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Ariel Hyatt’s Social Media Food Pyramid

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Cyber PR’s Social Media Pyramid

It’s no longer a question whether or not social media is here to stay, but it STILL after all these years confounds so many of us.  When I’m teaching clients best social media practices or speaking about it, I find the same scenario plays out almost every time.  Faces go pale, frustration begins to well up, and then the next words are, “I just don’t have anything interesting to say.”

If you’re an entrepreneur or an artist, of course you have something very important to share. 

All you are missing is a system for your social media posting.  I have created an Infographic to help you ratchet up your social media and manage it easily.  

There are five kinds of activity that you need to understand

 Feel free to mix and match within these groups in order to suit your comfort level.

Group #1: Group Engagement

Like: BREAD, CEREAL, RICE & PASTA

Servings (Recommended Frequency): 3 – 4 out of every 10 posts

Make sure you’re in a two-way conversation with people consistently.  Here are a few ways to do so:

  •  Facebook: See something interesting on a fan, friend, or group’s Facebook page? Don’t just “like” it: write a   true comment about it and get more involved.
  • Twitter: Send messages to people or mention you are with them by using the @ sign and their username (For example: I’m @CyberPR).  Retweet (RT) tweets you like by others.
  •  Instagram: Like and comment on others’ photos!
  •  Blogs: Read and share great posts on your socials and leave comments!
  •  YouTube: Make custom video comments or greetings with a smartphone; post them as comments or contributions.  Subscribe to other people’s channels, and comment on their videos.

Group #2: Shine a Light on Others

Like: FRUITS & VEGETABLES

Servings (Recommended Frequency): 3 out of every 10 posts

All the best social media users know this, and use it well.  This takes all of the attention off of you and puts it onto others, and people will appreciate your kindness because you are recognizing them in front of new potential fans and followers, and therefore, helping them get visibility. Don’t forget to tag everyone you shine a light on so they can see.

  • Facebook: Quote people you like by sharing their profiles and videos on Facebook and share (re-post) on your page.  Also link to articles and interesting things that catch your attention, share videos by people in your tribe that inspire you 
  • Twitter: Use hashtags, @’s and RT on Twitter —  talk about why, and how particular tweets influenced or touched you.
  • Instagram: Regram others and add a comment about why.
  •  YouTube: Curate lists of videos you like created by others

Group #3: Curate Content

Like: MEAT, POULTRY, FISH, BEANS, EGGS

Servings (Recommended Frequency): 2 – 3 out of every 10 posts

Set up a RSS reader to pull interesting content for you so you don’t have to come up with anything brilliant.  Also, curate lists on Twitter so you can pick out the good stuff easily select what you like, and share.  If it’s interesting to you, it’s probably interesting to your crowd.

Ask yourself: How do I spend my time online?  What do I read?  Are there sites I visit daily?  What makes me inspired?  What makes me laugh? Then simply add them to your RSS reader.

Some great items to share are breaking news, reviews, in-depth discussions and commentary on topics of interest to your crowd, fun factoids, and so on.  Blogs are a great resource for curated content: politics, celebrity gossip, parenting, music, fashion, art, and sports all make good topics for people to connect around.

Group #4: Images and Visuals

Like: MILK, CHEESE & YOGURT

Servings (Recommended Frequency): 2 out of every 10 posts

Visuals are extremely effective, and they are a great way to “mix up” your social media strategy.

  • Facebook and Instagram: Take photos using your mobile and post them to Facebook and Instagram.  If you have an iPhone, the best way to do this is with the Instagram app.
  • Twitter: Mix up your Tweets with photos & videos they go straight into your feed and they get stored on your homepage bonus!
  • Instagram: Visualize your blog posts and share.
  • Pinterest: This is a wonderful way to share photos of anything you are passionate about, and create boards for your own content and anything you sell.
  • YouTube: Post videos on your YouTube channel, embed them and post across socials too!  They don’t even have to be videos that you make on your own.  They can be videos that make you laugh, or subjects that are thematic to your niche.

Group #5: Self-Promotion (Use Sparingly!)

Like: FATS, OILS & SWEETS 

Servings (Recommended Frequency): 1 out of every 10 posts

Of course, you should post self-promotional content once in awhile, but not in an over-hype-y, annoying way.  It is, after all, vital to tell people if you have a program, project or product coming out, or anything that’s newsworthy or noteworthy for your crowd to know about.  That being said, don’t forget about your specific Calls To Action, or these won’t be fruitful.

Mix up these five activities and soon you will be fully engaging people easily and naturally, and your crowd will grow organically in size — and loyalty too.  

 

Come Take Social Media Tune-Up

Feel like you need a little more hand-holding to get your social media up to speed?

I have created an 11-part course that will walk you through EXACTLY what to do on each platform and show you how to optimize and tweak each one as well as provide more coaching on how to attract more followers and fans to each platform.

 

All you need to do to get in is purchase my newest book CROWDSTART and I will add you to my course:



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The post Ariel Hyatt’s Social Media Food Pyramid appeared first on Cyber PR Music.


5 Critical Things You Need Before You Start Music Publicity

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5-things-to-know-before-you-start-pr

 

As an independent musician, a music PR campaign can be a critical component to an overall marketing strategy that will help you to:

1. Reach new fans

2. Increase online influence

3. Create new content that can be used to continue to build strength of existing fan base through social media

4. Better understand marketplace position

 

While all four of these goals are essential for you to have, and there is no doubt an effective PR campaign can help you achieve them, many artists jump into full-fledge PR campaigns a bit too early.

In order for music PR to be truly successful and achieve everything you want it to, you must have the 5 following assets at the ready:

1. A Social Media Presence & Daily Posting Practice

Yep, I started with this and not with music – GASP!  Too many musicians underestimate the importance of a social media presence and how it  directly relates to the success of a music PR campaign.

There are two reasons why it is so important that you also have a strong social media presence:

 

IMPORTANT REASON #1 – Music Bloggers Check Your Socials

With so many musicians and music publicists inundating the inboxes of bloggers and journalists, it is inevitable that they will check the social media presence of each submission as a filter for who to, and who not to, consider for coverage.

This certainly doesn’t mean that you need to have a HUGE social media presence with hundreds of thousands of fans, but it does mean that you need to be consistently posting content to your socials that communicates “you”, and you need to be engaging with your fans (and the media too!).

Ultimately, apart from being introduced to music, bloggers are also interested in driving traffic to their sites. A blogger wants to know that if he or she is going to take the time to cover your music, you will be able to return the support by sharing the feature with your fans, helping the blogs to build their followings as well.

IMPORTANT REASON #2 – Music Bloggers Expect Mutual Promotion

In order for PR to truly be effective, each feature needs to be properly leveraged through social media to mobilize the existing fan base.

In other words, each feature is new content that you can use to engage your fans without having to say ‘listen to my music’… this form of sharing your successes is a much more subtle form of self-promotion than the much dreaded shameless self-promo that

too many musicians practice (and no one likes).

 

Again, having hundreds of thousands of fans isn’t the point here, but rather you need to have a consistent content strategy that covers all 6 rooms of your social media house, which includes (but isn’t limited to) Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Blog, Newsletter.

 

Here is how often you need to post to each social platform in order to remain ‘consistent’:

Facebook Page:

5 posts per week – Boost at least 1

Twitter:

2 – 5 tweets per day

Newsletter:

1 newsletter per month

Youtube:

At least 1 new video per month (note this doesn’t need to be a professional music video)

Instagram:

Post at least 5 times a week.

 

2. Music For Release

The ideal scenario is that you have at least a few singles or an upcoming EP (containing at least 4 songs) that is set for release around 1 to 2 months from the start date of your PR campaign . For the most part, bloggers don’t like to mention an upcoming release if there is too much lead-time between their feature and the release.

Don’t forget the blog readers (who are your potential fans!) With the web being the way it is, readers are confronted  24/7. Therefore, it’s really not in your best interest as an indie artist to space singles and EPs light years apart from each other.

Keep the rollout tight and the momentum up, while at the same time being flexible in case something takes off.

It IS certainly possible to do a PR campaign for music that has been previously released. When publicizing previously released music, understand that there will be journalists who will pass based on the fact that the music hasn’t been released within the last three months.

 

3. A Professional, Compelling, Telling Bio (We Call It A Signature Story) 

A professionally written bio that weaves a compelling story about who you are and what makes you unique is not something to overlook. A great bio (we call it a signature story around here) is an essential asset to an effective music PR campaign.

Your bio should serve as a one-stop shop for bloggers to get the facts on you, your project, where you’ve been, and where you’re going. And, even though your music will speak for itself, you’re going to want to talk about yourself and your music in a way that will

entice people to click that play button.

Unfortunately, one paragraph saying that you are a musician from so-and-so making rock music that will blow everyone’s mind is not going to make anyone want to click that button. What will make people listen, is a bio that communicates your story

and pays acute attention to detail and nuance.  A professional bio can run you a few hundred dollars, but it’s reusable and will come in handy long after your campaign has ended.

 

Note: There are bloggers out there who will repurpose your bio in order to create enough content for their blog post.  This is, good news for you if you have a strong bio! The fact that many bloggers will re-purpose the bio means that you now have the opportunity to control the messaging of their features, telling their readers the important points about you that may stick out to fans as unique and intriguing.

 

L-R Top Tuelo, Beau+Luci Carter Lou & The Project, The Krickets

Top L-R  Tuelo, Beau+Luci  Bottom L-R Carter Lou & The Project, The Krickets

 

3. Professional Promo Photos & Great Cover Art

Do you know what gets people to click on your write up? The promo photo or the cover art – EP / Single / Album – depending on what the blog features. It might be kinda sad, but it’s true. If you have any doubts, just think of your own initial reaction when checking

out artists who are not yet known to you. Because of human instinct and the fact that we are exposed to thousands of well orchestrated images PER DAY, you’ll want to pay close attention to the messaging in your photos.

Above you will see 4 band and artist promo photos from some members of our Cyber PR artist family.  These photos have performed very well with the media and they capture the essence of the artists.  I included photos with 4,3,2 and 1 artist for reference.

What do you want the takeaway to be for potential fans who see your promo photo and album cover?

You can’t get away from needing great photos. All bloggers, podcasters, and sites like Spotify will want a photo or cover image. Many new media makers have a quality standard to uphold and poor photos of you and/ or your band could actually be a deal breaker

On the other hand, unique, creative and well thought out promo photos and album covers can be the ice breaker needed to get bloggers to check out your music.

 

Here is some cover art we love…
Top L-R Place Holder Place Holder. Bottom L-R Sugar Single by Jasper Sawyer

Top L-R Kill J – Quasi album cover, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Oddments album cover                                        Bottom L-R Terror Jr. Sugar single cover,  Jasper Sawyer Semi-Discovered Music of Jasper Sawyer mix tape cover

 

 

 

4. A Niche to Conquer / Some Serious Consideration of Genre

Identifying a specific niche to target and/or pinpointing your genre is a critical component to any successful digital music PR campaign.

GENRE:

The media is getting to a point where it sees “singer-songwriter” and eyes glaze over. You probably are a singer-songwriter, and that simple categorization may not work for everyone.

It’s important to think of the publications you want to be in, read them, and see how they describe/talk about music. If they label everyone as singer-songwriter, you’re good to go! If they are approaching things from a more intricate perspective, you might want to think of yourself in those terms as well. You don’t have to be a music journalist yourself. You just have to be conscious.

There are many more genres (and sub genres) than just rock, pop, country, jazz, EDM, etc. You want to get specific and it’s okay to reference other artists that you get compared to to give bloggers a sense of who you sound like (but do note: getting compared to someone is

DIFFERENT from being influenced by another artist!

NICHE:

It is important to note that your niche does not, in any way, need to reflect your genre of music. Anything that you are passionate about, anything that has inflicted you as a person (such as a disease or social plight) or any part of your upbringing that has helped to define who you are as a person and a musician can be a great niche.

The idea here is that on music blogs, you are just another musician being covered, however on, say a positivity blog or an anime blog, you are the one, or one of very few musicians being covered making your story and your music far more unique which can help it to resonate with the reader-base.

 

Recap…for successful music PR outreach you will need music that’s ready to go, a professional, compelling bio, great promo photos, a niche to conquer, and a social media presence. If you don’t have these five things, get to it!


Ready to rock your own Music PR Campaign?  Download our Guide and Learn how…  Then call us  to see if we are your next PR team!

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The post 5 Critical Things You Need Before You Start Music Publicity appeared first on Cyber PR Music.

The Musician’s Guide to Instagram

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Instagram — the most popular visual social platform has experienced a meteoric rise.  As of today, there are over 700 million active Instagram users, and 95 million photos shared every day. And 80% of Instagram users come from outside of the United States! I guess a picture really is worth a thousand words.  In case you didn’t know, Instagram was acquired by Facebook for 1 billion dollars in April, 2012. We hear from artists all of the time that they love Instagram the most because of it’s ease of use.

Pimping Your Profile

Instagram allows you to change your profile photo and add a 150 word bio with one link, so choose carefully!  Next, connect to people you already know on Facebook, and if you choose, you can also search and connect to contacts in your phone.  Next, link your socials by locating the little “wheel” at the top right of the app where you can link to your Facebook, Twitter, and others.

After this is complete, it’s simple.  Take a photo (or choose one already stored on your phone). Next, apply a filter which will enhance the photo, change the color, make the photo look old, rotate it, soften colors, etc., and then post!

TIP: Try to keep your user name consistent with your Twitter handle! Not only does this make it easier for fans to find you across social channels, but if someone tweets an Instagram photo of you, it will connect to your Twitter account as well.

Hashtags

When you post a photo, choose at least two hashtags, as this is how photos are found.  Top Hashtags is a site that shows the top hashtags trending in real time if you are stuck, or want to get into an active hashtag conversation. You can put these hashtags in the actual caption, or post them in a comment under the photo after it’s been published.

Screen Shot 2017-08-09 at 12.49.33 PM

#cyberpr #indepedentartists

Captions Should Tell A Story

In addition to hashtags, you need to add captions to your photos before posting. What’s going on in your photo? Fans want to connect with you on a personal level, so tell them a story! Post a few photos in real time, documenting the lead-up to a show, a day on tour, a trip to the zoo, etc.

IMG_1182

Humor is always welcome 🙂

Timing is Everything

It’s vital to track which times your fans engage with your posts. Posting at 2 am on a Saturday might work perfectly for an EDM DJ, but it’s not a great strategy for an older folk singer. Think about your target fan, and when they’re most likely to be scrolling through Instagram. If you need help with this, there’s a great website called Iconosquare that connects with your account and gives you detailed analytics on your followers and their engagement.

Cross Posting to Twitter

I caution you to be selective about what you cross-post to socials.  You want to tell a separate story on each of your socials to get people to join you, and not get fatigued by the same posts across channels.  Once in awhile, it’s perfectly OK to cross-post.

TIP: when you cross-post to Twitter, your photo will not show up in your tweet stream (nor will it be added to your photos section on your Twitter page.  It will instead show up as a link to Instagram.  This is beneficial to get followers from Twitter, but can become annoying to your Twitter friends — another reason to use sparingly! There are ways to get your photos to show up on Twitter, but we’ll save that for the next blog post.

Cross Posting to Facebook

Ditto with Facebook. You want to be Instagramming 3-5 times per week and if you cross-post to FB every time, it will get real old, real fast. The way you get people to follow all your different social channels is to actually make them different. It’s okay to occasionally put an Instagram photo up on FB, but save it for the really good/important pics.

Create CTA Posts

Make special posts to advertise events, releases, or get people to follow your Page on Facebook or your Twitter stream. There are a few apps that help you write on top of Instagram photos, creating beautiful and professional CTAs. We’ll go into these in our next blog post.

IMG_1183

Ed Sheeran used a pretty nifty CTA to get his fans to follow him on Snapchat.

Videos

Instagram allows you to post 60-second videos – just long enough to catch the chorus of your latest song! Take the video from your phone, or upload a higher quality clip. This is a great way to promote your new music video, or your next show. Keep in mind that engagement rates on videos in Instagram tend to be lower than the engagement rates on photos, so don’t rely too heavily on the video option. If you want to post lots of videos, Vine might be a better option for you.

Instagram Stories

Instagram stories are a new feature within Instagram where users can share their day with their followers! You can post just simple photos of you going about your day, or you can record short videos. You can even use boomerang to make a looped post. Within this feature, you can also add a link that the viewer will have to swipe up to open. This can be used to promote a lot of different things – you can ask your followers to follow your other socials, send out a link to buy your new song or album on iTunes, etc.

