Social media is one of the most overused tools in our arsenals, while simultaneously the least understood. Everyone thinks they’re an expert on the topic, but when you boil down how the average user uses their online accounts - there is no strategy.

These are vital tools for artists or anyone promoting a product online. Even though scheduling posts & interacting with people is probably the most monotonous part of your day, but this time also drives the most traffic towards potential sales. And while you might find yourself ‘wasting’ large swaths of your day trying to increase engagement or reach on your posts, there is a way to spend less time online and see better performance. If you understand your own social media strategy, you’ll spend less time wasting time on social media & more time working on your passions.

There are three key pillars to a successful social media presence. We’ve employed these approaches with 2273RECORDS, Felly & some of the other artists/brands we’ve worked with, and seen exponential growth. The pillars are:

1. Create a consistent voice & narrative

2. Focus on driving organic engagement

3. Leverage niche targeting/advertising to drive reach

   
   

Create a consistent voice & narrative

This is the key to success for anyone online trying to grow their following. Fans & consumers like to understand who they are listening to and who they are purchasing from. They also strongly dislike change. Making sure you are delivering consistent content that doesn’t veer away from your niche or into an inappropriate territory for your audience is a crucial way to make sure you’re adding followers, rather than losing them.

Suppose you’re unsure what your voice or brand should represent online. In that case, I strongly recommend checking out this activity & following along in their downloadable worksheet (I am unaffiliated, but I thought this was a quality tutorial). This tutorial walks you through high-level brand strategy, defining your brand persona, verbal guidelines & your brand’s voice.

With this information, it becomes easy to judge what content should be featured on your social media accounts, and what content might not meet the quality or tone standards you’ve set. It helps inform you where you should be investing your tie: creating viral comments on competitive accounts? Professional photoshoots? Crowdsourcing content from fans? All viable options at the end of the day, depending on your brand’s voice. 

Focus on driving organic engagement

With your voice figured out, the next step is working with your existing fanbase, no matter the size. Before worrying too much about exponential growth on social media, you want to make sure your content is engaging enough for the fans you can currently reach. If you’re posting online and receiving very few comments, DMs, etc. it’s essential to learn more about driving engagement before expanding.

Social Media Engagement is a standard metric used to measure performance on social media. It’s typically a combination of likes, comments, DMs, Retweets, etc. Likes are the least important metric you can look at when measuring your performance.  Engaging your fans to take that extra step and put thought and effort into responding to your content is the key here, and it also boosts your performance in each social network’s algorithm.

When I say organic, I am suggesting $0 or low-cost options. No paid advertising or complex marketing schemes. It is creating content that your fans or consumers want to engage with.

Some quick ways to drive this organic engagement include featuring a distinct call-to-action on your post, occasional giveaways/raffles & get to know your fans on a first name basis. The more personal you can be, especially when first getting started, the better. These will be fans that stick with you for the entire journey.

Leverage niche targeting/advertising to drive reach

The final pillar to successful social media is increasing your reach and, hopefully, your sales or followers, depending on your campaign’s goals. Once you have strong content & an engaged audience, spreading your content to users who you would otherwise not reach creates new fans.

Both Facebook Ads & Google Ads are easy-to-use platforms that allow you to do simple A/B Testing and affordable advertising campaigns. The goal here is not to pump large sums of money into advertising aimlessly but create very focused campaigns that target niche audiences. 

If you were selling boxing gloves, you would not want to target casual boxing fans. Focus on Males from 18-34 and Females from 18-34, in Major Metropolitan areas near boxing gyms & have an income of over $100,000/yr. Everyone in the audience also must subscribe to multiple boxing workout channels on YouTube and have an affinity for health & fitness.

These platforms allow you to get very specific, and I suggest you take a chance to explore your options before starting your first campaign. For more information, I recommend checking out this article.

Seeking out collaborations is a viable option if you lack a budget. Whether it is featuring an artist on a song or setting up a group chat with other creators in a similar niche - collaborating helps you grow your network & your fan base.  

Recently, we put out an application to hire a social media intern, and we asked:

1. What is the best way to leverage social media platforms to increase our reach?

2. What’s your six-month plan for our social media if you got this role?

Make sure you ask yourselves this before launching any campaign - and make sure your strategy is more in-depth than “start a TikTok” or “Post every day.” Some professionals build social media campaigns for a living, and they are our competition.