We know social media is an indispensable tool for music artists to connect with their audience, promote their work, and build their brand. Gary Vee one of the worlds foremost thought leaders in social media marketing describes it as the number one branding tool on earth. The problem is knowing what to create, posting consistently, and time management. Additionally, there are design and production skills necessary for each platform and the associated formats. Motivation can also be an issue. It takes time and many musicians feel like it’s a distraction. This post aims to deliver some inspiration and hacks to streamline your social media content creation strategies.
There are 3 core reasons to create a digital presence on social media.
- Awareness of your art and music.
- Extend your music into other artforms like storytelling, images, video making, live performance.
- Gain an audience for your music and attract interest from intermediaries.
Social media in a sense, is a way music artists can extend their creativity through narratives, images and video. It helps ‘frame’ your music. Just like viewing a painting at an art gallery which is framed and has a description of the art to create context. Social media is the frame and context. Listeners seek out and derive satisfaction from these connections with the artist beyond the music. You are serving the music and your fans. A leading Spotify playlist editor stated in an interview for my research:
They’re all potential audience gathering spaces … they create streaming demand … ubiquity is key … just being available, having the correct information and that sort of basic information available in all the spaces where people would normally go and discover you or go to learn about you. After looking at your Spotify profile I go to Instagram for an immediate impression of where you are at.
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2. What platforms should you be on?
You should prioritise those channels most used by your target audience and where you may have more personal interest and connection and work back from that. So, what are the ‘big seven’ platforms? According to data from Kepios 2024 released in July these are: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X and Pinterest. Linkedin is also the world’s biggest professional network. A database or network of music industry contacts.
In terms of a strategy, you should aim to have a basic presence on at least the top 4. There is a trend for younger people to be using these platforms as a search engine. If they look up your artist name and you are not there then you don’t exist virtually.
When setting up social platforms consider the following steps for best practice:
- Ensure you set up a business/professional/creator account to access extra features, especially insights to monitor post-performance, engagement and audience data. A Facebook business page is needed for example to access Meta business suite where you can create posts for both Facebook and Instagram in the one place and allows you to boost posts and advertise, especially effective around live shows where you can geo-locate where the ad appears.
- Optimizing your profiles ensures a professional and consistent image across platforms. Ensure banners / profile pictures have consistency in terms of images which should be updated with each release. The social algorithms give more visibility to these updates. Use platform tools like pinned/featured posts and highlights to showcase important content and make navigation easy for your audience. Incorporate elements of your brand identity, such as profile pictures, banners, and bio sections, to reflect your unique style. See Xavier Rudds page on Instagram as an example using highlights effectively:
An overview of a social media ecosystem for music artists and the types of content needed is presented below. Again, bear in mind it is good to just have a few posts of quality content on these platforms, so you are visible on platform searches. You can then inform visitors which platforms you frequent more and focus on more consistent content on the big 4: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
4. Key content creation strategies
Your social presence should tell a story about who you are and what your music represents.
4.1 Follow your music release cycle
Creating consistent content around your music releases helps maintain audience interest and provides a structured content calendar. Ditto shares good practice is to release something every 4-6 weeks as streaming platform algorithms reward artists who are engaged with the platform consistently with regular music releases and updates. Singles are the new currency on streaming platforms. For each single release you can have pre-launch activities teasing the upcoming release which could involve updating banners to reflect the artwork of the upcoming song, sharing lyrical snippets or behind the scenes interviews, recordings and even inspirations from other artists. Updated banners or profile pics that reflect the new music is perfect for social media platform algorithms that prioritize this type of content.
Pre-release storytelling can share your inspirations around songwriting, lyrics and visualising the music and sounds with related images and shortform video and even lifestyle. For example, think of the songs meaning. What does this look like? What is the associated imagery? Is it nature inspired, or a dark city alley. What is the colour pallet? What inspired you to write it? Reflect this in posts to authentically introduce the music to your audience. An obvious way to do this authentically if you are able is to present short live video clips of the song. The algorithms love it. After all it’s about the music right? This is followed by the announcement the music is released. You can post reviews or live show clips of the song in post-release content.
4.2 Planning music recordings with content in mind
A well-planned production phase could also result in footage for music videos, photos for publicity, behind the scenes interviews and the development of a narrative for the song or album important for content marketing purposes. Why not do artist photo’s, live videos of songs while the ‘takes’ are fresh supplemented with different interviews with players and producers. This maximises your recording time and budget because you get the sound recording and marketing material at the same time. We all know there is a lot of downtime during the recording process which can be used to generate really good content. This can be stored in a content release folder for later use. Creating a backlog of content ensures a steady stream of material and reduces the pressure of constant content creation. It’s usually when the artist is most inspired.