Instagram Live

Instagram now has live streaming. When you start one of these live streams, a notification is sent out to your followers to notify them that you are live! There is also a comment feature that happens in real time, so you can answer questions that your followers are sending in. This is a great way to connect with your fans on a more personal level, or to make announcements in a new, creative way!

instalive

Other Tools and Apps to Optimize Your Account

There are dozens of great apps and sites you can use to optimize your photos and fan engagement on Instagram. We’ve touched on a few of them in this post, but stay tuned for our next post, because we’re going to give you a run-down of these tools, and show you some examples of musicians who are rocking it on Instagram!

Still Struggling to Come Up With Content?

At Cyber PR, we encourage our clients to focus on thematics when coming up with content to post on social media. What do your tribe/followers want to see? What fits your personality? What are you trying to say? What do you care about? We recommend choosing up to five thematics, and focusing on those when posting on social media. Here are ten examples to get you started:

  1. Charities/causes that you care about – #unicef #childfund
  2. Family – #bro
  3. Your pets/animals – #grumpycat #puppy
  4. Other music/musicians, shows you go to, etc. – #musicmonday
  5. Your upcoming events, premieres, etc. – #livemusicNYC
  6. Your creative process – #coffeecoffeecoffee
  7. Food – #COOKIES
  8. Your hometown/where you live – #nyc #brooklyn
  9. Nature – #outdoors #dirt
  10. Your hobbies – #adultcoloringbooks

Then there’s always #tbt (Throwback Thursday). Awkward childhood photos go down a treat.

There you go – the basics of Instagramming. Once you have a few photos, you will begin to lay out a visual story for yourself. Instagram is a great place to figure out what you want your brand image to be, and what parts/how much of your life you want to share with your fans. Above all, don’t forget to engage with other users! Follow users who interest you, search for hashtags, and then like or comment on photos. This is how you really start to build your community!

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The post The Musician’s Guide to Instagram appeared first on Cyber PR Music.

How to Identify and Engage Your Ultimate Fan

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HOW TO IDENTIFY AND ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE (2)

Out of your online following, how many true “fans” do you actually have — people who know you, like you, trust you and would part with money to hire or support you? Do you know what your ultimate fan wants?  And are there 50, 100, 1,000? How do you communicate with them? Do you have their e-mail addresses, their physical addresses, or are you linked on social channels? Do you see these people frequently in real life, or are you in contact with them only online?

 

And how much do you really know about the people — their likes, their dislikes, and why they follow you in the first place?

I have devised my crowd ID exercise so that you can find this information out. It is an excerpt from my forthcoming book Social Media Tune Up and is the foundation that you should operate from when you go to your socials. 

It’s important to understand three things:

First:

Who’s already there?

Second:

What is their emotional connection to you?

Third:

How can you increase your follower’s engagement with you? 

 

 

Getting To Know Who’s Already There

 

Everyone has a specific type of “fan” or follower in his or her tribe. This person can also be referred to as your ideal customer, “avatar,” part of your target audience or target market. Whatever you call this person, it’s important to know as much as possible so you can (1) reach out to them through the right channels, and (2) create content, products, or projects that will engage their emotions and make them want to support you.

 

This exercise is designed to help you get clarity around your following. If you already have a mailing list, Twitter following or Facebook Page, I suggest you take a look at the names, Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics (https:// analytics.twitter.com) or on your Twitter page, to help spark your memory and complete this data gathering exercise. 

 

Answer these questions. If you don’t know this information about your following start gathering data right now for the future.

 

The Cyber PR Crowd ID Exercise

(Click here or on the image below to download this entire exercise.)

Who Are Your Fans?

  • Are they male or female? What percentage of the group is male, and what percentage is female?
  • Are they singles or couples, and what percentage of each?
  • How old are they? Give a general 10-year age range. Don’t you dare say “18-65”!
  • What kinds of careers do they have? Are they professionals? Still in college/university? Freelancers? Stay-at-home parents?
  • On average, how much money do they make per year?
If you had more males in your audience you will answer for a man if you had more females for a woman.

 

What does he/she like to do?

  • What activities / hobbies
  • Skiing
  • Surfing
  • Hiking with dogs
  • Wine tasting
  • What else can you think of? 

 

What does he/she do for entertainment?

  • Go to movies
  • Live Music
  • Eat at restaurants

 

To Continue The Cyber PR Crowd ID Exercise Click this image:

Buy Social Media Tune Up

The post How to Identify and Engage Your Ultimate Fan appeared first on Cyber PR Music.

How To Get PR for Your Crowdfunding Campaign

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This is an excerpt from my best selling new book CROWDSTART

This guide will walk you through what you need to prepare for in generating online PR for your crowdfunding campaign, and show how you can quickly garner targeted new media PR which will give you more assets and fodder to share with your tribe throughout your crowdfunding campaign.

“Traditional” PR outlets are newspapers, magazines, and television. I caution you when approaching these for your crowdfunding campaign. 
Online PR is another story and if you are like the vast majority of crowdfunders and you are raising money for a project that is relevant to a smaller niche-focused group (your personal fan base), the most effective PR you can garner is online PR.

This means approaching blogs, podcasts, and online tastemakers that are targeted to the niches that will care most about your project. This type of PR is worth your effort if you are launching a larger campaign (10K and above).

 

When To Try For “Old-Fashioned” PR
Traditional journalists are looking for newsworthy items with wide appeal. This means news that is topical and relevant to a large audience and include an intriguing angle.

There are only three times that a crowdfunding campaign would be considered newsworthy to traditional media:

A campaign has had explosive numbers in a short amount of time (i.e., Amanda Palmer raising a quarter of a million dollars for her album in the first 24 hours).
A campaign that has a very interesting or unique story, such as Igor Vovkovinskiy, Kite the innovative and non-toxic patch that keeps mosquitoes away, and POOL+ an innovative urban swimming pool.
A campaign that far exceeds its goal and makes history. Note: traditional media might not see this as a newsworthy piece until after the campaign is completed, and the PR will actually hurt your chances of raising more money beyond the goal. According to Wikipedia, out of the top 50 highest netting crowdfunding projects, only one was music-related (Amanda Palmer).  Not surprisingly, 19 of them are video game-related as gamers are fanatical, interconnected, and communicate in tight-knit communities online because they operate in multi-player environments.
Obviously none of these three cases is a common scenario.

Don’t let that discourage you from getting your own PR.

 

How To Be Your Own Crowdfunding Publicist 
The first step in your journey is to create your crowdfunding press kit, which consists of these three elements that should be readily available for you to send easily and share:

Your blogger outreach letter
Your video – all ready for a sneak preview
Your bio
1. Your Blogger / New Media Outreach Email

This is a specific email that you draft for bloggers, podcasters and new media. Each one will probably have to be somewhat customized depending on how well you know them and what you are asking. This email will be asking bloggers specifically for an interview featuring you, a guest post written by you, or a Q&A with you that includes content relevant to your crowdfunding campaign. A full outline of how to write this is included in my Roadmap at the end of this book.

 

2. Your Video

Video is a powerful way to connect to new media makers and many will be more likely to respond if you share a sneak peek of your crowdfunding video with them.

 

3. Your Bio

Write a one-page bio that is succinct and captivating. I strongly advise avoiding vague clichés. Try making your description stand out. This bio will be about you, or if it is not about you personally, it should reflect the organization launching the project. You may need this if bloggers are going to be interviewing you so that they have something they can easily insert into the article along with your photo and video.

I highly recommend creating four separate bios with the following lengths:

One page
100- 150 word
50 words
Tweet (less than 140 characters)
Try to create a bio with the assumption that the vast majority of people need a hook within the first five sentences. Shorter is sweeter.

Now that your three assets are in place, its time to move ahead with new media maker, (blogger and podcaster), outreach.

 

Five Steps To Blog and Podcast Press
If you already have a tribe of people and a fan base that you are aiming your crowdfunding to, it will be easy to identify these bloggers and podcasters. In fact, if you are active on social media, you might already know exactly who to contact. If not, follow these steps:

 

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/ndEqyRrc_pc” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Step 1: Identify Relevant Niches

In my case, I went after fellow bloggers and companies who support the independent music community because that is who my project was aimed to help.

Come up with at least five online niches to increase your chances of success. Niche examples include music, technology, fashion, travel, health & wellness, book reviews, cooking, and parenting. You can drill down even further here and identify niches that focus your outreach even more, like I did with independent musicians, DIY blogs and artist success blogs. Some cases of more specific niches might be mobile technology, affordable fashion, and singles travel.

 

Step 2: Find Your Bloggers

A Google Search will turn up blogs and other influencers in your identified niches.

Once you review each blog, you will become more acquainted with who contributes to it, comments on it, and reads it.  To get an even deeper sense of the blogs target audience, look at their Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, G+ and Twitter communities. This will help you decide if the blog is right for you.

 

Step 3: Check Alexa -Rankings

Check to see that the blog has a high Alexa Ranking, which means it is relevant and indexed by Google, with significant traffic.

To do this, go to Alexa at http://www.alexa.com and type / copy the URL of the blog or site. If the result number is less than a million (1,000,000) and information about the site or blog pops up, then it is a well trafficked site / blog and you should add it to your target list.

The site may not have a high Alexa ranking but it could very well have some strong social media numbers (look at their Social links – Twitter, Facebook, G+, and Pinterest are key).  If they don’t have either these two assets – traffic or social numbers, move on and find the blogs that do. The possibilities of more people seeing your posts needs to be strong in order to make this PR effort worthwhile.

 

Step 4: Figure Out Their WIIFM? 

Creating great content that is not only about your campaign, but is also beneficial to the blog’s community is key. This is where the blogger outreach email comes into play. Understanding what will motivate the bloggers readership by directly answering his WIIFM will yield results.

For my campaign, I approached each blogger personally via email explaining that I was launching a crowdfunding campaign and I would appreciate it if they could share what I had to say with their own followers and readers. I offered exclusive articles that I knew would appeal to each of their individual readerships.

I took these opportunities to share some of my knowledge with each blogger. Then I mentioned the crowdfunding campaign at the end, as part of the conversation so it didn’t look like a giant advertisement for my crowdfunding campaign.  Rather, it turned into a multipurpose feature with a mention.

Many bloggers were happy to oblige

Here are 2 examples of blogs that featured my campaign:

   http://bit.ly/PlayItLoudAriel

   http://bit.ly/ArielandBobBaker

 

Step 5: Thank the Blogger

Thank the blogger and share the resulting articles with your community on your social channels, and in your crowdfunding updates. Remember: people believe what other people say more than they believe what you say, so sharing the online press support you received is a fantastic way of allowing your community to see that you are getting support. This is how you leverage the digital PR you have received so it adds high value to your campaign.

 

What To Do If You Can’t Get Any Bloggers to Respond
Bloggers can be hard to get responses from.  If email does not work, try messaging them on Facebook and Twitter.  If you still get no response, assume that they were not interested or they may have a lot of requests coming their way.

 

Submit Your Story Blogs
Many blogs have open call-outs to writers who want to submit their own posts.  These are known as “submit your story” blogs.

To find “submit your story” blogs that are relevant to your niche, here is what you do:

Go to Google and search “Submit Your Story” + Blog

Again, search for your appropriate niche i.e. “Travel”, “Positivity”, “Gluten Free” (choose a niche that relates to your campaign), and “submit your story”list of blogs that take submissions will pop up.

 

Take Note!  Make sure that the “submit your story” page on each blogs is active and updated regularly. Look to see that the blog is regularly updated with guest posts, or your post may not go live in time.

Like this advice?  Then you will LOVE the whole book!  Order it here:

 

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3 Mistakes Musicians STILL Make On Social Media

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While social media is a critical component to any musician’s overall marketing strategy, it needs to be done effectively and efficiently. Without a clear set content strategy, it is likely to become just another source of frustration, rather than THE source responsible for moving you towards your goals.

There are quite a few simple pitfalls that musicians often make while using social media that need to be avoided. By doing so, you will set yourself on a path towards an effective social media presence and a more loyal fan base.

Mistake Number 1: You Have No Idea Who YOU Are Actually Talking TO

The numbers are scary!  2 billion people on Facebook, 800 million using Instagram every day, 500 million on Twitter – and these huge #s often make us think that we have to talk to everyone out there!

You Don’t, and you shouldn’t.

I have devised my Crowd ID Exercise (Click here or on the image below to download this entire exercise.) so that you can find this information out. It is an excerpt from my book Social Media Tune Up and is the foundation that you should operate from when you go to your socials. You can download it here or at the end of this post!

 

Note: Do Not Be Overly Self-Promotional! 

According to the latest research, mixing up social media content is KEY. Unfortunately, most artists are too busy with self-promotion to put the correct amount of time and effort into varying their content. While the message in the text of your socials is important, don’t forget to integrate eye-catching photos, graphics and videos.

A good general rule to use is that only 1 in every 10 posts should be self-promotional, with the rest focusing on mixed media content that focuses on sharing your interests and passions.

My social media pyramid will help you stay the course and you will never push out boring content ever again!

I also was the featured guest on the Twitter Smarter Podcast a while back and I break down how to identify and utilize “Thematics” on your socials.

Mistake Number 2: Lack of Consistent Branding

A huge issue I see all the time is artists not thinking about how they look across all their most important social media channels. Consistency is key – don’t have your Twitter theme be red, while your website is blue and your Facebook has no thematic elements whatsoever. Your logo is a great starting point to setting a specific look, feel and color scheme.

Below are a few examples of artists with strong branding; note the common feel across all pages. You will notice that all three artists have:

– A clear common color scheme
– Branding that reflects their sound
– A common profile picture on 2/3 networks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mistake Number 3: No Newsletter!

Every single study you will read still points out one fact: Your newsletter is where you will make most of your money.

I know you either don’t have a newsletter, or you have a newsletter that goes out once in a while because you are:

  1. Too scared to over-communicate with your fans and you don’t want to overwhelm them, making them want to unsubscribe.
  2. You don’t feel you have anything interesting to say, for example you have no shows, no studio time booked and absolutely no “music news”.
  3. You feel you have enough to do with Facebook, Instagram Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, SoundCloud, Spotify, Bandcamp, BandsInTown, SongKick, etc. etc. etc. and so you don’t even bother with the newsletter.

The only thing you are affecting with this attitude is your bottom line.

Here is a full lesson on how to build and structure your newsletter!

What does the newsletter have to do with social media?

Your social media should feed your newsletter in every way possible. You should never give away music without getting an e-mail address in exchange and should always have a widget for people to sign up to your newsletter across all your platforms (i.e. your website, your blog, your Facebook Page, etc.).

 

Want to fix #1 right away?  Click on the image below to download a process that will help you identify and hone your content today.

Here’s a teeny sample:

Who Are Your Fans?
  • Are they male or female? What percentage of the group is male, and what percentage is female?
  • Are they singles or couples, and what percentage of each?
  • How old are they? Give a general 10-year age range. Don’t you dare say “18-65”!
  • What kinds of careers do they have? Are they professionals? Still in college/university? Freelancers? Stay-at-home parents?
  • On average, how much money do they make per year?

Buy Social Media Tune Up

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So, You Want To Get On Spotify Playlists? Here’s What You Need To Know First…

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Every publicist can tell you there are certain questions (actually they show up more as orders) we have dreaded over the years posed by potential clients.  When I started 20 years ago it was “get me in Rolling Stone” then for years it was “You are going to service my CD to Letterman and Conan yes?” Then  today 100% of the time we are getting asked about Spotify Playlists.

And of course this question happens for good reason. A 2016 study from Loop on musicbiz.org shows data that playlists have surpassed albums in listenership and another on buzzfeed says that 1 out of every 5 plays across all streaming services today happens inside of a playlist.

But, hold your horses.  There are a lot of steps to take before you hire a PR firm like mine or a playlist servicing company to get you on playlists.  First you need to understand quite a few things.

 

The First Important Thing to Understand is:  A Majority of Spotify is Owned by the Major Labels

and their artists dominate most of the most followed playlists.  The reason for this is 3 companies are in control of placing songs on those playlists – so this playing field is NOT even for indies.  A comprehensive article came out on CASH music by Liz Pelly called The Secret Lives Of Playlists that is a must read so that you can fully understand just how little power you have as an indie artist on this platform when it comes to simply “getting on playlists”

Here are the two parts that sum it up well.

“Not all Spotify playlists are created equally… On other playlists, you’ll occasionally notice different logos: the thick cursive word Filtr, the all-caps logo for Topsify, or simple rounded text reading Digster. These are the playlisting brands owned by the major labels: Filtr by Sony, Topsify by Warner, and Digster by Universal. Very rarely you might see an independent label or brand logo. That majors own their own playlisting companies servicing Spotify, and that these major-owned playlists have prominent placement within the platform, should come as no major surprise: Spotify is largely a collaboration with all three major labels. But for me personally, as I itched to learn more about industry insider backdoors to Spotify playlists, learning about Filtr, Digster, and Topsify was illuminating; the beginning of my journey attempting to unpack this mystified world. As it turns out, these privately owned brands barely scratch the surface of what’s at play.”

