Every musician longs to put the power of social media to use in promoting their work. The fact that it grants you access to a nearly limitless audience, is inexpensive, and intuitive to use are all attractive features of the various platforms. The problem comes when you realize how much competing content exists alongside your own. In order to solve the problem of the average social-media user’s short attention span and abundance of content, it’s important to think about what each individual social media platform does best, and how you can put those qualities to use for your promotion.
Keep your tweets interesting and/or link-based
In many ways, Twitter is an art form unto itself. It can be used to great effect or very poorly. Most Twitter users have thousands of tweets crowding their timeline, and the temptation to tune out a group of unengaging tweets is high. Many people think that tweets need to come in a rapid-fire session. In actuality, if you can only think of one interesting thing to tweet per day, that’s far better than a deluge of forgettable tweets. Links also tend to make for great Twitter fodder, as you can use them to supplement your message and go beyond Twitter’s 140 character limit.
Instagram gives your followers behind the scenes access
People choose whom to follow on Instagram because of the peeks they get into interesting people’s lives. No platform is better at making your followers feel like they are a part of your inner circle. Use this knowledge to give your Instagram followers the kind of content that they are looking for, such as shots of you in a recording studio in Los Angeles or pics from a backstage party at a show. This will keep them engaged and eager for the next post.
Use Snapchat’s Live Event Stories to create a specific mood for event promotion
Snapchat recently unveiled their Live Event Stories, which has already shown promise as a tool for promoting music festivals. These posts do an excellent job of conveying a mood, so you can use these to give your fans a taste of an upcoming special event such as an album release party.