Social Media and Music

Every band and musician needs to have several foundations in place if they want to survive in the music industry. Talent, passion, and good publicity, to name a few.

But how exactly does a band achieve that? For many bands starting out, many do not have the budget to hire a publicist, and some bands may  not want to have a publicist.  We’ve decided to break it down for you, and share with you some of the best ways to get good publicity on social media.

As someone who has had experience working with music PR, I recommend to artists that they create various social media accounts in order to better connect with an audience. One artist that does this extremely well is Malik LRB, an unsigned, underground rapper. Malik connects with his fans by responding to each and every tweet and Facebook comment that he receives. By doing this, he opens the lines of communication, and his fans feel as though they are making a genuine connection with an artist. Malik also holds monthly Facebook contests, and highlights contest winners on his social media pages.

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(Malik gives a shout out to his sponsors, as seen here in his music video)

While I was interning at a music PR agency, BAD Publicity, I also started our own Pinterest page dedicated to the artists we worked with. One may not think that Pinterest is not the most ‘rock and roll’ website in the social media world, but by creating an account, we have reached out to an entirely new audience. We were able to ‘pin’ our posts to other music boards, and thereby increasing the influence of our artists.

But musicians, be wary. Cyberprmusic.com recently came out with an article on how some indie artists are not using social media correctly. Blogger Joshua Smotherman warns against being too repetitive, focusing on incorrect metrics, and not listening enough to the public. Read the full article here.

One thing musicians must keep in mind is that a band is a business and a company, and therefor you should treat it as such. Provide excellent customer service, connect with your audience, and the rest will fall into place.

So remember:

1.) Listen to your audience/fans

2.) Engage in conversation

3.) Test out other forms of social media

4.) Music is business

Have any other tips on PR in music? Share with us by leaving a comment below! And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @camille_mola for more public relations and social media advice.

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One response to “Social Media and Music”

  1. alyssabkaplan Avatar

    Hi Camille,
    I really enjoyed this blog post, as I find music public relations/publicity very interesting, because you have to be able to balance the band or artists professional reputation while keeping their image intact. Interacting with your audience via social media is one part of your blog post that really caught by eye. I wonder how often a publicist runs a band’s social media accounts versus the band or artist doing it themselves. If so, would fans think less of an artist if they found out a band’s social media accounts were being run by someone else? It seems like personal accounts run by each band member, along with a more professional band page, is more of the trend these days. It’s also so great how you are already working with BAD publicity, and doing what you love, while still in college.

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