If you’ve read my first book Music Marketing On Twitter: How To Get 1,000 Loyal Fans Every Month In Just 15 Minutes Per Day (which I give out for free just click through if you don’t already have it) you have figured out how to identify your audience, target them, and connect with them on Twitter. You’re growing your audience. The next steps will require you to assemble a content strategy that will begin to deepen these new found relationships enough to monetize in the future.

First off we need to set some realistic expectations here. You really have to think of this like dating.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, there is a magic equation of content out there that will deeply connect you with your audience to get them interested in you enough to listen to your music.

 

 Hopefully you and your music are compelling enough to persuade them to buy it, but all this doesn’t happen on the first date.

 

If you’re ready (y’all think you’re creatively ready and your product sounds competitive but most are not yet which is why you need help developing in that department…but I digress), they will respond but it will take more than a couple tweets to make that happen.

 

When you’re dating someone with the intention of beginning a relationship, you can’t expect to close the deal on the first date or the second date if you want it to be worth a damn.

Content marketing A.K.A. Permission Marketing takes time.

 

Let’s dive into some ideas to get you started on how to think about crafting YOUR content.

Content is about revealing who you are inside; it’s about your story.

 

As a person.

As an artist.

As a musician.

As a fan.

As a music lover.

As a parent.

As a party animal.

As a comedian.

Your dark side.

Your funny side.

Your sad side.

Your hopes.

Your dreams.

Your fears.

 

Get the picture?

 

I believe that every artist has a unique story to tell which will make them stand out.

 

This is the DNA to your brand.

 

 

Sadly, most artists won’t be that vulnerable, or take that much time to dig down and bring all this “personality gold” up to the surface.

 

Wait, isn’t that the job description of an artist?

 

 

 

Here’s some soothing thoughts to take the edge off the quest to expose your inner artist soul.

 

Your beehive is out there no matter how crazy, weird, or controversial you are.

 

I love to tell my artists if your music only resonates with pale, young, Asian boys under the age of 14 with freckles, bad acne, and one leg, that club is out there and you can find them.

 

Small as that Universe may be, they ARE out there.

 

If you want to connect with them, you can.

 

So go for it.

 

 

 

Here are some content angles you should be considering:

• Be interesting.
  • This should be easy if you consider yourself to be an artist. Your talent should be interesting or you need to consider a career change. We have had amazing success exposing our artist Bailey James’ talents on YouTube with consistent cover content. This now 13 year old has over 300,000 views and 3,250 subscribers. All completely organic without promotion (that’s about to change now that her debut single and EP are being released)
• Be funny
• Be controversial
• Be an authority
• Share discoveries and experiences
• Be Weird
• Introduce people to new things
• Fascinate people
• Be obnoxious
• Surprise people
• Be unconventional
• Foster your uniqueness
• Be curious

 

Here is a great example of artist content that capitalizes on MANY of these points. The artist is Social Repose. This dude is OUT THERE and I think he’s brilliant. He looks and acts outrageous and obnoxious. He’s unique, he’s humorous, and he’s controversial.

 

 

Love him, hate him, be baffled by him, he has encapsulated so many sides of himself on several social media platforms that he is COMPELLING to watch.

 

On his YouTube channel he has a mixture of funny Vine-like videos (that were originally Vines originally and were repurposed to YouTube), cover songs (where he definitely puts HIS artistic interpretation on the track), interesting talent spotlight videos (where he will cover a song in 13 different vocal styles showcasing his vocal [and engineering/auto-tune] skill set), Interactive type videos (where he responds to haters, truth or dare tweets, and prank calls his fans).

 

 

Brilliantly, he has his own original material videos up there as well.

 

Note how some videos are very raw and some videos are more produced. Richie is extremely resourceful here and has conquered social media and found his audience.

 

I promise this kid is making a good living being a creative.

 

You should study this channel.

 

Now, I know what you’re thinking, (insert snotty 5-year-old voice here) “I’m not going to put on a headdress, crazy Goth makeup, flaunt some insect-like wings and act like a moron to get heard.”

 

 

You’re missing the point.

 

See how he worked so many different facets of his personality into his social media content?

 

This is really him!

 

The question to ask yourself is, “what makes you compelling?”

Are you funny?

Are you controversial?

Are you angry about certain things?

Are you elated?

Tell the world and be clever about it.

 

If you’re a killer guitar player, play guitar. Post 15s videos on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube and make them feel something.

 

Get it?

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s another example. We have a client, who is a very fascinating individual.

 

Patience Reich is a female jazz singer (who is creating a pop record), Physician of internal medicine, Christian, and a humanitarian who regularly travels to Africa and Haiti to help children.

 

I look at all her attributes and see a tremendous amount of “Brand DNA” to work with. The content we create involves connecting with people who orbit around her same interests in and outside of music.

 

We put out humanitarian quotes and content. We encourage Patience to post real life images of her work when she is on a mission.

 

Patience regularly posts content of her religious interests like pics of her at church with different people, etc. Never preachy, just inspirational content and to a degree, voyeuristic in that we get to see into her real life occasionally.

 

It’s clear she’s human, just like us.

 

 

 

We post funny, interesting content that revolves around Medical Doctors.

 

 

 

We post content about her favorite jazz artists and we make it attention-grabbing. Here is an example of a jazz music factoid that has had some great engagement.

 

 

Of course, we post clips of her live performances to introduce her vocal talent and connect her social media following with her artistry.

 

Patience DILIGENTLY responds to EVERYBODY that engages her and we are growing her account and most importantly, deepening these relationships.

 

 

 

They like her.

 

They will buy from her.

But it takes time.

 

It takes time to find your voice but you HAVE TO FIND YOUR VOICE or you won’t stick out.

 

I promise if you approach your marketing and/or your artistry half-assed, nobody will care.

 

When you’re writing or performing songs, as an artist, you must hope to connect with your audience on some level, right?

 

You want them to be moved.

 

If they can relate to your story, you win.

 

Just approach your social media tactics in the same manner as you approach songwriting.

 

Bond with them emotionally.

 

Relate to them.

 

Here are 2 great books I would recommend to further your education on this subject.

 

 

The first book is my new Advanced Music Marketing On Twitter release. This book teaches the next steps on how to cultivate your new audience relationships. It is a logical progression after you have absorbed the first book. There are a ton of tricks, techniques and strategies in this book to show you how we do what we do at Daredevil Production including the tools we use to make us as efficient as possible with our precious time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second book is The Content Code: Six Essential Strategies For Igniting Your Content, Your Marketing, And Your Business by Mark W. Schaefer. This book will help you formulate some purpose to your content. It will get your creative juices flowing.

 

 

 

 

 

These books (and any others you may read) can’t tell you EXACTLY what YOU should be doing with YOUR content because you are a unique person

 

You are a unique artist.

 

So you have to attack this with the idea that these books will help you connect some dots, using that big brain of yours, and help you apply solid strategies to your specific personality that will resonate.

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

If you thought this article was helpful, SHARE it please!

 

 

P.S. You might also like my new podcast called The CLIMB with my cohost and hit songwriter Brent Baxter. We discuss the business of songwriting and of course, we talk about marketing music for singers, songwriters, and artists. You can download this podcast for free on iTunes or by clicking through.