Author : Saxe Coulson
August 28, 2018

5 Reasons Not to Fast Track Your Social Media Efforts

The more and more we value our social media presence, the more we tend to try to fake it. There are even social media ranking services, such as Klout, that give us a score based on how many followers we have across our social media accounts. Aptly named, the higher your Klout score, the more clout you apparently have in the world of social media.

Companies are now spending thousands and even millions of dollars in order to promote their brands via social media influencers. This causes people to center their lives on gaining followers on Instagram in order to make a living showing off the latest fashions and trends to their user base. We refer to them as Instagram models but musicians and artists tend to feel the need to do the same. They spend countless hours trying to figure ways to up their following and add fans.

Unless your fans are genuine and authentic, they aren’t going to buy your music or tickets to your next event. A promoter or record label isn’t looking at your Instagram either to see how beautiful and pretty you look or how cool your pictures are. They also aren’t looking at how many followers you have either. If someone bases their decision on booking you or working with you based on your social media Klout score, then they probably have no idea what they are doing.

1. You Can’t Fake Authenticity

Ever since the term fake news came about, people are now combing through their newsfeed much more carefully. Most of us are familiar with sites like The Onion and Wunderground and can easily tell the difference between a well-documented article and one that is made up. The same goes with anything shared on social media these days. Just like there are satirical news sites, there are also fake and paid for reviews, and comments as well.

We see this all the time with promo services. “Downloaded for…” or comments that just say “Will play” just don’t cut it anymore. We can all tell when someone actually listened to a demo or track by their response and we can also tell when they thoroughly enjoyed it. The same goes with anything we post on social media. People can tell the difference between genuine feedback and feedback that isn’t.

2. Only You Can Be You

Although hiring someone to run your social media efforts is always helpful, you can’t hire someone to be you or clone yourself (yet). We are all unique and have our own mannerisms and style and personality. Just because you hire someone to handle your social media, doesn’t mean they will fool your fans into thinking that they are you. Only you can be you and you know yourself best and what your likes and interests are and your style and personality and history. Your social media should tell and promote your story and only you can tell your story best.

3. There is No Such Thing As Immediate Results

We all hear stories of YouTube stars or viral videos or content but there is always more to the story or someone behind it. It is true that sometimes influencers take notice of someone and propel them to the next level but then that influencer has to discover that artist. So you can’t be “On Fleek” without a little help from Nicki Minaj in other words. You can’t hire someone and then expect them to do all the work or work magic.

Carl Cox can play or share your track but then how many other tracks are in his library. The same goes with any DJ or artist or brand, the biggest DJs and artists and brands share tons of content as well. It takes multiple DJs, multiple media outlets, multiple brands all sharing your music or event in unison. And even if you have huge DJs, huge media outlets, and huge brands sharing your music or event it doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to be playing in Ibiza or New York tomorrow either.

Growing your fanbase and following takes time and doesn’t happen overnight. You need to have patience and continuously work on growing and growing and growing in order to be in the spotlight. You have to learn to crawl before you walk and you have to learn to walk before you run.

4. You Have to Build Your Brand Before you Build A Following

Maybe you have seen a t-shirt you wanted to buy in a store one day and then bought it without ever hearing of the brand or reading the label but did you then buy every item of clothing from that label?

Of course not. The same goes for music and events, many of us don’t hear a track or see an event we weren’t previously familiar with and then immediately buy every track and a ticket to every event from that artist or promoter. Building a brand is about consistency and repetition, we need to keep seeing quality music and events just like we need to instill trust in the clothing brands we wear and everything we buy and consume.

Very rarely is a clothing brand so incredible that everyone just buys all their clothes as soon as they launch just as very rarely is an event or single or EP or album so incredible that we automatically just buy everything that promoter or artist puts out. One needs to keep putting on great parties and making great music in order to gain a loyal following.

5. Engagement is Always Favored Over Volume

If you’ve ever seen something show up in your newsfeed from months or years ago again and again it isn’t because of the amounts of likes or favorites it gets, it is because people keep responding to it. You can post content all day long and you can get a ton of likes and favorites but those likes and favorites are worthless if nobody is commenting. Those comments also have to be genuine. Have you ever seen something show up over and over again in your newsfeed that just says Nice, Sweet, Cool, Awesome?

Engagement isn’t just about the amount of comments you get either but it is about the type of comments and people actually having a discussion and creating dialogue. Unfortunately you can’t hire any bot or service to produce a discussion or dialogue on your posts. You can easily automate comments but as technology advances, so does Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms which can easily tell the difference between bland, one line comments, and genuine and authentic comments.

The key is to create a dialogue and a discussion and get people engaged. This also allows you to identify your best fans and influencers. It also allows you to respond to your fans and show that you are a real person. You don’t want to be that person who responds with “Thanks for your response, we appreciate your feedback”. Let them share their music and events, give them feedback, don’t be afraid to comment on other artist’s and promoter’s events and share them as well. This allows you to build a rapport and ultimately your brand.

For an assessment and more information on how to build your social media following visit: https://www.6amgroup.com/social-media-growth-management