We had the chance to have Ray Roa, Music Editor for Creative Loafing, be a part of Music Industry Sessions’ panel “Branding & Marketing for Independents”. He talked about tips for increasing organic reach, being social with fans on social media, and more.

Here are his digital marketing tips for indie artists.

Moderator: When budgeting for a digital media campaign, how would you recommend your budget to be allocated? Do you have tips for increasing organic reach?

Ray Roa: I think that all depends on what your goals for a “digital campaign” are. Are you trying to increase an audience on social? What’s your reach already? What social networks are you thinking about? There’s no way your budget is going to make it across all of the ones you want to use.

What do you want the reach to accomplish for you? IE: How are you leveraging it to your advantage and is it also fair to your fans?

Most importantly in digital is that you are keeping campaign results/data organized. You want to have something to show for it. You want to be able to point at positives and negatives. You have to feel like that data is a flashlight pointing you down the next digital campaign experiment.

Tips for increasing organic reach

Make it easy for people to FOLLOW, LIKE, etc. Be sure your links all work and are clear — don’t get fancy with your URLs. Engage with fans, social media is a two way channel.You have to invest in your fans and followers if you want them to care about you.

Always remain authentic! There is nothing worse than generic comments.

Participate in communities.

Explore hashtags and message boards. Find the ones you are interested in and be a good citizen on the hashtag or topic.

Don’t live and die by your follower count/quantity.

Remember that your followers are people, treat them as such. You’re only going to reach about 10% of your fans with non-paid posts, but cherish that audience.

Tag RELEVANT people.

If they actually have something to do with the post, then tag them and share on their timelines, too. Don’t over tag!

Watch our full recap of Music Industry Sessions here.