The Most Important Social Media Networks For Musicians

On today's episode we talk about the most important social media networks for musicians: 

• Twitter - I feel like Twitter is where true fans can connect and talk with artists and famous people. It’s also a great way to keep your audience on top of what you’re doing.
• Facebook - The great thing about Facebook is the ability to run great ads and get more ears listening to your music. With billions of users I can bet my bottom dollar you're gonna find some of your audience on Facebook.
• Youtube - This is deff a must! A lot of artists are now vlogging through their tours and its a great way to offer your fans an inside look. You also have the ability to upload interviews, professional music videos, and other behind the scenes content.
• SoundCloud - If you’re an up-and-coming artist, SoundCloud is the place to be. SoundCloud has over 170 million visitors per month and a lot of new artists have been discovered on the platform.
• Instagram - Instagram has become the go to platform for a lot of businesses, artists, and famous people. They keep innovating with new features like Stories and recently IGTV. This platform, like Twitter, provides a direct avenue to interact with fans. You can have a more personal connection because of Stories.

Christian: [00:00:16] Thankyou for listening to another episode of The Marketing Natives. Today we'regoing to talk about the most important social media networks for musicians.We're talking about Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Instagram. Sofive social media networks. We're going to try to go pretty quickly and talk alittle bit about why we think they are the most important social medianetworks. If you're not a musician, you can still probably gain some coolknowledge about some of the social networks that we're going to talk about,maybe some things that you didn't know. Anyways, let's get it started. Numberone, Twitter. I feel like Twitter is one of those social networks right now atleast that, you know, you can go in and reply to- Actually, James Gunn, thedirector of The Guardians of the Galaxy, he's pretty active on Twitter, and Ifollow him. And he's someone that you could probably respond to some of histweets and he'll probably respond back, and that's just like kind of crazy tothink about, you know? The fact that here's like some A-list directorcelebrity, you know, responding to my questions or my comment, which is kind ofcrazy. I mean, obviously, I don't tweet at him or anything like that.

Aaron: [00:01:37] Butyou are kind of famous. I mean, you're like triple Z, but you're there.

Christian: [00:01:39] Yeah,triple Z is a thing. So. But no, it's actually- I feel like Twitter is one ofthose social networks where artists and, you know, famous people can go in andkind of connect with their fans very easily. I feel like it's a more personalnetwork. Another- I mean, a huge artist from Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny, he's- Imean, he's not active right now because he's on vacation, but he was like superactive on Twitter, you know, posting a lot, a lot of comments. Just smallthings that came head to head, he would just, you know, tweet them, and peoplewould respond, and he would respond back to them. And it just felt verynatural. It felt like, you know, he had a really good connection with his fanbasewhich is very important when, you know, you're an artist. So.

Aaron: [00:02:27] Right.And I think also from a musician you get feedback very easily. Twitter is kindof compared to as like the water cooler. You know, you're going to go therelike in the middle of the workday, and you're going to talk to your friendsthere and just tell them like hey, you know, this is what's going on. This isthe new music. This is what's going here, but artists can get real livefeedback of hey, I just listened to the album and, you know, I liked it or itactually sucked. But it's just real conversations at that point, and they canmessage and be like hey, why did it suck? Or like you know, why didn't you likethis? And you could get real, impactful response back, not only just creatingreal fans but, you know, making your music better too.

Christian: [00:03:12] Yeah.I also feel like Twitter is like more in the moment. So you know, if somethinghappens where they have to cancel a concert, I would personally go to Twitterfirst off. I feel like that's the easiest and fastest way for companies andbrands and artists to get their message out in a real-time scenario. I know youcan do- I mean, you can do it with Facebook and Twitter and all that, but Ijust feel like Twitter- I don't know. It's just more timely than the othersocial networks.

Aaron: [00:03:43] Right.Facebook's a maybe. Instagram's an eh. But. All right. So that's a good segue Iguess to number two which is Facebook. What we always come back to withFacebook is that if you're a musician and you don't have a Facebook businesspage, you're probably doing something wrong. Your audience is there, and theirads platform is probably the most intricate and well detailed targeting adsystem ever created. So all that to be said, if you want to reach yourpotential audience, if you're after people who are- You know, there's a termcalled crunchy. If you're more like a hipster kind of person and you want torun ads to people who are like that, you can absolutely do that on Facebook andget really, really targeted. If you know that 40-year-olds are not going to belistening to your music, then why waste the time? And Facebook really allowsyou to narrow down to the psychographics. So like where they're hanging out atlike Whole Foods and buying stuff. So yeah, Facebook is invaluable in thatsense.

