From the course: Social Media Promotion for Musicians, Artists, and Engineers

7 online marketing secrets no one tells you

From the course: Social Media Promotion for Musicians, Artists, and Engineers

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7 online marketing secrets no one tells you

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- [Instructor] Online marketing is the lifeblood of artists and bands everywhere, since that's where your audience is, except for live performances. The problem is that it's easy to fall for a number of misconceptions about what it can do for you, but that soon becomes very apparent after you've spent some time actually doing the work involved. If that's where you're at, you know that it can be a big job and you may feel a bit overwhelmed as a result. Here are seven online marketing secrets that you probably won't see anywhere else, and hopefully will put your mind at ease when those doubts creep in. The first one is social media has a cost. It's easy to think that social media is free, and there are thousands of articles online that will gladly tell you that. But the fact is that you're paying for it with your time. In order to use social media as a marketing tool, you need a strategy to carry it out, and that doesn't just fall out of the trees. It takes some real effort to create. Plus if you really want to supercharge your marketing, you'll find that actually paying to promote it gets much better results, which requires yet another level of strategy and effort. The second thing is there's more than one way to do it. If you want some help with your online marketing, there's plenty of it online, both free and paid. That said, be aware that there's no single one way that works for everyone. In fact, you'll find that what actually works for you is a blend of different strategies that have worked elsewhere in the past. That said, the music business usually isn't addressed by the many online marketing gurus out there. The third thing is that your success depends upon the number of followers that you have. When it comes to online marketing and social media in particular, volume is everything. It's pretty difficult to launch a successful crowdfunding campaign, for instance, unless you already have a pretty decent following to market it to. The same goes for Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, emailing lists, and just about any other platform of your choosing. Success comes from having followers, and building that list takes time. Number four is social platforms aren't as effective as your personal platforms. One of the problems with relying on a social platform is that you're restricted by the terms and conditions of that platform as well as its layout, format, and features. These are things that you can't change, but can be changed on you at any time by the platform. Plus social followings can be deceiving because they don't distinguish between casual fans and super fans. Facebook, for example, doesn't even allow you to reach more than 3% of your followers unless you pay for it. The online presence that you can control is your website which is still the best contact point for people to discover the real meat and potatoes about you and your music. Next is your email list and newsletter, which is still number one when it comes to fan communication even though the concepts feel dated to many. Number five is the social media world is constantly changing. Don't get too comfortable with anything that you're doing because guaranteed it's going to change by next year. What's working great on one platform today is going to be outdated really soon as both the platform and its audience evolves. Maybe your audience loved Facebook six months ago, but today it's on Instagram, and in 18 months from now who knows. You have to constantly stay up on the latest as much as you can and adapt your marketing as needed in order to keep up. Number six is you can't be everywhere. It would be nice to be on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Blab, Periscope, Ning, and any of the other top 50 social platforms. But the fact of the matter is that you need time to do what you do best which is to make music. It's too easy to get burned out if you make your online marketing too much like a full time job. The fact that you have to constantly adapt to the various platform changes means that when it comes right down to it, you're better off selecting just a few where most of your fans hang out, and then concentrate on those. At least then you'll have a fighting chance of keeping up without burning out in the process. And number seven is you won't always get it right. You'll get really good at one or two platforms and just float along in any of the others that you're using for marketing. This is normal, so don't kick yourself for not being as on top of it as you think you should be. Unless you can employ a team of specialists for each platform, you're going to lag behind on some of them. Believe it or not, it happens to everyone. While this video is more about the big picture outlook of online marketing, more than the nuts and bolts, it's designed to put your mind at ease if you ever discover that you're falling behind. Just take a step back, take a deep breath. If you're doing at least some online marketing every day, you're doing just fine. If you don't feel at least a little overwhelmed, then it's time to worry.

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