The new rules of social media engagement

The digital world is always changing, so it’s important to stay up to date with music marketing, how fans like to engage, and more…

by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

Today’s artists are forced into a relationship with at least one social platform that can either be fun or what many consider to be a time suck. However, you perceive it, if you have to do it to either maintain or grow your audience, you might as well have it work for you. Sked Social (a social media scheduler) has some tips to optimize your social media engagement.

First of all, what does engagement mean? It’s a combination of any of the following:

• Likes
• Comments
• Followers
• Shares
• Retweets
• Click-throughs
• Direct messages
• Favorites

The idea is to increase the number of any item on the above list, since having a following doesn’t do much for you unless they’re engaging with you. Here are the recommendations to increase engagement on the most widely used platforms by artists.

Instagram

• Use Carousel posts since they have the highest engagement on Instagram. These work best for product promotion and fan testimonials.
• Post videos to Reels. Instagram loves videos and its algorithm favors anything on Reels right now.
• Use Instagram Stories to ask your fans questions. 

TikTok

• Use trending sounds. Like it or hate it, the algorithm favors anything that’s trending.
• Post in a series. In other words, a series of backstage videos or stage videos. Use the same background and format for continuity.

Facebook

• Use Facebook Live. Once again, the platform’s algorithm favors this format. Best to make this a regular show with the same format as people will look forward to the next “episode.”
• Set up a Facebook Group. If you’re on the platform, you might think of creating an artist group. It’s a great place for fans to hang out, but you can also drive them to gigs, merch, new releases and your website.

Social media engagement is the key to keeping your online audience happy and growing it as well. Although the strategies change all the time, the tips above are useful for 2022 or until one or more of the social platforms releases a feature that their algorithm favors more.

For recommendations about Twitter or LinkedIn, go here.