As an independent musician, every time you release anything about your brand, such as a merch, an EP, or album—especially a single—the need to let your audience and fanbase know about it is non-negotiable. But, most independent artists find the concept of how to promote a single release challenging—which is quite understandable. When you consider the amount of work an independent artist has to create quality music and strive to put your music in people’s faces, it’s not easy! That’s why most independent artists struggle to find the needed balance between making and promoting their music. However, you will need to find ways to make it work. When you eventually find the balance you need, your music career will hit the ground running, and your singles will become a household song.
But, where do you start the promotion? When you consider that there are several ways you can promote your music, which method is best? Research results have shown that there’s no better way to do it than to leverage the power of Social Media. While most independent musicians struggle to get their singles to celebrities for a listening heart or radio and TV stations of air time, the smart ones channel their energy into social media marketing. In short, social media is the best place to promote a single release. Do you think that’s an exaggeration? Ok, let’s look at the facts.
- How Effective Is Social Media to Promote a Single?
- Promoting your Singles on Facebook
- How to promote your singles on Instagram
- TikTok for Musicians: How to Promote your Single on TikTok
- How to Use YouTube for Music Promotion
How Effective Is Social Media to Promote a Single?
No other way is as effective as social media marketing when promoting a single release as an independent artist. That’s not an exaggeration because the facts are there to prove this assertion. What are these facts?
Social Media User Base
If you were allowed to speak to a few thousand audiences or billions of people about your craft, which would you pick? The obvious best option will be to pick platforms with billions of audiences. Inevitably, you won’t get to convert all potential customers to paying customers; however, the more people you get to address, the more people you get to win over to your side.
Do you know that there are a little over seven billion people on earth, and Facebook has over two billion of the seven? Instagram takes over one billion of the share. Tiktok, Twitter, and YouTube are also famous for owning millions of users, with new ones registering daily. Youtube currently holds the award for the most famous music streaming platform. So, there’s no doubt about this; social media platforms are the best place to grow your audience base, fill up the spaces at your next gig, and promote your singles.
Great User Engagement
Some people might want to argue that having a large user base is not proof that the platform is best for music promotion. However, according to research statistics, do you also know that an average social media user spends about two and half hours on the platforms every day? That means you have almost three hours daily to reach out to your target audience and promote your product and craft.
Not only that, but research results have also shown to us that most users look to social media platforms for recommendations. Yes, there are many ways a person can get recommendations, such as word-of-mouth conversation, face-to-face advertising, etc. Word of mouth recommendations was said to be the most effective, but since the rise of social media platforms, we have an override of efficacy.
Now that you know social media is the best place to promote your music, what are the ways to maximize the inherent power of social media to get the desired effect on your music? Read on to find the answer.
How to Promote your Single Release on Facebook
If you’re thinking of promoting your singles on Facebook, it’s important to note that you’re not the only one thinking of such. There are several artists like you that are already making use of the platform. To stand out, you will need to do it differently. Your approach has to take a different turn. Here are our suggestions of how to promote a single release on Facebook to stand out;
Create a Page for your Brand and Get People to Click the Follow Button
Most independent artists’ mistake is that they keep using their personal Facebook timeline to promote their music. While this method can work for some mainstream artists, it won’t work for upcoming artists. That’s because it’s not as easy to promote personal timelines like it is with Facebook pages. After creating a brand page, you will need to get people to like the page. The more page likes you get, the more the number of people you can reach. You may even need to buy real followers from sites that offer such services.
Give your followers something they can like
It’s not enough to have a massive number of page followers; you will need to put them to good use. Give attention to regular postings and make sure your posts are about things they can quickly like. That’s why you will need to create a system of balance that will help you put quality time into music promotion and making quality music. You will need quality time offline to invest in making relatable music that will give you positive reviews.
Post Up-To-Date Information
Your profile is the first thing that introduces you to the world before the posts on your pages. Some fans with limited time may not go as far as digging into your page but read what you have on your profile. That’s why the up-to-date posting of information on your profile is crucial. Let your profile point to your singles, merch, album, or any latest information about your brand.
Show yourself in action.
Yes, it would help if you showed yourself in action. Fans that follow your brand do so because they want to be a part of your story. So, one of the best methods of promoting a single release is to carry your fans along in this journey. When you’re on tour, let them know. Post some backstage pictures of your show or when you are in the studio. You can even give a few of your fans—those who come to your show—a shout-out. It gives a sense of familiarity and closeness, which is what every fan wants.
