2019 Jennifer Hughes
As a microblogging and social media platform, Twitter is a powerful tool to promote your music. It can help you find the right audience, gain new followers, grow your fanbase and give you a firm foothold in the music industry.
Here are some tips on using Twitter strategically and effectively to market your music online.
The basics
If you don’t have a Twitter account yet, set up one. Add a profile and a header photo – the more professional-looking, the better. If you already have one but your tweets are more personal and don’t exactly reflect you as an artist, make a new account that’s dedicated to your music.
Follow music fans
Once your new Twitter account is set up, start following other users. Look for the other artists you know and follow them. You can also check their list of followers because you can find more potential contacts there. It’s also a good idea to follow content creators who focus on music-related topics, such as music journalists, podcasters and vloggers.
Mind your tweets
Since your new Twitter account focuses on marketing you as an artist, your tweets should be related to what you do as a musician. It’s good to tweet about what you’re currently working on at the moment, some tips such as how to choose the best soprano ukuleles for beginners, your gig schedule or where you’ll be performing tonight, a short clip of a practice session and so on. But mind what you’re tweeting and how often you tweet.
Avoid going too far and overloading other people’s feeds with too much information. Post updates often, but not too often that followers will simply ignore you for flooding. Keep your tweets, video posts and photo uploads interesting but still relevant. And although your Twitter account is mainly for promoting your music, avoid tweeting about your latest original composition every hour.
Can you tweet about things not about your music? Yes. You can talk about your other interests to show people you’re not just a musician marketing your work to the world. You can definitely tweet about how excited you are to watch a football game, for instance. Or how you’re looking forward to the latest episode of a TV series. It can make other people relate with you and check you out.
Interact with other users
Twitter is a social media platform, so be social. If you encounter a thread about a particular music artist you like, join the conversation and offer your insights. Those who see your tweets may be inclined to follow you. You can also retweet something you find interesting but make sure it’s relevant to your music. Keep in mind that the account you’re using presents you as a music artist, so be positive and be professional.
Here are some more ideas on how to be social on Twitter:
- Retweet a friend or contact’s announcement about new music or gig skeds
- Thank a blogger or music journalist who made a write-up about you
- Ask followers what they think about your ukulele cover
- Invite other musicians to collaborate
- When someone tweets about how difficult it is to practice, motivate them to keep going
- Show your support for other musicians
- Be sincere when giving compliments
- Be gracious when responding to critics
Those are some of the best practices for using Twitter to promote your music. When used right, Twitter will serve you well and help you expand your reach so you can really get your music out. Happy tweeting!
Jennifer Hughes is a regular contributor to Know Your Instrument, amongst other sites, where she often writes about music and instrument-related themes. When Jen is not writing, she enjoys socializing with friends and planning new trips to far off places.
