Starting out as an artist is not easy especially as you begin. Your friends and close family members may support your present venture, but to gain an audience, you need to broaden your perspective and move beyond your comfort zone.
Last week, on the 17th of February 2017, we held a Digital Skills Training Workshop at the 2nd ONGEA! Music Summit at the Sarit Centre Expo hall in Westlands. The training mainly focused on basics of social media, social media ethics and the use of social media to market ones brand. The training was carried out by James Wamathai from BAKE. Also present was Jude Clark of Joose Digital.
This is a rundown of what you need to understand on building your social media presence especially as an upcoming artist.
Start With the Basics
Do you have a Social Media account? Do you have a website? If the answer to this questions is No, then you need to create one now if not yesterday.
Have a separate social media account separate from your own personal account. This mostly works for Facebook where you need to create a page as an artist.
As an artist, you definitely require a website. This may seem to be too much work but goes a long way in building your profile, especially as an upcoming artist. Start with the basics of blogging with free online websites such as WordPress and BlogSpot. Later you may upgrade this sites as you grow.
You Need an Online Presence
Now that you have social media accounts separate from your own personal accounts and a blog, what do you do with them?
Being active is key. This will build your profile and most definitely your brand. Post every day on all social media accounts. Create content for your blog and post every day or once/twice a week. Link all your social media accounts to your blog/website and vice versa. Be engaging with your audience. Always give feedback as soon as possible. Make your contact information available to prospective clients. It is also important to get professionally done photographs so that clients and fans may recognize your significance.
Create an Audience
If you have less than 2000 followers on your all your Social Media Accounts, then you must work extra hard. To build yourself and reach a much larger circle of people this is crucial. You can start by requesting your friends online to follow or like your social media accounts. This is your first audience. Since they already like you, this should not be as difficult. Here are a few tips on how to get an audience.
Make Your Music Available
Getting to a studio and recording a song or whatever piece is not always guaranteed. Getting airplay for all your songs is also not certain. You can post your music on online platforms where your audience could easily access your music. Online platforms include iTunes, Sound Cloud, YouTube among many others. Remember to link your music sites to all your social media accounts and website.
Learn Digital Media Skills
As an upcoming artist, you may not have the capabilities to pay someone to manage all your social media accounts. You therefore need to teach yourself the do’s and don’ts of social media. Attending workshops and events like this or even using YouTube and Google to learn, relearn and grow, will go a long way in placing yourself, as an artist, out to the world. Take the first step in improving your online profile. It all about hard work, perseverance and having the will to learn. Later, you can choose to pay someone to do all the work for you.