 

“Outside of the Spotify staff-curated playlists, those curated by Filtr, Digster and Topsify have more visibility on the Browse pages than any other playlisting brands, individuals or labels. With these playlists, employees of Filtr, Digster and Topsify can simply log in and add tracks… the majors effectively use these playlists to pump their artists into Spotify-owned algorithmic playlists.”

 

Now that I got the bad news out of the way, there is hope and with some planning and work you can and will get traction inside this valuable platform. To learn how, I decided to go to a group of music industry veterans who do this every day and in the panel How Streaming Playlists Work and How to Get On Them, that took place at MONDO 2017 in New York, I sat in as Streaming Promotions, Co-Founder, Charles Alexander Sung Cho, Founder and CEO, Chartmetric, Brian Vinikoor, Sr. Director Strategic and Digital Partnerships at mtheory, Brian Popowitz ,General Manager Blackbox, and Jason Jones Director of Sales Mute Records took us through an incredible amount of information. I have broken it down into little “nuggets” and added some links help you along the way.

 

The major takeaway was:

Spotify, just like Facebook has algorithms and rewards artists who spend time on their platform and if you want to get included on any type of playlist, start getting to know how to use it at a pro level.

 

Charles gave some very important context by sharing:

All Artists Need a 360 Plan

You can’t only focus on Spotify. If you don’t have a plan in place for building your audience and meaningfully engaging with them you won’t succeed on Spotify.You also need to understand how to leverage and drive your audience from other platforms to Spotify. This means you need an overall marketing plan with multiple elements taken into account – Social Media, Brand, Tone, PR, Fanbase building, live shows, releases, etc.

Figure Out Your Narrative

And your NARRATIVE is very important.  This means you have to have a signature story and a recognizable brand, tone and content strategy that feeds into the narrative on social media. Keep your narrative and branding consistent across all media.

Charles warned that after he informs artists of these key factors, he often sees that they skip the steps and pay to get on playlists, “You may get 20K or 30K streams but then it falls off the edge of a cliff because you are unable to take advantage of the momentum that you created.”

And why? Because you skipped all the steps needed. You therefore need a comprehensive approach.

Your Social Media Build Must Be Organic

Your social interaction is key and social #s are very important.  Focus on engaging and connecting with real fans and building your audience authentically. Fake numbers from click farms will work against you when your engagement ratio on socials is extremely low compared to your follower numbers. You must build and engaging an audience prior to releasing music.

Music Blog PR is Key

Many Spotify playlists are curated by key music bloggers. In order to get considered for these playlists, you need to be featured by these music blogs. Start at Hype Machine and understand that PR is an integral part of your Spotify strategy. Or read my 3-part series which will walk you through how to effectively handle your own music PR.

Understand What Spotify Actually VALUES

It’s a weird tipping point on what Spotify actually values. Influence is important, that means how many people follow you and your playlists on Spotify and consistent streams are also important. But the number of saves a song or album gets is just as or more important than stream counts and follows. The platform values engagement and interaction with the music or artist over casual consumption.

It’s Not All About Getting on Major Playlists

Everyone has their sights set on the biggest playlists curated by Spotify but not so fast! Brian Popowitz shared “The data has informed Spotify.  We have an artist that is performing well and not on any major playlist – the song is peaking and we are not actively promoting it at all.  It gets into people’s weekly suggestions and they stream it and it grows on it’s own organically in the Spotify ecosystem. This is the “new” music economy. Spotify built an algorithm that is derived from the footprint of an artist. So many things come into play.

Spotify is a Long Game

Jason Jones added that this is a long-game: “Do not be afraid of slow but consistent growth” don’t be impatient. Sometimes you can start off on a branded playlist ‘The Sound of’ and you have to show growth of performance w/in those and this may take 4-5 months.”Look at your historical data and see what causes spikes.

 

 Build Your Own Playlisting Initiatives

Start sharing playlists in which your music is included. You need to build up plays and then, this impacts the current song that you are working and any forthcoming singles coming down your pipeline. Create playlists of your own music AND things you love and include yourself and share. You need to create: reach, influence, and non-skip streaming.

 

Find Your Unique Playlist POV

Brian added “Owning your audience is everything.” Ask yourself: What is your unique POV? The “my favorite” songs right now” gets played and people get tired. Try curating a journey of how you put together playlists – one of our artists made a mix show taking listeners on the journey of how he created an album, Just putting 20 songs on a playlist makes an uphill battle.

 

Getting Discovered on Spotify is Quite Hard

Sung added that being on the smaller playlists is not the answer to garnering thousands of plays overnight “discovery is quite hard” in Spotify as they create and promote their own playlists within the platform.

 

The List You Should Be Worried About FIRST is Your Mailing List!

We work with an artist Rob Drabkin, who had a large mailing list and he asked everyone to follow him within Spotify with one email – it worked overnight. Rob connects with an audience in a special way – its not just about his music which is great but he is also amazing at leveraging his tribe. You need an ARMY – every time you ask them to do anything they will!  But you need to have great and consistent communication. – Charles Alexander

 

Success On Spotify Starts With You

“If you don’t have fans, listens and consumption on Spotify (that you have to create) you are dead in the water.” – Brian Vinikoor.  This means you need to understand the Spotify Basics first!

Know Which Streaming Platform is Best for Your Genre of Music

“Each platform has a unique vibe.  If you are a Country or Christian artist I would look to Amazon, if you are playing rock look towards iTunes, if you are indie or hip-hop, focus on Spotify.” – Jason Jones

 

Never Forget The Newsletter (Yep, The Least Sexy Marketing Tool Out There!)

“It goes back to owning your own audience – it all goes back to how many times people listen to your music.” – Brian Popowitz

If you don’t have an effective newsletter strategy it’s high time you change that.

Everyone Wants To Be on New Music Friday 

EVERYONE wants to be on Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist. “the chance of me getting you on that are next to none” the independent slots are few and far between and getting smaller.”

Charles went on to say: “Let’s start with Fresh Finds or something that is appropriate for where you are in your career. This will give you a chance to grow and build your narrative on Spotify. This will let you take full advantage of the momentum and opportunities you create on the platform.” Read an inspiring case study about a band who started on a playlist with 10 followers and went on to build quite an impressive amount of plays here.

Always Connect to World 1.0

Steaming is a means to people hearing your songs but it’s what happens AFTER That in the real world? What should be happening before, during and AFTER you get on the playlist? What if you get on New Music Friday and you don’t know what to do next!

 

 

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Email Newsletter Best Practices For Musicians

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how to write an effective musicians newsletter

 

Are you still not sending out a regular email newsletter to your followers? Are you under the impression they are old school and therefore not effective? Do you think that nobody reads them – just because you might not?
Email is still the most vital asset you have for generating revenue.  These email newsletter best practices for musicians and artists will get you started.
Think again!
Here is quote from Entrepreneur

“Email marketing works 40 times better at getting customers than Facebook and Twitter, and compared to social media, it offers 17 percent higher conversion.

The secret to success is making every email count. Email not only converts better than the most popular social media, but people spend up to 17 percent more when they do buy.”

– Aaron Agius

 

Let’s go through the infrastructure of an effective email newsletter together. This is a structure that I have used and coached my clients to use for years.

Follow Ariel’s 3 G’s Formula – Greeting, Guts & Getting

Greeting – Be Personal

In your email newsletter greeting, you want to share something that is non-related to your product or services. Talk about you, something that inspired you recently or something in the news. This warms people up and like a letter connects on a human level. Steer clear of controversial topics that will isolate certain readers – stay neutral.

Here are some suggestions to get you thinking,

• Vacation/current trip
• Something that interests you / a theme of fun, beauty, art, etc.
• Whatever you are currently reading or listening to
• The latest TV show you’re watching on Netflix or a movie you have seen

Post photos of these personal touches on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, or blog, etc.

Guts – The Body of the Newsletter

Now you can get into talking about your current project(s). Fill your followers in on what you’ve been up to. Do you have an exciting announcement, a talk or workshop or panel coming up? Are you writing? Brainstorming? Fundraising? Remember people love and connect to stories, so tell them yours.

Getting – Put Readers Into Action!

This is the most critical part of the email newsletter as it is what you are leaving your readers with. This section is known to marketers and savvy business people as a Call to Action or a CTA.

I have read countless newsletters that left me cold without asking me to do something. Don’t let this be you!

 

Examples of Calls to Action – CTA’s For Community Building

When you are getting started with your newsletter send a few that do not ask for money.

  • Encourage them to follow you on Twitter
  • Invite them to like your Facebook Page
  • Have them watch a video of you on YouTube and subscribe to your channel
  • Suggest they follow you on Spotify or Soundcloud
  • Invite them out to hang with you at a bar, club, coffee house, art show, conference, etc.
  • Send a survey to fill out or a contest to participate in

 

Examples of Calls to Action – CTA’s For Money (once you’ve developed rapport)

  • Invite them to an upcoming appearance
  • Invite them to purchase your music
  • Direct them to your crowdfunding campaign
  • Sell merch

 

 

Remember: There should only be one Call to Action per newsletter.

Readers will get confused and end up choosing nothing if they have more than one choice.

 

 

 

A Note About Subject Lines

Keep your subject line short and sweet; no more than 55 characters!

Studies show that including the reader’s first name in the subject line can grab their attention and increases your open rate (the number of people who open your email).

Most newsletter management programs can easily insert first names right into the subject line. Consult with yours on how to do so.

 

Send Newsletters Regularly & Consistently

It’s crucial to send out your newsletter letter on a consistent basis. Give your followers the opportunity to look forward to hearing from you!

I recommend sending out your newsletter once a month. This gives you an entire month to come up with content.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     And keep in mind that some months may feel more exciting than others, so choosing a theme that you can thread throughout each newsletter will stop the doldrums.

Separate yourself from others who never hold themselves accountable, and stick to a consistent schedule; your fans will notice.

 

Promote Your Newsletter on your Socials

After you send, don’t forget to share. Create tiles for each newsletter and share on your blog, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Follow my tried and true method here.

I hope you have found these email newsletter best practices helpful!

 

Newsletters are an important part of your overall marketing plan – download our check sheet to make sure ALL your bases are covered by clicking here…

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Are You Guilty? – 4 Ways Indie Musicians Are Killing Social Media

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4 ways indie musicians are killing social media

This is a guest post from our friend Joshua Smotherman, who is a straight shooter when it comes to what he sees in the world of social media for musicians….

In an ideal world, I would wake up in the morning to a fresh cup of hot coffee. I would enjoy it as I check my e-mail and skim social networks to check up on friends and my favorite bands.

I would immerse myself in an online community of music lovers, songwriters, and musicians sharing, caring, and building with each other… NOT blasting commands to “check out my new hottest thing”.

I see enough billboards on the interstate.

In this world:

  • Bands would stop acting like rock stars and start acting like leaders
  • They would build self-sustaining tribes
  • They would listen to their fans
  • They would understand that growing organically will always win overview counts

As a music blogger, my inbox would NOT be full of one-liners and YouTube links I only see as distractions. Whatever happened to “connecting” with someone?

Unfortunately, this world does not exist. From where I’m sitting, the average indie band sucks at using social media and it’s ruining it for everyone else. Most importantly, your potential fans.

What are we doing wrong, you say?

Oh boy…where do I begin?

Me, Me, Me Marketing

You might have been raised in a world of billboards and commercials, but using social media as a one-way street is killing your promo game.

It seems too many people are missing the social half of the phrase, social media.

You need to engage with fans and listeners instead of blasting them with links, videos, and nonsense about buying your album.

Sadly, most bands qualify [as what the marketing world refers to] as spammers.

Engaging is easier than you think and should come naturally (assuming you are not a recluse).

  • Share albums, videos, and news about other music you enjoy or local bands you play with. Ask others what they think.
  • Share news related to the music industry or issues that reflect the personality of your band and use them to engage in conversation.
  • Instead of posting links to the same videos and songs repeatedly, post clips of the band working in the studio or upload a demo mix and allow fans to share their opinions so you can take the art to another level. Involve fans in your process(es).
  • Network with bands in other areas to create an atmosphere for gig swapping and collaboration as well as cross-promotion of content.

This list goes on but the takeaway here is: engage in a way that results in feedback and interaction.

Build a community.

Focusing on the Wrong Metrics

Your follower count means nothing unless you see conversions.

Huh?!

More important than a follower, view, or like:

  • How many fans have signed up for your mailing list?
  • Do you pass around a mailing list signup sheet at your show?
  • How many people have you met at shows? (You do hang out with the audience after the show…right?)
  • How many people have bought a CD or t-shirt?

Stop putting all your energy into increasing numbers on social sites and focus on converting the followers you have into loyal fans.

Use social media to funnel music listeners to your website where you attempt to convert them into a mailing list signup, song download, or merchandise sale.

Would you rather have 1,000 likes or 100 fans spending $1,000 on music, merch, show tickets and crowdfunding campaigns?

Show me the money!

Repeating Yourself on Every Social Network

Sending your Twitter feed to Facebook then copying and pasting it to Google+ so the same message appears on every site is a horrible idea.

So is autoplay on audio embeds but that’s for a different time.

You are not expected to know marketing, you make music! Allow me to guide you on this train of thinking.

People who use Twitter are different than people who use Facebook and the people who use Google+ are not like the others.

It is imperative you consider these facts when developing a social media strategy and act accordingly.

Make sure you actually use social media as a music fan before deciding how to market your music using these tools. Follow bands who are in a position you would like to be in and see how they use each network. Notice what works, what doesn’t work, and then perfect your plan of action.

Posting several updates to Twitter every hour (depending on the nature of the updates) is more acceptable than posting on Facebook every 15 minutes.

When you over saturate a person’s FB News Feed, they hide you from their feed. Or worse…unlike your page or mark your posts as spam.

A general guideline is to try to retweet, reply, comment, and share relevant content that others create more than you broadcast and peddle your own wares.

Sell Without Selling

If you focus on building a community around your band instead of acting as a bulletin board, you will start noticing the true power of social media.

You will not see overnight results.

The key is to stay consistent, focus on creating great music, and communicate directly with your audience.

If you create a community of loyal fans, they will want to support you.

Your community will become your sales force and all you need to do is be yourself and continue giving fans a band worth loving.

Consistency allows you to reach a tipping point where fans begin promoting your music for you by wearing t-shirts, playing CDs at parties, and recommending you to their friends.

It is hard to conceive this when you are starting at zero, but 6 to 12 months down the road you will notice things happening simply because you remained persistent.

While fans are busy promoting your music, you need to seek out gig opportunities, blog reviews or interviews, and other chances to put yourself in the presence of tastemakers who can expose you to their audience.

Bloggers, journalists, booking agents, and other industry personnel will not give you their attention unless you have proof of a loyal, engaged following.

Buying followers or views might help you manipulate chart rankings and other metrics, but they will never replace the power of community. If you have 5,000 page likes but no one is liking, sharing, or commenting on your updates; we all see right through you.

So can the people who can expose you to bigger audiences of music fans.

In closing:

  • Build your tribe
  • Nurture your community
  • Stop acting like a corporate sales machine

You might also be interested in this panel discussion concerning Marketing, PR, and Promotion on a Budget hosted by Indie Connect NYC which discusses mores things indie musicians are doing wrong online.

How Have You Avoided Killing Social Media?

If you would like to start with a fundamental – identifying WHO to TALK to click here: 

Buy Social Media Tune Up

This guest post was written by Joshua Smotherman (@midtnmusic), co-founder of the Middle Tennessee Music blog who frequently features fabulous indie artists.

The post Are You Guilty? – 4 Ways Indie Musicians Are Killing Social Media appeared first on Cyber PR Music.

Social Media and Online Marketing for Musicians

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Social Media and Online Marketing for Musicians

Corey Denis is a woman I admire deeply. Corey is a woman who understands social media. She and I have an interesting history. She also worked at What Are Records? the label I started at back in the early 90’s when you could actually sell 1,000,000 albums for a band that was dropped from Arista (yup, we did!)

But she arrived after I had already left, so we never actually had the pleasure of working together during the time.

Corey is nothing short of a genius at marketing bands and artists.

She is brilliant because she thinks about both sides of the fence from both the artists and the fans perspective.

And she taught me how to tweet.

I’m thrilled that she was willing to be interviewed again for this piece. The first edition of this interview went live years ago and it is fully updated now for 2018.

