Which hashtags should I use?
How often should I post?
How important are hashtags?
How can I increase engagement?
These are just a few of the many questions this blueprint will answer for you.
Want to finally get more engaged followers? You know having a social following as a musician in the 21st century is practically mandatory, yet you’ve tried and tried and tried and are still not where you’re wanting to be at. Does that sound familiar?
Look we know you’re probably fed up with trying to grow your following. You’re a creative person and want to focus on your love of music, but the importance of a social following cannot be understated.
For example, if you’re wanting a record deal, labels will look at your social pages to see how often you’re posting, what the engagement you’re getting is, if you have loyal fans, etc.
If you’re wanting to stay independent, but wanting to make a living off your music, then you will need your fans/followers to support you financially, by purchasing your gig tickets, buying your merchandise, albums etc.
As a result, having not just a following, but a following with loyal, engaged fans is extremely important.
To help you grow your following once and for all, we have compiled a blueprint with ten important pieces of information that you need to be doing.
If you’re able to do all ten, we can almost promise you that your following will finally grow, with engaged, loyal fans.
Before providing you the blueprint though, remember we offer great free perks too, that will help you grow your following.
FREE PERKS
Draw attention and build hype for your release by getting a feature on two of our blogs.
Give your fans an opportunity to get to know yourself better and continue to build hype before your release.
Gain music exposure with a feature on out social pages.
Now onto the blueprint
BLUEPRINT
Here is a quick summary of all ten items, so that you can easily keep track of which ones you currently do.
Post at least 2-3 times a week
Use appropriate hashtags
Respond to EVERY real comment
Engage with people’s content
Show your gratitude
Include your followers in decisions
Do giveaways
Do it different
Have creative copy
Ask for what you want
Now that you have that, let’s dive in and explain each item to tick off.
1 - Post at Least 2-3 Times a Week
In today’s music industry, attention spans are shorter than ever and the sad reality is that in order to stay “fresh” and “relevant,” you need to post very consistently.
While 2-3 posts is recommended at the very least, more is definitely encouraged. Think of it this way, the more you post, the bigger your reach, the bigger your reach, the more eyes on your content, the more eyes on your content, the more engagement, the more engagement, the more your following will grow.
In essence, to put it simply, on average, the more you post, the quicker your following will grow.
There is one concern you may have with this, which is one that has been brought to our attention more times than we can count, and that is, “I do not want to post that much because my fans will get annoyed at all my posts.”
Maybe you have had this concern too and we hear where you’re coming from, but no! Anyone who follows you (or anyone real at least), is following you for one reason, because they like what you’re doing. As a result, they will support you!
For this reason, they want to see your posts, as many as possible. While they may not be able to like, comment or share on every piece of content you create, they will definitely appreciate the continuous content.
In addition to posting consistency however, you also need to be posting quality content that is around one central theme, yet has diverse posts. If that sounds confusing, we have a blog on that, which you should definitely take a look at too.
2 - Use Appropriate Hashtags (we made a blog on this alone, because it is VERY important)
Do you struggle to find which hashtags you should use and ultimately resort to the easiest ones? Such as #singer? Don’t worry, we’ll help you find the right ones, but first we need to explain the importance of why using hashtags such as #singer is actually hindering you.
In order to explain this, we first need to look at social media at a high level. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms you use are businesses, profit-seeking ones too.
What does that mean? It means they want to make money. Duh, right? But how do these platforms make money? The main revenue model for the majority of social media platforms is through running ads.
In order to make money off ads, they need people to see those ads. So these companies have ultimately have two options, 1) get more “customers” using their product or 2) keep “customers” on their platform for longer, so that they can show them more ads.
While acquiring customers is every businesses goal, it is often more expensive and time consuming than simply nurturing the ones you already have.
Confused? It’s okay, we’ll explain, and we promise this will relate back to using appropriate hashtags.
You’re a “customer” of whichever social media platform you use, let’s just say Instagram. Every time you’re on Instagram, Instagram makes money off you by showing ads to you, and with it being cheaper and more time efficient to nurture customers over acquiring new ones, Instagram focuses and spends hundreds of millions of dollars to learn how to get you to stay on their platform for just a couple extra seconds.
