For most musicians, social media is the center of the universe when it comes to promoting their music. To build a loyal fan base that will be with you for many years, you need to manage your pages competently, constantly maintaining the interest of subscribers. Facebook, Instagram, etc. play a crucial role in promoting the site, but the phenomenon of a music blog remains a little underrated. Here are some reasons to start a blog like this:
1. THE BLOG PROVOKES NEW CONVERSATIONS WITH POTENTIAL FANS
Blogging gives you the opportunity to talk more and more colorfully about what you love (yet platforms in social networks assume short notes). Everything can revolve around your musical tastes and the artists who influenced you, but you can go beyond that – if you found the heyday of LiveJournal, then remember what some blogs were like: a person could mainly write about music, but there was also a place for cooking recipes, social posts, etc. Here you can also announce concerts or make detailed reports about the tour, with videos and photos. The blog allows you to open up and build more personal relationships with potential new fans.
2. THE BLOG IS YOUR MOUTHPIECE IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
The blog provides an opportunity to share ideas, expand your horizons, and ultimately train your writing skills. Defining your ” voice” in the local (or national, international) this is just as important as finding your own sound. Don’t forget, people are always interested in who composes the music they love. What interests a musician, how he lives his life, where he eats lunch and dinner, etc.
WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT SHOULD I POST?
Of course, there are a huge number of things that you can talk about endlessly, but it is important to understand that strong blogs often have a very specific focus. For example, Echoes and Hyperbot share news from the music industry and analyze what is happening, Pitchfork writes about new releases, and our Sadwave – about the underground, punk and hardcore. Here are three main things to write about in a music blog:
1. News
This can be news about your own music or about the community to which you belong. These types of posts are usually short and clear (and frequent).
2. Tips
If you understand something very well and realize that you can already share your unique knowledge with others, then a blog is the best place to do it. For example, you have tried all the pedals in the world and have an opinion on each one. What is not a reason to talk about your experience on a regular basis?
3. Analysis
This type of content, of course, is not for everyone – it requires a very deep understanding of the topic and confidence that no one else has analyzed it (well, or did not approach it from a certain side). If you are ready to talk about, for example, where Russian independent music is going, you are familiar with the most famous promoters, and you have the opportunity to take their comments, then you can safely start doing it.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD I MAKE POSTS?
Before we start talking about the frequency of posts, it is important to mention that consistency is the most important thing in blogging. If you start a blog by doing one post a day for two weeks and then forget about it for a month, people will be sure that the blog is dead and will also forget about it. The best solution is to figure out how often you can write something from the start, and stick to a schedule-even if it’s only once every one or two weeks. Increasing the number of posts is always better than drastically reducing them by losing readers.
The frequency of posts depends on two things: your free time and the type of content you can post. If you only have a couple of hours a week, then trying to become a news champion in your community is pointless. News content must appear at least once a day.
As for analysis and advice, creating such materials takes a lot of time, and once a week will be quite enough. If you have very little time, then once in two weeks – this is also normal. But try to stick to your schedule and not post less frequently.
WHAT PLATFORM SHOULD I USE TO CREATE A BLOG?
There are several platforms that offer free (or very inexpensive) content management services and solutions. Each has its own pros and cons.
WordPress
The largest blogging platform on the Internet. There are actually two of them: WordPress.com with good offers for beginners and easy navigation, and WordPress.org – a huge community of developers and designers with templates for any existing theme.
Positive: infinite number of settings;
Minuses: it is not so easy to manage as stated, and a good WP designer can be quite expensive.
Blogger
Google – owned Blogger is very similar to WordPress, but there are much fewer settings.
Positive: connect with Google+, Google Analytics and Feedburner;
Minuses: as mentioned above, the settings palette is not very large.
Tumblr
A platform for more “short” posts than the two above-mentioned ones, and there is more multimedia content (like Twitter with a visual content bias).
Positive: integration with social networks; free and easy to use;
Minuses: lack of opportunity to comment, which implies a lack of discussion.
THINGS THAT SHOULD BE IN EVERY POST
Here are a few things that will help you optimize your blogging efforts and make posts a good marketing tool:
Analytics
As with other marketing processes, it is possible to find out what is effective and what is not
by looking at the analytical data. By installing the same Google Analytics tools, you can track what your audience is most interested in (and of course, it’s worth reading and responding to comments).
Good quality photos and videos
If your aesthetics does not imply the presence of lo-fi images. Try to make your content visually appealing.
Ability to comment and share in social networks
Use simple plugins that allow you to add social media buttons under your posts so that readers can easily share your posts.
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