Social media can be a powerful tool for building buzz around your show. It’s also a great way to reach people who wouldn’t otherwise know about you. But if you don’t have time to manage your social media strategy, it may not be worth the effort. The key to making social media work for you is to set up your own personal automation system so that when something happens, you get an alert and can take action right away!
The number one rule of thumb when promoting your show is to start early.
The number one rule of thumb when promoting your show is to start early. If you start early, it gives you time to test out different strategies and experiment with what works for you. This will also give you time to build up some excitement for your show before it airs. You’ll want to be able to tell people about the release date and make sure that they know where they can find it!
You should also try getting involved in social media communities related both specifically and tangentially related areas. For example, if I were writing a sitcom about two friends named Claire and Danny who run a coffee shop together, I would join groups on Facebook like “Coffee Shop Owners” or “Coffee Lovers.” These groups may not be as huge as something like Comic Books as a whole but they can still reach people who are likely interested in my show!
Write a great pitch for your show.
When promoting your show, you’ll often find yourself with the task of writing a short, catchy headline. This is the most important part of your pitch and should be concise, informative and engaging in order to get people’s attention.
Include the show title and dates (ex: “The Great Gatsby at Theater XYZ”)
Include the venue (ex: “Theater XYZ”)
Include ticket prices (ex: $15–20)
Include time/location information (ex: 7pm–8pm Saturday Jan 14th at Theater XYZ)
Start by making a poster that includes all the information people need to know about your show.
Start by making a poster that includes all the information people need to know about your show, including:
The date, time, and location of your event.
A catchy title for your event.
An image that visually shows what you’re promoting (for example, if it’s an art show, include a photo of an artwork).
The idea is to grab people’s attention with something visually appealing so they’ll want to learn more about what you’re doing. The more professional and clear your poster looks, the more likely people will want to come see it in person!
Start a Facebook event and invite all of your friends.
Facebook events are a great way to promote your show. You can use the event page to promote ticket sales, or you can create an event for free shows so that people who aren’t familiar with your work know about them.
You’ll want to include a link on your event page that takes users directly to the ticketing site or your website, so they know where they need to go in order to buy tickets.
Share your social media posts as often as possible, but don’t annoy people.
You don’t want to annoy your audience with too many posts, but it’s also important to show that you’re actively working on your content. If you post very infrequently, viewers will assume you aren’t doing anything and will lose interest in your account. To maintain a healthy balance of posting frequency, try posting five times a week at most. In between those posts, share other relevant information that isn’t related specifically to the show (behind-the-scenes photos; personal stories).
If people are tired of seeing only one kind of thing from you, they might unsubscribe from your channel or stop following along on social media altogether. There are plenty of different types of content—try mixing things up so that each social media platform has its own unique feel (for example: use more photos on Instagram than Facebook).
Consider creating a hashtag for your show.
Now that you’ve got a show, it’s time to promote it on social media. While you might be tempted to jump right into creating a Facebook page, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram feed for your show, remember that creating a hashtag can help people find your work more easily.
To create one, ask yourself this question: what are people going to say about my show? If the answer is “it’s too long,” then you should probably rethink your idea. But if the answer is “this is hilarious” or “I love all the characters” or whatever else comes up during your brainstorming session, try turning this into a hashtag using these steps:
Make sure it’s not already in use by another company or person. This may seem obvious but just wait until someone else has used “#FunTimesWithCandiceAndKirby” before you get started on yours!
Keep it simple—you don’t want people having difficulty remembering how they found out about the show in the first place!
Post reviews of your show on Instagram or other social media sites.
As a playwright, you have likely seen the importance of reviews. Reviews are an opportunity to share your show with people who haven’t seen it yet, as well as a way to thank fans who have supported you by seeing the performance.
If you’re running a show that has been produced before and is being revived in another city or region, consider posting reviews from previous productions on Instagram and other social media sites. You can also gather friends or family members who have seen the production previously and ask them for their thoughts about it so that you can post their feedback online as well.
