Independent Musicians – How You Can Develop Your Online Presence for Success
One of the hardest things about being an independent musician is getting your name out in the world. In a saturated market, what can you do to have your name floating around to help you grow your music?
An online presence is what you’ll need to achieve that.
Every business needs an online presence through a website and social media, and a musician is no different. Some could say that it’s even more critical because it’s how you tease about upcoming songs.
Ready to develop your online presence? Take the following four points into consideration.
Create a Style
Everyone has their own style. However, if you’re trying to develop an online presence and sell yourself as a musician, your style is more crucial than ever.
There are a few types of styles to consider. The first is yourself. What is your look? What kind of music do you want to play? What kind of feeling do you want your listeners to get when they hear you?
The other style is your social media platforms and website. They should flow together. Look into online graphic design programs to help you with colors and images to post on social media (Crello is a good place to start).
Show Yourself, Don’t Sell Your Music
Although this may sound like a contradiction, one of the best ways to grow your online presence it to not worry about selling. As people scroll through platforms, it’s often the posts that have a personal element to them that get the most engagement. Users get tired quickly of selling companies constantly selling them something.
This isn’t to say that you don’t promote your upcoming single or what you’re doing as a musician. Those posts are essential as well. However, mix those in as you showcase who you are as an individual.
Use stories to share behind the scenes of your daily life. Post a photo of a family trip. You’ll likely find more people will interact with those posts, which will help boost your traffic.
Start a YouTube Channel
Many musicians start from a YouTube channel. It’s a free way to put your talent out on the market for people to see. If you browse YouTube, you’ll see that the majority of major musicians have a channel that they regularly upload to.
You can use your YouTube channel in a few ways. The first is to upload new songs you create. The other option is to use it as a vlog (video logging) of your life to create a more intimate connection with your audience.
Engage With Your Audience
A huge part of developing your online presence is to engage with your audience. If all you do is post and never reply to comments or like what people say, why will they continue supporting you? It’s exciting for someone when the person they follow interacts with them.
As you grow, take time out of your day to respond to emails, reply to comments, and even add comments to other posts. You’ll eventually notice that more people will start to interact with your posts.
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