As I described in previous articles, Social Media is one of the biggest ways to connect to your audience. It is also a way to capture the attention of promoters, publishers, booking agents, labels etc. These all consist of people that could be your audience, as fans of your music, but they also look at the marketing potential and of course the profit potential of the artist and their music. When you are a popular artist with big hits already, it doesn’t matter so much what and how you put things out on the internet, you have already established a fan base. But how do you grab the right attention, when you are just beginning? Aside from an entire social media strategy, here are a few important tips on how to use social media channels.

1. Be authentic. Don’t try to create a certain image, just for social media, to be more loveable or to gain more followers or likes. Just be yourself. Your music also reflects who you are. You don’t want that to clash with an “online persona”. Make sure you have your information in your bio and that links are active.

2. Make sure that the balance between your own posts and reposts/shares is correct. When you are still in the process of building a following, give those people posts that are about you and from you. Don’t have your entire feed consist out of other people’s posts, quotes (unless a quote out of your lyrics or something) or memes.

3. It’s ok to mix personal and business posts. It doesn’t only have to be about your new music, or shows. Let the potential fans see that you are a person that they can relate to. Who does every day things. Let them get to know the person behind the music as well. They may start listening to your music, because they like the person. But here also counts, make sure there is enough balance between personal and business. After all, you are trying to promote your art first.

4. There’s no need to use every social media channel there is. If you have one or a few that work great for you, stick by it. If you are comfortable using Twitter and build a following on there, there is no need to force yourself to do the same thing through a channel that you are not feeling comfortable with. Focus on what works for you and use that to build and promote with.

5. If you have someone managing your social media channels for you, make sure that’s known, or that they only handle things out of your name and person. This way you keep your authenticity, even if someone else is helping you maintain your channels.

These are 5 basic things that will help you create your online presence on social media in a consistent way. Too much contradiction as a beginning artist, will only ensure people will lose interest and quickly gravitate towards the next big thing or highlighted artist. If you don’t have an entire strategy, using your social media channels with the above given advice will get you a long way.