Create link-backs from outside resources to drive traffic to the url you want people to visit (the event page or ticket sales page).
Here’s how it works:
Create link-backs from outside resources to drive traffic to the url you want people to visit (the event page or ticket sales page).
For example, if your show is about dogs and you have a blog on dog training, create an article on your site titled “Tips for choosing a good dog trainer” that links back to your show.
Or if one of your sponsors is a pet supply store in town, they might want to create a coupon code just for people coming from their website. They will then post the code on their site and promote it on social media.
Link-backs work best when they are written by someone who has expertise in the same subjects as your content but aren’t directly involved with promoting it online themselves.
Build buzz with contests.
Contests are a great way to build buzz, and they’re especially effective if your prize is something related to your show. For example, if you’re promoting an improv comedy show, give away tickets or free passes. You can also set up a social media contest with the prize being tickets—just make sure it’s easy for people to enter by tagging the post in their own post and including the hashtag #ContestEntry. Don’t make it too complicated or time-consuming; just ask them to tag themselves once on Twitter or Instagram. This will help you grow your following because users will be exposed to the content of others who’ve already entered (and possibly shared) this same contest!
A successful social media marketing strategy can be simple and not time-consuming if you make it easy for yourself by getting ahead of it and automating some processes!
In order to be successful, you need to be consistent and get ahead of your social media marketing. You can do this by using tools like Buffer or Hootsuite that allow you to schedule posts in advance, so that all you have to do is post and forget about it! Also, if you’re not sure what kind of content people want from your show, just ask for feedback. If people are responding well to one type of post over another then keep doing more like those!
If there’s a trend in the industry or news that could benefit your show’s audience, make sure they know about it and add it into their feed somehow! Don’t just stick with what works though—you need to stay on top of new trends so that when they come out next time around they’ll still be relevant enough for people who weren’t paying attention before (because who has time?).
Conclusion
As you can see, promoting your show is not complicated or time-consuming. The most important things are to start early and be consistent with your efforts. If you do those two things, then your social media strategy will work for you!
Tiktok is a great platform to show off your work! It’s got the perfect combination of millions of active users and high-quality content. If you’re an artist, post a few videos on Tiktok to build your audience and gain exposure. Here are some ideas for artists on Tiktok:
Behind the scenes
You can give us a glimpse of your life behind the scenes.
We want to see more than just your art, but also the process that went into making it. Show us what you do behind the scenes, and we’ll be impressed.
Perhaps you’ve got an interesting workspace that helps inspire your work, or maybe you like to show off some of your tools for creating art in progress—it doesn’t matter if it’s messy or organized if it’s functional for you! Your process might include anything from putting together new materials (like wood) to writing down ideas and building out from there.
Materials
This is an obvious one, but worth mentioning. If you’re an artist, or even just someone who enjoys creating things, show your audience what materials you use to create your art! It’s almost like the ultimate realism in a sense—showing people how their favorite artists go about their craft can be so satisfying and educational for them. For example, if I had been able to see how Michelangelo used his tools while painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, I might have been more interested in becoming a sculptor myself (instead of becoming a marketer). Plus, it gives viewers something to look forward to seeing as they scroll through their feed—and it may even spark some creativity within themselves!
The process
Show the steps of your process from start to finish. For example, if you draw a landscape, show the outline and then color in the details. If you’re an abstract painter, show how you start with a color and then add more shapes to make it interesting. You may choose to show what materials you use for your art (e.g., pencils or paint).
Display the final product. This is where people can see what they’ll get when they buy a piece of your art! Make sure it’s something that looks good as a poster or wall hanging so that people feel like they actually want to hang it up somewhere in their house or office space.
Time lapses
Time lapses are visual representations of how long it takes to complete a task. For example, you can use a time-lapse video to show the transformation of your workspace over the course of a week.
