Market Your Livestream Performance

So you’ve decided to livestream your next performance. You’ve setup your show, now it’s time to start selling your tickets.

But how do you even go about doing that? Well, here are a few ideas that’ll help get you started!

Give Fans A Taster Via Youtube

Youtube, in my opinion, is the most underutilized tool available to musicians. If you already have a Youtube channel with subscribers on it, why not post some taster footage of what to expect during your livestream? Give viewers enough that they get excited about what’s the come, but not so much that they feel like they’ve experienced everything.

Be sure to leave calls-to-action both during the video and in the description. By simply asking people to sign up, your sign-up rate will generally increase. Sometimes people just need that small nudge in the right direction.

Pro Tip:

Be sure to use keyword friendly headers and descriptions to maximize the chance of you getting found via Youtube search and their suggestion engine. Mastering keywords is too big of a topic for this blog post, but you can see more details about it here. They talk specifically about keywords for music licensing, but many of the mentioned tactics are still relevant to selling gig tickets via Youtube too.

Create Hype With Your Existing Audience

It’s not enough to simply tell your existing fans that you’ve an upcoming show; if you want to increase ticket sales you really need to get them excited about it.

Present your show as something bigger than just a livestream. Maybe create a theme around the show and make it about more than just you and your music.

For example, right now in the UK there’s a big government campaign around supporting the NHS. If you’re from the UK, you could always have an ‘NHS support show’ where you’re playing some of your best songs to support and raise awareness of the work these doctors and nurses are doing. You can also let ticket buyers know that a portion of their ticket fee will go directly to the NHS.

Consider trending topics right now and see if you could take advantage of any to increase gig attendance.

Consider Paid Ads To Promote Your LiveSteam Performance

If you have a relatively small (or non-existent) fan base but still want a good number of people to join your show, you may want to consider using paid advertising.

This isn’t a route I’d typically recommend for your first live stream due to the steep learning curve and likely expensive cost per attendee while you’re still experimenting. That said, if you’re willing to risk losing money upfront to increase your attendance, this could be an option.

I’d generally go for Youtube ads as they’re more personal and connections can be built easier, but you can also advertise on Facebook and Instagram as well if you choose. A simple Google search will provide you with guides on how to use each platform.

Alternatively, you may get better results approaching established musicians in your genre and paying them to let their audience know about your upcoming show. While you’ll likely get higher attendee conversions using this method, often working with musicians one-on-one like this can be slow or unreliable. But it can give good results when you get a reliable influencer.

Remember, It’s Down To You…

When you put on your own show, it’s 100% up to you to get attendees.

The above tactics should give you a good head start, but if you have any other marketing strategies you want to try, there’s no harm in giving them a go.

So what tactics have you used to promote your live stream shows? Let us know in the comments friend.

Other Resources

MyAfton Livestream Virtual Performances

Are Shows Still Being Booked?

Local Shows

The post How An Artist Can Market Their LiveStream Performance Show appeared first on Afton.

The Importance of Hashtags

I hear so much talk around the subject of Hashtags. “Are hashtags important’, “Do I really need them”, “Do they make that big of a difference” . Some people think they are just for looks, others don’t want to take the time to use them and some people just think they clutter up your posts. The truth is they are a CRUCIAL part of your posts.

#can make the difference of only your followers seeing your post and an extra 50+ people. That number can also be higher depending on the number of #s used and of course the relativity of your #s. At Afton our main audience is musicians. Some of them being rap artists and others are more rock based. Because of this we use #s like #HipHopmusic #unsignedrap #unsignedrock #unsignedartists. That way other (potential followers) that use those #s or follow those #s will see our content even if they are not following us directly.

So even if you use a small amount of #s on your posts it will still help your account to grow. Instagram however, does have a maximum amount of #s per post which is 30. Some people find that they can get away with using 30 #s each post and others find that it can be too much clutter for their audience. Your goal is to find out a good amount of #s to use without going overboard.

