13 Social Media Tips for Musicians [Bobby Borg]

If your social media efforts have yet to be the fruit you’d hoped for, these 13 tips from Bobby Borg are the perfect place to start.

by Bobby Borg from the Disc Makers Blog

If you’re frustrated with your social media game, or just getting started, I’ve got a two-part series aimed at helping you up your social media game. Click here to read and watch part one, and below are another 13 social media tips for you.

1. What is the proper ratio between selling and entertaining?

The short answer is always entertain more than you sell. Gary Vaynerchuk wrote a book called Jab, Jab, Right Hook, which is a boxing metaphor that means entertain (jab), entertain (jab), and then go in for the sales pitch (right hook) only after you’ve established what you’re all about. Nobody wants to hear you sell when they have no idea who you are; so entertain people, get them to like you, get them to care, and then go in for the pitch.

2. How do you get more fans, fast?

You start by appreciating one fan and multiplying that into a small army. You can do that by treating your fan extra special. You’ll see how they are going to get excited, they’ll feel engaged, and they’ll start spreading the word. Build that army of fans slowly, one fan at a time, and watch your army grow strong.

3. Should you use bots?

Should you use bots and services that can increase your likes and streams? Absolutely not. This approach can totally ruin your social media efforts. If you have bots originating in, let’s say a third-world country, and they listen to your music for five or ten seconds and then bail just to increase your numbers, then the algorithms think people in those countries are interested in listening to your music. When that doesn’t happen, it sends your social media into the dumps. Do not use bots and fake streams and stream farms. They can undo any legitimacy and ruin your social media profiles.

4. Should you use all the tools that are available on social media?

Absolutely! When a social media platform comes out with new tools, they want you to use them. The algorithm is going to favor the people who are using them because, typically, they’re creating these tools to compete with other platforms. So learn to embrace them and experiment with them and you may have better luck getting your content pushed out.

5. What if you’re shy and want to be anonymous?

There are people like Sia and BoyWithUke who have certainly hid behind their personas, but generally speaking, social media is about being authentic and putting yourself out there and maybe even explaining that you’re shy. That might be very endearing, showing your vulnerability, showing you’re human.

6. Is it worth hiring a social media team?

Let’s make no mistake, most of the best social media platforms and YouTube channels have teams behind them, but that’s not possible for your typical DIY artist. The truth is, you can do this yourself. There are a lot of tools available to help you do this and fans are going to see the true and imperfect you and they’re going to appreciate the fact that it’s really you answering them and it’s really you reaching out to them. If you have the money, it’s great to have people doing the editing, etc. But if you can’t afford it, you can definitely do this on your own.

7. Should you pay for advertising?

Advertising can amplify your message but here’s the thing: What message is it amplifying? in other words, if your artist brand is not yet together, what are you promoting?

You want to develop your brand, build it organically, and then take the content that shows promise and boost that. You can do Tik Tock boosts, you can boost in Instagram, it’s very easy to do. Start with that, maybe do $5 a day for a week, or do a little bit more if you have the budget to do it and then, eventually, you can get into more sophisticated marketing and advertising using Facebook tools and Google advertising tools. 

8. Should you focus on consistency or quality?

I’ll always say quality — but why can’t you do both? Why can’t you produce quality content consistently? It doesn’t take that much to grab your phone and make shorts or reels or TikToks. Just be careful not to overextend yourself because that leads to burnout and failure.

9. What metrics do music industry professionals look at?

When you reach millions of streams on Spotify, hundreds of thousands of Tik Tok and Instagram followers, and have a viral hit, that proves you can be successful. But, even then, industry players are not looking for one-hit wonders, so the trend with A&R is to look for artists with proven, longer-term success.

10. Can you avoid social media altogether?

Not really. In this day and age, the masses are on social media and not being on it might send a message that something is wrong. So, unfortunately, I don’t think this is something you can avoid

11. What are the tools that support social media?

There are so many of them, but I’ll give you the two that a ton of DIY artists use. First, there’s Canva for creating graphic design, and second, there’s CapCut for editing your video. If you want a list of many more DIY tools, check out my book, Music Marketing for the DIY Musician — there’s a whole resource guide at the back of the book.

12. How can AI assist with social media?

There are so many ways to use AI, but one easy thing is to use Chat GPT to help write your bio. ChatGPT can also help you find keywords for your YouTube videos and SEO for your website, and it can seek out blogs and radio stations for you to submit music to. 

13. How do you manage your mental health when using social media?

A lot of times when you post, you’re not going to get the results you want, so be forgiving to yourself. Take regular breaks and to balance things out so that you’re using your time effectively. This is a long game. Consistency and continual learning are key.