Establishing a fanbase for your band can be difficult, and growing that fanbase can be even more difficult. No one knows this better than musicians themselves. However, luckily there are some great ways nowadays to make a splash in the music scene.
And what is one of the best ways? Social Media. Thanks to the internet, we have more connectivity than ever before in our world. Because of this, it is easier than ever to reach individuals with common interests as yourself. This becomes extremely beneficial when one strives to promote their band to a wide audience.
Facebook, especially, is a great tool for promoting your band. Using Facebook, you are able to connect with other musicians and music-listeners alike. Keep reading to discover how you can best promote your band on Facebook and to grow your following!
Joining a Facebook group is a great starting point to promote your band on Facebook. Facebook groups are made up of individuals with similar interests. You can find these groups by browsing through different categories, looking at recommendations for yourself provided by Facebook, or simply by searching up either a group name or topic.
Involving yourself in a musician or band group could allow you to make some initial connections with bands, or fans of bands, that you can then grow off of. Being involved in a musician/band group can also be helpful in keeping you informed and in the loop. If a new performance opportunity comes up, people will likely be posting about it in the group.
Who knows, you may even connect with a band or musician who you really get along with, and maybe they’ll want to collaborate. Participating in collaborations with other bands is a key strategy in promotion as you’ll be expanding your exposure by reaching another band’s fanbase.
You may just pick up some new fans of your own, and vise-versa for the band you collabed with!
One of the best ways to promote your band on Facebook is by establishing yourself as an active poster. You do not want to randomly disappear for weeks at a time, nor do you want to spam your followers with posts. Rather, you should seek to establish a healthy balance with your posts, ensuring they are relevant and frequent.
Posting two-three times a week is a goal you should strive to meet. These posts could be anything from information regarding an upcoming performance, a video of a work in progress song, or even a picture from one of your most recent performances.
Following these guidelines help keep your followers engaged and excited for your upcoming posts.
Another area that is important is the cohesiveness of your Facebook posts. When someone views a profile for the first time, they are much more likely to continue viewing if the posts coordinate with one another. Some strategies to achieve this are:
The strategy, creating an aesthetic for your band, is of extreme importance because this is how people will identify you as a band. Picking an aesthetic factors into what music genre you classify your band as performing (which will determine which consumer segment your band attracts).
Additionally, once your band has an established aesthetic, it is not easy to change in the eyes of the public. Therefore, you must be extremely careful in selecting one because it is likely here to stay.
Engaging with fans and potential employers is key to promoting your band on Facebook. These two groups can both help a band grow in exposure.
Employers such as venue/concert organizers, restaurant/bar owners, and clientele searching for event entertainment give bands a platform to reach a new audience. Everytime your band is hired by one of these employers is another opportunity to grow your fanbase.
Additionally, your current fans play a large role in growing your listeners because they are passionate about your music. Because of that, they are the ones most likely to provide you with word-of-mouth advertisement. They may tell their family or friends about your band, and maybe that’ll lead to these family and friends becoming fans.
For these reasons, it is extremely important to engage with fans and potential employers on Facebook. Establishing good relationships with these people can lead your listener count to soar.
To connect with these two groups, there are numerous strategies you can explore. For example, hosting question and answer sessions is a great way to form a closer, more personal relationship with your fans. You can also construct contests with the opportunity for prizes such as merch (your band’s t-shirt, a vinyl album, etc.)
Additionally, maybe even hold a fun contest or poll in which your fans can let their voices be heard. For instance, you could release a poll in which every person who is a follower of your band on Facebook can vote based on the title, what song your band next releases. This is a great way to both grow your follower account and generate excitement for your next release.
In terms of potential future employers, a great way to connect with them would be engaging with their current content. For instance, you could follow them, like their posts, and leave the occasional comment every now and then. Don’t be afraid to direct message them and introduce your band. If nothing else, it’ll be a new connection formed that could one day lead to a future hirer.
One of the simplest ways to promote your band on Facebook is simply through running a Facebook ad campaign. However, before doing so it is important to figure out some things.
Firstly, you must determine how much money you are willing to spend on the ad campaign. Once you figure that out, next you should look at some marketing strategies for music in order to get an idea of how you’d like to best market your band.
Some marketing strategies you could utilize to promote your band include constructing a relatable theme, tapping into nostalgia, or including a unique promotional idea to generate fan engagement. When determining what marketing strategy to use, it is important to consider what you would like your messaging to collectively say about your band.
Once doing that, you are ready to design your ad! Make sure your ad is in line with the aesthetic of your band by incorporating your key colors, previous graphic design objects, and your band logo.
In addition, figuring out your target audience, whether that be your current fans or a whole new audience entirely, is important in determining how you’d like to go about designing your ad.
However you go about designing your ad, it is extremely important that it comes across visually appealing and easy to understand to the viewer.
Now that you have the tools needed to promote your band on Facebook, go ahead and try it out for yourself! First things first, if you haven’t already, create a Facebook page for your band.
Once that is done, you are really ready to get started. Try your hand in laying out your page to fit your band’s aesthetic, add a profile picture, and maybe even link to your Spotify account!