How Do I Know Which Ones To Use?

The main issue that occurs is when people ‘bite off more than they can chew’. What I mean by that is they use #s with too big of an audience. So when they make a post and they use #hiphop there are about 75 millions posts about that already. Yes that has the potential for a lot of people to see it but in reality Instagram puts the most liked images at the very front and works their way down to the lowest liked (or engaged) posts. So unless you are getting 1,000+ likes on your posts then a lot of people won’t scroll down far enough to see your post.

When you are starting out you should find a hashtag that has enough posts where people are actually talking about the subject, but not too many that your post is flooded in the mix. For example one of our #s (#unsignedartists) has about 177K posts. That is a lot of posts already using that hashtag, but there is still a good chance that people will be able to find your post.

Below you will find an example of some of the #s that we use in our posts:

Where Do I Start?

I recommend researching 5 #s to start with. Three of them having under 1 million posts and 2 having closer to 100k. Once you find some that work you can slowly start adding more #s to your post.

And until you find those core hashtags you can just use ones that relate to the image that you are posting. So for our above example you could use #Jayz #rapper #musician…etc

Happy Hashtag hunting!

Other Resources

If you are not sure where to start we are here to help! We also, have a lot of promotion options to help grow your account over on our store including Social Media Blasts, Album Reviews, and Featured Blog Articles. You can check them out HERE

Be sure to also check out some of our other blogs!

How To Get More Instagram Followers

Believe In Yourself

Don’t Wait Around For Your Big Break

The post Are Hashtags Important? appeared first on Afton.

Putting it All Together

In the last 4 articles we went over all of the promo plan steps for various benchmarks leading up to your show. In this article we will go over extra tips that we have for you.

Breaking It Down – Decide On Weekly Ticket Goals

If you wait until the last minute to sell tickets, trust me, you’re going to find yourself 24-48 hours out from the show with 0 pre-sales! You’ll end up super stressed out, feeling like nobody wants to come watch you perform, and you’ll wonder how you’re going to sell 20 Tickets in 1-2 days. It’s my job to help you AVOID this situation. 

Instead, each week make sure all of your group members are actively helping you hit small, achievable ticket sales goals. The sooner you have 5 sold, then 10 sold, then 15 sold, etc. the sooner you’re going to see how easy it is to get everyone you know out to this show. Don’t wait. Even getting 2-3 sold immediately will help get your promotion machine primed and ready to go. 

Is Each Member Actively Helping Promote?

Don’t let your group members rely solely on you to sell all of the tickets! That’s not fair, and it will severely cripple your maximum draw potential. It’s important that you and your members each agree on small, easily achievable ticket sales goal.

For example, if you make it a goal for all 4 members in your group to sell 3 tickets each per week, you’ll easily have 48 tickets sold in 4 weeks. It’s easy to draw a lot of people if each member is committed to your promo goals. Remind group members, effective promotion is just as important as your rehearsals.

We hope that our all our tips that we have gone through will be a great help for you! If you are booking a show with us (Afton) be sure to also reach out to your booking with questions. They are there to help you succeed!

Other Resources

Afton Promo Plan: 30 Days Our From Your Show

Afton Promo Plan: The Week Of Your Show!

Local Shows In Your City

The post MyAfton Promo Plan: Extra Tips appeared first on Afton.

A New Series

Our last article we continued our MyAfton Promo Plan where we walked you through the promotional process for your show. For this article we will continue from there but focus more on the week of your show.

Your Time To Shine

Your show is now less than a week away. You’ve been rehearsing for weeks, preparing, thinking about everything from promotion to transportation to your set list. You have a lot going on. This close to the show is it too late to get more tickets sold?

No. It’s not too late! You’ve already made ticket sales to the easy fans (haven’t you)? You’ve already split up the promo workload amongst all members, and broken down your ticket sales goals each week in small chunks. right?