When you’re starting out, it is best to use a simple camera and tripod. If you want more control over the quality of your time-lapse, you can use an app like Hyperlapse or Framelapse to record your creative process and then speed up the footage in post-editing. These apps have built-in stabilization features so that even if there’s some shaking while taking pictures, they will still be smooth and high-quality when played back at normal speed.
Time lapses can be used in different ways. You can show how your drawing changes with every stroke of a pencil or pen, or you could show what happens when you’re painting one part of a canvas after another.
Your workspace
Take a look at your workspace. Are you feeling inspired? Do you recognize the materials lying around?
If so, then this is an obvious choice for TikTok. Why not show off the tools of your trade? Whether it’s wood, clay or paint—the process behind those materials can be just as interesting as what they create. We love seeing how artists work their magic and how different ideas come together to make something beautiful and unique.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a new platform to share your visual art, Tiktok has a lot of potential. It’s easy to use and has a large audience full of people who are interested in seeing what goes on behind the scenes. You can use it to post behind-the-scenes videos or even highlight your process as an artist!
Most artists we speak to can’t stand marketing their work. Is this you? Do you hate posting on Facebook and Twitter, talking about your work in detail – to the extent that you even call yourself an anti-marketer? If you think about marketing as the act of selling something or advertising your product or service for promotional purposes, of course it will make you cringe! You put countless hours into your work, and you want to show it off to the world, but how? The following are five reasons why artists hate marketing their art and what you can do about it.
“I’m not a sales person”
This is a common misconception. You are not selling your art, you’re simply sharing and promoting it. The difference between selling and sharing is often in the mindset of the artist.
The best way to change your mindset about marketing is by reminding yourself that it’s not about you as an artist or what you have to say; it’s all about the audience receiving something from you that will aid them in their journey toward making art or becoming more creative themselves.
There are many examples of artists who hated marketing their work at first but eventually saw its value, including Pablo Picasso, who said: “I do not seek, I find.”
“It’s just so awkward”
Artists don’t like to talk about themselves. It feels awkward for them to do so, and they don’t want to be seen as greedy or unappreciative of their work. The irony is that by not marketing their art, artists are actually being unappreciative of it.
The solution? Make marketing your art part of your creative process. Promote your latest piece in a blog post on an artist website, or tweet out pictures from the studio when you’re working on something new! If you can’t bear the thought of talking about yourself, ask someone else close to you (like a friend or partner) if they’d be willing to help out with social media posts and other forms of promotion so that marketing doesn’t feel like such a chore for you.
“I just want to make art and not think about it after that!”
When you’re trying to create art, you’re in a very vulnerable state. You need space and time to focus on your creative process without distraction. You want to put everything into the work itself and not be pulled away by things like marketing or sales.
Artists often feel overwhelmed by “the business” aspect of their work—it can be difficult for them to figure out how best to promote themselves and their art, especially if they haven’t been trained on these skills yet (which many haven’t). This is one reason why many artists choose self-publishing: they enjoy the freedom it provides them with when it comes down to promoting their books independently rather than handing this responsibility over exclusively to a publisher or agent who may or may not have any knowledge about how best promote an author’s book online today.
For some creators, this feeling of being overwhelmed by “the business” goes beyond just creating content—and extends into other areas like making sure there are systems in place so that someone else could take over if something happened unexpectedly during production or distribution processes that could leave everyone involved at risk financially if something went wrong!
“I don’t want to be pushy or aggressive.”
This is a common fear of artists. They don’t want to be pushy or aggressive, because they don’t want to seem like they’re just trying to make a sale. But being authentic is important in marketing your art and yourself as an artist, so it’s important that you find the right balance between being pushy and aggressive, and being personable. You need to be able to sell your art without sounding like you’re just selling “the product.” Instead, focus on who you are as an artist and how your work reflects that identity.
An artist’s identity is important and being an artist is usually not compatible with being an aggressive salesperson.