Christian: [00:04:41] Yeah.I would say that the only thing that Facebook would not be good at is if you'relike - I think Aaron and I were talking about this - you know, the new mumblerappers, which appeals strictly to a very young demographic.

Aaron: [00:04:58] It'seither tweeners or whatever. Yeah, tweeners? Tweenyboppers. That's what they'recalled.

Christian: [00:05:03] Idon't know about that. Don't quote him on that, but they're probably not goingto be on Facebook. I know of a lot of teenage kids right now who none of themhave Facebook. All they have is their Instagram and Snapchat.

Aaron: [00:05:16] Snapchatfor sure.

Christian: [00:05:18] Sowe're going to talk about Instagram. So anyways, yeah. Facebook I think youhave to be a little bit careful if your demographic is strictly a very youngdemographic.

Aaron: [00:05:29] Awesome.All right. So this is- If this is your first time listening to this, you are infor a treat. A digital treat. So what we're going to talk about today isBitBranding. So we do a little spot in the middle of here so you guys canunderstand who Christian and I are. We are the founders of BitBranding. Westarted this back in a very small room in 2015. Like a little pink and greenroom.

Christian: [00:06:00] Yeah.

Aaron: [00:06:00] Weare proud but not proud about that, and we have since grown. But one of ourmain services that we offer is website design. So if you are a business owner,you found this podcast cause you're scrolling through on Spotify or AppleiTunes or Google Play, and you're like, you know, I want to start a business. Ireally want to, you know, be my own boss. I want to wake up and tell myself Idon't have to go and do this or I get to go and do this or, you know, I lovedoing what I do. But the first thing that you need is a website. So that'swhere we come in, and if you have questions about a website, we can answerthose. If you have things you're trying to figure out like how do I sellproducts online? We've built multiple e-commerce websites. So all that to besaid, if you have questions about your website or you don't have one yet andyou're a business owner, you need one. That's your home base, and let us answerany questions you have. A great e-mail would be hello - yes, hello -@bitbranding.co. Yes. Dot CO, not dot com. Dot CO. Or shoot us a message onInstagram. That could be easy as well. So if you need a website, we'd be happyto help you do that, help you fulfill your dreams, or if you just need aredesign, we can do that as well.

Christian: [00:07:17] Greatad. Great ad. All right. So we're back to our show. We're talking about themost important social media networks for musicians, and at number three we haveYouTube. And I feel very strongly that every artist or musician should have aYouTube channel. Number one, you can create, obviously, your music videos, andI would emphasize professional music videos. So you can get your music out there,and be creative with those music videos as well. I think that's like somethingthat a lot of people kind of- In the past at least, they did just regular oldmusic videos, but get super creative with these music videos, and you can get abetter spread or reach with your audience. But with YouTube you can also startvlogging. A lot of people have been doing vlogs, and I don't feel like I'veseen- Yeah, I've seen a few new musicians actually, some of those new rappersthat have, you know, vlogs. Like daily- Not daily. Maybe weekly vlogs of whatit's like to be on tour, doing their music, coming up with, you know, some ofthose new beats and new songs that they're doing. You can do interviews, behindthe scenes. I mean, there's a lot of things that you can do with video as anartist, and it's very impactful when it comes to creating that relationshipagain with your audience and your fans to do vlogging. I mean, I know WillSmith started. I mean, he's a super popular celebrity, and he started doingvlogging. And you just get to know him on a deeper personal level, and you justcreate those- You know, you're creating essentially superfans at that point.

Aaron: [00:09:13] Yes.So a side note about Will Smith, I was scrolling through on a platform thatwe're going to talk about later, Instagram, but the point is that he was - likethe vlog style - he was uploading that, but he did a little- I guess he wasdoing something for BET in 2005, and it was really cool. Like his kids, theywere all younger, and they like recorded and then you hear this whistle of likethe cut. And then you hear Willow yell out, "I'm going to sit in thelimo." And she's like three or four years old, and then Trey's like,"This is stupid. Snoop's kids don't have to do this." And then WillSmith yells out to his kids like, "Yeah, Snoop's kids blah blah know howto fight" or something or don't have to get in a fight. He's like,"Yeah, well, you-" Trey yells back at his dad, Will, and says,"Well, you don't do your own stunts." And then he gets up, andthey're just about to face off. So it's like a real family dynamic, and you seethe front thing where they're like, "Ah, we're the Smith family." Andthey give the kids a kiss or something like that, and then right after thatlike Will is like, "Peace out. I'm outta here. I'm going to thelimo." Like it's real life. It's so- I don't know. It's just a humanizinglevel I guess.