Now is the most crucial time to make your ticket sales double, triple, quadruple, etc.

What About The ‘Maybes’

You probably have a bunch of “maybe’s,” “I don’t know’s,” and “Don’t worry I’ll pay the higher door price night of!” fans who have not bought a ticket yet. IF you let those people go, if you don’t follow up, if you don’t get them to buy a ticket and commit – then they are going to bail. After over 10,000 concerts, our data has shown time and time again that fans who have not bought a ticket are more than 80% likely to never show up. So now’s the time to get those friends to commit.

The Final Plan

So here’s what you do. From now until show time, have all members do an all out promo blitz. Use that list you made of every person that you and your group members personally know.

Text, Facebook message, and email anyone who has not given you a hard no over the next few days. Tell them why they should come see you play, tell them about your incentives if they bring friends, tell them why it would mean so much to see them out in the crowd. Give them a CALL TO ACTION. Literally ask them to reply back if they are going to skip it or buy a ticket. Ask them to not leave you hanging. Remember, if they say they can’t go – you can ask them to tell their friends about the show and it’s one less person you have to follow up with. When someone says they are going to buy a ticket, politely ask them to tell you once they purchase so you can note that on your promo checklist.

Next, you can go through your list of people who have already bought tickets and ask them to bring friends. Click the Ticket Sales link in your MyAfton.com account to see the list of people who have bought tickets online. We provide you with their email address. Tell them about your INCENTIVES and what they get if they bring 1, 2, 3+ new friends to your show. They want to help you, and they like you and your music, otherwise they wouldn’t even be coming to your show! Don’t be shy to politely ask them for a favor!

It All Comes Together

Everyone has worked hard to make this show a success. Don’t let this last week of promo opportunities slip by. If you keep focused on the end goal here (getting AS MANY people as possible to your show), then I am confident you will be surprised by how many tickets you can get sold by show time.

I want you to envision what your show looks like this week if you have only 5 fans scattered in the crowd and how that will feel. Then envision what it will feel like when you have 25, 50, 100+ fans specifically waiting to see you, all piled up against the front of the stage. Let’s make this show awesome and something your fans talk about for months to come.

Thanks reading our article about promoting the week of your show! That is it for the MyAfton Promo Plan series. Keep an eye on our blog for more tips!

Other Resources

What Temperature Are Your Fans?

Maximize Promo Codes to Get Fans to Buy Tickets Now!

Local Shows In Your City

The post MyAfton Promo Plan: The Week Of Your Show! appeared first on Afton.

A New Series

Our last article we continued our MyAfton Promo Plan where we walked you through the promotional process for your show. For this article we will continue from there but focus more on 14+ days out from the show.

Promotion Can Be Hard

For a lot of artists, self promotion is hard, or it’s uncomfortable, or it just feels weird. But if you really think about it, who is in the best position to promote your music and to make long lasting connections to your soon to be fan base? You are.

Nobody else in the world cares as much about your songs, your music, or the art you’ve created. Nobody else in the world will ever care as much as you do. So that’s why it is crucial that you learn to be an effective, self promoting machine.

We can call all of your fans and invite them to your show, a venue can email your friends to try and get them to buy tickets, but the fact is the most likely way your fans and friends are going to attend your show is if you invite them personally, face to face. If you connect with them, and if you show them how much you care about your music. No other entity or company can replace that vital and much needed connection that it takes for you to get new fans out to your show.

Practice Makes Perfect

We get it. Self promotion is harder for some artists than it is others. But here’s the good news: Just like with anything else – the more you do it, the more you practice it, and the more you believe in it – the better you get. The question you have to ask yourself is, are you willing to put in the work it takes to play in front of 200+ people? Or to be the local artist in your city that draws more fans than anyone else?

Your music is good. We already know that, you know that. That’s why we booked you for this show. But there are literally tens of thousands of “really great” bands and rappers out there who don’t know how to self promote and who draw 0-10 fans when they play live.

