“Behave like you would at a dinner party with a lot of guests you don’t know. Be open, engaging, funny, and don’t mention the war. That is, show some personality, but don’t force your political, religious or social views on to everybody, ” advises Opera Australia in this social media memo. With social media increasingly taking over our lives, it has become an indispensable tool but one that you must wield with care and intention. Social media is, for the most part, a wonderful open forum in which you can share ideas. Having a winning social media strategy, therefore, can save you the heartbreak from broadcasting unsavory topics to your fan base.
Your Day 13 challenge is to Craft Your Social Media Strategy
Before we go any farther, know that it is possible to use social media like your Aunt Shirley and just share the occasional cute kitteh picture or your obvious weather status with your closest friends and family. You must set your security settings carefully, if that is your intention. In fact, after reading Day 13, check your security settings on all of your social media channels immediately. You are responsible for how much you share and with whom. Be cognizant that as your diva fame grows, your fans will want to find and connect with you online. Start segmenting your social media (or, up your security settings) to business and personal now unless you want that artistic director to see your incriminating Throwback Thursday pics. Meg Biram shares a great reason for wanting to split her personal Facebook page and her business fan page:
Here’s a personal example of how I do self-promotion — I have a business Facebook page, and a personal Facebook page. I update my business page all the time. If you don’t care to know about what’s going on in my business/blog, simply don’t like my page! On my personal page I only update it with business-related things if they are really important or exciting to me. Things that I know my closer network would care about. This way, old guy friends who [couldn’t care less] about my favorite shoes for fall, but would be happy for me if had a huge feature in a magazine, can just be my personal friend without liking my business page.
We all sympathize with the chorus from social media detractors, “who cares what you ate for breakfast?!” That is the reason why your social media content needs to be as engaging and thoughtful as all of your other written communication we’ve been working on like eblasts and pitch letters. Social media is all about building a relationship with your audience – remember, “there is no general public.” You are already connecting with your network regularly. This is an opportunity to make sure they are emotionally connected to your music business as well. Continue keeping an 80/20 balance in your social media communication. By keeping the self-promotional side of your social media activity to 20%, you will be less likely to alienate your friends/fans, tweeps, and fellow pinners.
Plot Your Social Media Strategy
- Assess Your Social Media for Business Savvy
- What social media channels do I use and how?
- How often do I post about my music business online?
- In what areas do I succeed with social media?
- In what areas do I need improvement?
- How would I rate my overall social media for music business use?
- What Are Your Social Media Goals?
- List your social media goals:
- (Some goals to consider: better potential audience engagement, get more gigs/find out about opportunities, interact with industry professionals, increased leadership in the field, creative inspiration, etc.)
- Revisit your goals regularly to check for progress.
- How Will You Measure Progress?
- You have set up your goals, but how will you know if you’ve accomplished them?
- Number of friends or followers is a very basic measurement. Do not stop here.
- Evaluate your social mentions and conversations started across platforms.
- You really want to increase engagement. Measure your click-through and traffic to your website/blog.
- Finally, you want that traffic to generate more gigs and more influence in your field. Measure any revenue generating opportunities that are direct results from social media introductions/conversations.
- You have set up your goals, but how will you know if you’ve accomplished them?
- Design Your Social Media Brand.
- Update ALL of your social media profiles.
- Get more mileage out of those headshots. Use your most flattering pics as your profile pictures. There is literally no reason not to do so.
- Make sure that your bio information, links, and email address are correct across ALL of your profiles.
- Include a call to action in your page/profile setup.
- Don’t Be All Talk.
- Part of the 80/20 rule mentioned above, you should use your window into the social media world to find out more about the leaders in your field, your competitors, and the needs/wants of your potential audience.
- Analyze how your peers are using social media to promote their creative businesses. Don’t copy them but reflect on what you like or dislike about their strategy.
- Use social media to monitor news and trends in the classical music world.
- Get to know your tribes. Actively search for your community and follow them. I like using Tweepi – perhaps you can suggest another site?
- Tag others and share their content (without making it about you.) You’ll catch more flies with honey…
- Part of the 80/20 rule mentioned above, you should use your window into the social media world to find out more about the leaders in your field, your competitors, and the needs/wants of your potential audience.
- Diversify Your Communication.
- Change-up the ways in which you use social media. Relevant social media communication is news-worthy, persuasive, share-able, and visually compelling. Vary your posts to include pictures, video, questions, giveaways, etc.
- Keep track of which type of posts give you the most return. That’s the sweet spot for your social media market.
- Continue to double-check your tactics. Ask yourself, “what can I do to regularly that will help me accomplish my social media goals?”
- Respond to Your Community.
- Social media is the opposite of set-it-and-forget-it. Determine the level of engagement you can consistently give. Do not take on every single platform only to develop a community and abandon them. You do not have to be on social media 90% of the day to get a good return. If you are not in front of a computer all day, do figure out how to add social media into your regular admin time.
- Establish a personal protocol for how you will respond to different interactions: praise, criticism, and questions.
- Integrate Your Platforms.
- The social media crowd really dislikes linked accounts that share one message across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ for example. Each platform acts differently and you should tailor your message for success on each – according to your time commitment.
- Don’t link your accounts – integrate your platforms! I’m a big fan of Hootsuite, but there are many to choose.
- Related: let your social media do double duty but integrating your other active marketing models. For example, direct your followers to take action by signing up for your mailing list. (I love using IFTTT to set-up regular reminders.)
- Revisit and Revise Your Goals and Strategy
- That’s the thing about social media: it doesn’t stop.
- Check those goals off the list and make some new ones!
Okay, Divas, tell me…
Is there anything I missed that we should have covered in the overhaul your social media strategy? Anything that particularly galls you each time you log-in to your platform of choice? Or, let me know which opera singers you think own their social media. I have some mad social media love for @JoyceDiDonato. What about you? Tell me in the comments below. Or, even better, let’s get social and chat about it. You can find me at @mezzoihnen, using the hashtag #28DaystoDiva, and on the Sybaritic Singer Facebook page.
Are you ready for a lovely Valentine’s Day post tomorrow? Join us won’t you?