Christian: [00:10:16] Yeah,yeah.

Aaron: [00:10:17] AndYouTube's long-form content to be able to do that. So very cool. All right. Sothe next one is SoundCloud. If you're not familiar, this is literally whereyou- I mean, most of SoundCloud is people uploading their tracks, uploadingtheir music, and you have the ability to just stream it very, very easily. AndI don't know if it's completely free.

Christian: [00:10:40] Theymight have a free account, but I mean, if you're an artist and you want to getserious about your music, then you'll have to do a paid account and have yourown profile and do all that. Fill your own profile and do all that stuff.

Aaron: [00:10:54] Yeah.But there's a lot of artists who started with SoundCloud, uploaded their music,and it's got a way of getting on like, you know, some trending pages or likejust people finding out about you by going to SoundCloud. Like a lot of artistshave been found by just uploading their stuff to SoundCloud, and it's like hey,this is good. And if it's good, I'm going to put it over here, and you justnever know who's listening. And I think even one of Christian's notes here isthat a lot of up and coming artists and new artists get found or put out theircontent here because it's a discoverable platform.

Christian: [00:11:27] Yep,exactly. And it's easy to also share on Facebook and Twitter. I believe you canautomatically play it, you know, in the actual post. So it's easy for people tolisten to SoundCloud on other social platforms which is pretty good.

Aaron: [00:11:43] Verycool.

Christian: [00:11:44] Andthen the last one here is Instagram. Instagram the last few years has becomethe go-to for businesses, artists, music- Like you know, anyone and everyone ison Instagram, and we talked about this a little bit earlier about Facebookwhere the younger generation's not necessarily on Facebook, but they're definitelyon Instagram. Our parents are on Instagram. Businesses are on Instagram. Likeeveryone is on Instagram right now, and especially with the recently announcedIGTV which is another feature that Instagram has added to all the otherfeatures that they've- They basically killed Snapchat and Vine and Periscopeand literally a bunch of other apps out there that were part of the, you know,ecosystem or competition, and they've completely obliterated them by havingtheir own features like stories, adding video to their platform, and now withIGTV adding longer form video to compete with with YouTube. So if there's oneplatform that you want to be on and you want to emphasize and really focus allyour energy, I would say it would be Instagram, and not just Instagram postingbut also stories and the new IGTV. I feel like with the regular feed, stories,and IGTV, you can create all your content and have it just right there onInstagram and also with the ad ecosystem which is part of Facebook, but I mean,you have a really well-rounded social platform where you can get, you know,everything out there as far as updates, behind the scenes, concerts, a way forpeople to get tickets, you know, with the advertising platform. So I would sayInstagram is probably one of the most powerful social platforms out of allthese that we've talked about.

Aaron: [00:13:41] Right.It's not only- I guess not only that but you kind of mentioned it is you canliterally tell the authentic part of your day through stories, write a postabout something that happened at a concert, and then do a recap of the concertthrough IGTV. Like you can touch every part of that, and if you're wonderinglike oh, well, you know, what they say about Instagram, that's just theirhearsay. But they announced literally a couple of days ago - we're recordingthis June of 2018 - there is a billion, with a B, monthly active users. Thatmeans that literally one-seventh of the world is on there, and morespecifically I would probably say 75 percent of the United States is onInstagram. So yes, your audience is there, and it's only growing. I think it'sstill the fastest growing as well as one of the largest too. So you cannotignore Instagram.

Christian: [00:14:35] Absolutely.All right. So I think that does it for episode, the most important social medianetworks for musicians. We talked about Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud,and Instagram. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast either on Apple, Google,Spotify. I mean, we're basically everywhere. So just look for The MarketingNatives or just search for BitBranding. We would love for you to subscribe toour podcast. All right. Thank you for listening. We'll see you next week.

Aaron: [00:15:07] Bye.