How to Enhance your Online Presence as an Artist

Mastering the online world and establishing an effective digital presence is an essential aspect of navigating today’s music industry. 

Whether you’re a solo artist or emerging band, then you’ll need to engage with the internet and all the opportunities it creates to help you grow your fanbase. 

However, for the uninitiated, digital can offer as many challenges as platforms to promote and market your music. 

If you’re looking to learn more, then take advantage of our Digital Marketing degrees, and check out our essential tips below…

• Create a simple yet effective website
• Go beyond social media
• Develop a visual style and stick to it
• Set up social media profiles
• Create an email subscriber list
• Create a posting strategy
• Develop a plan for your band
• Establish real, authentic connections 

Create a simple yet effective website 

A website can be a great online hub for all your activities as an artist or band.

It sounds daunting but you can make this as simple as you like and it’s a fantastic place to host all the content connected with your music. So from live gig listings to YouTube videos, links to your other profiles on Instagram and Facebook, biography, Patreon profiles… it can all live here in one place. 

Go beyond social media 

Remember that a social media profile is not a website. You need a clean and dynamic site as a “home base” for fans and transactions. The benefits include having complete control over the look and feel of this web presence and avoiding any distractions such as adverts or invitations to click elsewhere.

As long as you maintain your site, then this part of the online world will always be owned by you, making it a great one-stop shop for all your activities." 

Develop a visual style - and stick to it 

Building an effective, cross-platform online presence is all about consistency, both in terms of the way you write and the visual look and feel.

Consistency will lead to you establishing a more definitive brand image, which is something audiences can engage with and hopefully remember. As an artist, implementing this throughout your website and social media should make you and your music stand out. 

Set up social media profiles 

Social media profiles can sit alongside your website in your tool kit as a modern musician, artist or industry professional. They are initially free to create and can be a brilliant way of engaging, networking and interacting as part of a wider online community, whether it be on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. 

When launching these profiles, aim to use the same handle for each. You should also link to each from your main website. Include an effective description with any relevant hashtags or profile links, then think about the kind of content you’re going to post. It goes without saying that you can be as creative as you like with this but try and post consistently and align with your brand.

If you’re stuck for ideas, then look at what your favourite artists are sharing, from information around new music, live gigs to candid backstage photos or videos of rehearsals or soundchecks."

Try and tag relevant profiles when sharing content and use hashtags where appropriate. 

Create an email subscriber list 

In the digital age, email continues to be a reliable and effective marketing tool to help you engage with your fanbase.

For some, it might seem slightly archaic in a social media world which is always on. But for many who are stepping back from Tik Tok or Facebook, email is a great way of accessing information directly rather than having to wade through a deluge of digital noise.

You can build a database from your live performances and website visitors and this can be a really effective way of letting your fans know about upcoming shows, albums releases, deals on band merch, band interviews, music videos, and much more.

Create a posting strategy

It's important to consider how you are going to develop your brand online and one of the best ways to do this is by coming up with a posting strategy or content calendar for your channels.

This might sound quite formal but in our digital world, there are many elements to an online presence. Not only do you have multiple channels but there are also different types of content you will want to share. It's a sensible idea to come up with a simple strategy so you don't miss on any opportunities to share content with your potential audience. For example, if you have a gig coming up, you will want to advertise this. You can start a couple of weeks ahead of the event, then increase the amount of posts as the day of the event gets closer. You can also share content from the night and thank fans for attending afterwards. 

There are many different opportunities with your online content and being organised will ensure you don't miss out on any. 

Develop a plan for your band 

To put the above strategy into action, you need to come up with a plan to delegate responsibilities around content creation and promotion. Have a list and try and play to the strengths of each band member.

Rather than expecting individual band members to share from their own accounts, create a band email address and link all your social media profiles to it."

This way, if a member leaves, then you should be able to retain account details for your various profiles. 

Establish real, authentic connections 

An effective online presence will work in tandem with connections you can make in the real world. You should consider both as part of the same thing and look to treat people online as you would like to be treated in real life. Do what you can to create a community around your music by connecting and networking with journalists, fellow musicians and fans. This will help you develop an effective network around you and your musical projects. Remember to keep this engaged with content and never take it for granted. Good luck!