Making The Connection

If you can make that final step, and combine your great music, great live show, and your artistry with the ability to effectively self promote and draw 25, 50, 100+ fans per show? You will STAND OUT from every other band or rapper in your area. You will get booked more. You will even get booked over acts who musically are better than you are.

Many artists are musically as good as you, or even better. And you only have so much control over that. But you have complete control over how quickly you build your fan base. Our goal is to teach all of our artists the importance of self promotion and the importance of advance ticket sales. Because even after the shows you play, those promotion skills and that confidence is going to help you in every single show you ever play.

It All Pays Off!

So think on that for a few days. Keep carrying flyers and physical cash tickets with you everywhere you go. Keep having those interactions, those conversations with friends, fans, and strangers. It will pay off when you are standing in front of a crowd of 50 of your fans, screaming at the front of the stage while all of the other artists, venue staff, and other act’s fans take notice that you are a worthwhile, interesting act with a lot of buzz. THAT is how you make new fans at your show, and that is how you stand out from everybody else.

Thanks reading our article about promoting 14+ days out from your show! Stay Tuned for our Next blog article in our Myafton Promo Plan series!

Other Resources

MyAfton Promo Plan The Week of The Show

Local Shows In Your City

The post MyAfton Promo Plan: 14 Days Out From Your Show! appeared first on Afton.

A New Series

Our last article we introduced you to our new series where we walked you through the promotional process for your show. For this article we will continue from there but focus more on 21+ days out from the show.

Dont Play For An Empty Room

Playing to an empty room sucks. We’ve all been there. It’s awkward. You feel like a loser. If there are 15 people in the crowd you don’t make any fans because you look like a lame artist who has no buzz, no following, etc. why even haul your gear down to a venue to play for nobody? Who wants to spend 15 hours promoting a show and have 5 people show up? We don’t want you to have a bad show. And that’s why we want our artists to really understand this simple concept: The more promotional effort you put into this show, the more you’ll get out of it.

The more tickets you sell, the more you get paid and the bigger the crowd will be. The more tickets the other acts sell will add to the crowd and get you exposure. It’s all symbiotic, and it should be win-win for everyone involved (you, the other artists and the venue) if we all work together to get as many tickets pre-sold as possible.

Sometimes Fans Come Up With Excuses

One of the best ways to ensure a show is amazing, fun, and fulfilling is by having a lot of people show up. So if you’re wondering why we are so into effective promotion, and ticket sales, that is why! There’s no point in us putting on this show, the venue hosting the show, or you performing at this show if nobody is going to show up. 

We’ve all been there. Without any pre sales, there’s no way to know if anybody is even going to show up to see you play. Most of the time fans flake out, which makes perfect sense. Fans have 100 different reasons that come up the day of your show to skip it – something else comes along, they’re tired and decide to stay home, they had a stressful day and just want to stay in, the list goes on.

Our staff members have admitted to skipping a close friend’s Birthday party because of one of the above reasons. Yet none of our staff has missed a concert that they already bought an online ticket for. Once financially committed, your fans officially put your concert on their calendar. It’s what they’re going to do that night, especially since they already paid for it.

You Just Have To Work For It

You just have to ask your band members. Do you want to spend 15 or 20 hours of promotion to end up with a draw of 5-10 fans? Or do you want to effectively utilize your promo time and make that important last step with each fan so they buy a ticket in advance?

There’s no reason this show can’t have 200+ fans in the crowd. If we didn’t believe that, we would not choose to book regional and local unsigned artists. You just need to work for it, and work hard enough to get the results you’re looking for.

Thanks reading our article about promoting 21+ days out from your show! Stay Tuned for our Next blog article in our Myafton Promo Plan series!

