The Musician’s Guide to Conquering Instagram
Published Sept 28, 2020
It’s the year 2020, and social media marketing is beyond thriving. In 2017, an incredible 39% of the population became active social media users, and who knows by how much that number has grown today? And that isn’t by accident. Social media is a fantastic way to engage with your audience and expand your career online; making your music and content reach the masses has become exponentially simpler than it used to be.
One of the most popular platforms we have today is Instagram. As of January 2020, the multimedia-sharing platform garners a whopping 1 billion users monthly. This makes it second only to Facebook, but ahead of other platforms like Twitter. The most significant advantage that Instagram has over other social media platforms is user engagement. Users on Instagram are more willing and enthusiastic to interact with different brands and pages, which bodes well for artists.
Why is Instagram so good for musicians?
Instagram is an excellent platform for musicians to expand their networks.
Your network essentially refers to who you know and the people you may potentially work with. I mentioned engagement earlier, and this is what makes networking on Instagram so effective. On Instagram, you can meet countless other artists, musicians, producers, and music lovers alike. Even complete strangers are willing to engage with you just for your music.
Using hashtags, you can interact with people interested in a particular niche. The more you engage with other artists and musicians, the more you expand your network. And the more you expand your network, the more opportunities you open up for yourself.
Collaboration also becomes a possibility. While you can grow your audience and attract more fans, attracting other artists with your music opens up a whole new world. If you’re able to meet like-minded artists, you can gain a new audience in their fans in the same way that they can gain yours. You might also be able to collaborate with graphic designers, photographers, and videographers to elevate your social media campaigns further. Just engaging with the community, enjoying, and empowering each other creates lasting relationships, both professional and casual.
Audience engagement
Instagram is a fantastic way to establish your brand image or brand personality. With the photos, videos, and stories you post, you control how the general public perceives your image as an artist. Besides the professional side, it gives you a great opportunity to receive your audience’s candid thoughts and feedback.
It would be best if you were mindful of what you post, as these can either promote or dissuade your audience from interacting with your page. Controversial topics such as religion and politics are known to cause a divide in your fanbase; however, more fans are beginning to appreciate artists and brands who make their stand for social justice issues.
Strategies to maximize your Instagram profile
Create a business profile
If you plan on getting serious with sharing your music and connecting with your fans on Instagram, you’re going to want to convert your personal profile into a business one. With a business profile, you’ll be able to see advanced real-time metrics on how your stories and promoted posts are doing. You can also see how your audience is interacting with your posts and other cool statistics that will help you direct your marketing efforts. Other important features it comes with is an address field, contact information, and directions to get to you.
According to Facebook (who owns Instagram), these are the steps to switch your account to a business account:
- Go to your profile and tap the menu icon in the top-right corner.
- Tap Settings.
- Tap Account.
- Tap Switch to business account.
- We recommend that you connect your business account to a Facebook Page that is associated with your business. This will make it easier to use all of the features available for businesses. Only one Facebook Page can be connected to your Instagram account.
- Add details, such as your business category and contact information.
- Tap Done.
Add to your Instagram story.
Instagram Stories are an excellent way to engage and update your audience on what goes on in your daily life. These stories are photos or videos you post to your profile that stay up for up to 24 hours from when you posted them. They’re great because they’re so casual that people will be drawn to interact with them. You can further increase engagement by using stickers, hosting AMAs (ask me anything), creating polls, and asking fun and exciting questions.
Maximize hashtags.
In essence, hashtags on Instagram are what keywords are to Google. They’re a tool to gather more organic traffic to whatever content you have going for you. Similarly, they categorize your content, boost brand awareness, and bolster your domain authority. And while you could argue hashtags look excessive, unnecessary, and annoying, they bring a lot to the table in widening your reach.
According to a research study done by Agorapulse, Instagram posts with at least one hashtag received 70% more likes and 392% more comments than those that don’t have any. You’ll want to keep your captions neat and tidy, though. Opt instead of including your hashtags as a comment instead of on your captions, as they can be unsightly.
Geotags
An Instagram geotag is the specific location of your Instagram content, specifying it down to the longitude and latitude. Geotags are great for reaching people in the local setting. They gather traffic in this way when people search for a specific location.
What does this mean for you as an artist?
While Instagram and other social media platforms give you a global platform to showcase your talents, you want to “grow where you are planted.” This means growing your audience in the local scene before branching out globally. Gaining a local following gives you more reachable opportunities of playing at nearby shows and gigs.
What sort of things should you be posting?
Ask any digital marketer today, and they’ll tell you content is still the king of gaining massive and stable traffic. The primary objective in posting quality content for artists means creating an attractive visual story. Document behind-the-scene photos of your creative process, teasing new songs and music videos.
Besides photos, Instagram allows you to post 60-second long videos to share snippets and glimpses of what you’re like as an artist. But you should know that engagement with photos is more pronounced than that with videos. If you feel like you don’t know what content you should be putting out, take your favorite artist as inspiration and follow in their footsteps. Just remember to add in your personal spices to make a unique name for yourself.
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About The Author
Judy Ponio is a professional writer and SEO specialist based in the Philippines. She works hard to cross check reputable sources to ensure her work uses accurate facts. She is the lead author for several prominent websites covering a variety of topics including law, health, nutrition, and more.