How to promote your singles on Instagram
Instagram boasts over one billion active users, while an average of 500 million users come online daily. The good thing about Instagram and leveraging its power for music promotion is that the process is not complicated. It starts with;
Connect with real followers
The size of your Instagram followers determines the quality of promotion you’ll get on the platform. That’s why celebrities and everyone that has something to promote on Instagram do all it takes to grow their number of followers—either organically or by paying for them. However, the followers you gather must be real because only real followers can engage or interact with your post. The number of interactions–such as the likes and comments–you have on each post must be commensurate with the number of followers. Otherwise, you won’t have the desired result.
A lot of paid services only offer robot followers instead of real followers. That’s why most people prefer to grow their followers organically. If you want to grow your followers organically, then;
Optimize your profile
Your profile introduces you to the world—the Instagram world. Unfortunately, you don’t have much space to write an epistle about your craft; you only have room for 150 characters. That’s why you will need to maximize the opportunity. Only post informative things about your music. If you have more space, talk about your awards and achievements if you have any.
Diversify your post
Instagram is more about posting pictures. Therefore, learn to make the best use of pictures and showcase photos. You may need a graphics designer for this purpose. However, you have to explore other options as well to break the prototype barrier. Explore options such as text and video posts.
Use Insta. Stories and IGTV
Insta stories give you about 30 seconds to engage your followers. If you’re able to use that limited time to post the right portion of your songs, then you would have gotten your fan to anticipate the release or go and stream to the song, IGTV on the other hand lets you have up to 60-minute videos so that you can post music videos or an entire song.
Explore the Hashtag Option
Hashtags are essential to Instagram. With the right hashtag, users can find new content, places, artists, or music. The Instagram algorithm itself, by design, uses hashtags to give users recommendations. The excellent news with Instagram is that you can use up to 30 hashtags on any post. So, learn to maximize it!
Pay for Sponsor Ads and Posts
Paying to gain followers may not be the best—unless you find a genuine service provider. However, you can pay for sponsored ads and posts. With such, Instagram helps you to reach out to people—both fans and prospective fans. They also help to take your brand to a larger audience once you pay the required amount.
TikTok for Musicians: How to Promote a Single Release on TikTok
TikTok is not a place for Ted Talks; it’s strictly for fun and visually appealing stuff. So, when you’re looking into how to promote a single release, you must not leave out TikTok. If you learn to use it the right way, you’ll be introducing your music to over one billion active users worldwide. So, what are the strategies for TikTok promotions?
Create fun content
TikTok is the easiest and least expensive way to promote fun content. The exciting aspect is that wacky videos on TikTok do get recognition. So, you do not need to have video editing skills; you only need your smartphone, and once you’re done with recording, post it.
Lunch Hashtag Challenge
If you’re yet to make a video for your single, you can ask your fans to create a mock video and use a hashtag you create on it. This way, you would have successfully created an environment for your music to thrive. It’s a way of drawing attention, interaction, and engagement to your craft.
Work with TikTok Influencers
Influencers have gathered so many followers on TikTok, and their posts can gather corresponding amounts of interactions and engagement. Working with influencers can be likened to the word-of-mouth concept of marketing if you will not directly pay for the ad. Tiktok frowns at anything that looks like a typical advert, but influencers already know how to post ads without making it obvious.
Use Tik Tok Advertisement
With the TikTok advert, you have nothing to hide. It’s a standard feature to most social media platforms—a firm of paid promotion. TikTok offers paid ads in four different forms; we have the Infeed Native Content, similar to Instagram stories. The Brand Takeover allows a brand to take over TikTok for a day with your ad all over the platform. We also have Hashtag Challenges, as discussed earlier, and Branded Lenses for photos and images.
How to Use YouTube for Music Promotion
People these days consume a lot of video content. That’s why promoting your music using video content is a great way to pull the audience. Therefore, you will need to create a YouTube channel for your brand. However, setting up a YouTube channel is not enough; you still have to learn how to make it work. The number of views is what matters the most when it comes to YouTube videos. So, it would help if you focused on how to gather as many views as possible. Some of the ways people get a significant number of views include;
Write engaging and must-see Titles
Your video title on YouTube will make it stand out among millions of other similar videos. When people come across the title to your video, it determines, to a large extent, if they want to click and watch or not.
Make use of SEO Strategy
When people use the google search engine, it shows up videos as one of the possible responses. You’ll have to find a way to make your video appear as one of the responses to search engine queries. The secret to that is the use of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Figure out what your YouTube audience like
Understanding your audience is one of the critical ingredients to gathering a substantial number of views. To determine what your audience wants, you can check what your competitors are posting. When you have concluded what your audience wants, you simulate the same strategy.
Conclusion
These are steps on how to promote a single release; however, they require dedication and consistency. You most likely won’t grow your account after a few days of work. It will demand that you stay at it and keep engaging these steps. One, two, or a few hundred followers per day will eventually accumulate to thousands and millions if you don’t give up. So, stay with it!
