PUTTING IN WORK: Y’all got any more of them likes?

Please, I beg you, don’t buy likes or followers from bots or sketchy websites that offer “10,000 likes for only $12.” To start, people in the music industry know that those likes aren’t real. We can see it from a mile away because we deal with it everyday, and the people that matter like booking agents, press, and managers will know. Aside from the fact that it hurts your reputation, those aren’t real fans.

Real fans are added organically using content that you create or when someone comes out to one of your shows and likes you on Facebook/Twitter/etc. These are fans that weren’t served advertisements or sponsored posts.

When you create and share appealing content, real fans take an active approach to learn more about you and your music. Growing your fan base this way creates a more loyal following of people that get excited when you release something new – and people that are more likely to actually pay for your music and merch. So when I say content, what do I mean? What exactly can we create?

1. Your music, of course!

2. Video blogs released weekly giving behind-the-scenes interviews or insights.

3. Inspiring, yet relevant photos of you or your band.

4. Contests or giveaways.

5. Sharing pictures and videos of you or your band engaging in hobbies such as cars, video games, or sports.

Generating content is only limited by how creative you are.

Wait one second, though – how do we decide which topics to cover when creating content? Niche marketing, that’s how.

As an example, let’s say that I’m in a rock band. Let’s also say that all members of the band love hockey and video games. Our niche market would be people that like rock and play “NHL 2K14.”

Now that we have our niche, we could do a weekly video of the band having an “NHL 2K14” tournament, or maybe the band could start a blog about the game. Anything, really, as long as it involves hockey and video games.

The audience of this market would consist of thousands, if not millions of people, and when you appeal to people in this niche, your chances of them listening and enjoying your music increases greatly. They would feel a connection to your band because of how you relate with them on separate topics besides music.

This is a very broad example of niche marketing. You should read more about it and learn the basics of it. There’s a very good article on the CyberPR Music blog where you can learn more.

Here’s my challenge to you:

1. For one month, forget about how many likes or followers you’re getting. No posts saying, “Hey, give us a like!” or “Follow us on Twitter!”

2. No advertising or sponsored stories on Facebook.

3. Focus on generating and sharing content for one month.

Tell me which works out better. I bet I know which one.

Putting in Work: The Beauty of Music & Business is a bi-weekly column filled with thoughts, inspirations, and experiences from a music marketer born and raised in Scranton. Let’s step our game up together.