Artists, Don’t Get Married…
…to a platform. Cumulatively, the average person will spend 5 years of his or her life on social platforms. As an artist, you probably spend even more time than the average person. You invest quite a bit of time building your following, fine-tuning your branding, and mind-numbingly scrolling through your feed and comparing yourself to others. You obsessively pick up your device, looking for that hit of dopamine the brain receives when you get a new like, follower, etc. You are also likely consuming music regularly on Spotify, growing your follower account on yet another platform, and chasing playlist inclusion. Sound familiar?
But what are you going to do when these platforms change the algorithms on you, yet again, or your existing or potential fan base starts focusing their time and attention on a new platform that you aren’t on yet? You know it’s coming because there is always a new social media or music platform on the way. As Voice (ie. Alexa) and VR become dominant and make their way fully into the music landscape, there will inevitably be new platforms where you will have to build an artist profile and audience.
In the past year, I’ve started to see quite a bit of social media fatigue amongst artists. I know many of you who have emotionally invested yourself in a certain platform and then felt disempowered, frustrated or jaded when that platform has changed or folded, replaced by yet another new platform. When you invest your greatest resource — your time and focus — along with real money into a platform, and then its functionality or relevance shifts, you may find yourself hesitant to dive into the next latest and greatest platform, still wallowing in the feeling of loss from your emotional investment into the previous one. This is why many artists are late to embrace new music/social platforms. Like the Sunk Cost Fallacy, the more you invest in something the more difficult it becomes to abandon or let it go.
I entered the music business before social media, when, for most independent artists, word of mouth was the primary method of gaining new fans. Your “following” was represented by actual humans at your shows. In today’s industry, however, there are many ways that potential fans can discover you via algorithms and push/pull marketing tools and tactics. In terms of music discovery, there is no other time like this one, which is something to be thankful for. Your “followers” now are a mix of true hardcore fans, passive fans, and other artists trying to get you to follow them (and of course, some robots) and your profiles are the new stage. And while these platforms have opened your music up to the world like never before, the landscape is as challenging as ever, only different.
You may view social platforms as something you are beholden to or feel pressure to keep up with. I get it. You may sometimes feel that your numbers are a reflection of your self-worth as an artist, but please remember: they aren’t. You are NOT your profile. While it’s true that your “reach” can influence press coverage and interest from the industry, your anxiety and stress about your reach are often primarily self-generated. So, as we go into the next wave of platform upheaval, I challenge you to reframe your view point and preemptively get in front of your response to inevitable changes. Here is a practical and tactical idea for you to try.
Practical: (Eyes, Heart, Action). For brevity’s sake, I’ll focus on two platforms to illustrate this idea. Try this: Simplify things and make Facebook the place to engage your fans with relatable storytelling and news. Always post with an image or video to capture attention (Eyes) and contextually story-tell in a way that emotionally resonates (Heart), with the desired outcome being a share or comment response (Action). The typical Facebook user is in a Connection / Opinion / News mindset when on the platform, so focus on speaking to your fans from this place. Try a 3:1 posting ratio of storytelling to news (promo) to encourage engagement. If all you do is post promotionally, followers will start to become blind to your feed.
For Instagram, the user mindset is a bit different, generally focused on inspiration, “behind the scenes” imagery, and being visually transported. Keep your feed to inspirational or visually stimulating content (Eyes), use the Stories feature for behind the scenes documentation of your process and journey (Heart), and link within the Stories feature and/or the profile bio section to lead your fans where you want them to go (Action). For instance, link to your latest release on Spotify or give them some options using Linktree.
What I want to have sink in with you is “process over platform.” If you focus on the flow of eyes, heart, and action, adding your own personal twist to the process, you will make your social media activity less about the platform itself and more about the method. You can subsequently take your method to any new platform that arises, and it will still apply. Refining your fan engagement skills — and honing true awareness of how to best connect will your fans — will help you to transcend functionality changes or new platforms and keep you focused on building your relationships with people (your fans and fellow artists) rather than your relationship with a platform. So how do you best connect with your fans?
Tactical: (Listen more talk less) Become a master practitioner of listening to and understanding your most engaged fans. Bring them into your process and let them see your humanity. In today’s digital climate, being human is the new knife that cuts through all the noise. Try this: Engage in direct message conversations with your super fans. Specifically ask them what it is about you and your music that they are responsive to, and how/where they discovered you. Build a deeper connection and enroll them in helping you sort out what resonates and what doesn’t, mining them for information. This way the valuable time you spend on these platforms is spent interacting with both your hardcore and casual fans, bringing them closer and most importantly learning about yourself through them. Your keys to growth can sometimes be unlocked in these conversations, and their feedback holds more weight than the stories you tell yourself. How do you know who your most engaged fans are? Try posting a piece of content in your feed that asks a question. Or, in your Instagram Stories feature, create a “poll”. Your most engaged fans are going to be the ones that jump on this the quickest and with the most excitement.
In summary: The quality of your experience with the platforms you use rests heavily on your own self-awareness and ability to identify when it’s unhealthy. Don’t let your relationship with platforms become like a toxic marriage you can’t get out of. So remain curious, open-minded and flirtatious with whats coming around the corner and don’t get married to what you are currently building. Fall in love with your process. Onward friends!
Patrick Ermlich is the CMO at Gramophone Media and author of the forthcoming book The Compass Method -“The navigational guide to an artist’s life in music”. If you liked this article please give it a thumbs up and check out my previous post.
