5 Tips for Using Data to Grow Your Social Media Audience

This is a guest post by Marcus Taylor, Director of Venture Harbour, a company that specializes in consulting digital marketing to companies in the music industry.

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It’s not often in music marketing articles that I quote statisticians, but when talking about data and it’s role in the music industry, who better to seek advice from?

William Edwards-Demming, the renowned American statistician, is famous for saying “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” What he’s less known for saying is that “the most important things cannot be measured.”

When it comes to building a career as an artist, data certainly has the potential to make you more effective in how you spend your time and budget. But with an abundance of vanity metrics, and ‘data for the sake of data’, it also has the potential to waste time. Here are my five tips when it comes to using data to grow your social media audience as an artist.

Stand Above the Noise: The Challenges of an Indie Musician

In the newest installment of the Stand Above the Noise video series, Andrew sits down with Reimut Van Bonn of VUT (German Association Of Independent Music Companies) to talk about the current state of Music Discovery, Maintaing a Professional Music Career, and how the Music Industry is changing.

Check it out below, and don’t forget to Subscribe to the series here for regularly scheduled Music Industry video content!

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Stand Above the Noise is a documentary-style series of video interviews, filmed and produced by Dotted Music. From Berlin and Helsinki, to a host of cities dotted across Europe, we have been encounter musicians and essential names in the music business, including representatives from the likes of Universal Music, Soundcloud, or Live Nation. Learn how to be remarkable and make this business work for you with Stand Above The Noise, a contemporary insight into the contemporary music industry.

Social Network Overload? Top Sites Musicians Should Focus On

WRITTEN BY LAURA MAXWELL

Key information and recommendations to put social network overload into perspective.

We live in a time where there is so much content fighting for our attention on the internet. We want to keep up with our friends, know the latest news and discover new things before anyone else. Bands face an incredible challenge of getting their message out through all the tweets, “lols”, “OMGs”, and headlines and it’s easy to be overwhelmed, especially if you are trying to create a scalable social strategy. With so many social networks to choose from, how do you know where to start?

After gathering statistics, the recommendations below are made based on network popularity, ease of use, and the ability to integrate and post content across multiple networks simultaneously.

The Big Three

Every band should be using these three networks to reach fans. They are the top networks based on sheer user volume and are where your fans are most likely to be. There’s no doubt that these networks have been in your vocabulary for sometime and theres a reason. A recent study by Pew Research found that an astonishing 67% of American internet users are on Facebook. That’s huge.

SAtN interview with Stewart Walker (Musician, Founder of Persona Records)

Our friends at Stand Above the Noise sat down with Stewart Walker, an electronic music producer and Founder of Persona Records. In this week’s discussion, Stewart & Andrew contemplate the state of the Music Industry, and how musician’s art is taking a back seat to things like Social Networking. Check it out, and let us know if you’ve also got a record collection hiding out in your basement - awaiting it’s epic return!

The Power of Personal - When Traditional Marketing Still Counts

Written by Jem Bahaijoub

As a new artist it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the constantly evolving new media world. With new marketing platforms bombarding us every day, it’s difficult to see the forest from the trees. So what should you do to market your debut EP? How can you build up a fan base from scratch? Next time you feel a panic-attack coming on and start screaming “where do I start?!”, take a deep breath and remember that we were sociable before we were social. So cast your smiley text faces and FB invitations to one side, and go back to basics. The foundational elements of direct-to-fan marketing all started in the physical world….

Put Your Face In A Face

Always remember that your most important marketing tool is yourself. Nothing can ever replace the importance of face-to-face interactions. You may not have time (or the money) to attend every industry and event conference but remember that every time you step outside of your house a marketing opportunity presents itself - at your local coffee shop for example (can you leave postcards on their counter?), going to see other local bands (how about a gig swap?), even at dinner with your extended family (get them on your mailing list!). The power of personal will ALWAYS trump the online world. Why? Because you are instantly more memorable in real life, and people will be willing to help you out more if they know you as a person.

Written by Laura Maxwell

By now you’ve decided you’re “on a mission from God” and you’re putting the band back together. Whether you’ve been out of the game for two months or two years, your “second-first impression” is key. So maybe a full tank of gas, a half pack of cigarettes, and wearing your sunglasses at night will get you to Chicago, but it won’t necessarily make people pay attention to you.

Blues Brothers references aside, the music world has changed since your breakup, and it’s constantly evolving. Unless you’re the Saturday night regular at Bob’s Country Bunker, you’re going to have your work cut out for you. You’ll want to announce your triumphant return in a big way, so how do you make the biggest impact?

Let’s use Rocky Mountain FreeGrass band Mountain Standard Time as an example. They had a strong following in the Denver area before going on a hiatus in 2011, and before reuniting in 2012, the band knew they had to focus on securing a place in the hearts of Denver music fans again.

“It’s always nerve racking going from a situation where you have a lot momentum ,to a complete stop, [only to] come back and try and be in the same position,” said Brian Heisler, Manager for Mountain Standard Time. “Six months after getting back together, we’re getting really close to where we were and it’s really encouraging.”

1. Make a big announcement

Fans don’t have mental telepathy, and they aren’t scouring the Internet waiting for rumors of your return. Think about the places where your fans are hanging out - especially in cyberspace - and try to reach them there. Tap into your previous mailing list and established social channels and make a well-calculated announcement. You’ll want to give fans a call-to-action to help get things buzzing again. Give them incentives like free copies of an old album, a t-shirt, and more for sharing the news with their friends. If you have your first show planned, this is the perfect place to announce it and get it on people’s calendars. You want them to engage with you periodically following the announcement - so give them a reason to!