Other Resources

MyAfton Promo Plan 14 Days Out From The Show

MyAfton Promo Plan The Week of The Show

Local Shows In Your City

The post MyAfton Promo Plan: 21 Days Out From Your Show! appeared first on Afton.

A New Series

Welcome to our MyAfton Promo Plan blog article. In this series we will be going through our weekly process for promo tips leading up to your next show In this particular article we will be focusing on tips when you are 30+ days out from your show.

Promoting In Advance!

A lot of acts “get the word out” about their show 30+ days in advance, or put up a few flyers. But they never really make any real progress. These acts think it’s fine to wait until the week of (or day of) the show for all of their fans to buy tickets. But the problem is, the longer you WAIT to start getting tickets sold, the longer you perpetuate the sinking feeling, “Will anyone end up coming to my show?” As time goes on you start to lose confidence, and you start to wonder if anyone really cares enough to come see you play.

The good news is, as soon as you start getting actual ticket sales, even if it’s just 2 or 3 or 5 tickets – you start to build momentum in your confidence, your promotion, your commitment, and the word of mouth.

Getting The Ball Rolling

Acts that get 2, 3 or even 5 tickets sold within the 1st week of being booked have a much larger draw on average and are much less likely to end up with 0 pre sales with 24 hours until show time.

My goal is to make this show a success. What does that mean? Largely, that means a lot of tickets sold and 200+ people in the crowd. I don’t want the acts I book to WAIT until last minute to get tickets sold, or find out last minute their promo tactics did not work. Or find out last minute that their group members were lazy when it came to promotion.

We can make the time you spend promoting for this show less stressful, more fun, and more encouraging by breaking down ticket sales goals into small chunks. 

Try it out!

Keeping The Ball Rolling

In the next 2 days make it a goal for each member to sell just 1 ticket. Just 1 each. You can do that in your sleep. Once you do that, every member of your group will see that all it takes to draw 20, 30, 50, or even 100+ fans are the right promo strategies, confidence, and a belief in yourself and in your music. People you know will want to see you perform live. You just have to be excited! Give them a heartfelt invite, and give them a reason to buy a ticket right now.

Extra Tips (For Afton Events)

EXPLAIN TO FANS WHY BUYING A TICKET NOW HELPS YOU – AND THEM:

1. Fan Saves Money… 

• Buying now saves the fan money, advance tickets are cheaper than door.

• PLUS they save even more money by buying right now with your Promo Code discount! 

• If they buy a cash ticket directly from you they can skip the online service fee. 

2. Explain to fans how much they are helping you… 

• “By coming to my show and bringing friends, you help me impress the other act’s fans in the crowd and it shows every person in the venue that I have a buzz.” 

• “By buying now it helps me get more perks, better time slot, more pay, and helps me get booked again for more shows.” 

• “By buying a ticket now, it helps me get other people out that know you. So and so (name a few of their friends) will want to go to the show if you’re there!” 

• “By buying a ticket now you help save me some stress! It sucks never knowing who is going to show up, or if anybody is going to show up. I want to make this show big. It’s important to me. So if you intend to go, and if you want to go, can you get a ticket now for me?” 

3. Fans buying now helps you too… 

• It ensures that they attend and don’t make other plans. 

• It ensures they put you on their calendar and talk about your show for 30+ days to friends. 

• They’re more likely to invite their friends if they’re already going for sure. 

• It helps you get more perks, more pay, better time slot, etc. 

• It ensures you have a crowd at the front of the stage excited to see your act perform. That is how you impress the other artists, the venue, and the other act’s fans! It’s easier to make new fans when you seem to be the biggest and most buzz worthy artist on the show!

Thanks reading and stay Tuned for our Next blog article in our Myafton Promo Plan series!

Other Resources

MyAfton Promo Plan 21 Days Out From The Show

MyAfton Promo Plan 14 Days Out From The Show

MyAfton Promo Plan The Week of The Show

Local Shows In Your City

The post MyAfton Promo Plan: 30+ Days Out From Your Show! appeared first on Afton.

