FOUR THE WEEKEND: NO ONE KNOWS
Metallica announced a new album this week and there's still people that don't know
If even Google has to start a TV commercial by asking "did you know Google makes a phone," you need to hype your own work a LOT MORE.
This from a little company called Google:
Revenue: 257.6 billion USD (2021)
Number of employees: 186,779 (2022)
Do most of your fans know you have a new album? Do they know you have an online store? That you have an email newsletter?
Hell no, they don’t.
Statistically speaking, NO ONE knows what you're doing.
Yes, I wrote about this in August, but I’ll put it here again because I know not everyone read it:
Right now you have fans that don’t know everything you’ve done.
Hell, you have fans that don’t know what you did last month because not everyone sees your social media posts, and not everyone opens every single email you send.
Like, you’re literally going to meet a metalhead this holiday season that still hasn’t heard the new Metallica track.
Since releasing their video for ‘Lux Æterna’ on Monday, November 28th Metallica has not taken their foot off the gas:
Twitter posts: 17
Instagram posts: 18
Facebook posts: 19
That’s over 50 posts since MONDAY.
Have you posted 50 times in the last month?
This goes for your new album, shop updates, and getting people to sign up for your email list - no one sees anything, so keep posting.
“But Seth,” you cry, “Metallica has a team behind them!”
They do, yes, but that no reason why you can’t post ten times in a week when you’ve got something new to promote.
Your FOUR THE WEEKEND assignments, due Monday of course.
Did you post about your “new thing” earlier this week? Post about it again this weekend - come on! The chance that ALL YOUR FANS saw that one post from Tuesday is literally zero percent, I promise. Start using Buffer. Sit down for 30 minutes and schedule out all your social media posts for next week.
What? You still don’t have a newsletter set up? Head to Substack this very instant and do that. Just get SOMETHING in place to start collecting email addresses.
Have you tried the whole “LINK IN BIO” thing yet? TRY IT. Link Tree has a free plan, and seriously, it sure beats trying to put a non-clickable URLs in your Instagram posts. Check out my Link Tree to get an idea of what you can do with it.
A rising tide lifts all boats, so promote a project / band / brand you love on socials this weekend.
Will these lead to riches and fame? Probably not, but you’ve got to try stuff and see what works, month after month, year after year. Get learning what works for you and your fanbase!
ANTI-SOCIAL
As much confirmation-biased articles I could find in the last few days.
Facebook:
“The algorithms had been making that harder and harder. Especially when you don’t pay to play. Even before we made the decision for the reasons we did, social hadn’t been delivering for us,” from ‘Lush has no regrets about quitting Instagram and Facebook’
Twitter:
“Aren’t you tired of having to use a website where the word ‘Hitler’ trends every day?” from Garbage Day
From TechCrunch, “Twitter is going to show you more tweets from people you don’t follow”
TikTok:
Okay, this is a Twitter thread about TikTok, but it’s good: “In just 4 weeks since launching a slate of original shows on TikTok, we’ve gotten 30M views, 4M likes, & over 350K followers.”
Instagram:
“Instagram Is Over,“ writes Kate Lindsay over at The Atlantic, “the app’s original purpose has been lost in the era of ‘performance’ media.”
LISTEN UP
Wow, how’d I miss this one from WAKE this summer? So good.
Let’s set up your Social Media Escape Plan. Seriously. Just hit reply, comment, email me. Let’s reach more fans in 2023.
☕️ Support HEAVY METAL EMAIL: buy me a coffee via Ko-Fi, Venmo (@Seth-Werkheiser), Cash App ($ethwerkheiser), or PayPal. Support artists and me at the same time by buying me an album from my Bandcamp wishlist. Hugs.
You could even level up and upgrade to a paid subscription here via Substack.