At Quite Great, we encounter a lot of acts who come to us initially for PR, but they also want to know how they can build a bigger presence online. Some people just understand social media, whilst for others it can seem like a foreign language, so we try to offer advice to our clients so they can get their heads around the modern phenomenon.
Whilst there are tricks of the trade to improving your following on social media, the one thing we always say to clients is that success online is about creating great content. It might seem obvious, but creating the right sort of content for what you’re all about as an artist is fundamental to your online stature. You see a lot of people and musicians who will just share other articles and videos on their pages, to keep them ticking over, but these aren’t the sort of things that really engage people.
What you need to be doing is creating your own original content; things that are unique, involve you as an artist and tell fans something interesting. If you have any idea about social media at all, you’ll probably know by now that we are well into a video revolution – people are lazy, they don’t like to read too much text, instead, they want to see 30 second videos of people doing stupid stuff and embarrassing themselves. It’s just the way the world has gone. But as a musician, trying to promote themselves online, you need to jump on this bandwagon and embrace it – be silly, be stupid, be funny if you can, as this is what the public want! Not everyone is comfortable making a fool of themselves in front of the camera, so what can you do? As long as you’re making engaging and interesting content – you should do fine.
Think Niche
Say for example, you use a very specialized piece of equipment, a seven string bass or a retro synthesizer from the 80s, you could make a video of how it works – what kinds of sounds it creates and what it has added to your music. Your die-hard fans will always appreciate anything you have to share online, whilst there’s bound to be gear-heads out there who just love watching videos about niche pieces of kit, like those Youtube channels that simply show people un-boxing new stuff. I don’t understand it either.
Use What You Have
Don’t bother going out and spending lots of money to create good content because you don’t need to. Try to think about what you already have that you can utilise and this doesn’t necessarily mean tangible things. How many followers do you have on Twitter or Facebook? Ask them to send you their most pressing questions about you and your music, then you can reply to them via a video blog. This will give your fans a rare insight into your life and there’s a certain personal touch when you mention their name along with the question they posed – they’ll love it.
Get Out!
You don’t have to confine yourself to your bedroom or your studio when creating this sort of material, get out and about and involve the public in some way – viewers will appreciate the effort you’ve gone to, as opposed to sitting on your backside. Perhaps interview your fans after a gig or take your performances to the streets (make sure you have a busking license if you need one!).
Quite Great PR
Here at Quite Great we’ve been working alongside the UK and Europe’s premier karaoke label, Sunfly, and recently we’ve been working hard to create some quality content to promote the brand. As usual, a brainstorming session ensued to come up with video ideas and one of our best to date was the outcome.
The idea was put on the table that we go to gig venues before big events and get some impromptu karaoke going in the queue, which would aptly be named ‘Queue Karaoke’. Fortunately for us, teen-pop legends Busted were playing at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in the following week so we decided to make them the first installment of the ‘Queue Karaoke’ series.
Consequently, on the night of the gig, three members of the team headed down to the queue armed with a huge wheelie-speaker, a microphone and a camera and the results made for an entertaining watch.
Find out how Quite Great can get your band noticed – contact us today. We offer music PR and brand services. See our client list here.
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