Having you on their platform for just a couple extra seconds allows them to show you one more ad.
So the question you’re probably wondering is, how does Instagram do that? It’s quite simple, they show you content that you want to see. That’s it. That’s all it is.
Sounds simple enough right? And that’s because it is, but where it gets tricky is with hashtags. Instagram automatically analyzes every single post you create.
They keep an abundance of analytical information, such as how many people saw your post, how many of them scrolled by without taking action, how many of them liked your post, shared your post, commented on your post, etc.
This information is then used to know whether people like your post. If many users simply scroll right by it, then Instagram is not going to push that post in front of people.
Why not? Because Instagram wants people to stay on their platform for a couple extra seconds, to show one more ad, to make a little more money.
If your post is continually getting scrolled by, and another post in your same niche is getting lots of attention, this tells Instagram that the post getting lots of engagement is more likely to prevent someone from leaving the app right now, over your post.
While it may come down to quality of the post, more often than not it comes down to using the wrong hashtags.
Let’s explain. If you use popular hashtags, such as #singer, #singersongwriter, #musician, #unsignedartist etc, you’re reaching people that may or may not be interested in your posts.
For example, let’s say we’re an agent for a country label and you’re a pop singer. We’re exclusively looking for country artists and so if we are looking for artists in #singer and we see you as a pop singer, we’re scrolling right by.
This tells instagram that someone just scrolled right by your post, without engaging with it. If this continues to happen, your post will not be pushed by Instagram to more people, because once again, Instagram simply wants to show posts that have a bigger chance of keeping someone on their platform for longer.
While that was a fairly extensive background, we felt like it was needed, because we hear way too many musicians say, “hashtags are better than none and so I’ll just use random ones, or generic ones.”
While it sounds fair in theory, it has only been hurting your account.
Now you’re probably dying to know, what can you do and what hashtags should you use, so that your content gets pushed by Instagram to reach more people.
The answer is to use hashtags that are targeted. By this we mean hashtags that the only meaning they could have is something that relates to you and your music.
For example, #singer could relate to tens of genres of music, tens of styles of music, singers from all over the world, and so the chances someone looking in #singer is looking for what you have is very, very slim.
Whereas if you’re a pop singer and you use #popsinger, you’ve already narrowed your audience dramatically. Everyone that looks in #popsinger is therefore looking to find a pop singer which you are (at least for this example).
If we’re being completely honest however, #popsinger, while better, is still extremely broad. The more narrow you are, the smaller your reach may be, but the more engagement you will get, which will tell Instagram people like your post and so the platform will naturally push it to more people.
It is tough for us to provide hashtags to use here when we do not know about yourself, but our recommendations include hashtags with:
1) Your city/state/country with what you are - for example if you’re a country artist from Nashville, then #nashvillecountryartist could work.
2) The emotion or “vibe” that you want to give off with your post, or when your post should be seen/viewed - for example if you sing about breakups, then #breakupsongs could work.
3) Sometimes where you live is not the same as where your target market is and therefore you should find hashtags that relate to your target market - for example let’s assume you’re a rapper from India, but your target market is the US, then #usrapper may be a good one, because if your market is the US, it does not really matter where you are based.
Something to note is, when finding these targeted hashtags, you probably will not find any that are outrageously popular (as you are looking for targeted ones), but still try and get a variety in the amount of uses they have.
Hashtags that are more popular (used more) will generally get you more engagement soon after posting, whereas hashtags that are not as popular will generally get you more engagement over time and therefore a combination of both is a recipe for continuous engagement.
Furthermore, as hard as it may be to find targeted hashtags, we also recommend switching them up from post to post, rather than using the same ones all the time.
The reason for this is that Instagram may flag accounts that use the same hashtags as spam, which could result in your posts not reaching as many people as they should (even if you use the best possible hashtags).
3 - Respond to EVERY comment (even the fake ones)
We say every comment (including the fake ones), for one reason in particular, social proof! Let’s face it, when you see posts with not only a lot of likes, but also a lot of comments, it provides credibility.
