An Indie Musician's Diary Vol 2

Jan 2nd, Social Media Stats/A Plan for 2019 & History (of my Music so far)

Social Media Plan

You have to set aside time to plan social media drops and your "attack" on each if you want your community to grow organically. There is a lot of noise out there and you need to respect the rules and mode of each one in order to get the best response and not get shut down. Censorship by the elite social media police is escalating at an alarming rate (Facebook, Twitter and Patreon) and is something I constantly keep and eye on. You should too. I lay low. The Social Media mix you use is different for the genre of your music and the age group of your fans. All I can do here is tell you how I do it and how I learn as I go along. 

Year on Year growth

I spent some time comparing the stats from the past year (Jan 2nd, 2018) with this year at the same date. I wrote about this in Volume One, Jan 2. If you want to see where I was then. Generally speaking, social media is a fish pond. My posts are like bread and followers are the fish. If I keep giving them bread at an even pace, not too much and not to little, they keep coming and growing in numbers. 

This past year I have been feeding fish in many different ponds and that is why some of them are not doing very well - I spread myself thin running from one pond to another. Here are some quick analyses of each -  first, the duds:

PATREON (yawn)

Patreon is at a complete standstill because I never figured out how to use it properly. It did earn me about $100 from two faithful friends last year, but that is nothing compared to the time I spent making videos and doing posts. I am going to have to make a break with it starting this month. No more Patreon. It is important to remove all the links everywhere that lead to it before I delete my Patreon account. If for nothing else I should remove my account from Patreon in solidarity with others who have recently been banned for simple speaking their mind against the status quo. Not hate speech, just facts. Grrr. It seems like my posts never are seen by anyone else. I missed the boat I guess. Better to abandon the dock too. 

I found a better alternative: I am moving over to GAB Pro in 2019 instead and hope to learn how to use OBS streaming there. There, I can earn per song, receive tips etc. Considering the fact that next year is going to have costs up to 15,000 SEK, I need to hustle.....

DIGITAL TIPJAR (What tip jar?)

No motion on it this year. I will need it though when I post live on Facebook as the album release approaches. (Giving the link in the comments section - see why below.) Dec 23, 2019: Just so you know, DTJ is no more and shut down during the year. 

TWITTER

Twitter exploded last year and is now growing almost exponentially. It grew over 220% year on year and most of that took place in Q4. Why? Constant engagement and weekly posts. Trump Trains have been the leading pull not my posts. Which is crazy. Someone who has thousands of followers decides they like me and puts me in a train with my handle. Then, they share it with their thousands of followers and a few follow every time. Also I follow all the others who like, share or repost the post as well as all the other handles mentioned in that post. 

MY STORY

I need to make my story clearer. Last year I didn't push it at all. This year, my story is central and finding my niche is central.

A Musician's Social Media Plan

Discovery happens on YouTube and Instagram - that is why any musician should prioritize these the most

1. Youtube: push it through covers to get people interested (Do them live first on Facebook, save and then share on YouTube is one way. Do it on OpenCamera, iMovie etc. They main thing is to post regularly and easily.)This is really hard for me to do and at the same time get the album done. But maybe a small video per week? I am making a schedule for the Winter and Spring and will see if I can fit it in so I drop one a week.