When you’re an artist, your identity is important. You need to be able to separate yourself from your art so that you can make the most of it. Artists are not salespeople; they have something more important to offer than just a few minutes of entertainment for someone who isn’t interested in it. Your art should speak for itself and have a message that resonates with whoever sees it—it shouldn’t feel like a generic advertisement trying to get someone’s attention (if only because the person who made it would probably be offended by that).
Being an artist does not mean being an aggressive salesperson who forces their work on people indiscriminately, but many artists think they do because they see themselves as having something valuable or meaningful enough that other people should want to buy into it or learn more about it. This perception makes them want to share their work with everyone they meet—and while this may seem like a good idea at first glance, if you’re always pushing yourself on others without taking time away from creating new works or engaging with those who already appreciate what you create, then there’s no room left over for growth or community building!
Being an artist with a digital portfolio is a challenge as you face the question-how to market your art on social media?. Market where? And for whom? There is no one answer about marketing on social media. However, there are some steps you can take to make it easier for yourself, and it will be rewarding when people start engaging with your work.
Start with a small, specific audience.
Once you have established your brand, it’s time to get the word out about your digital art on social media. While there are many ways to market your work, one of the most effective is through Instagram.
With over 800 million monthly users, Instagram has quickly become one of the most popular forms of social media platforms—and for good reason: it allows artists to showcase their work in a fun and engaging way that draws attention from potential buyers.
While starting small and targeting a specific audience may seem like an obvious step in marketing your digital art online, it’s important not to overlook those who don’t know about you yet. As with any advertising campaign, consistency is key when trying to reach new audiences through social media channels such as Instagram and TikTok—which means posting regularly so that people will come back often enough (and eventually start following)
Choose the right social platforms.
When it comes to social media, the first thing you need to decide is where your target audience hangs out. If they’re mostly on Facebook, you may want to focus there. If they’re more active on Instagram or TikTok, those are also good options.
There’s no right answer here; it depends entirely on your target audience and what kind of art you produce. For example, if your work involves video game development and animation (a field that’s booming), then Instagram and TikTok might be better bets than Facebook or Twitter because those platforms offer a more visual experience—and the audiences who use them don’t necessarily have time for lengthy posts or articles about gaming trends.
Experiment with different kinds of content.
Don’t limit yourself to posting your own art. If you want to grow your following and become an influencer, consider re-posting other people’s work. This helps ensure that the content on your page is diverse and engaging, and it allows you to connect with a wider audience.
You can also experiment with different types of content beyond just artwork: videos are especially helpful since they allow viewers to see how artists work in their studios or living spaces, which can be useful for understanding their creative process in more depth. Make sure the video is clear and easy-to-follow; don’t worry about making it perfect—just get something out there so people can see what kind of stuff you make!
Use hashtags that match your goals.
When hashtags are used properly, they can be incredibly powerful for your brand. They allow you to reach a larger audience and engage with other audiences who share similar interests. However, when hashtags are misused or applied incorrectly, they can make your post feel irrelevant and lose its intended audience.
To avoid this issue, make sure that you’re using hashtags that match your goals as an artist. For example, if you’re trying to reach potential buyers interested in buying art like yours or just looking for something new to purchase online (like on Etsy), using tags such as “art,” “painting,” or “paintings” may be more effective than including tags like “#newartist” or “#firsttimepainter.”
Collaborate with other artists and companies.
One way to get noticed is to collaborate with other artists and companies. Collaborations can be a win-win situation for both parties involved, as it allows you to gain exposure from a larger platform while also showcasing your work in an exciting way.
To find potential collaborators, try Googling around for art contests or marketing campaigns that could benefit from your style of art. Once you’ve found some opportunities, reach out to the organizers directly and ask if they have any openings available.
Be patient! Digital art takes time!
While social media is a great way to connect with your audience and build up a fan base, it takes time.
If you’re just starting out, don’t get discouraged if your numbers aren’t as high as you’d like them to be. It will take time for people to find and follow you on social media; sometimes it can take years!