MyAfton Promo Options

We offer a ton of free promotional benchmarks for artists. If you have not seen them you can click HERE to see what they are, but we also offer a lot of paid promo options that are located in the MyAfton store.

The First Three Options

The first three options are very similar but the key difference between each of them is the social media platform that they are posted on. Each promo blast requires a little bit of info from you so we can make the post more customized to your music and preferences.

First, we ask for your social media handle or link so that we can tag you in post. That way whenever someone sees the post they are able to find your account and listen to your music or learn more about you as an artist. The second is that we ask for a message that you want us to post for you. An example would be: “Be sure to keep an eye our for the next artist to rise! Artist X from New York City. You can listen to their music over on soundcloud.com/artistx”

Then we ask for an image that you want added to your post. That way potential fans can see a little bit more about your personality and what you are about. Afton then adds some #Hashtags that we have researched and found to be very useful for artist growth (For Instagram blasts). Below are some examples of three of our promo blasts.

Facebook Promo Blast

Instagram Promo Blast

Twitter Promo Blast

The Fourth Promo Blast

The final option of promo blast that we have available in our store is Youtube Blast. This option is one of our most popular options because it is permanently on our Youtube page.

We ask for the artist to send us their artist name, the song name (That is played in the video) and the video file, so that we can it posted to our page. Another option for the artist to send additional links to their social media pages, music links and other accounts that they want displayed on the video. You can see an example below:

Youtube Promo Blast

Where To Buy Promo Blasts

All of these promo blasts are available in the MyAfton Store (Find link Below). Make sure to also keep an eye out for our monthly discounts!

BUY PROMO BLASTS HERE

Other Resources

Afton Emerging Artist: Jay Elle

Summer Mixtape

Local Events In Your City

The post MyAfton Promo Options appeared first on Afton.

I’m a Musician just like you. We are creators, artists, poets. If there’s one thing we love more than anything in the world – it’s creating music. But what happens if we spend all of our time writing and playing music but fail to put enough time into marketing and promotion?

Doing What’s “Easy” is Not Always the Best for Us!

For musicians, the “easy thing” is to spend more time on writing, playing, and recording. It’s in our blood. It’s what wakes us up in the morning. It’s what keeps us going at the day jobs we might hate. But I want to ask you this question:

If I write the best album in the world, but nobody hears it, will I be happy?

Some musicians might say yes. But I believe most bands and rappers want the world to hear the music they’ve created. They want to see huge crowds coming out to their live shows.

How much of your time are you spending writing and playing your music vs. marketing and promoting your music?

For most artists it’s probably 90% music and 10% promotion.

Gary Vee is notorious for being extreme. He says if you want to grow your Social Media following you should spend 8-10 hours PER DAY direct messaging potential fans, existing fans, and influencers. “That’s crazy!” you might say. But he has a valid point. You can only expect the results to reflect the time and energy you put into something. If you’re not really spending much time marketing and promoting, it’s no wonder you have a hard time selling more than 5 tickets to your live shows!

So if you write great music but only spend 10% of your time marketing and promoting that music – are you going to be successful?

I challenge you to start spending MORE TIME on growing your fan base, selling tickets, promoting your live shows, and marketing the music you worked so hard to create.

Try “Switching Gears”

Instead of getting back to “writing your next album” before your current album even is released – STOP for a minute. Spend the next 3 or 6 months with 90% of your time and energy on promotion and marketing.

I recently spoke to an extremely talented and successful musician and he explained this quite well.

He said, you can go through 2 different “seasons” throughout each year as a musician. Dive completely into creating and writing your music for 3-6 months to make that perfect album. But once it’s finished, make your brain SWITCH GEARS. Spend the next 3-6 months after that completely devoted to marketing and promoting the music you just made.

