location etc. whenever possible, as that should bring even better results.
Contests And Giveaways
Another great way to promote your music on Facebook is by doing contests and giveaways. It can be something as simple as asking your fans to share and comment on your post and picking one winner at random that will win a copy of your new album or free tickets to your show etc. This can really help you increase your audience and gain more likes to your Facebook page.
Facebook Ad Campaigns
Facebook Ad Campaigns can be super helpful as well. They make it very easy to just spend $5 (or even $50) in an instant, and have thousands of people see your post.
That may be true, but the reality is that very few of those thousands of people will actually care about your posts, unless you take the time to target your ads to the right audience that will be interested in your music, so make sure that you don’t overlook that important step.
Also in most cases you shouldn’t use the boost post button. Instead, you need to go to the ad section of Facebook and create an ad campaign. This takes a few more steps, but you’ll get much better results in the long run.
Facebook advertising is a big chapter by itself so we’ll have to return with more details in a future post, so stay tuned!
