Self-promotion can be uncomfortable for many people. But self-promotion doesn’t have to be ego-induced bragging, and it doesn’t require you posting about how great you are, trying to sell yourself, or an exhibition of any kind of elevated self-esteem. Most of us hate that kind of behavior online or offline anyway, and the results are mostly negative as a result.
By Bobby Owsinski
No, self-promotion using social media is about three things: communicating, interacting, and measuring. It’s more about telling your fans, friends, and followers what you’re doing and who you’re working with, rather than how cool you are because of those facts. It’s about letting them know you’re still around before you’re forgotten. It’s about informing them that your new music is being released instead of trying to sell it to them. It’s all about context. It’s not about you as much as it is about the information about you. That’s the first part of self-promotion.
The second part of self-promotion is about them – your fans, friends, followers, clients, and customers. It’s about you soliciting their opinions, answering their questions, listening to their views, and asking for their help. It’s not about you; it’s about us. We all move forward on this journey together. They move with you because there is something they really like about you or identify with (hopefully your music). You help keep the process moving by providing as much information as you can about your journey along the way.
The last part of self-promotion is measurement. This is something that could never be accomplished before in the detail it’s done online today. Every measurement about your audience is increasing granular, and that can either cause analysis paralysis or provide a better picture of just who those followers are. The measurement stats can show how many times a page on your site is visited, how long the viewer stayed, who viewed your post on any social network, how the person found it, where they live, and many other things. It can get scary how much we can learn about a fan or follower, or can be learned about us.
Although this sounds ominous, the bottom line is that the more we know about our fans and followers, the easier it is to give them what they want, nothing more or less. There may be certain things they love about you, but if you’re unaware of what those things are, you’re likely posting the wrong content, which can lead to follower attrition.
(From Social Media Promotion for Musicians, (c) 2013 by Bobby Owsinski, distributed by Hal Leonard Books, an imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation. Reprinted with permission.)