Enjoy her responses, and if you love them and want to read more about how to stop wasting time on socials and start making magic click here.

 

Ariel Hyatt: Why is it important that artists participate in social media?

Corey Denis: In today’s consumer-driven digital environment, where experiences are personalized based on behaviors, social media is essential to the distribution of information and the consumption of art. For artists, Social Media is more than a profile with a bio and a link, it’s an extension of the authentic creative self. Once an account is created, it requires the same attention as any IRL relationship. It’s always been participatory & voluntary, but Social Media has become an essential part of an artist’s career. Although marketing is most often a choice, avoiding social media is similar to refusing a sale. The most important word in your question is participate.

According to Pew Research Center’s study, 85% of young adults in America use a smartphone. Social Media has become part of popular culture. Without fans, it’s difficult to sell art, and without social media, it’s challenging to create or grow a fanbase & communicate with them.   It’s often helpful to think of social media as an authentic real-time artform which simultaneously feeds on popular culture while giving everyone the equal opportunity to create it. Learning how to participate in Social Media opens the door to a  new set of tools which can enhance current projects. While Social Media can be as simple as an authentic conversation, it can also be as intricate as an oil painting.

Like art and music, form and function matter in Social Media. Each platform allows for highly visual methods of communication with a variety of styles & functions. My favorite trick for platforms with limited characters (Twitter, for example) is to think of it as Haiku. Words do matter.

Social Media participation can add new layers to art projects, and real-time revelations which fuel creativity. Many of the artists I’ve worked with have found Social Media to be a creative inspiration; reciprocally, many fans I’ve encountered find it equally as inspiring, because of the artists they follow on Social Media. It’s essential to reply to comments & stay active.

Do you think it’s important for artists to be on as many sites as possible, or be selective and only actively use a few?

It can’t hurt to have a profile on as many sites as possible, and it’s wise to create profiles if only to hold the username for later use.

However, creating profiles just for the sake of having them is ineffective. It’s important to use each profile and network, and integrate it into your process.

An artist could viably create 50 profiles and optimize their “social SEO,” but it’s crucial to consider what a potential fan will find once they get to a profile.

There are a lot of social spaces to choose from, but it’s best to keep it simple.

An artist could viably create 50 profiles and optimize their “social SEO,” but it’s crucial to consider what a potential fan will find once they get to a profile.

Start with 3-5 platforms and stay active. Don’t give up! Learn to use each tool to its maximum ability, without constantly pitching a sale.

If there’s room for more social media profiles after mastering 3-5, participate in additional platforms – one at a time. The key is to not feel overwhelmed, and have fun!

AH: Name the top 5 sites you think all artists should be active on

 

  • Instagram

  • Facebook

  • YouTube

  • Twitter

  • Spotify

But also consider these social platforms as well:

  • Snapchat

  • Kickstarter

  • Reddit

  • Periscope

  • Patreon

What would your recommendations be for the busy artist that only has 30 minutes a week to dedicate to social media?

I would recommend finding more time in the week. With more than 80% of the population carrying mobile phones with apps on them, there’s a chance that potential fans, show-goers, and art consumers are using social media more often than 30 minutes per week, so why shouldn’t you?

Authenticity requires knowing how the social media platform works, and practice is required.

However, if 30 minutes is the maximum amount of available time, I recommend spending that time joining conversations and replying to others.

If there’s time, be creative and take advantage of the tools on each platform.

Use a photo, a link, a video, and get comfortable with the possibilities of each platform.

Use each minute wisely, and socialize. Remember that social media conversations are similar to signing autographs after a show; dedicate time to talk to other people, even if it’s only 30 minutes a week.

What’s the best way for an artist to get shared on socials?

Try everything and fail fast. Focus on social media, and distribution to services like Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, and iTunes.

Platforms like YouTube are also social; when your art is available on a social distribution service, focus on platform participation, sharing playlists to social channels, and making sure fans know where they can find your art.

Once your art is available on a social distribution service (like YouTube), start participating.

When consulting with a band or an artist, what do you do for them that helps them sell more music online? How do you quantify your results? How can they?

Simply put, I teach all clients about social platforms and help them strategize their use of social media. Success is measured by engagement, not reach. The most realistic way to set goals is to fail fast, find the bright spots, and shine a light on what works. Social Media is social, and humans are fickle.

Don’t make predictions as to what will work without first trying just about everything. I suggest quantifying results using free analytics tools provided by platforms and set realistic goals based on the results that can only be acquired through swift and gracious failure.

Try everything, and look for growth. When there’s an increase in engagement, lean-in to what works, and set new goals based on engagement rather than impressions.

Check on your own progress twice a month.

Can you name five musicians or comedians who are doing it right online?

Neko Case

MNDR

The Mountain Goats

Sharon Van Etten

Amy Miller

Finally, if I was an artist and I had $500 of promotional money to spend, what would you advise me to do?

Wait until you have something to sell, and use your money to boost any Facebook Posts connected to the item you’re selling.

This will work best for artists who focus on engagement prior to selling something to their fans.

Corey Denis

If you would like to know more about Corey I deeply suggest you follow her on Twitter @CoreyThrace

 

 

 

 

Want to put what Corey says into action?
This Step-By-Step exercise will help you identify who your fans are and how to reach them.
  • 10 strategic, thought-provoking questions
  • How to identify your ideal fan archetype… Click to get it

Buy Social Media Tune Up

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Inside A Social Media Management Campaign

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Inside a social media management Campaign

Raise your hand if keeping your social media channels updated and compelling feels like an overwhelming task. It’s okay, I understand! It’s a lot of work to keep your online presence fresh and engaging. Especially if you’re also trying to create music at the same time. This is why we handle social media management here.

A lot of musicians hire someone to take that work off their hands but not all Social Media Managers (or an SMM for short) are created equally.

We will work with you to create content that attracts more fans and supports your brand. An SMM will also post regularly on your socials so that you don’t have to get into the daily tedious grind and you can spend your precious time doing what you love – playing and making music.

Our team at Cyber PR manages social media for a wide range of artists and entrepreneurs, and we often find ourselves explaining what a social media management campaign actually entails. Many are wary of letting someone else post for them, with good reason. You put a lot of work into gathering your tribe of fans – you don’t want to confuse them with posts that don’t sound like they came from you!

In this post, I want to assuage some of these fears and give you an insider’s look at WHAT WE ACTUALLY DO for our clients during a social media management campaign. And if hiring someone to do your social media is not your bag, there are helpful hints on how to get better at your own daily posting and content strategy and our social media content management tool at the end so you can rock it like we do!

Laying The Groundwork

The most critical part of any social media management campaign is what happens before a single Tweet, Instagram, Newsletter or Facebook post goes out. We have to get to know you – as an artist, and as a person – before we can start to post for you. All of the next steps outlined here are designed to help you hone your narrative.  This is the most important part.  Without a cohesive narrative, you really have no social “strategy” just a bunch of posts.

 

The Intake Process

Our SMM campaigns are handled by a team of one or two social media managers. We start by sending an in-depth questionnaire that asks dozens of questions about your current social media strategy, what types of content you like (and dislike).  We also want to know about your fans so, we ask quite a few questions about them as well. To download a powerful exercise that will help you figure out what your fans will like, click here.

We ask you to share your favorite artists, videos, quotes and content (even if it is unrelated to your music).  After you return the questionnaire, our whole team meets to analyze it and create themes, content ideas and a personalized content calendar. Next, we set up an in-depth meeting (phone, Skype, or in-person) with you, in order to go over the questionnaire and begin to really understand your voice.  Together, we go deeper into your interests, influences and discuss what kind of content you want us to add to your current posting schedule.  We also look deeply at your analytics to identify other social media users it might be fruitful for you to engage with, and what online conversations you might want to join. If you are going to take a stab at making your social strategy more cohesive here is the guide we use internally – It’s called Social Media Tuneup.

 

Dropbox & Pinterest

We encourage our artists to make a Dropbox folder to gather personal and professional photos we can use for various posts (#TBT, #WednesdayWisdom, Etc.) We also encourage our artists to make private (or public!) Pinterest mood boards to capture photos and themes so we get inspired and get a sense of your preferred aesthetics, graphics and color schemes. This is an easy way to curate content that you like (recipes, memes, photos, quotes, videos, Soundcloud playlists, etc.). This not only gives us appropriate fodder for posts – it also gives us greater insight into the brand image you want to portray.

 

Social Skinning & Special Graphics

Next, we make sure your brand is cohesive across all channels, and all sites are optimized and skinned. It is important to visualize releases, blog features, show announcements, crowdfunding campaign countdowns and social channels. Our SMMs create unique visual content that fits with each individual artists’ brands.  To do this we have an in-house graphic designer but there are many great, easy-to-use apps that will help you create awesome graphics. To see some artists who have wonderful branding take a peep at this post to get inspired.

 

The Social Media Calendar Organizer

Once we have the basics down, we start to prep some posts on a what we call the SMM Organizer which is stored in the cloud as a Google Sheet, and when posts are approved we use a social media scheduling system like Hootsuite or Buffer to handle the posts we expect. You have full access to everything we are doing, and we ask our clients to give feedback and make changes at any point. Your level of involvement in the process is completely up to you. Some of our clients like to leave everything in our hands, and some stay very involved, even continuing to post themselves. This all depends on how much you like social media and how much time you have to get into the action. Below you will be able to download the template that we use here internally!

 

ariel-hyatt

Social Media Channels

We choose five THEMATICS for each artist, and we try to keep the content tight and not stray too far from these 5 thematics. Topics that interest you or define you in some way are great thematic options (ie. your music, charitable causes, sports, outdoors, animals, hometowns, etc.). That way, your Twitter feed stays coherent, and new followers can immediately get a grasp on who you are and what you stand for.

I did an in-depth interview on how we create thematics, and general best practices for Twitter on the Twitter Smarter PodcastListen in for an in-depth dive.

Our goal is to make sure that when WE post something, it sounds exactly like something YOU would say. We want to make it so similar that not even your besties will be able to tell the difference.

Twitter 

An effective Twitter management strategy has two major components: content creation, and audience development.

Content Creation

Our SMMs Tweet between 3 and 10 times a day for our artists. We include a mix of RTs, @’s, and original posts. One of the tweets is almost always about your music and what is happening in your career, though it is important to avoid being overly promotional on social media. Obviously, if you have a show coming up, or a new single, we include more promotional posts than usual.If you are thinking that this is a lot of tweeting, know this: the average tweet shows up on peoples’ news feeds for approximately 45 seconds. That makes it impossible for us to over-tweet.

To brush up your Twitter chops take part 4 of Social Media House!

Audience Development

You build an audience on Twitter by following people who you think might be interested in you and your music. We take this off your hands and use professional apps to build your followers systematically and efficiently. After a few weeks of Twitter management, you will see higher engagement on your Tweets from REAL people (not the fake accounts that some people pay for).

 

Facebook 

Ah, Facebook, love it or hate it – you need a Page and 3-4X a week is recommended. However, many of our artists like to post more (it all depends on how reactive your Facebook followers are and how much money you wish to invest in Boosting, and ads). The content of Facebook posts needs to be more in-depth than tweets. Many studies also show that native video and images and Facebook Live are effective on Facebook so we make sure we mix up what we are posting. We have seen a lot of mistakes

 

Facebook Ads

As you may know, Facebook is virtually all pay-to-play. The newsfeed algorithms are annoyingly skewed to benefit paid advertisers. Therefore, a huge part of Facebook SMM is creating and manage ads for you. We create an advertising strategy that drives engagement on promotional posts, web traffic, and encourages sharing amongst your audience’s networks.  We also monitor Ad Insights and analytics to determine which Ads are producing the best results, and which strategies resonate well with your target audience.  Lastly, we strategize on special activations such as contests, newsletter sign up drives, Facebook Live, charity, and tie-ins for Ads, etc.

Your Monthly Newsletter 

Your newsletter is where most of your engagement and revenue will come from, so getting a professional to help you with it is a great investment. You want to be consistent and regularly posting on all of your social channels, but this is ESPECIALLY important with your newsletter. We recommend sending a newsletter at least once a month. Your SMM is basically your brainstorming buddy.  She will help you come up with a sexy name for your newsletter, work to gather all of the names and email addresses you may have forgotten and will show you how to send your newsletter regularly and consistently.  One of our past clients at Cyber PR was a sociologist with many published scientific papers, and we worked with her to re-work her published papers into compelling newsletters and her fans loved them!

 

Instagram

Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels, and one of the easiest to use. It’s a great platform on which to build your brand, increase your following, and create compelling content. We’ve written several blog posts including The Musician’s Guide to Instagram,  7 Great Instagram Users To Follow And Emulate and Top Tools and Apps to Optimize Your Instagram Account that are full of advice on how to use Instagram effectively. A social media manager can do all sorts of things for you on Instagram – creating and posting custom graphics and images to support your brand, gathering your approved personal photos and scheduling at least one post a day, utilizing appropriate hashtags and engaging in conversations to get you more followers, and connecting your account to all your other social channels when appropriate for cross-posting. We suggest you post on Instagram 3-4X a week.

 

Organizing All Your Posts With The Cyber PR GDoc

One of the most important components of managing social media is keeping on top of the daily posts. Here at Cyber PR, we organize posts for our clients in a collaborative spreadsheet, which ensures that no social channel is left behind and allows you to get ahead of planning (instead of forgetting and reacting!)

As a reward for getting all the way to the bottom of this GIANT blog post, we’d love to give you a free download of the very template we use! The Social Media Management Organizer (GDoc) will make your life so much easier, and ensure that all your social channels are receiving the tender loving care and consistency they deserve.

 

Click to get your social posts organized!

 

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Final Note – It’s All About Your Narrative

In the end, our goal in a social media management campaign is to streamline your social media strategy and build your audience organically. In order to do this, we learn how to use YOUR voice, YOUR interests, and YOUR music to create compelling content to attract new fans and strengthen the relationship with existing fans. This, again is called your narrative!

If you want help we would love to talk to you – just click below to set up a call and HAPPY POSTING!

 

Want to work with us?

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Release Preparation: The Musician’s Guide to Marketing Plans Part 1

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 Musician's Guide to Marketing Plans

This is our most widely read series here on the Cyber PR Music blog and we have recently updated it, just for YOU.

In this crazy ever-changing music industry landscape we see the same issue over and over again: A vast majority of artists who don’t have a long-term plan in place.

The reason for this is, in today’s DIY landscape there is no one in charge of creating such a plan. To make things worse, the pressure of consistently releasing great singles or EPs, social posting, writing newsletters, booking, plus learning new technology and platforms, keep artists busier than ever. These never-ending tasks battle long-term perspective.

Marketing Plans used to be a combined creation of manager, label A&R and marketing team, booking agent, and publisher who would be responsible for coming up with a big picture strategy and implementing a plan for each domain that he or she was responsible for.

We pride ourselves on creating long-term Marketing Plans for artists, which we now call Musician’s Total Tuneups as we thought “Marketing Plan” was just not doing them enough justice.

Click To Read More About Musician's Total Tuneup

 

Where Musicians Are Going Wrong – They Don’t Have a Plan

Today, most agencies that indie artists hire tackle what needs to be done right now and handle only their responsibilities without taking a 30,000-foot view.
This sadly has a lot to do with how the artists approach their releases. We know once the music is finished a deep sense of urgency rushes in, screaming – “release release!”
We urge you to take a deep breath and read on…

It is completely baffling that an artist or band would work so hard on new music, dedicating hours and hours practicing, writing songs, not to mention spending large sums of money recording, mixing and mastering, creating visuals, and album artwork only to rush the release with no plan in place.

Here are the basic components of our Total Tuneups / long-term Marketing Plans to show you the key elements you need to consider before you get too far ahead of yourself.

Even if your release is not new, it’s important to backtrack and reset the stage.

There are 15 elements to keep in mind when planning a new release – they break down into 3 groups of 5.

The First Five – Ramping UP For Release

Below are the 5 areas that need to be addressed before any official announcements should be made about a new album, EP, or even a single coming out. To see these in more detail, download our checklist at the bottom of the page:

 

  • Distribution

  • Website

  • Social Media

  • Newsletter

  • Press

Let’s dive in!

(again, if you already released music, don’t worry! Backtrack and reset the stage) and for the future…  now you know 🙂


1. Distribution

Digital distribution moves a lot faster than it used to, but you should still choose a distributor. If you are ordering physical copies of your music, make sure that you get them in plenty of time, especially if you are running a pre-sale or having a release party and you want to offer physical products at the show.

*Note: albums used to come out on a Tuesday and now Friday is the official release day (if you are going by industry standards).