I thought this was an interesting way to look at it. Sometimes it’s hard to remain the creative, artsy music creator while also focusing on promoting. So switch gears. Devote more time to promoting your live shows and music and give your creative side a little break. Then go back to focusing on being creative. If a gig is coming up, switch back into promotion mode.

The results will astound you. You can go from drawing 10 fans every show to 50-100 fans every show within a matter of weeks or months. I know, because I did that myself. And every week I talk to hundreds of artists playing our shows who are growing their fan bases like crazy.

All you have to do is “switch gears” and ask yourself:

Will I really be happy if NOBODY hears the music I just spent 6 months creating?

What Do You Think?

I’d love to hear from you in the Comments below! Are you spending enough time on promotion? What do you see in your future if you start devoting 2, 3, 4+ hours each day to growing your fan base and marketing your live shows better?

The post Spend More Time on Music? Or Promotion? appeared first on Afton.

I get asked this question every week by our artists.

“Is technology and social media helping or hurting my ability to build a fan base?”

The answer is, both. Technology and social media has allowed unsigned musicians to interact with and grow their fan base worldwide in a way that was never possible before. Social media and Spotify allows you to connect with thousands of people.

However, with this new marketing tool and potential fan reach – there is a cost.

“Back in the Day…”

In the 1970’s it was more expensive and harder to record an album than it is today. There were far less music artists trying to make it. People’s attention was not constantly being fought for by 1,000’s of artists, 15 concerts every night of the week, or by the billions of marketing dollars that companies are pouring into Facebook, Snap Chat, Instagram, and You Tube.

In some ways you could argue promoting your gigs and growing a fan base in 1970 was easier. There was far less competition for your fans attention and time.  An upcoming gig was more of a unique experience.

So the question really isn’t is technology and social media helping or hurting artists’ ability to succeed…

The real question today is:

how can you use these tools to stand out amongst the crowd and rise above all of the marketing noise that people are inundated with everyday?

You won’t sell 150 tickets for your show by randomly tweeting or by simply posting on your social media.

Think of Social Media like it’s a Lottery Ticket…

Think of it this way. If you buy a lottery ticket you might win the jackpot. But you wouldn’t quit your day job and rely on the lottery ticket to provide all of your income. Social Media is the same way. It’s a free “lottery ticket” to get discovered or go viral. But the odds are, you won’t hit the jackpot.

It’s just not that easy. You still need to put in the work when it comes to hustling tickets and talking to fans. You need to direct message fans with incentives, calls to action, and 1-on-1 conversations. Gary Vee always says, if you want to succeed in social media you better be direct messaging people 8-10 hours per day. That may be a bit extreme. But can you imagine the new fans you’d have if you did what Gary Vee suggests? And is it that extreme to spend hours per day promoting YOUR music so that you gain more success?

Social Media is just one small part of your overall marketing and promotion plan, and it only works as much as you work it.

1-on-1 Connection is KEY.

You need to use these tools to create a personal connection, offer incentives, and directly message and communicate on a 1 to 1 level with current and potential new fans. You need to follow up with each person, remind them to buy tickets, and fight to get them to choose to spend their time and money on your show.

You need to leverage social media and the existing network of friend and people you already know – so they vouch for your music and personally invite and bring their friends to your shows. The people who already know and like you are your street team. They have the power to buy tickets to your show and bring 4 of their friends.

I think too often artists rely on social media and Spotify as a crutch. Make a post, geand display your ticket link and they will magically buy tickets by the hundreds. It’s the “if we build it, they will come.”

But the reality is, it takes more work and more action than just throwing our into the world “I’m playing a gig next month.”

This Podcast Episode Tackles this Common Mistake:

Using Social Media the Right Way

Share in the Comments! Have you been relying on Social Media too much? Have you fallen into this trap of blasting out on Social Media instead of creating 1-to-1 connections with fans?

The post Is Social Media Helping or Hurting Musicians? appeared first on Afton.