Note: This post, How to Do Social Media Marketing the Right Way is a guest post by Brian Abrahams.
Social media has played a tremendous role in bringing about the digital revolution that is currently defining our era. Usage statistics suggest it’s one of the major things people do when they’re online, and it’s provided businesses with so many new ways to reach their customers and grow.
For artists, social media has a number of different benefits. However, while social media can really help you, it’s not a silver bullet solution. In other words, simply using it to promote your work and your brand isn’t going to cut it. Instead, you need to have a strategy, and this involves carefully thinking about how you’re going to leverage social media to market your work.
Exactly what you need to consider will depend on the nature of your work and what you’re hoping to accomplish, but to be successful, make sure to keep the following things in mind:
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Choose the Right Platform
One of the first things you need to do before embarking on a social media marketing campaign is decide which platform or platforms you’re going to use. And one of the easiest ways to start narrowing things down is to consider the amount of time you can commit to this.
If it’s just you doing all the work, then you’re going to want to think about sticking to just one or two platforms. Trying to do more will cause everything to suffer and will make it quite hard for you to take full advantage of what each platform offers. If you have a small team in place to help you, it’s possible to broaden your approach, but this isn’t an option for everyone.
The next thing you’ll need to do is decide which platform you want to focus on. For artists, the obvious choices are Instagram and Pinterest, but this isn’t always the case. Facebook is good for those who want to generate discussions and stronger connections, whereas Twitter could be good if you want to engage in politics or other issues of the day. LinkedIn is ideal for those operating within the professional environment.
Think about what it is you want to get out of your social media marketing efforts. Do you simply want to showcase your work and get people interested? (Instagram/Pinterest) Do you want to connect and interact with people? (Facebook) Do you want to sell directly to them? (Facebook, personal blog, Instagram). Once you answer these questions, it will make it easier for you to choose the platform that makes the most sense for you to pursue, which will make you more effective down the line.
Be Consistent
Another critical thing to the success of your social media marketing is consistency. All this means is that you want people to have the same experience with you no matter which social platform they use to connect with you. This doesn’t mean you have to post the same content, but it should feel to people as though they are dealing with the same person no matter where they are interacting with you.
On a basic level, this means making sure the fonts, photos, names, spellings, etc. are all the same across all platforms. But beyond that, you’ll want to make sure you’re using a similar tone and style for your posts, make sure your logo or other identifier is present, and use the different platforms to address more or less the same issues.
For brands and companies, it’s often useful to come up with a “brand persona” to make this possible. All this means is laying out the characteristics of the business as if it were a person so that people managing the social media accounts know how to post. For you, this is probably going to be easier since you are already a real person.
However, it might be useful to physically write out the things about yourself that you want to convey with social so that you can be more mindful of what you’re posting and more consistent. This will help make everything you do more professional and more effective.
Be Interactive
Social media was never meant to be a passive activity. Of course, it’s somewhat become that as we often scroll through social media to kill time. But now that you’re using it to promote yourself and/or your brand/work, you need to return to being an active member.
This means posting stuff on your accounts that tries to get people to respond. Maybe you can ask questions, pose interesting ideas, or solicit feedback. Contests are a fun way to engage people, too. In the end, it doesn’t matter what you’re posting exactly, so long as it gets people engaged about something relevant to what it is, you’re trying to promote.
It’s also a good idea to interact with other brands and people. Comment on people’s posts, photos, or videos, reach out to other brands, respond to questions, etc. All of this helps to showcase who you are through social media which will draw members of your audience towards you and make it much easier to connect with them.
Be Authentic
This is not something we really need to tell an artist to do, but since we are all aware how “fake” social media can be, it’s useful to be reminded how important authenticity is. People don’t want to just see the surface level stuff; they want to see other things too.
As an artist, this might mean posting and promoting some of the less glamorous side of things. For example, you could live stream a studio session, or you could post drafts of a piece that is now done, or film certain aspects of the process. You could also just post about some of the difficulties you went through working on a particular project.
This might seem strange, but it’s during these moments that our true colors come out, and when you’re selling art, this is going to really connect with people. It shows them your human and that you don’t just sit around and create amazing work out of thin air, something that might cause envy.
It’s likely not hard for you to be authentic in real life, but it can be challenging on social media. But if you can learn to let go a bit and not worry so much about being perfect, you can put together a social media strategy that markets who you really are, which is bound to be more successful than trying to promote a stylized version of yourself.
Demonstrate Values
Consumers these days are more interested in values and purpose than ever before. Perhaps it’s our highly-globalized world, one that separates people from products, that has driven people towards purpose, but no matter what it is, success in today’s markets depends on your ability to demonstrate your values and show how you connect with those of others.
Social media presents an amazing opportunity to do this, and it should be a key part of your strategy. This can include posting about certain issues that are important to you, sharing stories that reflect your values, promoting products that do the same, and so on. It doesn’t really matter how you do it, but if you pay close attention to your values, you’ll find it much easier to attract the people you want to attract and grow your business.
Test and Retest
Social media marketing, just like any type of marketing, really, is a trial and error process. You need to do your homework before you start so that you fully understand your audience and what will connect with them, but you don’t really know what’s going to work until you’ve had the chance to try some stuff out. AS a result, while you’re implementing your strategy, make sure to closely monitor results and make changes when you see something is or isn’t working.
This kind of vigilance, along with an approach grounded on the principles discussed here today, will make it much easier for you to use social media the right way.
About The Author:
Brian is a writer and blogger who is especially interested in digital marketing. He enjoys sharing his knowledge and to help readers be more productive with social media and SEO.
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