CD Baby, Tunecore etc. don’t cover everything, and independently you need to also be aware of additional distribution outlets for increased reach, a list that includes SoundCloud, Pandora and verifying as well as creating playlists on Spotify

2. Website

The music industry is built on appearances. To be taken seriously it is very important to have a complete and professional looking online 360-degree presence. This starts with your online home – your website. You need to have a modern and functional site that you can update on your own. Download the checklist to make sure you’re doing everything you can to build your online presence. Your website should have a section where fans can easily listen to and buy your music (not a player that automatically plays, please!), a news section with latest happenings, and a newsletter sign-up that offers an incentive through a juicy offer (such as exclusive tracks).

Ariel wrote a detailed guide to help you with the architecture.

Please keep in mind that

Artist Branding is Key

Your website should be well thought out as far as colors and style of writing, fonts and text go. Upload cover photos and banners that are in alignment with your brand and make sure to carry these across all of your socials.

Use a publicity shot or your current album artwork with text on top of the images that promote the single, EP, or album release date, new music videos, and tour announcements. We love a tool called Canva for fast and easy banner, graphic and social skin creation.

3. Social Media

Time and energy need to be spent building a strong online presence in order to be taken seriously as an artist for when the time comes to start actively promoting.

What we see: many artists don’t know the basics. This will hurt your promotional efforts as music industry professionals, music bloggers, and fans will visit your socials to see what kind of existing following you have and how serious you are. Stale, overly promotional, or boring profiles will not help your chances of engaging anyone.

We will focus on the 4 largest socials: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube

 

musicians guide to Instagram

Instagram

The most popular visual social platform has experienced a meteoric rise. The best way to get great at Instagram is by emulating people who already know how to use it well.

When you post photos, choose at least two hashtags, as this is how photos are found. Make sure to take the time to select popular hashtags that people are looking for and also create your very own “owned” hashtags i.e. #CyberPRMusic 

In addition to hashtags, you can also add captions to your photos before posting. I caution you to be selective about what you cross-post to socials. You want to tell a separate story on each social channel to get people to join you, and not get fatigued by the same posts across channels.

Twitter 

We still love Twitter because you can easily build a following of targeted users and jump into conversations. Every single person you interact with in real life should be followed on Twitter (friends, musicians, bloggers, producers, club owners, etc.)

Jump start your followers by following people and many will follow you back. Lastly, target similar sounding artists and follow their Twitter followers, as there is a high probability that they will also like your music.

To keep your profile active with Tweets, use Hootsuite. In as little as one hour you can schedule a week’s worth of tweets. Vary the topics you tweet about from career news (which should be no more than 20% of your output) to your interests, passions, and hobbies. News, politics, sports, and/or culture are all great topics to share with people to engage and connect around.

Facebook

Pay-to-play is the reality on Facebook for a Page to get any real exposure. We suggest you spend money from time to time but have goals in place before you do, and you should have a complete Page that is active with daily posts. Make sure the Page has an attractive cover banner (as discussed above) and install apps that work as promotional tools for you and your music. Three we love are an artist profile Bandpage, a store from Bandcamp, Tunecore or CD Baby, and a mailing list signup form MailChimp.

Even though posts won’t get seen by a large percentage of fans who have liked your Page without advertising, organic reach is still possible, and an active Page helps show that you are an active artist.

Videos and Facebook Live have a greater chance of being seen, so share photos and upload videos as much as possible and finally, ask questions to increase engagement.

YouTube

YouTube is the first place where millions of people go to search for music. It is a very powerful platform where artists are getting discovered. For any artist looking to increase awareness, it is imperative to have a presence on YouTube with a professional looking channel, and a cover image that is linked to your other socials so people can connect with you across platforms. Make categories to group your videos for easy viewing, such as “Behind The Scenes”, “Official Music Videos”, and “Live Performances”. Also, highlight an official music video in the featured spot at the top. The channel for The Flaming Lips is a great example of these practices put to use.

For the videos themselves, we often see artists leaving off their artist name in the title of the video, which is terrible for search engines. Make sure you include keywords in your tags and place those important keywords/ keyword phrases at the start of your tag fields. Use adjectives that describe your music and similar artists as keywords with your artist name also being a keyword, the latter of which will show up in the “related videos section” after one of your videos is viewed. We also often see description sections left blank too. This is a crucial piece of real estate to tell the viewer what they are watching and provide links to other content you own, such as your website and iTunes, where they can go for more. Here is a video from NYC blog The Wild Honey Pie, they pack all their descriptions full of information where the viewer can go to learn and watch more. Their channel is branded well too, utilizing the features discussed.

how to write an effective musicians newsletter

4. Your Artist Newsletter

This is the most important part of the strategy that you will want to skip – DON’T.

While social media is key to attracting your crowd and building your numbers, email is still the most vital asset you will build for generating revenue. You make relationships with fans on your social networks, but you turn those relationships into customers with email.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing produced an ROI (return on investment) of 4,300% — or $43 for every $1 spent.

Contact your mailing list once a month with news. Spend money on a mailing list service provider that can help you design a rich looking email and provide analytics and tracking capabilities so you can measure the effectiveness of your newsletters and make adjustments where need be. A premier solution that many of our clients enjoy working with is MailChimp.

We strongly suggest downloading the music marketing plan checksheet (at the bottom of the page) to make sure you’re not missing anything about this extremely vital step.

Here are Ariel’s recent articles on Newsletters:

5 Critical Things to Add to Your Monthly Newsletter

Cyber PR’s 3 G’s – GREETING, GUTS & GETTING – How To Write An Effective Newsletter

 

Free Ultimate Guide to Music Publicity

5. Press

It might seem a bit early to start talking about getting press, but it’s not. PR takes time and effort to execute well.

Sadly, many artists believe that PR = blasting a press release out to the top 100+ music sites that they have Googled. This never works, because PR placements start with astute research.

Blog savviness gets placements.

You should now start to identify and familiarize yourself with online publications (blogs), podcasts, and radio outlets that are appropriate and strategic for you and your release. If you live in a smaller town (read: Not in New York, San Francisco, LA, or Chicago) there may be some local press that you can go after, too.

There are thousands upon thousands of active music sites, and there are a million more non-music sites that can feature your music as well.

Your big goal might be a review on Pitchfork, but what’s your backup when Pitchfork doesn’t respond to you and then doesn’t respond to your follow-ups? Is Pitchfork even the right outlet for you to showcase your project? Sure, they have a large audience, but is it the right audience for you? It’s OK if the answer is “no.”

Not only will familiarizing yourself with music publications help you to know where to pitch your music, but it will also give you invaluable insight and ideas for your press photos, your music video, and pinpointing your genre.

Research is not the only thing you need before you send your first pitch. To find out what to do come download our Ultimate Guide to Music Publicity.

Pro Tip: Keep in mind that a music blog is made up of content written by individuals. When it comes time to pitch, you will be pitching to these individuals. Increase your chances that they will be interested in you by first being interested in them. Make a connection by following them on social media and re-tweeting them. Better yet, try to strike up a conversation with them on Twitter if the opportunity arises. A conversation about literally anything other than your music is recommended.

This way when you send that blogger an email about your music (or if a publicist does that for you), there could now be some familiarity there and existing relationships that will help in getting your emails opened and even further, help your new music to be featured.

Now that you know how to build a solid online foundation and the beginning of an online community, now is your time to dive in and do it!

Creating a long-term plan with proper execution will put you ahead of the game.

Do not cut corners here. Having a true base will put you in a much better position when you are getting ready for your next 5 steps, which is when you will start calendaring for your release. This is the topic for PART 2 of this 3 PART series.

Now that you have The First 5 outline, download our checksheet and see what you else may require some love…  Click on this image to get started now:

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OR

Click To Read More About Musician's Total Tuneup

The post Release Preparation: The Musician’s Guide to Marketing Plans Part 1 appeared first on Cyber PR Music.

Releasing Music: The Musician’s Guide to Marketing Plans Part 2

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Musician's Guide to Marketing Plans Cyber PR

In the first installment of our newly updated Musician’s Guide to Marketing Plans, which we now call Musician’s Total Tuneup around here,

we addressed the overlooked importance of having a marketing plan and went through the first five of fifteen elements to keep in mind when planning a new release. 

In part 2, we will be addressing the next five elements for promoting new music. This can be a single, a music video, an EP, or an album.

This Is Your Artist Development Plan

If you didn’t get the chance to read through Part 1 – Release Preparation I encourage you to please do so before reading this. This series comes from many years of collaborating with record labels and brilliant managers.  What we noticed separate the best teams who get results for their artists vs. the teams who are constantly floundering is planning.  Back in the day when labels were more focused on artist development and in it for the long haul they had entire departments dedicted to

There are 15 elements to keep in mind when planning a new release – they break down into 3 groups of 5.

The Second Five – Ordering the Chaos

Below are the 5 areas that need to be addressed before any official announcements should be made about a new album, EP, or even a single coming out. To see these in more detail, download our checklist at the bottom of the page:

 

  • Timeline

  • Release

  • Social Media

  • Press & Promotion

  • Shows

Let’s dive in!

1 & 2. Timeline & Release

We have condensed these 2 elements as they go together like cookies and milk.

Plan some milestones starting two months before the release date, and have some benchmarks for at least one month after the album comes out. Here is how this could look:

Three Months Before Release

Register With A P.R.O.

To collect your royalties you’ll need to sign with a Performing Rights Organization (“PRO” for short) and SoundExchange. The three options in the U.S. for PRO’s are ASCAP, SESAC and BMI

You also have to register with SoundExchange, which focuses on royalties for your recording (mechanical rights), while your Performing Rights Organization focuses on royalties for your song (performance rights). Visit Soundexchange.com to register as an artist and publisher to collect on these future royalties.

Most distribution services also offer an opt-in admin pub service, but I recommend signing up through your PRO to keep everything together.

 

Live Royalties

 BMI and ASCAP both offer portals to collect royalties from playing live. Once your songs are registered on the PRO database, you login and enter any dates you have performed those songs, where they were performed, and which songs. The PRO companies payout quarterly so be sure to enter the performances soon after they are through, otherwise, you could miss a deadline!

 

Get As Many People As Possible To Your Socials & Newsletter.

This is a practice that you should get in the habit of and your whole band or team should be helping.

Find your friends and people you admire (bloggers, other artists, venues, local spots you like to hang out in, etc.) on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and friend away!                                                         

This will increase your audience because as many of the people you follow will follow you back.

If you have not curated lists on Twitter, make some to keep track of your favorites.

Also, start reaching out to people in your inbox and outbox and get them on your list (remember it’s illegal to just sign people up so do this with integrity and ask each person).

Your newsletter is the place where you will be able to monetize so, don’t skip this step.

Here is Ariel’s comprehensive Newsletter lesson from Social Media House.

 

Take Everyone along on the Journey With You

People like to follow along to real-life stories (case and point: reality TV). It’s a great way to form a stronger bond with your current and growing base.

Send updates on how the recording, mixing and mastering is going using videos and photos via your socials, plus capture longer-form stories for your blog and newsletter.

Engage with your following on milestones like artwork and song titles by polling your fans (Twitter has a polling feature which you can use) and holding contests to select what cover or title to go with, have your fans weigh in on photos, graphics and get them involved with the process.

The goal of all this activity is to get people excited so they are engaging and sharing your updates.

Two Months Before Release

Your content calendar is outlined with all of the steps needed for your release with dates for each asset/action needed

Single and album Artwork is ready and looks amazing

You are rounding up as many fans onto your newsletter list as possible

Six Weeks Before Release

 

Submit Your Music to Your Distributor

Make sure to let them know you are releasing a single FIRST before the EP (if this is the case). You must have your single artwork ready at this time!

Tunecore, CD Baby, and other aggregators like 4-5 weeks to pitch your music to iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon Music, and other digital service providers (DSPs). Get your social posts in order and draft your newsletter announcing the single.

 

Launch A Facebook Like Campaign to Get More Followers to Your Page

Or if you have not done so in a long time go through your personal Facebook Page and ask all of your friends to Like your Page.

I know this may seem crazy to do during a time when Facebook is catching a lot of heat but promoters, venues, and music bloggers still look at social numbers so make sure yours are consistenly growning (and don’t buy fake fans ever!)

 

One Month Before Release 

Ultimate guide to spotify and soundcloud

Release Your First Single

This is a great way to build buzz, get fans excited, and also get some music bloggers interested. Any reviews you can place will help build your overall online profile.

On the press side of the house aim for appropriate blog targets. If you are a brand new artist Pitchfork is probably NOT appropriate. Go for smaller, more targeted music blogs!

That being said, be sure to reach out to your “within reason” dream targets with your single(s). It’s not the best idea to wait to reach out to these loftier sites with your album.

Album reviews take a considerable amount of time and, if you look, most music sites are reserving these full album review slots for the most anticipated albums so don’t feel disappointed if you don’t get full album / EP reviews (they are not en vogue these days) 

Download and read our Spotify & SoundCloud Guide to make sure both of those platforms are set up correctly and you have done what you need to to get these working for you.

Announce a Release Event – Live Show or Listening Party

If you play live shows, book a release show and do something to make this show more special than the others. Decorate the venue, work with the bar to create a special shot or cocktail, pre-sell a merch pack, hire a party bus, ask a food truck to pull outside the venue, etc.

If you don’t play out, create a listening party at a small bar, create an after-work happy hour, or choose a local favorite. If you are just starting and don’t think you can draw a large crowd, hold a listening house party with wine tasting, cupcake bake-off, fondue party, etc.
Think about your fans and make this special for them! And, of course, the key is to announce that tickets are on sale and share links!

Start Your Music PR Campaign

This is a great way to build buzz, If you are hiring a PR team – work on the strategy with them or if you plan to do it yourself it’s time to prepare – for help, Download the Ultimate Guide to Music Publicity

Start Your Pre-Sale / Pre-Save Campaign

This is a great way to build buzz, get fans excited, and also get advance sales. Send the word out to your newsletter and socials. Work with Pledge Music to help you with your pre-sales to offer tiers and build excitement. Follow our Spotify Guide to PreSave

Create a Facebook or Instagram Live

This is a great way to build buzz and can really attract fans who may not see your posts.

Two Weeks Before Release

 

Build the Momentum!

Keep the excitement up on socials by scheduling a countdown across your socials.

Use Canva to design tiles and Gify to make GIFS.

Hold a contest to win the new music or give away tickets to your show or listening party.

 

On Release Day 

  • Skin your socials with “out now!” and artwork (Use canva to help you)
  • Post and pin OUT NOW to the top of Twitter & Facebook
  • Create Instagram & Facebook Stories to share
  • Make a fun video about the release and post on your website & Facebook – and Boost!
  • Send out a newsletter announcement to your mailing list

After Release

Keep Momentum Up!

Again, the more activities you can plan leading up to the release and after it drops will help continue your story and profile building.

The more press and social media-worthy points you can arrange for after a release will keep contacting press with new content, while at the same time reminding them about the new album.

  • Ask your family, friends, and fans to write reviews of your new album on iTunes, Amazon or CD Baby, and other digital retailers. Studies have shown that albums that are reviewed on iTunes actually sell more albums.
  • Submit your music to Pandora for consideration
  • Drop a Lyric video or a video for one of the tracks to keep the music fresh for fans

3. Social Media

A lot of social media elements are covered in the timeline above. At Cyber PR Music, we consider your blog and your newsletter to be part of your social media strategy.

Don’t forget that monthly newsletter

Newsletters should still be going out once a month, blog posts being posted, and socials should never go stale.

Just because you may not have a big “news” item (for example: a new release) doesn’t mean you should stop communicating with your fans on a regular basis.

Update Your Socials Every Day

You should be updating daily and updating also means responding to and interacting with others.

In addition, to all the content we have gone over in this guide, post about things happening in your personal life, repost interesting articles or news items or post a song from a band that you love.

News, food celebrity gossip, parenting, fashion, art, and sports all make good topics for people to engage and connect around. Let your personality show!

Social Media rules are constantly changing and shifting (hello Facebook) so make sure you keep up on social trends so that you are not using antiquated techniques.

We love Mashable, Social Media Today, and Social Media Examiner. And of course, follow our Social Media Pyramid for content guidance.

Use Hashtags!

– #mcm = man crush Monday

– #transformationtuesday

– #wcw = woman crush Wednesday

– #tbt = throwback Thursday

– #fbf = flashback Friday

Always Say Thanks!

Anytime a  fan or a press outlet talks about you or your music, share it on your social media outlets. Press and fans alike love when you share a post they’ve written about you.

 

 

Visualize Your Music Blog Features & Milestone & Post!