4.3 The 80/20 Rule
Adopting the 80/20 rule, where 80% of your content is not directly selling something but could be inspirational eg.,a quote; interactive eg., asking a question; entertaining eg. a humorous video \ or even educational eg., showing production aspects of a song or the chords and 20% is directly promotional eg., promoting a song release and where to find it, helps maintain a balanced and appealing presence. This principle is based on Gary Vee’s seminal book released in 2013 called Jab Jab Right Hook and suggests that a larger portion of your content should focus on adding value to your audience.
So let’s get more clarity on how to think about that 80% by structuring content creation using content pillars.
4.4 Content Themes or Pillars
Developing recurring content themes or pillars adds variety and structure to your posts. Here are some examples to consider. Obviously they should be tailored to your vibe!
| Content Pillar | Content Theme | Example |
| Information | Posts announcing new artist information | Announcing tour dates, releases, new band members etc. Profile updates |
| Inspiration | Posts that motivate and inspire your audience. | Quote from a poet or novel that may have inspired lyrics. Or an excerpt from your own song lyrics. Design inspirations for your artwork. Motivational quotes Sharing other inspiring art/artists |
| Entertainment | Posts that entertain, engaging and capturing the attention of your audience usually evoking emotion like humour or empathy | A TikTok 15-30 seconds video with collage shots from studio recording set to your own music (accessed in the platform itself if you use a distribution service) |
| Education | Posts that inform your audience about your industry, products, or services. The goal is to provide value by sharing knowledge, tips, how-to’s, and insights. | Overview of your beloved instrument used on a recording and some of the chords used. |
| Seasonal | Posts that reflect current seasonal events. | Sharing an interpretation of a Christmas carol during the festive season. X offers an excellent calendar that marks out key international events over the year. |
| User-Generated | Reshare content created by other users that may mention your brand or create a post that invites collaboration such as a competition that users participate in. | Reshared content from a user’s own footage of a live performance. You can find this searching@yourartistname or using social listening tools that alert you when someone mentions you. |
| Lifestyle | Posts that include health, travel, hobbies, or lifestyle inspiration. | Sharing a lifestyle image like, surfing, skating or the view from an inspirational hike. |
| Social or environmental | Posts that reflect on social issues and /or environment | Comment on X in a social issue or thoughts on environment Showcase some merchandise that may have a sustainability aspect |
| Interactive | Comments or direct messages within social media posts fosters community building and triggers platform algorithms to deliver more content to fans you are interacting with | Comparing two types of single artwork and getting users to vote on their favourite. Consistently responding to comments. |
4.5 Diversity in content formats
Another key strategy on the platforms is to diversify your content delivery. Again, the algorithms favour diversity and consistency. Instagram for example has formats like stories, reels, grid posts, video, images, carousels. Mix these up. Going live on any of the social platforms is also an excellent way to gain more exposure. It is widely known that the social media algorithms on most platforms’ preference live content.
4.6 The Content Pyramid
Utilize the Gary Vee content pyramid approach by creating a single high-quality piece of long-form content, such as a music video or live performance, behind the scenes and repurposing it into smaller, platform-specific pieces. This strategy maximizes the reach and impact of your content across different platforms.
4.7 Content Creation Tools
Tools like Canva can be used for graphic design, CapCut or I-movie offer simple video editing tools. Capcut has some amazing templates to use as a starting point for shortform video useful for YouTube Shorts, Snapchat Spotlight, Reels and of course TikToks. Hubspot offers a detailed list of all the copyright free image and video s you can access and use, and manipulate for your own purposes. Fiverr is also a low-cost marketplace that offers various content creation services for those on a budget. The easiest way is to use the tools within the platforms itself. Experiment, have fun and get creative. TikTok has a range of incredible tools like stitch to facilitate music collaboration which increase visibility by accessing new audiences.
5. Content Distribution
Each social media platform has its own scheduling tools allowing you to plan and automate your posts across multiple platforms from the one place, ensuring consistent content delivery. You can do this when you are most inspired as well and create a content folder for later distribution. This approach frees up time for creative work while maintaining a regular posting schedule. You can also engage in thirdparty scheduling tools like Buffer or Hootsuite that allow the management of multiple social media platforms from the one place. They usually offer 2-3 social profiles for free and the rest is paid but could be a great investment if managing multiple artists or you want to save time.
Conclusion
Social media is an extension of your art, a place where fans connect, get context and search for new music. If you and your music are not there…well you are not there. It’s also important that not one shoe fits all when it comes to a social media strategy. You have to find what works for you. The key is finding your ‘why’ after which things flow more naturally.
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Start promoting your music now ⬇️
