The Science of Social Media – Part 3

What is the Science of Social Media?

I like to view Social Media in two parts – the Art & The Science of Social Media.

Over the last two posts, How to be good at Social Media & the Art of Social Media, we’ve delved further into the Art & now it’s time for the Science.

I believe that involves understanding & utilising the amazing tools that have been developed to help us navigate our way around the digital world a little bit easier.

However, to make this tools work for you, you need a strategy

A game plan if you will. You’ve set your goals, know who you wanna connect with & now you gotta do it!

There are three points that I will focus on in this post.

(If you want to go a little deeper, grab my free “Social Media Strategy & Creation Tools” resource guide for more info.

Key points in your strategy:

1. What to post

2. When to post

3. How often to post

What to post

I’m a huge fan of video & graphics. My preferred platform is Instagram so we will use that as an example.

For things that I want to announce or share from an educational angle, I will post as a graphic, image or video on my page & I’ll use Insta stories to show my day by day behind the scenes going ons.

What I’m posting is usually:

Singing or artist development tips

Promoting sessions or gigs I’m doing or have done

Sharing or talking about other artists I like

Sharing covers I’ve recorded

When to post

There are two ways to approach posting times.

1. By doing it organically when you remember or have scheduled it on your calendar
2. Use an automation tool like Buffer or Hootsuite. These are the two that I have experience with but I use CoSchedule, which may not be for every musician. It’s because I blog & it incorporates that & your social media all in one place plus has some other cool features.

These tools often have an optimal schedule posting tool. It uses the analytics from your existing posting schedule (they ask permission to look at your social analytics when you sign up) & creates an ideal time for you to post in the future. SOOOO awesome right?

If you don’t want to use an automation tool, have your two top timezones in mind to work out when is the best time to post.

You could use this as a guideline for both what & when:

Mornings – new music releases/announcements

During the day –  sharing about others involved in your music or that you like/flashbacks

Evenings – something behind the scenes or that shows your personality/ongoing projects ie writing your album/studio/gig or tour pics

Weekends – flashbacks/personality/reminders

Also, be sure to do tests & try different types of posts at different times – see what works!

Plan a system, automated or not, around what works for YOU to maximise your results & remember it depends on your audience!

Use analytics (more on this in the next post) to understand who is engaging with you.

Ie; If your fellow musos are your target audience, they may be better with responding to posts at night time & Monday through Wednesday, not the weekends depending on when they are gigging/sleeping.

How often to post

Most digital marketing gurus suggest posting MULTIPLE times each day!

Yet, I haven’t worked with an artist YET who says they like posting often, even once per day seems to be a challenge for them.

So how do we work this out?

Well, I’ll give you the science (thanks to CoSchedule’s research) & then you need to split the difference to what you feel is in alignment with your artist identity.

Facebook 1 post per day

Twitter 15 posts per day

Instagram 2 posts per day

Pinterest 2 posts per day

How does that make you feel reading that?

Could you come up with 90 posts for a 90-day strategy?

That’s where getting someone in to help you out is a GREAT thing!

You can reach out to a pro like a digital marketing strategist or an artist mentor (like me!). I have coaching sessions specifically designed to help you by reviewing your strategy or helping you to create one.

Find out more by booking a free intro chat with me & we can figure out what you need.

Alternatively, talk to a band member or friend you know is great with social media & get them to help you out.

You can also download the free resource guide “Social Media Strategy & Creation Tools” which outlines all the tools that I use to create content easily plus craft & maintain my social media strategy.

If you have any questions or comments about the science of social media, please leave a message below, email me or book in for an intro chat.

Til next week & our final post in the series!