A GRAMMY NOMINATION WON'T HELP YOU REACH YOUR FANS ON INSTAGRAM
A GRAMMY NOMINATION WON'T HELP YOU REACH YOUR FANS ON INSTAGRAM
Build your Social Media Escape Plan while you still can
Hi, I’m Seth Werkheiser and seeing artists at any level that are unable to connect with their fans gets me frazzled.
Sharing this post from TOKiMONSTA to demonstrate how hard it is for everyone, even a Grammy nominated artist with 178,000 Instagram followers, and 1.3 million monthly listens on Spotify.
But hey, Jeffrey Wisenbaugh (Director of Social & Content at Meta) tells
about some new things coming to Threads!“I think I’m most excited about an improved search experience, the web version, and multiple account login—will make managing brand pages and your own personal account so much easier.”
Who else is excited about an improved search experience?!
Are you excited about “the web version” yet?! WOO!
Most artists would be excited about reaching their fans who clicked follow, but you gotta pay money for that (and even then, there’s no guarantee they’ll see it).
SO WHAT DO WE DO?
What do folks without Grammy nominations, press coverage, label support, and a management team do?
Are we really going to stick it out on Instagram and Threads and “X” and whatever else, working our asses off to get a million followers just so we can reach 10% of them if we’re lucky?
You’re closer to 10,000 people on an email list than you are to a million on a social platform (probably).
And if you got “just” 10,000 email subscribers and a 40% open rate you’re cooking with an email a week.
Now, that doesn’t just mean some vinyl mock ups and video stills linking to YouTube.
That’s the sort of stuff you can outsource to Fiverr.
Like my pal Laura says in her latest video, she doesn’t need to be the one stuffing mail orders.
Her magic comes from writing catchy songs and making great videos - the sort of thing you can’t outsource.
Tegan and Sara have been writing multiple newsletters every week since January, 2022.
Nina Nastasia wrote about the one year anniversary of her album ‘Riderless Horse,’ complete with photos of the recording process with Steve Albini (disclaimer; she’s a client, but she wrote all that).
PUT DOWN THE PHONE
If you wanna do the bare minimum with a newsletter, don’t expect great open rates, or people rushing to subscribe.
Instead, set aside one hour from the multiple hours you spend on social media each week and write a great newsletter.
Include some photos. Maybe a video.
Oh, you know - like all the stuff you shovel onto social media that most of your fans never see!
And all those cool interview features you see in magazines and music sites (maybe stuff that other artists are doing, but you’re not at that level yet), DO THEM YOURSELF.
Make you own photo session.
Hell, work with a photographer friend. COLLABORATE.
List your 10 favorite horror videos, favorite 80s action movies, the album that got you to start playing music, the mentor that got you making art… should I keep going?
I can do this all day.
Because dammit, if you got that sort of press on a site or an alt-weekly you’d share it with your fans, right?
YOU’RE MORE INTERESTING THAN THIS NEWSLETTER
I mean, straight up; I write a newsletter about MAKING NEWSLETTERS and got about 25 new subscribers in the last month.
This is the nerdiest shit and I’m nearing 600 subscribers.
You probably make art, run a shop, write music, interview bands, photograph live shows, teach amazing courses - you know how much more interesting that is than writing about newsletters?!?
BUT, if you just make your newsletter about 10% discounts and BUY NOW buttons and NEW SONG in bold with a link, well, then yes, my shit is cooler.
But you can tell stories! You should share photos! Talk about the things you like!
Or… just sit around and hope that social media platforms are gonna change.
That ain’t gonna happen.
We’re all a million times cooler than these social media nerds.
Make cool stuff, and share it with your friends on your website and newsletter (where they’ll see it).
I’m working on a SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE PLAN PLANNING PARTY - sign up here to get notified when it’s ready to launch.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Here’s some things I wrote in recent years that you might have missed:
“This week; use social media like a billboard, while you still can, and direct your followers to your website, and onto your email list (here’s ‘25 things you can post to get people to subscribe’).
Get your fans where you can reach them directly, without playing the algorithmic chess game.”
From ‘I KNOW YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS’
“Every bit of “content” we upload in the hopes of reaching our fans is being monetized by Elon and Zuck, all while they throttle reach and charge us money to reach a small percentage of your followers.
Time to formulate your SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE PLAN.”
From ‘MAKE COOL STUFF, SHOW IT TO YOUR FANS’
First time selling at a market? Write about your experience of other markets you’ve been to, the people you met, why you started your creative project in the first place.
Are you a grizzled road dog? Come on - you’ve got stories; TELL THEM. Write them out, make it a video, make an audio clip with your bandmates.
From ‘YOUR TOUR ADMATS ARE NICE, BUT YOUR STORIES ARE BETTER’
I’m Seth Werkheiser and I just wanna help you sell more stuff, make your art, and put rad stuff into the world.
Become a paid subscriber at $6/mo and support my mission.
I’m working on a SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE PLAN PLANNING PARTY - sign up here and I’ll be in touch.
Buy me a coffee via Ko-Fi, Venmo (@Seth-Werkheiser), Cash App ($ethwerkheiser), or PayPal.
Support an artist and buy me an album from my Bandcamp Wishlist
Send questions and cat videos here: seth@closemondays.com