Author: Leah McHenry

If you aren’t using Facebook to build your fanbase then you are missing out. Facebook can be a powerful tool that helps you find your fanbase. If that hasn’t been your experience then you are probably trying to figure out what you are doing wrong.
You need to figure out what you are missing so you can fix them immediately. That’s why Leah walks you through three common mistakes she sees musicians make on Facebook.   

Things to Remember

• Put a link in your personal profile that leads other to your professional profile.
• Google does not spider your personal page.
• You can’t use Facebook Ads with a personal profile.
• Brand continuity established trust between yourself and your audience.
• Build a community and culture around your music.
• Posting is all about quality.

Revisit the Highlights

• 00:42 – Using your personal profile.
• 09:19 – Using outdated graphics.
• 12:23 – Promoting your music in all posts.

Ty Richards is a father and graphic designer from Austin, TX. Last year he went from having a few Facebook friends to being on the college radio charts.  In this interview Leah talks to Ty about what works, what hasn’t worked, the difficulties of playing live and how to be the most effective with what little time we have.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER:

• “You have to market in a different way than you normally communicate as an artist. It has to be super clear.”
• “You aren’t a victim to where you are at. It’s easier to connect with fans than it’s ever been.”
• “Don’t wait for the stars to align, work with what you have.”
• “Take in notes in the form of a ‘to do list.’ Take actionable notes.”

REVISIT THE HIGHLIGHTS

• 05:15 – Performing Live
• 07:30 – Benefits of going small
• 13:00 – Finding and nurturing your audience
• 17:00 – The Payoff
• 20:00 – The New Music Business
• 24:19 – Limitations can guide you

There are an endless amount of social media accounts that an artist could create in order to connect with their audience. It’s tempting to throw yourself on all of them and hope for the best. Odds are that strategy hasn’t given you the return that you were hoping for. There’s a reason for that. Not all Social Media is created equal.

Important things to remember:

• Having a large number of listens do not necessarily equal sustainability.
• Make sure you are getting more than you put in.
• Aim for quality not quantity.
• Reviews are great social proof.

Revisit the highlights:

02:56 – Do everything purposefully

04:34 – Return on Investment

05:25 – Social Proof

06:37 – How to get social proof

As an independent musician, you are responsible for your own success. There’s much more to do than just write and record your music. You also have to consider your marketing, your branding and your content creation. In order to handle your growing music career and still keep your personal lives in order, you will need to have a plan.

Important Things to Remember:

• You can’t do all things at all times. Work in seasons.
• Be mindful of how often you are context switching.
• Get help with things outside of your zone of genius.  
• Don’t delegate your marketing. It needs to be an accurate representation of who you are.

Revisit the Highlights:

01:30 – Beat the mental game

11:04 – Balance is a Myth

13:45 – Quarterly Focus

17:12 – Delegating

22:17 – The 80/20 Rule

Some people think it’s “bad” to mix money and art, and those people are wrong. Why should artists need to suffer in order to create “real” art? We’re here to challenge the starving artist stereotype that has stunned our persistence and creativity as artists.

In this episode, Leah walks us through her favorite highlights from Jeff Goin’s book ‘Real Artists Don’t Starve’ and shows us that it is possible to make both art and money.  

Important Things To Remember:

• Everyone deals with imposter syndrome. Successful artists ignore it.   
• Art needs an audience. In order to be found, you must be findable.
• Marketing contains a relevant platform, relevant message, relevant offer, relevant           audience. 
• “The thriving artist understands that business is part of art and money is something an artist must master”
• If you don’t value your work, no one will.
• Digital sales are not limited to music.

Listen to the Highlights:

07:35 – Becoming an Artist

10:40 – Creative influence

12:10 – Be stubborn

17:52 – Practice in Public

22:08 – Promote Your Work

24:57 – Marketing

28:19 – Money

30:31 – Diversify Income Streams

Some are saying the new Facebook algorithm is a blow to brands that they may not recover from. It sent companies and content creators into a frenzy. Are these reactions justified? In order to figure out exactly how we should react to the changes, we need to look closer at the reasons for the change, and how to use those changes to our benefit.  

Important things to remember.

• Facebook is a business that wants it’s users to have a more enjoyable experience. When people have an enjoyable experience they are more likely to engage.
• Facebook’s new values show you what to do and what not to do if you want your posts to be seen.
• Make sure your feed is a mix of scheduled and spontaneous posts.
• “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” – Jeff Bezos
• An email list is the most reliable way to make sales, and give you more control over how often you connect with your fans.
• The fortune is in the follow up.