See how we do it here on our Instagram and follow us while you are at it!: https://www.instagram.com/cyberprmusic 

4. Press & Promotion

Your PR Plan

A big component when promoting a new album EP or single is getting PR. You can accomplish this by hiring a team or by going the DIY route. When hiring a PR team make sure you do your homework and make sure your music is a good fit with that firm’s approach and philosophy. Be sure that the team talks to you about their well-thought-out plan for your campaign.

A PR company should work with you to make sure you are fully prepared before you are introduced to the press.

This is the first part of their job when you engage a firm.

If you’re going with a do-it-yourself approach here are some tips for an effective music PR campaign:

Get Great Photos

Make sure you have at least 3-4 great images and variety is important. Most music blogs feature square or horizontal photos. When getting photos taken think through your brand and think about variety to keep your images fresh as time goes by.

5 steps to a great musician bio

Bio / Your Signature Story

This series is packed with DIY tips, but we suggest hiring a professional to write your bio, which we call a signature story around here. Even if you are a strong writer, it can be challenging to write about yourself. A professional writer will be able to craft a compelling bio that effectively conveys all the important details while keeping the audience in mind, which in this case includes press and music industry folks. Read our 5 – Steps guide here or We would be delighted to write one for you.

Music Press Outreach

The first people to target should be local press and press outlets that have written about you in the past (if applicable). When contacting blogs make it personal. Be sure to research which writer/journalist of the site is the best or most appropriate to reach out to (if applicable). Before you start talking about your music be sure to address why you approached them and not some other blog. ALWAYS include a Soundcloud link to either your single or album. If your album/EP is unreleased, you can include a private Soundcloud link to the album/EP in a private playlist. Follow up approximately once a week and if you’ve received some press since the last time you contacted them, be sure to include a link in your follow up email.

Then as we touched on in Part 1, plan ahead so you will have content for multiple press outreaches such as a new music video, remixes, or tour dates, as you don’t want to repeat the same message about the new music.

Words of Warning About Press Releases

Please DON’T write and pay to distribute a press release. Press releases are relics of the past and are not favored by music bloggers.

Press releases are great if you have something truly newsworthy and releasing an EP, single or album is actually not “news” (even though it is extremely important to you). If it is newsworthy then DO follow this guide.

Building a Targeted Media List

There are many ways to start building a targeted media list. One method – identify a musician or band that is slightly further along and fits into your musical wheelhouse, and take note of the press outlets that they are getting featured on. There is a great chance that those publications may also feature you.

 

Know That You Need 2 Separate Strategies for SoundCloud and Spotify

SoundCloud will be what music blogger will want.  So, you have to have a great SoundCloud profile.  Follow our handy guide to get great at this! You need a separate strategy for Spotify as you will need to be known in the platform with verification, a decent amount of followers and of course your current bio announcing your recent release. Spotify has an entire site and a fab app dedicated to helping you learn how to get established in the Spotify ecosystem.

5. Shows

If you are already building through touring, continue to tour, hitting the same markets that you played while supporting the new music to build on the momentum that has been made.

Martin Atkins has the BEST book on touring called Tour Smart. If you don’t have it, get it on Amazon.

We also love this post from Ari Herstand.

There are undoubtedly limitations though on how often you can tour and you more than likely won’t be able to tour to every market where there are fans.

And many artists are not touring at all, so if this is the case for you, consider virtual shows and live streaming.

 

No Shows?  Try Live Streaming!

A live streaming concert is where the audience is online viewers and can be filmed at your home or any interesting location have access to, a great tool to connect with people anywhere in the world. Tons of artists, big and small, are taking advantage of this right now to keep engaged and present with their current fanbase, generate revenue and to increase their brand and awareness.

There is of course live streaming through Facebook and Instagram for example, but you can also live stream on platforms that offer many features geared towards musicians and will appear more like an “official” artist show. The two major players in this space are Stageit and Concert Window.

Picking between the two they are both quite similar, will allow you to either charge a set ticket price or the better idea, and what most artists do, is utilize the “pay what you want” model. The differences are found in the way you can reward viewers, should check both out and see which one you like better.

Now that you have part 2, download our checksheet to see what you will need to prepare…  Click on this image to get started now:

 

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Post Music Release Strategies: The Musician’s Guide to Marketing Plans Part 3

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Welcome to the final part of our 3-part series on how to build a comprehensive musician’s marketing plan, which is one of the most powerful things we do here as an agency.  In fact, they are so powerful, we recently renamed them Musician’s Total Tuneup.

In the first two articles in this series, we discussed building a solid and complete online foundation and outlined strategies for a successful new release launch. Now it is time to kick back and relax for a little while before starting to write material for the next album or EP that you’ll release a year or two down the road right? …..Couldn’t be further from the truth.
If you haven’t downloaded our Musician’s Marketing Plan / Total Tuneup Roadmap now would be a REALLY great time to do so.

 

 

There are 15 elements to keep in mind when planning a new release – they break down into 3 groups of 5.

The Constant Five – The Ongoing Work!

Your job now during this phase of your musician’s marketing plan is to keep supplying consistent compelling content to strengthen your relationship with your fans and potential fans.

  • Keep The Music Coming! 

  • Live (or Streaming) Shows ­

  • Ongoing Social Media  

  • Merchandise 

  • Making Money 

 

1. Keep The Music Coming!

Gone are the days of releasing an album once every couple of years and leaving it at that. Today’s artists need to be constantly feeding their fanbases new music. Releasing singles and videos will keep fans engaged while they are waiting for a full-length album EP, or next single.

A skill set that you need for this is to understand how to use Spotify and SoundCloud.  Download my Ultimate Guide to Streaming to brush up on the most effective ways to get the music out there. Remember, you’re not limited to just releasing original new tracks. A best practice for keping fans engaged with Spotify is plan to release something every 4 to 6 weeks.

 

Create alternate versions of your studio tracks:

Get a DJ to remix one of your songs. This does not have to be a famous DJ, someone who is familiar with what is trending on Hype M (if that is a goal), or has worked with an artist you love. If you’re interested in holding a remix contest you should contact the folks over at Indaba Music. They put together some great remix campaigns.

Or take a page from Nirvana and release an album of stripped down “unplugged” versions of your studio tracks. A great way to show a different side of the band and appeal to potentially new listeners.

Lastly release a live album, preferably from the CD release show, but any show will work as long as the audio is of top quality.

 

Make Videos

Share and upload more videos: official music videos, lyric videos, live videos, vlogs, Facebook Live sessions, Instagram Live, etc.

Record cover songs:

Music fans love covers. Recording cover songs is a great strategy for gaining awareness for new artists and it provides fun content to share with your fans. You can cover artists that inspire you, or similar sounding artists to further entrench yourself within your genre. Don’t box yourself in though. Covering a song outside of your genre can be a great way to tap into a whole new fan base. This is exactly what the pianist Scott D. Davis did when he decided to combine his love of heavy metal with the beautiful piano pieces he was recording. The result was millions of YouTube hits for his metal covers and new fans out of the heavy metal community, even of the artists themselves; Scott has been invited to open for Godsmack, Korn, P.O.D., Sevendust, Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe and Queensrÿche among others.

*Please note, to legally sell a cover song you will need to obtain and pay for a mechanical license. Harry Fox Agency is the foremost mechanical licensing agency in the US. Or work with Easy Song Licensing who will get the license for a small fee per song on top of the mechanical license fee. To legally make money from your cover songs, work with the company We Are The Hits.

 

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2. Play Live (or Stream) Shows

Continue to tour, hitting the same markets that you played while supporting the new album to build on the momentum that has been made. There are financial limitations though on how often you can tour and you more than likely won’t be able to tour to every market where you have some fans.

 

Live Streaming

 

A live streaming concert is where the audience is strictly the online viewers and can be filmed at your home or any interesting location have access to, a great tool to connect with people anywhere in the world. Tons of artists, big and small, are taking advantage of this right now to keep engaged and present with their current fanbase, generate revenue and to increase their brand and awareness. This could be an option for you since you don’t plan on hitting the road in a van (and we don’t suggest that you do!). You could also add a streaming element to your bigger event so fans from outside of major markets can tune in.

There is of course live streaming through Facebook and Instagram for example, but you can also live stream on platforms that offer many features geared towards musicians and will appear more like an “official” artist show. The two major players in this space are Stageit and Concert Window.

Picking between the two (they are both quite similar) will allow you to either charge a set ticket price or the better idea, and what most artists do, is use the pay what you want model. The differences are found in the way you can reward viewers as well as the amount of the proceeds the platform keeps (Stageit keeps a lot more!), definitely check both out and see which one you like better.

Streaming a show is also a great way to interact with your fans on a more personal and direct level.

Keeping the shows fresh and different will help with increasing viewership from show-to-show:

Play a game at the end of the performance or midway through using the chat feature. Trivia would be very easy game to pull off, where people could win merch or any other prizes that you can get your hands on.

Play new cover songs each week, better yet, ask people what covers you should play for the next week. Post the question on Your Facebook Page or on Instagram as a tile. The song suggestion that gets the most likes or comments will be the one(s) you cover.

Have guest performers join you. It’s a great way to add a new element to the live stream while cross promoting to each other’s fans at the same time.

3. Ongoing Social Media

Pay attention to your social channels and post often. Please see parts 1 and 2 of this article to deep dive and keep your Facebook Page, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Blog, or whatever your favorite social media channels are alive and active. 

Don’t be a jerk and expect others to come to you – follow people and make friends. If you are not interested in them they shouldn’t be interested in you (it’s a 2-way street). To brush up all of your socials efficiently download my book Social Media Tuneup and get started!

4. Merchandise

Please avoid this costly mistake: You do NOT need to create merch until you have a fanbase who will buy merch and a sense of what they want to buy.

Merch has become very sophisticated over the last few years, there is no need to order a bunch of T-shirts (unless of course, your fans like to roll that way!)

Our three favorite Merch ideas are

USB Flash Drives 

Different kind of merch item to sell that you can load up with music, pictures, videos, lyrics, sheet music, etc.

Vinyl 

Is hot right now. According to a recent Guardian article: “sales of vinyl reached a 25-year high as consumers young and old have once again embraced physical formats of music.” Make sure you keep the fact that ordering can take months and make sure you are prepared to mail it out and carry it to shows (it’s heavy!)

DIY Craft Items 

We also love the idea of creating unique DIY items as a vehicle of selling your music, our client Mary Jennings sells bolo ties at her shows and in her Etsy store when she’s not on the road. We loved hanging out with her and watching her fans try on ties after her set.  

Michele Enoch wrote this fabulous guest post on youbloom – The Ultimate Independent Musician Guide to Merchandise and it’s jam-packed with fabulous links and unique idea.

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5. Making Money

You want to be considered an artist and not a hobbyist, right? So making money is key to your ongoing strategy. 

Crowdfunding 

This is a great way to fund an album, a tour or a big idea and by the time your campaign ends, your contributors are invested in both the idea and the journey, increasing their loyalty levels to “super fan” status. However you must keep in mind that the average crowdfunding campaign raises $7,000, according to fundable, and it takes dedication and perseverance to pull off successfully.

Also – no crowd, no crowdfunding, so make sure you have a real dedicated fan base before you try this. In order to raise $5,000, you would need around 250 backers who would give an average of $20 each. In order to raise $10,000, you would need around 500 backers, who would, again, give an average of $20 each.

My new book called Crowdstart, that will walk you step-by-step through your entire campaign, and it comes with amazing done for you bonuses!

Patreon

Patreon is all about content. This means you want to have consistent content to keep your patrons happy. Make sure to share exclusive content only available through your Patreon page. 

Ultimately, the success of any kind of crowdfunding strategy will come down to you reaching out to your network through your newsletter, social media and getting them involved with both the funding and by helping to spread the word about your Patreon to their friends and networks.

Make sure your community knows. Mention your Patreon on your website and across your social media platforms. Go so far as to mention it in your YouTube videos and include a link to your page in the description.

Take the burden of promoting solely off your shoulders by evaluating your current network. Think of all the people that you know, people who have access to mailing lists, websites, blogs, and large social media profiles that you would be able to utilize to get the word out further about your Patreon.

Entice these individuals to get involved. Have another composer do a video or song with you and then spread that to their networks. Fans can only get that song by joining your Patreon.

Experiences 

Backstage meet and greets, private Skype sessions, and dinner with the band before a show are all possibilities and you don’t need to run a crowdfunding campaign to sell experiences. Many indie and major label artists are taking advantage of them.

Subscriptions

 is another area that artists are moving towards, where people sign up to receive music via Bandcamp or support the creation of videos through Patreon.

Just because people don’t buy CD’s much anymore and even downloads are in a decline, people are willing to support artists, you just need to give them the platform to do so and interesting items and experiences to offer.

 

So there you have it!

This 3-part series is a LOT and we know it, but we hope that you find it extremely helpful.

 

 

Now that you have read the final part of this 3-part series, Download our Roadmap to see what you have left to check off or still need to prepare…  

Click on this image to get started now:

 

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The Musician’s Guide to Instagram

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Instagram — the most popular visual social platform has experienced a meteoric rise, rising by around 100 million users per year since 2014. As of today, Instagram has over 1 billion active Instagram users and an average of 95 million photos shared every day. And 80% of Instagram users come from outside of the United States! I guess a picture really is worth a thousand words.  In case you didn’t know, Instagram was acquired by Facebook for 1 billion dollars in April, 2012. We hear from artists all of the time that they love Instagram the most because of it’s ease of use— with Instagram’s recent innovations, such as IGTV, it is a perfect place to begin establishing your brand.

Pimping Your Profile

Instagram allows you to change your profile photo and add a 150 character bio with one link. One way around putting multiple links in your bio is to use Linktree, which allows you to create a custom link that redirects your fans to a page with multiple links. Next, connect to people you already know on Facebook, and if you choose, you can also search and connect to contacts in your phone.  Next, link your socials by locating the little “wheel” at the top right of the app where you can link to your Facebook, Twitter, and others.

After this is complete, it’s simple. Take a photo (or choose one already stored on your phone). Next, apply a filter which will enhance the photo, change the color, make the photo look old, rotate it, soften colors, etc., and then post!

Another way to make sure your profile stands out is by setting up a business profile allowing you to link your account directly to your Facebook page. This gives you the ability to run ads and promote your page and find out more detailed information about the people that follow you such as when they are most active.

How to set up a business profile:

  1. From your existing profile in the mobile app, tap on settings.   (If you don’t have a profile yet, install Instagram on your device and follow the prompts to create a personal profile).
  2. Choose Switch to Business Profile.
  3. On the Set Up Your Business Profile page, review your business’s contact information, make any changes and tap Done.

TIP: Try to keep your user name consistent with your Twitter handle! Not only does this make it easier for fans to find you across social channels, but if someone tweets an Instagram photo of you, it will connect to your Twitter account as well.

Tags

When you post a photo, choose at the least 5 hashtags (you can use up to 30), as this is how photos are found. Top Hashtags is a site that shows the top hashtags trending in real time if you are stuck, or want to get into an active hashtag conversation. You can put these hashtags in the actual caption, or post them in a comment under the photo after it’s been published.

Don’t forget you can always start and popularize your own hastag!

#cyberpr #indepedentartists

You should use as many hashtags as you can that are relevant to you or your post and to avoid looking “spammy” you can always post and hide your hashtags in the comment section if you format it as shown below.

 

Tip: You must write out your hashtags in some version of a notes app then copy and paste to format correctly

 

Geotags

Before you post a photo, Instagram gives you the option to geotag your post. By adding your location to your post, not only does it give your picture context but it also increases your visibility on the platform in the same way a hashtag does. This is a good idea for posting live photos because it helps build a relationship between you and the venue through promoting the space. Including geotags will also increase your reach in those particular regions and can possibly lead to more gigs and press opportunities.

Captions Should Tell A Story

In addition to hashtags, you need to add captions to your photos before posting. What’s going on in your photo? Fans want to connect with you on a personal level, so tell them a story! Post a few photos in real time, documenting the lead-up to a show, a day on tour, a trip to the zoo, etc.

Humor is always welcome 

Timing is Everything

It’s vital to track which times your fans engage with your posts. Posting at 2 am on a Saturday might work perfectly for an EDM DJ, but it’s not a great strategy for an older folk singer. Think about your target fan, and when they’re most likely to be scrolling through Instagram.

And if you have your page set up business account Instagram allows you to access analytics about who is following, where they’re located, as well as the days of the week and the time of day and your followers are most active.

Cross Posting to Twitter

I caution you to be selective about what you cross-post to socials.  You want to tell a separate story on each of your socials to get people to join you, and not get fatigued by the same posts across channels.  Once in awhile, it’s perfectly OK to cross-post.

