As an emerging artist, I have spent the last few months immersed in the world of social media trying to promote my profile and record label between Twitter, SoundCloud and Facebook. I’d like to share my experiences and advice with all those emerging DJs and artists who are trying to carve out an online profile for themselves.
As anyone who has tried to promote themselves through social media will know, getting all those important likes, followers, views or comments can be a frustrating task. You look at your favorite artist and they make it look so easy with a huge following and fans waiting to support their every move, but when it’s your turn you realize it’s not that easy.
So what have we learned about creating a successful online persona?
First of all, building a fan base requires patience. It’s going to take some time to build your online empire. Focus on creating quality foundations and be prepared to work hard to grow them.
The first step is to find your demographics. My advice is to look for quality and not quantity. Join groups that promote your style of music on Soundcloud or check out the followers of an artist or DJ who plays music similar to yours. This will give you a selection of “fans” to target who may also be interested in hearing your music. Interact with them, you will be surprised how many more people are willing to support you when you treat them on a human level, and how quickly your popularity will increase.
Second, be willing to give something back, in fact, make it an active part of your strategy. Taking an interest in the people you want to support you is vitally important. I regularly support my fans by taking time each day to listen to their music, check out their Facebook pages or see what they’re tweeting, and visibly show my support with likes, comments, and retweets. Look at your emerging fan base as a community that you’re an active part of and you’ll start to find that all these major likes and followers start to come naturally.
Third, don’t think in numbers, think in proportions. Today it is easy to buy as many fans, followers, views and likes as you want. You can get anything you need, so these numbers by themselves are meaningless. Many times I come across an artist who apparently has thousands of fans but only 24 views on his latest track, or some similar disproportionate figure. Start thinking about ratios, i.e. how much interaction you get in relation to the number of fans or followers you have. Look for a good interaction relationship and you will know that you are engaging your fans and building a healthy base.
The great thing about social media is that as you get more exposure, it becomes easier to build momentum. You will find that as long as you have created genuine foundations, you will begin to spread. Don’t be discouraged if your stats don’t reach the thousands, I regularly come across the profiles of very successful DJ’s who don’t have a huge following on social media, and that brings me to my final point.
Get out into the real world, that’s where it really happens.
Social media platforms are a great way to promote yourself, but don’t forget the old fashioned way. Rocking out on a dance floor on Saturday night is a sure way to get people to Google you on Sunday night and now you’ll be ready for them with your awesome new online profile.