Maintaining Social Media Sanity

I’m often heard saying that on “Now Hear This Entertainment” I don’t interview the likes of Bruce Springsteen or Katy Perry or Jon Bon Jovi (although if they get wind of the show and want to come on, I’d happily make an exception).  Similarly, this blog isn’t intended for people named Kylie Jenner or Kim Kardashian or Beyoncé, but yes, I’d happily accept their tweeting a link to it.

Celebrities like those latter three (heck, even the first three, for that matter) can put themselves on any social media platform and will no doubt attract followers in droves.  Of course, they also are likely to have a team around them that helps them keep up their presence on all the different social sites.

The other day I saw an Instagram story posted by someone – I will say this politely – who is not as famous as those mentioned above, encouraging people to engage with them on (I’ll admit it) a platform I’ve never even heard of.  Wow, stop the madness, huh?

As it is, you can see that here on this site there are links for nine other platforms!  (See the image accompanying this blog.)  Granted, five of them are specifically for NHTE.  However, of the remaining four (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn), what’s interesting to note is the absence of some you might expect to see (Snapchat comes to mind right off the bat because it is so popular and businesses have found successful ways to leverage it to reach the millennials).

Some individuals or businesses (although remember, if you are working in the music industry, you are a business even if you’re a solopreneur) are very active with Pinterest, and heck, I even saw a presentation about Reddit at my eMarketing group not too long ago.

Artists put themselves on ReverbNation and there are lots of other similar sites out there, and, of course, there are sites like SoundCloud and Bandcamp.

How in the world do you keep up with them all?  Where do you find the time?

For starters you don’t.  But secondly, if you get someone to help you with those that you are on, be real careful about whom you pick.  Does that person know you/your brand inside and out?  Are they a good writer?  Are they reliable and able to stick to a schedule (and do so on-time)?

To the first point, however, you don’t need to be on every platform out there.  Find the ones where your audience “hangs out.”  Identify ways to monetize (preferably directly, but more likely indirectly) your presence on those sites.  Pick those that you are comfortable with using.  Look at a good sample size of your competitors and see which social platforms they’re on (and, importantly, getting good engagement from).

Keep in mind that you need to be posting regularly, so also make sure that those that you choose are platforms that you’ll be able to come up with content for on an ongoing basis.  There’s a saying that, “You can’t be all things to all people,” so don’t bog yourself down thinking that you have to be on every social platform out there.  Choose those that are best suited for you and then be great at the ones you are on.