Instead of focusing too much on the numbers, focus on making art that makes your heart sing. If you find yourself getting frustrated with low views or unfollows, remember: patience is key!
You know that feeling you get when you’re on the subway, and someone sits down next to you, and you just feel… connected?
You can’t explain it, but suddenly your lives seem to intersect in this weird way. And there’s something really magical about that.
That’s how we felt when we listened to jsin’s music.
It’s music that makes you feel as if you’re on a journey with someone else. It’s reassuring, it’s comforting, and it’s also not afraid to make a statement about the times we live in.
You may have heard of jsin if you live in Toronto—he’s been making big waves in the city lately with his debut album Surrender. But even if you don’t live here, it’s time for you to get familiar.
jsin is a musician, and like many artists and creative entrepreneurs, he’s spent years trying to make it as a musician. But as a performer, he knows that building an audience is all about connection.
So jsin got to work creating social media accounts for his music, but he quickly found that posting on social media had become a chore. He was trying to post at random times throughout the day, whichever stories came to him first, and it wasn’t working.
After tirelessly working on his new EP, jsin wanted to release his music out into the world in a meaningful way. He pulled together music videos, lined up a few media interviews and started working with a major publicist in the music industry. He reached out to The Social Media Artist team for help to manage his Instagram as it was the platform that was the most effective for him and his music.
Problem
jsin wanted to reach more fans through social media and maximize his visibility on Instagram. The visualization of his brand was already in place, but he required help in developing a strategy that would communicate the right messages and reach the right audiences.
The challenges jsin faced included:
Creating a social media strategy for Instagram that included posting for stories, IG reels and posts.
Creating a brand identity on Instagram that matched jsin’s existing music brand.
Finding the balance between personal and promotional posts to keep audiences engaged.
Learning how to manage Instagram independent of a marketing agency.
Solution
Our work with jsin started by establishing his brand voice. It was important that his brand would feel like it fit jsin’s unique way of connecting with the world. We used Canva templates to help maintain consistency for his feed—but we also researched the kinds of hashtags that were trending in the music scene in Toronto. This allowed us to help jsin grow his following by joining in on conversations already taking place among musicians and fans.
We helped him create a posting schedule that would help him grow his audience in a more intentional way. Instead of scrambling to come up with posts on the fly, we came up with a plan together and created content that he could use each week. Our strategies incorporated ideas and images from jsin’s own life so that the posts felt authentic to who he is and what his music represents. We also focused on building trust with his followers by encouraging him to show more of himself behind the scenes—we’re talking childhood posts, mental health awareness and personal stories.
We made sure that each post on Instagram had a distinct purpose: meditative lyrics videos featured jsin’s songs playing over soothing video backgrounds, while we encouraged his followers to play games with him on his stories. In this way, he was able to connect directly with his audience—and it helped him become known as an artist who cared about other people.
Results
Engagement increased by 536.1%!
Followers resonated with jsin’s personal posts and shared their own stories with him
A clear content plan including a content calendar with ideas for Instagram posts and stories as well as video and image templates that jsin can continue to use to connect with his fan base!
Now, jsin has an engaged audience of fans who are excited about his music and are ready for more! Here’s what he had to say about working with us:
“My main challenge was figuring out what/when to post. Lara helped me out with putting a plan together for the month and even created content that was published as per the plan. Lara was curious, thoughtful and thorough in getting to know me as an artist, giving me content ideas to build on and always making sure I was happy with it. Easy and a pleasure to work with.”
jsin, Musician
We are so excited to see what the future holds for jsin! He is a talented artist who is passionate about connecting with his audiences. We have had an amazing time working with him and we can’t wait to hear his new album. Check him out here.
Sometimes as an artist, you may not have the funds to work with a marketing agency – and that’s okay! As long as you have a plan in place and a bit of time each week, you can manage your social media on your own. Let us help you strategize, create templates and take the heavy work off you so you know exactly what to post on social. We’d love to help, tell us about your art here.