TIP: when you cross-post to Twitter, your photo will not show up in your tweet stream (nor will it be added to your photos section on your Twitter page.  It will instead show up as a link to Instagram.  This is beneficial to get followers from Twitter, but can become annoying to your Twitter friends — another reason to use sparingly! There are ways to get your photos to show up on Twitter, but we’ll save that for the next blog post.

Cross Posting to Facebook

Ditto with Facebook. You want to be Instagramming 3-5 times per week and if you cross-post to FB every time, it will get real old, real fast. The way you get people to follow all your different social channels is to actually make them different. It’s okay to occasionally put an Instagram photo up on FB, but save it for the really good/important pics.

Create CTA Posts

Make special posts to advertise events, releases, or get people to follow your Page on Facebook or your Twitter stream. There are a few apps that help you write on top of Instagram photos, creating beautiful and professional CTAs. We’ll go into these in our next blog post.

Tip: For business profiles you can pay to create promotions that target your audience with a CTA link included in the post that sends people directly to your website or page.

  1. Go to your profile.
  2. Tap the post you’d like to promote.
  3. Below the post’s image, tap Promote.
  4. Fill in the details of your promotion by setting things like Audience (who you want to reach), Budget (how much you want to spend) and Duration (how long you want your promotion to run). Tap Next once you’ve completed these details.
  5. To complete your promotion, tap Promote

Videos

Instagram allows you to post 60-second videos directly to your page – just long enough to catch the chorus of your latest song! Take the video from your phone, or upload a higher quality clip. This is a great way to promote your new music video, or your next show. Keep in mind that engagement rates on videos in Instagram tend to be lower than the engagement rates on photos, so don’t rely too heavily on the video option. If you want to post lots of videos.

IGTV

Instagram is now competing with YouTube with IGTV, their dedicated platform to long-form video content as well as an in-app feature.This allows you to post videos longer than 60-seconds.

For more information on how you can utilize the platform, check out our detailed article here.

 

 

Instagram Stories

Instagram stories are a feature within Instagram where users can share their day with their followers! You can post just simple photos of you going about your day, or you can record short videos. You can even use boomerang to make a looped post. Within this feature, you can also add a link that the viewer will have to swipe up to open. This can be used to promote a lot of different things – you can ask your followers to follow your other socials, send out a link to buy your new song or album on iTunes, etc.

Tip: once you’ve reached 10k followers you can add links to your Stories that send people to your website, iTunes, Spotify, etc.

To learn how to use Stories to their highest potential, you can read our guide here.

Instagram Live

Instagram also has live streaming. When you start one of these live streams, a notification is sent out to your followers to notify them that you are live! There is also a comment feature that happens in real time, so you can answer questions that your followers are sending in. This is a great way to connect with your fans on a more personal level, or to make announcements in a new, creative way!

Other Tools and Apps to Optimize Your Account

There are dozens of great apps and sites you can use to optimize your photos and fan engagement on Instagram. We’ve touched on a few of them in this post, but stay tuned for our next post, because we’re going to give you a run-down of these tools, and show you some examples of musicians who are rocking it on Instagram!

Still Struggling to Come Up With Content?

At Cyber PR, we encourage our clients to focus on thematics when coming up with content to post on social media. What do your tribe/followers want to see? What fits your personality? What are you trying to say? What do you care about? We recommend choosing up to five thematics, and focusing on those when posting on social media. Here are ten examples to get you started:

  1. Charities/causes that you care about – #unicef #childfund
  2. Family – #bro
  3. Your pets/animals – #grumpycat #puppy
  4. Other music/musicians, shows you go to, etc. – #musicmonday
  5. Your upcoming events, premieres, etc. – #livemusicNYC
  6. Your creative process – #coffeecoffeecoffee
  7. Food – #COOKIES
  8. Your hometown/where you live – #nyc #brooklyn
  9. Nature – #outdoors #dirt
  10. Your hobbies – #adultcoloringbooks

Then there’s always #tbt (Throwback Thursday). Awkward childhood photos go down a treat.

There you go – the basics of Instagramming. Once you have a few photos, you will begin to lay out a visual story for yourself. Instagram is a great place to figure out what you want your brand image to be, and what parts/how much of your life you want to share with your fans. Above all, don’t forget to engage with other users! Follow users who interest you, search for hashtags, and then like or comment on photos. This is how you really start to build your community!

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5 Critical Things You Need Before You Start Music Publicity

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5 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU START MUSIC PR

 

 

Many artists rush to Music PR without first having a solid foundation in place and this is a grave mistake. As the PR landscape continues to shift getting great PR is becoming harder to do without also having a brand, a social strategy, numbers and streaming also firing.

 

As an independent musician, a music PR campaign can be a critical component of an overall marketing strategy that will help you to:

1. Reach new fans

2. Increase online influence

3. Create new content that can be used to continue to build strength of existing fan base through social media

4. Better understand marketplace position

 

While all four of these goals are essential for you to have, and there is no doubt an effective PR campaign can help you achieve them, many artists jump into full-fledged PR campaigns a bit too early.

 

In order for music PR to be truly successful and achieve everything you want it to, you must do the 5 following things…

1. Have A Social Media Presence & Daily Posting Practice

Yep, I started with this and not with music – GASP!  Too many musicians underestimate the importance of a social media presence and how it directly relates to the success of a music PR campaign.

There are two reasons why it is so important that you also have a strong social media presence:

 

IMPORTANT REASON #1 – Music Bloggers Check Your Socials

With so many musicians and music publicists inundating the inboxes of bloggers and journalists, it is inevitable that they will check the social media presence of each submission as a filter for who to, and who not to, consider for coverage.

This certainly doesn’t mean that you need to have a HUGE social media presence with hundreds of thousands of fans, but it does mean that you need to be consistently posting content to your socials that communicates “you”, and you need to be engaging with your fans (and the media too!).

Ultimately, apart from being introduced to music, bloggers are also interested in driving traffic to their sites. A blogger wants to know that if he or she is going to take the time to cover your music, you will be able to return the support by sharing the feature with your fans, helping the blogs to build their followings as well.

IMPORTANT REASON #2 – Music Bloggers Expect Mutual Promotion

In order for PR to truly be effective, each feature needs to be properly leveraged through social media to mobilize the existing fan base.

In other words, each feature is new content that you can use to engage your fans without having to say ‘listen to my music’… this form of sharing your successes is a much more subtle form of self-promotion than the much dreaded shameless self-promo that

too many musicians practice (and no one likes).

 

Again, having hundreds of thousands of fans isn’t the point here, but rather you need to have a consistent content strategy that covers all 6 rooms of your social media house, which includes (but isn’t limited to) Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Blog, Newsletter.

 

Here is how often you need to post to each social platform in order to remain ‘consistent’:

Facebook Page:

3 posts per week – Boost at least 1

Instagram:

Post at 3-4 times a week. Try to post at least one STORY a day.

Twitter:

2 – 5 tweets per day and make sure to RT, comment and @

Newsletter:

1 newsletter per month

Youtube:

At least 1 new video per month (note this doesn’t need to be a professional music video)

 

2. Music Being Consistently Released

The ideal scenario is that you have at least a few singles or an upcoming EP (containing at least 4 songs) that is set for release around 1 to 2 months from the start date of your PR campaign. For the most part, bloggers don’t like to mention an upcoming release if there is too much lead-time between their feature and the release.

Don’t forget the blog readers (who are your potential fans!) With the web being the way it is, readers are confronted  24/7. Therefore, it’s really not in your best interest as an indie artist to space singles and EPs light years apart from each other.

Keep the rollout tight and the momentum up, while at the same time being flexible in case something takes off.

It IS certainly possible to do a PR campaign for music that has been previously released. When publicizing previously released music, understand that there will be journalists who will pass based on the fact that the music hasn’t been released within the last three months.

 

3. A Professional, Compelling, Telling Bio (We Call It A Signature Story) 

A professionally written bio that weaves a compelling story about who you are and what makes you unique is not something to overlook. A great bio (we call it a signature story around here) is an essential asset to an effective music PR campaign.

Your bio should serve as a one-stop shop for bloggers to get the facts on you, your project, where you’ve been, and where you’re going. And, even though your music will speak for itself, you’re going to want to talk about yourself and your music in a way that will

entice people to click that play button.

Unfortunately, one paragraph saying that you are a musician from so-and-so making rock music that will blow everyone’s mind is not going to make anyone want to click that button. What will make people listen, is a bio that communicates your story

and pays acute attention to detail and nuance.  A professional bio can run you a few hundred dollars, but it’s reusable and will come in handy long after your campaign has ended.

 

Note: There are bloggers out there who will repurpose your bio in order to create enough content for their blog post.  This is, good news for you if you have a strong bio! The fact that many bloggers will re-purpose the bio means that you now have the opportunity to control the messaging of their features, telling their readers the important points about you that may stick out to fans as unique and intriguing.

 

examples of great artist press photos

L-R Top Simply Rayne, Eli Lev L-R Bottom – Beau & Luci, The Krickets

3. Professional Promo Photos & Great Cover Art

Do you know what gets people to click on your write up? The promo photo or the cover art – EP / Single / Album – depending on what the blog features. It might be kinda sad, but it’s true. If you have any doubts, just think of your own initial reaction when checking

out artists who are not yet known to you. Because of human instinct and the fact that we are exposed to thousands of well orchestrated images PER DAY, you’ll want to pay close attention to the messaging in your photos.

Above you will see 4 band and artist promo photos from some members of our Cyber PR artist family.  These photos have performed very well with the media and they capture the essence of the artists.  I included photos with 4,3,2 and 1 artist for reference.

What do you want the takeaway to be for potential fans who see your promo photo and album cover?

You can’t get away from needing great photos. All bloggers, podcasters, and sites like Spotify will want a photo or cover image. Many new media makers have a quality standard to uphold and poor photos of you and/ or your band could actually be a deal breaker

On the other hand, unique, creative and well thought out promo photos and album covers can be the ice breaker needed to get bloggers to check out your music.

 

Here is some cover art we love…
Top L-R Place Holder Place Holder. Bottom L-R Sugar Single by Jasper Sawyer

Top L-R Kill J – Quasi album cover, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Oddments album cover                                        Bottom L-R Terror Jr. Sugar single cover,  Jasper Sawyer Semi-Discovered Music of Jasper Sawyer mix tape cover

 

 

 

4. A Niche to Conquer / Some Serious Consideration of Genre

Identifying a specific niche to target and/or pinpointing your genre is a critical component to any successful digital music PR campaign.

GENRE:

The media is getting to a point where it sees “singer-songwriter” and eyes glaze over. You probably are a singer-songwriter, and that simple categorization may not work for everyone.

It’s important to think of the publications you want to be in, read them, and see how they describe/talk about music. If they label everyone as singer-songwriter, you’re good to go! If they are approaching things from a more intricate perspective, you might want to think of yourself in those terms as well. You don’t have to be a music journalist yourself. You just have to be conscious.

There are many more genres (and sub-genres) than just rock, pop, country, jazz, EDM, etc. You want to get specific and it’s okay to reference other artists that you get compared to to give bloggers a sense of who you sound like (but do note: getting compared to someone is

DIFFERENT from being influenced by another artist!

NICHE:

It is important to note that your niche does not, in any way, need to reflect your genre of music. Anything that you are passionate about, anything that has inflicted you as a person (such as a disease or social plight) or any part of your upbringing that has helped to define who you are as a person and a musician can be a great niche.

The idea here is that on music blogs, you are just another musician being covered, however on, say a positivity blog or an anime blog, you are the one, or one of very few musicians being covered making your story and your music far more unique which can help it to resonate with the reader-base.

 

5. Strategies for Building Traction on Spotify & On Soundcloud

“If you don’t have fans, listens and consumption on Spotify (that you have to create) you are dead in the water.” – Brian Vinikoor.  This means you need to understand the Spotify Basics first!

Also, know that you need SoundCloud for PR and Spotify for fans – 2 separate platforms with 2 separate functions!

Recap…for successful music PR outreach you will need music that’s ready to go, a professional, compelling bio, great promo photos, a niche to conquer, a social media presence, and a strategy for BOTH Spotify & SoundCloud. If you don’t have these five things, get to it!

 

I have recently launched an online class that will teach you how to do your own Music PR – it’s part of a 12-month series called CYBER PR LABS – click below to read all about it and join me.

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Cyber PR LAB 2: Facebook Advertising For Indies

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Cyber PR Lab 2: Facebook Advertising For Indies

The music industry has radically changed… and it’s time for you to take control of your career.

Cyber PR Labs is a series of focused MasterClasses where you can learn from industry experts and booking agents to full time independent artists, proven marketing agency owners, self-made music entrepreneurs, and masterful strategists. LAB 2 is all about Facebook Advertising.

As an artist, YOU’RE the CEO of your own career, and it is vital to master many aspects of our business to monetize and succeed.

Cyber PR Labs is the ONLY course that laser focuses you by highlighting industry insiders to each cover what they are best at to transform your entire career.

We’re entering the second month of our year-long Labs program with my dear friend and expert Michael Shoup, who will be teaching his masterclass on Facebook Advertising.

Michael’s worked in or around the Music Industry for the last 15 years of his life. Along the way, he’s also been paid to open for the Stone Temple Pilots, do digital work for acts like Kelly Clarkson & Lady Antebellum, design gravestones, scout talent for an indie label, and play music in people’s living rooms from New York to Seattle.

Somewhere along the way he decided to help other people over the hurdles he encountered throughout his career, and thus was born 12South Music in 2012, Modern Intelligence in 2015, and the rebranded 12South Marketing in 2017.

 

What You’ll Get

Week 1 – BUILD – PREPARING YOUR MESSAGE FOR FACEBOOK

Sept. 10 – 8:00-8:45pm EST
  • Learn what content types work and don’t work well within Facebook & Instagram
  • Better understand your fan’s demographic with Audience Insights
  • Crafting your offer and message with a pitch that delivers value

Week 2 – GROW – UNDERSTANDING THE FACEBOOK ADS PLATFORM & ALGORITHM

Sept. 17 – 8:00-8:45pm EST
  • LIVE Facebook Ad Review
  • Understanding Facebook Advertising Objectives
  • Using Organic Reach to

    pay

    Less for your Ads
  • Understanding which pieces of your content WORK and which to ignore

Week 3 – SCALE – OPTIMIZING YOUR RESULTS

Sept. 24 – 8:00-9:30pm EST
  • LIVE Q&A to directly optimize YOUR Ads
  • Automate and Scale your Ads with Rules
  • Building Lookalike Audiences for an Infinite Source of New Fans
  • What the heck is a Conversion?

So click the image below to reserve your seat for Michael’s Lab or grab a season pass for a huge 50% off discount. Our early-bird discount only lasts for a few more weeks, so don’t wait.

We’ll see you in the lab!

 

Cyber PR Lab 2: Facebook Advertising for Indies CTA

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Email Newsletter Best Practices For Musicians

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how to write an effective musicians newsletter

 

Are you still not sending out a regular email newsletter to your followers? This is a guide for Email newsletter best practices for those of you still under the impression that they are old school and therefore not effective.
Do you think that nobody reads them – just because you might not? It’s time to Think again!
Email is still the most vital asset you have for generating revenue.  These email newsletter best practices for musicians and artists will get you started.
Here is a quote from Entrepreneur

“Email marketing works 40 times better at getting customers than Facebook and Twitter, and compared to social media, it offers 17 percent higher conversion.

The secret to success is making every email count. Email not only converts better than the most popular social media, but people spend up to 17 percent more when they do buy.”

– Aaron Agius

 

Let’s go through the infrastructure of an effective email newsletter together. This is a structure that I have used and coached my clients to use for years.

Follow Ariel’s 3 G’s Formula – Greeting, Guts & Getting

Greeting – Be Personal

In your email newsletter greeting, you want to share something that is non-related to your product or services. Talk about you, something that inspired you recently or something in the news. This warms people up and like a letter connects on a human level. Steer clear of controversial topics that will isolate certain readers – stay neutral.

Here are some suggestions to get you thinking,

• Vacation/current trip
• Something that interests you / a theme of fun, beauty, art, etc.
• Whatever you are currently reading or listening to
• The latest TV show you’re watching on Netflix or a movie you have seen

Post photos of these personal touches on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, or blog, etc.

Guts – The Body of the Newsletter

Now you can get into talking about your current project(s). Fill your followers in on what you’ve been up to.

Do you have an exciting announcement, a talk or workshop or panel coming up? Are you writing? Brainstorming? Fundraising? Remember people love and connect to stories, so tell them yours.

Getting – Put Readers Into Action!

This is the most critical part of the email newsletter as it is what you are leaving your readers with. This section is known to marketers and savvy business people as a Call to Action or a CTA.