The chances that people skim through the comments to see who they’re actually from are slim, and therefore replying to all comments (even spam comments) increases the total comment count on your posts.
So that’s great, but will doing that really increase your followers? In short, yes! In today’s society, approval is unfortunately a major determinant in what makes someone (or something) successful.
For example, if someone stumbled onto your page and saw you had 2 likes and no comments, they may instantly jump off, because they might not think you’re talented, skilled or even real.
If however they stumble across your page and see lots of comments, they may now give you a chance and listen to a post of yours. After which your raw talent will be sure to turn them into a loyal follower.
So that’s why responding to all comments is important in general, but the best comments you receive are from real people. This is because they’re already interested in your page (and probably already following you).
Let’s suppose they’re not already following you however, well now you have the chance to communicate with them and learn about them.
You will soon create a real relationship that will not only surely gain you a follower, but also a potential friend.
4 - Engage with people’s content
Building off of #3 on this list, it is important to show interest in other people’s content. That may be your followers, or other pages you stumble across.
This can be as simple as commenting some emoji’s or a brief compliment. It does not have to be anything tiresome or long. What is important however is to give, not ask, at least not yet.
After your comment, they will be sure to either check out your page, reply to your comment or at the very least like your comment.
What you can do now is interact with them, either through direct messaging on the platform, or in the comments. Continue to ask questions about themselves, their music or their post that you commented on.
Everybody loves to talk about themselves and by being interested in what they do, you’ve now built a bridge with them, so to speak. It is now only a matter of time until they ask you about yourself and voila, now you can share about yourself, and your music, without being too pushy.
Through this real conversation, you will build a real relationship and follower for life (at least that’s the goal).
5 - Show your gratitude
You’ve put a lot of work into your music, so when someone likes, comments, shares, saves, streams, etc. it can be the most rewarding feeling ever. Simply show them how much that means to you, through sharing it.
For example, did someone comment on your post? Screenshot it and post it to your Instagram story while tagging them in it. Or did someone pre-save your song? Mention them in a post and thank them for pre-saving.
This shows that you’re appreciative to each and every one of your followers.
Answer this, if you knew someone you followed or admired was going to not only acknowledge you, but also thank you for interacting with their content, would you be more inclined to interact with it? We sure would!
Now let’s take it one step further; if you share someone’s content, (even just to a story post), you’ve now removed that imaginary barrier between yourself and them (that exists online).
You’ve shown interest into them and as a result, they will be sure to keep more up to date with your page, and may share your content more frequently too. There is almost an unwritten code, that seems to be followed whenever content is shared.
6 - Include your followers in decisions
We briefly talked about removing barriers in #5 and this builds upon that. Naturally, there is psychological barrier between you and your followers (unless you know them personally).
Removing that barrier allows for real relationships to be built. It is these real relationships that when nurtured correctly will provide you not only engagement, but also potential purchases of your merchandise, tickets to your shows, etc.
One great way to do this is by including your followers in your decisions. For example, if you’re wanting to post a cover, ask your followers which one you should sing.
If you find that no one is replying, don't worry, unfortunately people are lazy, so one way to overcome this is by giving them two options of songs to sing. You can do this through an Instagram story post. You will now surely receive enough votes to decide which song to cover and still have people feel involved.
If no one happens to reply (or vote), DM us (@musicianguidance) and we’ll suggest one. Then when you post it, say “thank you so much @musicianguidance for this suggestion. Would love to hear your suggestions.”
This works great because it provides the fear of missing out (FOMO) to your fans that missed the opportunity to suggest a song.
7 - Do giveaways
Who doesn’t love free things? We sure do! Giveaways are a great way to draw attention to your page, because there is usually no risk for entrants, and they have the opportunity to win a prize.
We know what you’re thinking though, giveaways can be expensive, or maybe you have nothing to give away? We understand that, but we can almost guarantee you can offer something that your fans (and others new to your page) will love.
Giving away money for example is popular, but not something we recommend. This is because money probably has nothing to do with your page, and we want to attract loyal, targeted followers, not just anyone looking for a quick buck,
As a result, we recommend giving something away that is consistent with you, your brand, and your music. An easy giveaway could be a duet with yourself, or an instagram live with the winner, or free tickets to your virtual concert.