Catch the highlights.

3:23 – Facebook as a Business

5:45 – Navigating through facebook’s new values

13:16 – How the new algorithm has helped increase sales

16:57 – Things to stop doing

23:20 – Things to start doing

27:20 – Building a culture around your music

32:25 – Building a Facebook group around your culture

35:38 – Train your following to click the “See First” button

36:40 – Email lists

Important things to remember:

• The way to build an audience is to focus on a micro niche.
• Your niche should be something that already exists.
• The best way to go big is to start small. If you don’t get narrow, you will get lost.
• The goal is to be accurate, not creative.

Revisit the Highlights:

01:19 – Why you need to find your niche

06:07 – What a niche is not

09:32 – How knowing your niche helps you target your audience

12:18 – How to know if you’ve found the right niche

Need more help finding your microniche?

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of tools out there that you could be using to help you take control of your online music career. In order to control your music career, you need to organize it. Knowing which tools to use and how to use them is imperative. These tools can help save you time, money and a lot of grief.

Important Things To Remember:

• Marketing is making what you are doing predictable, repeated and scalable.
• Have some social media posts planned, but leave room for spontaneity.
• Post more selfies. People want to know who you really are.
• Let people into your process.
• Your fans are expert marketers. They will tell you what they want.
  

Listen to the List:

07:47 – Canva – For graphics and design

09:47 – Adobe Spark – Create video graphics for social

10:44 – Post Planner – Find, Plan and Post social content

15:27 – Facebook Live – Let your fans into your life

17:57 – Facebook Pages App – Manage your page on the go

19:43 – Facebook Polls – Ask your fans what they want

22:51 – Evernote – Organize your notes

24:46 – Dropbox – Store and backup your work

29:00 – Mailchimp – Organize your email list

33:00 – Getemoji.com – Get emojis that grab people’s attention

Treat your music like a business and get business-like results.

Nobody feels like waking up before the sun to go to the gym but when you make a decision and then follow through, eventually you see the results. The same can be said about your music career. If you wait on inspiration to plan the business side of your music career, you’ll be waiting a long time and you’ll be broke even longer. That’s why Leah walks you through WHY you should plan, and also HOW you should plan while using her own music career as the example.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER

• Get help!  You can’t (and shouldn’t) do it all on your own. Get help with graphics and web design. Get help with your merch.
• Your revenue goals should make you uncomfortable.
• Set your goals and reverse engineer them to give you your daily action steps.
• Writing your plan down gives you vision and motivation.
• Big goals create actions, actions create progress, progress makes your business happen.

REVISIT THE HIGHLIGHTS

Why take time to plan?

3:25 – Get direction and a clear path

4:33 – Every Action must have clear purpose (even experimenting)

5:00 – Keeps you motivated

6:00 – We need a target

6:34 – We need a big goal

How should we plan?

7:55 – Set annual goals

9:12 – Setting revenue goals – The goal should make you uncomfortable

14:05 – Set project goals

18:00 – Set release goals

18:45- Setting quarterly goals – Turn quarterly goals into a to-do list

Helpful tools to help you get organized:

– Evernote, for notes on the go

– Asana, for team management

– Google sheets and Google Docs for planning and budgeting

Once you’ve nurtured your culture and mastered your free traffic, it’s time to start building your Fan Generation and Engagement Machine. The beautiful thing about this machine is that it works while you hang out with your kids and it works while you sleep. You still have work to do, but now you have help. Just like any other machine, all the parts are important and they go together in a specific order.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER :

• Fan Generation and Engagement Machine functions best once you’ve mastered your Artist Identity Infrastructure.
• Focus on the superfans. They will keep your music sustainable by putting their money where their mouth is.
• An email list is an asset and is worth money!
• Retargeting helps target people who have already shown interest in you but may have been distracted or busy the first time they came across you.

Download the Music Map >> Here <<

REVISIT THE HIGHLIGHTS:

3:50-  Fan Generation And Engagement Machine

9:15 – Paid Traffic -Don’t pay for traffic if you haven’t mastered free traffic.

9:50 – Facebook Ads

13:00 – Retargeting – Most people need to see things multiple times before they take action.

16:45 – Email Marketing –Think of email marketing as relationship marketing.

18:41 – Copywriting – Using written words to motivate people to act! This includes headlines, email titles, and social media posts. How do you use our words to motivate people into action?

22:35- Artist Identity Infrastructure recap