Mountain Standard Time announced their return through their “Return to the Road” initiative. Through a series of shows, and content on both their website and in social media, they announced their return as a band. The band played an intimate local festival and then officially kicked things off with the “Fall Barn Dance,” a themed show modeled off their sold-out MardiGrass shows that happened each February. Brian Heisler said, “Response from fans was really good and [the number of] people that attended the Fall Barn Dance was close to the numbers we had seen before. It was really encouraging.”

Written by Jem Bahaijoub

We just can’t stop talking about social media - what to do, what not to do, and how to do it. With an overwhelming amount of choice comes an overwhelming amount of information. The biggest challenge for musicians is not about signing up for the latest trend, but how to keep that platform going with interesting and refreshing content. Here are some simple ideas for social media content that apply across most networks:

1. Be A Resource

Your social media sites shouldn’t be just about you. The musicians who use social media effectively are the ones who turn it into a resource for others. As a musician, you are part of many communities - your fan community, your fellow musician community, and your industry community. If you share information that you discover on a daily basis, then you have an instant flow of interesting content. For example, have you read an interesting book or article? What other artists and shows can you recommend to your fans? What tips have you picked up about your industry?

Please “like” my amazing talented opera soprano friend, Corinne Winters, on FB.She’s at Wolf Trap Aug 5, 8, 11. facebook.com/cmwsoprano

July 3, 2012

Remember social media is not just about self-promotion. Of course you want to tell your fans about upcoming shows and new music. However, if you only talk about yourself then social media would become a platform where everyone is shouting but no one is listening.

You will strengthen your community by sharing information about others. Two artists that do this well are Blues/Americana/Rock artist Ted Garber on Twitter and singer-songwriter René Moffatt on Facebook. Check out some of their posts for inspiration.

2. Ask For Help

Asking questions or asking for help on your social media sites is another great way to create conversation. On a personal level, sharing your vulnerabilities makes you more relatable as a person. For example, the violinist Christen Lien recently tweeted about her back problems, asking her fans for tips on how to relieve the pain. She engaged in a number of conversations with various fans about the issue that can be viewed HERE.

Need health advice. I strained my lower back last week and it is healing slower than usual.

July 3, 2012

On a professional level, you can involve your fans in your creative process by asking for their feedback on various career choices, such as your latest single, album cover or photo shoot. Folk-rock musician Brian Franke did just this with his last album. He asked for feedback on his album cover and chose the cover that received the most votes.

3. Join The Debate

There’s always a debate raging in the music industry, one recent notable topic of fury being the article written by NPR intern Emily White, who admitted to only buying 15 albums in her catalogue of 11,000 songs. This admission provoked strong reactions across the industry with many industry figures posting articles in response. But you don’t need to be an industry “expert” to express your feelings on this subject. Evan Bliss, a regional pop-rock singer-songwriter, wrote a blog post detailing his thoughts on the debate, which he then posted to Facebook and Twitter. He felt strongly about the topic and wanted to share his thoughts. This was insightful and topical social media content.

Another great example was a recent debate that occurred in Washington, DC regarding the City Paper. The paper admitted in a music roundup that they were not interested in covering the singer-songwriter genre, even though the city has a vibrant singer-songwriter scene. This provoked outrage in the local music community with many artists posting, commenting and sharing their thoughts in protest.

So what are your opinions on the latest trending topics? What is going on in the worlds of music, politics, or ecology? Share your thoughts with your fans. Give them an insight into how you think as an individual. There is nothing like a bit of passion!

4. Make It Visual

If you are not a natural wordsmith, then say it with pictures and video. The rise of visual social media is staggering. Instagram now has more than 50 million users, and each day on Facebook 300 million photos are uploaded. YouTube has now become the second largest search engine in the world.

Packing, consolidating, & all the things you gotta do to get ready for 8 days out of town. Lift off in less than 48 hours. #fb

June 11, 2012

What’s great about these sites and apps is that you can sync them very easily with your other social media platforms - you can repost (or “repin”) pictures and videos to Facebook and Twitter, creating a natural flow of additional content.

So why are visuals so important? It’s simple - they allow your fans to see the world through your eyes.

For visual inspiration check out this list of 13 must-follow musicians on Instagram.

5. Create Your Own Q&A Sessions

Another great way to create content and a two-way conversation with your fans is by conducting a mini Q&A session online. Ask your fans to post questions about you on your FB page and then answer them in turn over the course of a week (or two) by reposting the questions with your answer attached. Alternatively conduct a rapid-fire 15 min Q&A on Twitter. Your fans are curious about you, so you’ll be making their day.

Voila! Instant content.

6. Offer Exclusives

You don’t have to post the same content on each of your social media platforms. In fact it’s better that there is a variation between your sites. One way you can differentiate one site from another is by posting exclusive content.

The Brit-pop band Blur did this recently by premiering their Olympic concert track on Twitter. But you don’t have to be a massive band like Blur to play this game. Even if you only have 100 followers on Twitter, you are demonstrating to your fans that you value them. You are also providing content that will inspire them to retweet, which will lead to new followers.

7. Chit-Chat Of Course!

Let’s not forget the all important chit-chat status updates. I love them. What are you doing right now? What is occurring in your day to day life? You’ll be surprised at how many people want to hear about this. Why? Because it’s normal!

Alternatively ask your fans about themselves. How can you help them? What are they listening to right now? Show an interest in their lives and they will reciprocate.

Overall your social media content should provide an insight into your life - the person behind the music. Ensure it’s consistent, make it conversational and have fun!

Jem Bahaijoub is the founder of imaginePR, a music marketing company based in Washington DC. Connect with her on Twitter and Facebook