Why organic social media content matters for music artists

Author

Andrew Southworth
October 02, 2023

Hey friends!

Today we’re going to talk about why organic social media content matters for music artists.

As you probably know, I talk a lot about how to use Facebook ads to grow on streaming platforms like Spotify, grow your email list and more. However that doesn’t mean you should abandon organic social media content.

In fact, skipping organic content means you’re leaving a lot on the table in terms of growth, and it can actually make your ad campaigns perform worse.

This newsletter is also available as a podcast, listen on your favorite podcast platform here.

Music Marketing Monday Podcast

Actionable music marketing advice every Monday. Narrated by Andrew Southworth.

podcast.musicmarketingmonday.com

If you want to learn more about my technique for running Facebook ads to promote your music on streaming platforms, check out my course Spotify Growth Machine.

Why Social Media Content?

Let me break down several ways organic social media content helps you as an artist:

  1. You can gain fans organically for free

  2. You can use high performing content as ads

  3. You make your profiles more appealing to follow

  4. You interact with your fans more

Social media has become the modern day town square. It’s where people hang out and where they put their attention.

Therefore, whether you like it or not, it’s where you have to go to find fans. Skipping social media nowadays would be a death sentence for 99% of artists.

1. Gaining fans for free

Every time you post content on social media, the platform will push it to a certain amount of people to see how it performs. Over time this can add up to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of free impressions.

It’s a long slow grind if it’s all you’re doing, but check out this post I wrote on how you can pull it off.

I use a tool called Later to schedule my posts, and it saves me a ton of time. I also find it helpful to use ClickUp to plan pretty much everything in my life.

2. Using posts as ads

One huge part of running ads is testing ad creatives. Well, one tactic many artists use is posting content to social media and then poaching high performing content for use as ads.

At the end of the day, social media ads are just social media posts being show to more people. A great post is a great post, and will likely perform well in ads if it performed well organically.

Better organic content generally means better ads. If for no other reason than it gives you more practice. But its also a testing ground for you to see what works for free.

3. Stickier profile

When you run Facebook ads, they run through your Instagram and Facebook pages. A good amount of people will check out your social media profiles, and if they like what they see they may follow you.

However, if your social media profile sucks they probably won’t. If you haven’t posted in months people have little reason to follow you - you don’t post anyways.

Having a continuous amount of new content flowing onto your profile ensures your profile is more sticky to new people that find it.

4. Fan interaction

Over time as you continue to post, your profile becomes a way to keep fans in the loop. It isn’t as valuable as an email list because only 4-8% of your followers even see every post. However the most engaged people will.

Gaining fans doesn’t help you much if those fans don’t stick around. And one great way to keep them invested is to constantly give them new reasons to care.

You can’t release new music every week (in most cases), but you can probably post several social media posts per week.

BTW if you’re wondering what I use to run this newsletter… its a platform called Beehiiv. The reason I chose it is because it would allow me to build a newsletter email list while also building an online blog at the same time.

You can read all previous newsletter posts on the web version here.

You don’t have to go on social media and post 5 times a day if you want to succeed. However I would strive to post as much as possible. Once per day would not be too much.

This isn’t an all or nothing game either. Posting 2 times per week is much better than 2 times per month. It’s much better to post twice per week for 6 months straight than post every day for a month and quit for 5 months.

Additionally many artists will ramp up posting around releases or tours and slow down during lulls.

New Content

Whether you're promoting your Spotify, growing your email list or selling merch with Facebook ads, at some point you're going to have bad results. Here are 5 ways I save failing ad campaigns.

Playlist-Promotion.com Spotify Review: Real Results - Music Growth Machine

Recently I had the chance to review Playlist-Promotion.com's Spotify playlist service. If you're reading this, chances are that you searched for 'playlist-promotion review' (or something similar), and you're wondering if they're legit. Yes, from the data in this campaign I can say that Playlist Promotion's Spotify playlisting service is safe to use and completely legit.

musicgrowthmachine.com/playlist-promotion-com-spotify-review-real-results

Did you know you can listen to my music industry interviews on podcast platforms? Click here to listen to the Modern Music Marketing podcast.

News

Here are some music industry news highlights from the past week.

  • Spotify’s Supremium tier to offer lossless audio and AI playlist creation for $19.99 per month

  • Songradr purchased Bandcamp from Epic Games

  • Spotify launches Jam, a real-time collaborative playlist feature for up to 32 people

  • YouTube introduced a suite of new AI tools for creators

  • Live Nation gets rid of artist merch fees at its US club venues

  • Spotify develops AI-powered voice cloning tool that can translate podcasts into multiple languages

Quote of the Week

❝

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs

Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:

  1. My courses. Spotify Growth Machine teaches you how to use Facebook ads to promote your music on Spotify. YouTube Growth Machine teaches you how to grow a YouTube channel organically and how to use YouTube ads. Fan Growth Machine teaches you how to build a website, online store and grow your email list.

  2. My ad agency. Forbid Media specializes in running Facebook conversion ads to promote your music on Spotify.

  3. Website / Store / Funnels. MusicFunnels is the best all-in-one platform for music artists to make a website, online store, sales funnels and build their mailing list.

  4. 1-on-1 consulting. You can book 1-hour calls with myself or Alex Bochel here.

My Links:

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If you’d rather just purchase the e-book, or physical book or audiobook you can do so here.

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