Why You Suck At Social Media
Why You Suck At Social Media
Sweetheart Pubstack #49
We’re Rachel Hurley and Frank Keith IV, co-owners of the Sweetheart Pub. We’re music industry veterans with over 30 years of combined experience in the music business, having worked in licensing, talent buying/booking, label management, tour management, and more. Once a week (hopefully), we’ll publish a new edition of this newsletter, where we’ll share some philosophy and actionable advice on all facets of the music industry.
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We’ve been putting together a weekly playlist of seven songs (just enough to keep your attention) every week — check out The Sweet Spot to hear what we’ve been listening to.
What We’re Thinking About This Week…
It's no secret that social media is an important tool for marketing your music. It’s a part of the process that most musicians, especially those who want to grow their fanbase, have to put some time and effort into.
We see artists doing it wrong every single day.
Musicians have gotten into a very bad habit of using social media solely for promotion. This keeps the fans you have updated on what’s happening, but it won’t help build your fanbase. In fact, it could even turn a lot of your current fans off.
LISTEN: NO ONE GETS ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO BE PROMOTED TO.
Our feeds are already inundated with ads. Your promotion posts are the same thing.
These days musicians pretty much all say the same thing: Listen to our new song, watch our new video, come see us play this show, pre-save our new album. We see the same content so often now, our eyes start to glaze over.
This was never the intent of any social media platform.
They were built to be — wait for it — social.
But how social can things be if you’re only ever talking about yourself? It’s not a good subject for a dialogue — and dialogue/conversation is what you should really be looking to develop here.
This is where caring about other things besides music really helps. There’s this old made-up rule that on your artist profile you’re only supposed to post about musician stuff, and you use your personal page to talk about other things. This method is outdated now. There are so many others vying for a fan’s attention, being more personable and open on your music page will make you stand out. Believe me, it works.
All you have to do is pick two or three things that you’re passionate about other than music. I don’t have have a music page, but I can tell you why I have almost 2000 followers on my personal Facebook profile: I write about the music business, nostalgia, what I find funny, and politics. My goal is to be both entertaining and educational, and it’s not hard because these things are my real passions. Most importantly, it makes me stand out from the crowd. I’m not just another publicist on social media, I’m the Americana publicist that always posts about The Cure.
The more data points someone knows about you, the more memorable you become.
Your goal should be that 80% of the time you talk about something OTHER than your music and focus on giving your followers value. Show them who you are, give them a deeper understanding of all of the things that make you, well, YOU. Give fans more that they can relate to so that they feel more connected. You don’t have to overthink what your content is going to be, because sometime people just connect with how you talk, your sense of humor, what nags at you, seeing you excited about something. You could just share every bad meal you eat on the road — and your comments will be flooded with suggestions of what to eat and your fans own experiences eating bad food, etc, etc. Which will not only make them interact more with you, but also with each other.
And that, my friends, is called building a community.
The Latest
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Music Rookie Podcast
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Former Bloodshot Records Radio Promoter talks radio and navigating “the biz”
Everything you’ve always wanted to know about sync licensing
Have a follow-up question for one of our guests? Got a tip? Did we (*gasp*) get something wrong? Our line is always open -- hit us up and if we use your question or response in a future newsletter, we’ll give you credit and link your socials.
Don’t Forget!
As we often receive requests to work with artists who don’t have the budget to afford a full campaign, we’re launching an “Office Hours”-style consulting service where you can book us for blocks of one-on-one time.
You can learn more here (scroll down past campaign details)
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