Speaking on behalf of media and marketing agency Moon Jelly Agency, Melvin Van Der Waal, Moon Jelly’s ‘Head of Marketing & Creative’ joined us in the main room of Zouk to discuss “The Social Media X-Ray.”
“The music industry is now more of a visibility industry”, said Melvin. “Releasing good music is not enough anymore. There are over 24,000 tracks released on all DSPs every day. So what makes yours stand out?”
The talk covered the following points of advice that artists can follow to take their exposure to the next level and drive awareness towards their artist brand:
Scan Your Socials:
“Hashtags are okay. But make sure you use hashtags well.”
Don’t do more than 5 hashtags. Any more and IG perceives you as spam. Only use hashtags which are relevant to your post. If you’re promoting a show in Orlando, tagging “Tomorrowland” might get you some more traction but its not actually relevant to the show. Keep it relevant.
Also, don’t forget to engage! When replying to your fans, create a conversation, not just a fire emoji, but a real, engaging response. Follow your fellow artists within your niche and comment on their posts; ask them how their weekend was.
Finally, use different types of content. There are three different content types: Photo, video, and gif (GIF for some platforms, otherwise its seen as a video). Use a combination of all three! Don’t forget to incorporate all of Instagram’s features (live, stories, features within stories and IGTV).
Story Telling:
Don’t sell a product, tell a story. Use honest development and keep the story endless so that it’s on-going.
You can also have motifs. For example, Bitbird, the title of San Holo’s label, references the bird him and his girlfriend raised after saving it. This motif was carried across onto all social media and the bird became an integral symbol of the label’s brand.
Building Blocks:
Show your Hobbies and talents. It doesn’t matter what the building blocks are as long as it’s consistent, recognizable and feels natural. You’re more than a person who makes music, you’re a human being with interests.
Tips and Tricks:
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Run contests and giveaways
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Use humor (Humor is a great way to attract attention … but use it properly and make sure you’re actually being funny!)
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Don’t see fellow producers as competitors, try and help them and they will help you. Join engagement groups with friends and ask each other to interact with posts about new music.
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Engage with your followers. Come up with questions, run polls.
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Create a weekly content calendar with returning concepts and motifs.
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Make sure you share your career highlights!
Your Main Goal:
Your main goal should be to convert likes into fans. Create relationships with your followers and keep a steady digital heartbeat; don’t go for several days without posting and don’t post more than once a day (except for stories). That being said, once a day when is often too much; Four times a week is much better!
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