To your fans (or soon to be fans), all those prizes are something they would really enjoy. It allows them an opportunity to get to know you better than what they see through your online content.
8 - Do it different
This is our favorite tip on the list, and one of the most effective to growing your following with engaged followers. Being you is amazing and unique. In a world where so many people are trying to imitate someone else, those who are genuine are shining through.
Therefore, be bold, be ambitious, be you! Tell the world your goals, create a buzz while doing it and anyone that shares a similar vision will back (follow) you.
Have you ever noticed (or wondered) why almost all celebrities stand for something? Whether it be outrageous style, supporting certain foundations, or something else.
It’s not just because it’s something they believe in. It’s also a “distinguisher.” Something that makes them unique from others and provides another reason for people to get behind and follow them.
As an example, let’s suppose your favorite artist donated a large sum of money to a mental health foundation, to help those overcome mental illness, which is unfortunately a very common illness in the music industry…
We’re using the example of mental health, because we here at Musician Guidance are huge advocators for removing any stigma regarding the issue and encourage those who do suffer, to speak up and get help. Bottling emotions only makes it worse.
That’s a blog for another day though. The point is if you relate to the foundation, or the reason for giving, or something else, you may now feel even more connected to the musician.
This could lead you to share their story more, buy their merchandise etc.
As long as you’re genuine in your approach and not simply doing it as a publicity stunt, you have our full support and it will undoubtedly bring positive results to your social pages.
In essence, the more you share, the more you believe in and the more you talk about, the more areas you have to gain followers in. Are you a big sports fan? Don’t be afraid to mention that. You could gain some followers that share an interest with you.
9 - Have creative copy
Creative copy is something that is so underrated and underused. Even we have struggled with it, because let's face it, is quite time consuming...
It’s importance however could be the difference between Instagram pushing your content and not. Relating back to #2 on this list, creative (engaging) copy provides you another chance to lure people into your content.
You already know that the longer people spend interacting with your content, the more Instagram will reward you, by showing your content to more people.
However, you may have only focused on the creative (picture or video) before. Descriptions (or captions) provide you another chance to keep people engaging with your post for longer.
Furthermore, it takes a lot longer to read, then it does to look at a picture. As a result, if people in your niche generally only post pictures, it may take on average 3 seconds to look at that picture, but if you have creative copy, it may take users on average 30 seconds to engage with your content.
With a 10X rate of attention, you can be sure Instagram will favor your posts over others in your niche, resulting in more exposure, more engagement and more followers.
One thing to note is that reading can be boring for a lot of people, so to trick their mind, have a space between every couple lines for example. Similar to what we do with our blogs. Reading two-ish lines at a time is more enticing for you to read than if we had no spaces at all, just a little trick.
Furthermore, by leaving your caption blank, or only providing hashtags, you’re not even giving yourself a fighting chance. A caption cannot hurt you, so at the very least, put something.
10 - Ask for what you want
Most of these tips revolved around “giving,” but now it is time to ask! People love to help. It makes them feel included, involved and important, so simply ask for what you want.
As an example, want to get on a playlist to increase your streams, brand exposure and followers? Post that to your story and ask.
Something as simple as, “Looking for a country music playlist, my messages are open curators.” It’s simply, not too pushy and yet it’s clear what you want.
Or the biggest one, ask for followers, because let’s face it, you want them. In asking however, tell them what they will get with it, rather than just “follow me.”
An example is, “follow for more originals.” It’s a little more warming, yet still gets across what you want and now the potential follower knows what they can expect.
So those are our 10 tips in this blueprint, which should once and for all finally bring in engaged followers to your social pages.
Honorable mentions
Adding location to posts
Tagging people that relate to the post
Last minute tips
Social media is a marathon not a sprint. Don’t expect results to happen overnight
If you see a trend of a certain type of content doing better than others, create more posts like it and stop posts that are not performing as well
The same goes for hashtags
Ask new followers how they found you (which hashtag, or if someone shared about you)
This way you will know what is working