2019 is upon us and so much changed in the last year that it’s hard to keep track of all the technological advances… new apps, new phones, new services, new ways of creating content… and new ways to promote yourself on social media. In fact, there’s so many that even social media specialists can sometimes have a hard time keeping up!
So how can artists and creative businesses use the newest tools and trends to make their social media really POP in 2019? Let’s find out!
1 – Narrow your focus.
With so many different platforms available and so much strategy necessary for each one, unless you have a small team it can be a full-time job just trying to keep your social media updated. Your best bet is to figure out what the best platform(s) is for you and your brand.
Choose a select few channels and focus on them – don’t try to spread yourself too thin over too many channels. Focus on developing those few specific channels over the next year and tracking the analytics to see what is working and which platform is really giving you great engagement from your audience.
Bots and automatic messaging are becoming more and more useful. The best part of a chatbot is that it can give the same information over and over to individual customers without you having to repeat the same conversation over and over again. With everything being automated it saves time, whilst still engaging and building a relationship with your customer.
Here’s a great example of a chatbot from online clothing brand, Kindred Bravely:
It can also be much quicker than your customer trying to find the FAQs page on your website, and of course negates the need for having to keep up with replying to all the messages being sent to your FB page (or website), without losing your high response rate. See more about what chatbots can do here.
3 – Organisation.
If you haven’t already, create a content calendar – or refresh the one you already have.
Pay attention to key dates in the new year (for example, if you’re an actor, September 8th is National Actors Day), and plan your social media accordingly. You can also use plugins and apps to automate things like publishing your blog posts on your website, managing multiple social media feeds, and creating simple but effective content.
4 – Consistency.
Make sure that the social media channels you are using are all consistent, paying attention to: consistent handles (names you’re using), brand colours being the same throughout (if you don’t have brand colours, create some!), ensuring all platforms link to each other (with all of them indicated on your website too), and of course, making sure your ‘story’, or what makes you unique, is exactly the same throughout. Lack of consistency will make you look amateur and can lead to losing interest from your audience.
5 – Commit to engaging with others.
It’s advised time and time again that engaging with others does wonders for building an audience, but still sometimes with all the other tasks and things we have to do, engaging with others can be pushed to the side. Whether it be commenting on other accounts on Instagram (particularly those in your niche), answering Facebook comments, or making sure every comment on your blog posts gets a swift reply, engaging with others should be seen as something that is absolutely crucial to success.
If you are already engaging with your audience and instead want to focus on networking and making connections, writing articles or having ‘your say’ on specifics of your industry can help (LinkedIn can really help here).
Even as a creative type, offering your opinion or knowledge of your niche can really portray a sense of authenticity and being a ‘master’ in your field, which can only improve your professional image. Try sprucing up your LinkedIn profile and start posting articles there about the industry you work in, and/or your take on current events in your niche.
6 – Videos!
If you haven’t already, start investing in video content. It has been said that video will account for 85% of social media content output in 2019… so do not underestimate using this type of content! People are getting busier and busier, with less time to invest… so give them content that’s quick to ingest! Not only that but live-streaming, VR & AR are set to explode too so keep an eye out for how you might be able to use these types of content too.
If you’re not familiar with creating videos, try a simple online tool like Animoto (click here to visit and get a free one-month trial). It’s a super simple way to make videos that look really professional!
7 – Instagram ‘stories’: time to invest!
Time to really focus on your Instagram stories! This tool blew up in 2018 and 2019 is looking to be only more prolific! If you’re not already making the most of the stories feature then try to focus more on it to build your audience on Instagram.
Stories is a great way to truly express your personal or brand personality, and is perfect for mixing video, gifs, emojis and more to create media that your audience will really love to follow – Stories makes your audience feel like they’re really there with you!
So, which one of these do you think will be the most important for you this year? Or are you already having success with some of these tips?
Whatever your thoughts, leave a comment below!
And also… HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Please note, this blog post contains affiliate links.
