5 Social Media Marketing Tips For Music Producers

I wanted to write this article to give you 5 social media marketing tips to improve your socials and help you reach a wider audience.

Last night I was randomly going through my Instagram Stats/Insights and was really surprised to see how many views my IGTV & IG Reels videos received: a total of 17,000 views and over 150 comments on an IGTV video of me mic’ing up a drum kit and mixing some samples on Ableton using a few different plug-ins.

My first ever IG Reels video got over 10,000 views in just a couple of days.

There is really no better time than now to be getting the most out of these features as well as implementing some other tips which I’ve mentioned further down to help you grow your audience.

I’m here to tell you NOT to sleep on these apps because once you have got your Socials dialled in, you won’t need to do much work to get clients; THEY will come to you.

If you’re struggling to grow, there’s always a reason why. The good news is, everything is fixable, and there’s always room for improvement!

I’ve been conducting hundreds of social media audits over the past two years. I’ve audited everyone from Music Producers to Yoga Instructors.

There is always a similar pattern of mistakes that people who struggle to grow seem to always make.

The most common mistakes I see being made on social media are:

No personality showing through, no images or pictures of YOU
Low quality, low-resolution images
Wrong hashtags, bad hashtags, little or no hashtags
Poor branding
Zero communication with your existing followers

When marketing on Social Media, there are many different Social Media Styles -Personal/Distant, Political/Artistic.

The difference between a Personal and Distant Social Media Style is that a ‘Personal Style’ will always show the face of the creator, who they are, their message, their story, etc. A ‘Distant Style’ would be something like the accounts of Mercedes Benz, for example, where the majority of Imagery and videos are solely just their cars.

Distant social media styles work great for major budget industries and brands, or brands and companies who are already long-established.

It’s extremely difficult to grow on Social Media with this type of disconnected Social Media Style, especially with this year and everything it’s brought us, which has led to people wanting to feel more connected than ever.

One example is a Music Producer/Engineer who asked me to conduct an audit last week of his socials to see how he could attract more clients.

His account ONLY had pictures of his gear and nothing else. I asked him to imagine himself as the client…

The client is most likely an artist looking for someone to work with. They stumble across his account and see a bunch of gear they possibly know nothing about. They can’t see who the person is, so they don’t feel a connection. They wonder if they can trust this person with their money since they have no idea who or if this person is even real, AND there’s no video content of this producer for them to listen to and no evidence that they have released anything or made any achievements as a producer.

The key here is to get inside the mind of your client, figure out their wants and needs, and then have a solution and make that clear across your socials.

There’s plenty of ways to do that, and it’s totally up to you about HOW you will create that kind of content.

One HUGE tip I learned from reading Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi is this;

“Customers don’t care about you, they care about themselves and their problems. The more you talk about yourself and your products/services, the less the content is spread and engaged in”

That means when you create and present your content to the world on Social Media, always keep the client in mind.

Keep the client in mind in the way you communicate and deliver your product/services.

Here are 5 tips you can start implementing today to enhance your Social Media presence, get your followers more engaged and reach a wider audience:

1. Show yourself to the world

Don’t be afraid to create content showing your face, talk to the camera, and show footage of yourself working with or working for clients.

It’s one of the best ways to engage people with your content.

Remember, someone is deciding whether or not they should work with you when they go through your socials. If there’s little or no images of yourself, it’s a lot more challenging to build trust with your audience.

2. Invest in a good camera or phone

You need to be able to take high-resolution shots, get the lighting right, and do your best to work on getting good composition in your shots.

Keep your content in Portrait rather than landscape; that way, you can re-use the content on IG Reels, IGTV, and TikTok.

3. Up your hashtag game

Hashtags are the #1 way to reach a wider/new audience organically

So many people still aren’t using the correct Hashtags. Avoid using any kind of generic Hashtags such as “work,” “grind,” “night,” “happy,” “working.”

Your target audience is NOT going to be looking for a producer on those Hashtags. You need to know what your audience is searching for and which Hashtags they might be following.

Go to a Hashtag like #Producerlife and go look at the Hashtags used on each of the Top 9 posts under #Producerlife… Do as much research as you can on which Hashtags seem to be performing best.

Remember, people on IG can follow a Hashtag.

If they are following the Hashtag “Love” because you used that Hashtag on a pic of Analog Gear, there’s a good chance they will report the image so that it doesn’t show on that Hashtag, or they simply won’t engage, which will kill your reach.

Instagram shows your image to a wider audience, depending on how YOUR audience engages with your content. If the majority of people who see your content are engaging, it will push you further up the Hashtag Top Posts, which is what you want in order to reach a wider audience in your niche.

4. Your branding should be on-point

Branding should be consistent across all of your socials.

It’s always a great idea to invest money into paying a graphic designer to create a logo and some banners for your socials.

Your branding speaks volumes about you and your products/services.

Branding can include things like logo, colour themes, tone of voice, and also your social handles.

If your IG handle is @producer698aaa00 and your twitter is @99producer_2020 it’s not going to look good.

Use your name or the name of your studio or come up with a solid name that you can use across all of your social handles, something that will look great as a logo and as a web URL.

5. Become an expert communicator

Learn to communicate in a way that suits your personality best and use that as a way of engaging with your current/existing followers no matter how small your circle is.

Check out my article to learn more about communicating with your followers: The Importance of Building a Community to Earn Loyal Followers

Dedicate 30 minutes twice per week to sending short voice notes or messages to your current followers on your socials to thank them for following you, ensure that the text is genuine, and doesn’t sound spammy.

It’s really important to communicate and build trust with the audience you already have, as these are the people you need to engage with your content, which boosts your reach.

If we are talking about Instagram and TikTok, people LOVE to feel acknowledged. Always reply back to every single comment. You are not too important to respond to comments.

Your followers are your foundations of whatever you choose to build on social media, so ensure that you build these foundations the right way by being genuine, kind, and responsive.

About the Author

Noella Nix is a Music Producer, Songwriter & Artist from Australia. She teaches Sound Production, Music Business & Social Media Marketing at University and has written 4 Music Industry eBooks. Connect on Instagram