I have read countless newsletters that left me cold without asking me to do something. Don’t let this be you!

Examples of Calls to Action – CTA’s For Community Building

When you are getting started with your newsletter send a few that do not ask for money.

  • Encourage them to follow you on Twitter
  • Invite them to like your Facebook Page
  • Have them watch a video of you on YouTube and subscribe to your channel
  • Suggest they follow you on Spotify or Soundcloud
  • Invite them out to hang with you at a bar, club, coffee house, art show, conference, etc.
  • Send a survey to fill out or a contest to participate in

Examples of Calls to Action – CTA’s For Money (once you’ve developed rapport)

  • Invite them to an upcoming appearance
  • Invite them to purchase your music
  • Direct them to your crowdfunding campaign
  • Sell merch

 

Remember: There should only be one Call to Action per newsletter.

Readers will get confused and end up choosing nothing if they have more than one choice.

 

A Note About Subject Lines

Keep your subject line short and sweet; no more than 55 characters!

Studies show that including the reader’s first name in the subject line can grab their attention and increases your open rate (the number of people who open your email).

Most newsletter management programs can easily insert first names right into the subject line. Consult with yours on how to do so.

Send Newsletters Regularly & Consistently

It’s crucial to send out your newsletter letter on a consistent basis. Give your followers the opportunity to look forward to hearing from you!

I recommend sending out your newsletter once a month. This gives you an entire month to come up with content.

And keep in mind that some months may feel more exciting than others, so choosing a theme that you can thread throughout each newsletter will stop the doldrums.

Separate yourself from others who never hold themselves accountable, and stick to a consistent schedule; your fans will notice.

Promote Your Newsletter on your Socials

After you send, don’t forget to share. Create tiles for each newsletter and share on your blog, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Follow my tried and true method here.

I hope you have found these email newsletter best practices helpful! This is one tiny part of what all artists need: a Long-Term Music Marketing plan.

 

Newsletters are an important part of your overall marketing plan – download our checksheet to make sure ALL your bases are covered by clicking here…

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Social Media and Online Marketing for Musicians

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Corey Denis is a woman I admire deeply. Corey is a woman who understands social media. She and I have an interesting history. She also worked at What Are Records? the label I started at back in the early 90’s when you could actually sell 1,000,000 albums for a band that was dropped from Arista (yup, we did!)

But she arrived after I had already left, so we never actually had the pleasure of working together during the time.

Corey is nothing short of a genius at marketing bands and artists.

She is brilliant because she thinks about both sides of the fence from both the artists and the fans perspective.

And she taught me how to tweet.

I’m thrilled that she was willing to be interviewed again for this piece. The first edition of this interview went live years ago and it is fully updated now for 2018.

Enjoy her responses, and if you love them and want to read more about how to stop wasting time on socials and start making magic click here.

 

Ariel Hyatt: Why is it important that artists participate in social media?

Corey Denis: In today’s consumer-driven digital environment, where experiences are personalized based on behaviors, social media is essential to the distribution of information and the consumption of art. For artists, Social Media is more than a profile with a bio and a link, it’s an extension of the authentic creative self. Once an account is created, it requires the same attention as any IRL relationship. It’s always been participatory & voluntary, but Social Media has become an essential part of an artist’s career. Although marketing is most often a choice, avoiding social media is similar to refusing a sale. The most important word in your question is participate.

According to Pew Research Center’s study, 85% of young adults in America use a smartphone. Social Media has become part of popular culture. Without fans, it’s difficult to sell art, and without social media, it’s challenging to create or grow a fanbase & communicate with them.   It’s often helpful to think of social media as an authentic real-time artform which simultaneously feeds on popular culture while giving everyone the equal opportunity to create it. Learning how to participate in Social Media opens the door to a  new set of tools which can enhance current projects. While Social Media can be as simple as an authentic conversation, it can also be as intricate as an oil painting.

Like art and music, form and function matter in Social Media. Each platform allows for highly visual methods of communication with a variety of styles & functions. My favorite trick for platforms with limited characters (Twitter, for example) is to think of it as Haiku. Words do matter.

Social Media participation can add new layers to art projects, and real-time revelations which fuel creativity. Many of the artists I’ve worked with have found Social Media to be a creative inspiration; reciprocally, many fans I’ve encountered find it equally as inspiring, because of the artists they follow on Social Media. It’s essential to reply to comments & stay active.

Do you think it’s important for artists to be on as many sites as possible, or be selective and only actively use a few?

It can’t hurt to have a profile on as many sites as possible, and it’s wise to create profiles if only to hold the username for later use.

However, creating profiles just for the sake of having them is ineffective. It’s important to use each profile and network, and integrate it into your process.

An artist could viably create 50 profiles and optimize their “social SEO,” but it’s crucial to consider what a potential fan will find once they get to a profile.

There are a lot of social spaces to choose from, but it’s best to keep it simple.

An artist could viably create 50 profiles and optimize their “social SEO,” but it’s crucial to consider what a potential fan will find once they get to a profile.

Start with 3-5 platforms and stay active. Don’t give up! Learn to use each tool to its maximum ability, without constantly pitching a sale.

If there’s room for more social media profiles after mastering 3-5, participate in additional platforms – one at a time. The key is to not feel overwhelmed, and have fun!

AH: Name the top 5 sites you think all artists should be active on

  • Instagram

  • Facebook

  • YouTube

  • Twitter

  • Spotify

But also consider these social platforms as well:

  • Snapchat

  • Kickstarter

  • Reddit

  • Periscope

  • Patreon

What would your recommendations be for the busy artist that only has 30 minutes a week to dedicate to social media?

I would recommend finding more time in the week. With more than 80% of the population carrying mobile phones with apps on them, there’s a chance that potential fans, show-goers, and art consumers are using social media more often than 30 minutes per week, so why shouldn’t you?

Authenticity requires knowing how the social media platform works, and practice is required.

However, if 30 minutes is the maximum amount of available time, I recommend spending that time joining conversations and replying to others.

If there’s time, be creative and take advantage of the tools on each platform.

Use a photo, a link, a video, and get comfortable with the possibilities of each platform.

Use each minute wisely, and socialize. Remember that social media conversations are similar to signing autographs after a show; dedicate time to talk to other people, even if it’s only 30 minutes a week.

What’s the best way for an artist to get shared on socials?

Try everything and fail fast. Focus on social media, and distribution to services like Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, and iTunes.

Platforms like YouTube are also social; when your art is available on a social distribution service, focus on platform participation, sharing playlists to social channels, and making sure fans know where they can find your art.

Once your art is available on a social distribution service (like YouTube), start participating.

Social Media and Online Marketing for MusiciansWhen consulting with a band or an artist, what do you do for them that helps them sell more music online? How do you quantify your results? How can they?

Simply put, I teach all clients about social platforms and help them strategize their use of social media. Success is measured by engagement, not reach. The most realistic way to set goals is to fail fast, find the bright spots, and shine a light on what works. Social Media is social, and humans are fickle.

Don’t make predictions as to what will work without first trying just about everything. I suggest quantifying results using free analytics tools provided by platforms and set realistic goals based on the results that can only be acquired through swift and gracious failure.

Try everything, and look for growth. When there’s an increase in engagement, lean-in to what works, and set new goals based on engagement rather than impressions.

Check on your own progress twice a month.

Can you name five musicians or comedians who are doing it right online?

Neko Case

MNDR

The Mountain Goats

Sharon Van Etten

Amy Miller

Finally, if I was an artist and I had $500 of promotional money to spend, what would you advise me to do?

Wait until you have something to sell, and use your money to boost any Facebook Posts connected to the item you’re selling.

This will work best for artists who focus on engagement prior to selling something to their fans.

 

Want to put what Corey says into action?

This Step-By-Step exercise will help you identify who your fans are and how to reach them.

10 strategic, thought-provoking questions

How to identify your ideal fan archetype… Click to get itBuy Social Media Tune Up

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Inside A Social Media Management Campaign

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Inside a social media management Campaign

Raise your hand if keeping your social media channels updated and compelling feels like an overwhelming task. It’s okay, I understand! It’s a lot of work to keep your online presence fresh and engaging. Especially if you’re also trying to create music at the same time. This is why we handle social media management here.

A lot of musicians hire someone to take that work off their hands but not all Social Media Managers (or an SMM for short) are created equally.

We will work with you to create content that attracts more fans and supports your brand. An SMM will also post regularly on your socials so that you don’t have to get into the daily tedious grind and you can spend your precious time doing what you love – playing and making music.

Our team at Cyber PR manages social media for a wide range of artists and entrepreneurs, and we often find ourselves explaining what a social media management campaign actually entails. Many are wary of letting someone else post for them, with good reason. You put a lot of work into gathering your tribe of fans – you don’t want to confuse them with posts that don’t sound like they came from you!

In this post, I want to assuage some of these fears and give you an insider’s look at WHAT WE ACTUALLY DO for our clients during a social media management campaign. And if hiring someone to do your social media is not your bag, there are helpful hints on how to get better at your own daily posting and content strategy and our social media content management tool at the end so you can rock it like we do!

Laying The Groundwork

The most critical part of any social media management campaign is what happens before a single Tweet, Instagram, Newsletter or Facebook post goes out. We have to get to know you – as an artist, and as a person – before we can start to post for you. All of the next steps outlined here are designed to help you hone your narrative.  This is the most important part.  Without a cohesive narrative, you really have no social “strategy” just a bunch of posts.

 

The Intake Process

Our SMM campaigns are handled by a team of one or two social media managers. We start by sending an in-depth questionnaire that asks dozens of questions about your current social media strategy, what types of content you like (and dislike).  We also want to know about your fans so, we ask quite a few questions about them as well. To download a powerful exercise that will help you figure out what your fans will like, click here.

We ask you to share your favorite artists, videos, quotes and content (even if it is unrelated to your music).  After you return the questionnaire, our whole team meets to analyze it and create themes, content ideas and a personalized content calendar. Next, we set up an in-depth meeting (phone, Skype, or in-person) with you, in order to go over the questionnaire and begin to really understand your voice.  Together, we go deeper into your interests, influences and discuss what kind of content you want us to add to your current posting schedule.  We also look deeply at your analytics to identify other social media users it might be fruitful for you to engage with, and what online conversations you might want to join. If you are going to take a stab at making your social strategy more cohesive here is the guide we use internally – It’s called Social Media Tuneup.

 

Dropbox & Pinterest

We encourage our artists to make a Dropbox folder to gather personal and professional photos we can use for various posts (#TBT, #WednesdayWisdom, Etc.) We also encourage our artists to make private (or public!) Pinterest mood boards to capture photos and themes so we get inspired and get a sense of your preferred aesthetics, graphics and color schemes. This is an easy way to curate content that you like (recipes, memes, photos, quotes, videos, Soundcloud playlists, etc.). This not only gives us appropriate fodder for posts – it also gives us greater insight into the brand image you want to portray.

 

Social Skinning & Special Graphics

Next, we make sure your brand is cohesive across all channels, and all sites are optimized and skinned. It is important to visualize releases, blog features, show announcements, crowdfunding campaign countdowns and social channels. Our SMMs create unique visual content that fits with each individual artists’ brands.  To do this we have an in-house graphic designer but there are many great, easy-to-use apps that will help you create awesome graphics. To see some artists who have wonderful branding take a peep at this post to get inspired.

 

The Social Media Calendar Organizer

Once we have the basics down, we start to prep some posts on a what we call the SMM Organizer which is stored in the cloud as a Google Sheet, and when posts are approved we use a social media scheduling system like Hootsuite or Buffer to handle the posts we expect. You have full access to everything we are doing, and we ask our clients to give feedback and make changes at any point. Your level of involvement in the process is completely up to you. Some of our clients like to leave everything in our hands, and some stay very involved, even continuing to post themselves. This all depends on how much you like social media and how much time you have to get into the action. Below you will be able to download the template that we use here internally!

 

ariel-hyatt

Social Media Channels

We choose five THEMATICS for each artist, and we try to keep the content tight and not stray too far from these 5 thematics. Topics that interest you or define you in some way are great thematic options (ie. your music, charitable causes, sports, outdoors, animals, hometowns, etc.). That way, your Twitter feed stays coherent, and new followers can immediately get a grasp on who you are and what you stand for.

I did an in-depth interview on how we create thematics, and general best practices for Twitter on the Twitter Smarter PodcastListen in for an in-depth dive.

Our goal is to make sure that when WE post something, it sounds exactly like something YOU would say. We want to make it so similar that not even your besties will be able to tell the difference.

Twitter 

An effective Twitter management strategy has two major components: content creation, and audience development.

Content Creation

Our SMMs Tweet between 3 and 10 times a day for our artists. We include a mix of RTs, @’s, and original posts. One of the tweets is almost always about your music and what is happening in your career, though it is important to avoid being overly promotional on social media. Obviously, if you have a show coming up, or a new single, we include more promotional posts than usual.If you are thinking that this is a lot of tweeting, know this: the average tweet shows up on peoples’ news feeds for approximately 45 seconds. That makes it impossible for us to over-tweet.

To brush up your Twitter chops take part 4 of Social Media House!

Audience Development

You build an audience on Twitter by following people who you think might be interested in you and your music. We take this off your hands and use professional apps to build your followers systematically and efficiently. After a few weeks of Twitter management, you will see higher engagement on your Tweets from REAL people (not the fake accounts that some people pay for).

 

Facebook 

Ah, Facebook, love it or hate it – you need a Page and 3-4X a week is recommended. However, many of our artists like to post more (it all depends on how reactive your Facebook followers are and how much money you wish to invest in Boosting, and ads). The content of Facebook posts needs to be more in-depth than tweets. Many studies also show that native video and images and Facebook Live are effective on Facebook so we make sure we mix up what we are posting. We have seen a lot of mistakes

 

Facebook Ads

As you may know, Facebook is virtually all pay-to-play. The newsfeed algorithms are annoyingly skewed to benefit paid advertisers. Therefore, a huge part of Facebook SMM is creating and manage ads for you. We create an advertising strategy that drives engagement on promotional posts, web traffic, and encourages sharing amongst your audience’s networks.  We also monitor Ad Insights and analytics to determine which Ads are producing the best results, and which strategies resonate well with your target audience.  Lastly, we strategize on special activations such as contests, newsletter sign up drives, Facebook Live, charity, and tie-ins for Ads, etc.

Your Monthly Newsletter 

Your newsletter is where most of your engagement and revenue will come from, so getting a professional to help you with it is a great investment. You want to be consistent and regularly posting on all of your social channels, but this is ESPECIALLY important with your newsletter. We recommend sending a newsletter at least once a month. Your SMM is basically your brainstorming buddy.  She will help you come up with a sexy name for your newsletter, work to gather all of the names and email addresses you may have forgotten and will show you how to send your newsletter regularly and consistently.  One of our past clients at Cyber PR was a sociologist with many published scientific papers, and we worked with her to re-work her published papers into compelling newsletters and her fans loved them!

 

Instagram

Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels, and one of the easiest to use. It’s a great platform on which to build your brand, increase your following, and create compelling content. We’ve written several blog posts including The Musician’s Guide to Instagram,  7 Great Instagram Users To Follow And Emulate and Top Tools and Apps to Optimize Your Instagram Account that are full of advice on how to use Instagram effectively. A social media manager can do all sorts of things for you on Instagram – creating and posting custom graphics and images to support your brand, gathering your approved personal photos and scheduling at least one post a day, utilizing appropriate hashtags and engaging in conversations to get you more followers, and connecting your account to all your other social channels when appropriate for cross-posting. We suggest you post on Instagram 3-4X a week.

 

Organizing All Your Posts With The Cyber PR GDoc

One of the most important components of managing social media is keeping on top of the daily posts. Here at Cyber PR, we organize posts for our clients in a collaborative spreadsheet, which ensures that no social channel is left behind and allows you to get ahead of planning (instead of forgetting and reacting!)

As a reward for getting all the way to the bottom of this GIANT blog post, we’d love to give you a free download of the very template we use! The Social Media Management Organizer (GDoc) will make your life so much easier, and ensure that all your social channels are receiving the tender loving care and consistency they deserve.

 

Click to get your social posts organized!

 

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Final Note – It’s All About Your Narrative

In the end, our goal in a social media management campaign is to streamline your social media strategy and build your audience organically. In order to do this, we learn how to use YOUR voice, YOUR interests, and YOUR music to create compelling content to attract new fans and strengthen the relationship with existing fans. This, again is called your narrative!

If you want help we would love to talk to you – just click below to set up a call and HAPPY POSTING!

 

Want to work with us?

The post Inside A Social Media Management Campaign appeared first on Cyber PR Music.

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