Organic reach is hard to achieve on Facebook but today’s post is designed to show you that it’s not impossible.  My band’s latest music video managed to reach over 1 million people though our Facebook page. This reach also gave us about 1,400 new likes in the space of a fortnight. Let me tell you how this was achieved so that you can put some of these strategies to work into when marketing your own music:

1 million reached is a good achievement.

The Song Connected With People

When you’re writing a song or composition, do you ever think about the end listener? Do you know what music they like? Do you know what sort of songs they react well to? You should do because it’s important to know what ‘your market’ (ie your fans) respond well to.

The song we wrote song is all about the different name that bread rolls have across the UK (as a musical comedy ensemble, forgive us, this is what we do!).  The topic is a fiercely contested issue…we knew it would resonate well with our audience so we didn’t hesitate to write a song about it.

Can you write songs that make a connection with people?

Music should provoke a response in a listener.  Do you know what music YOUR fans respond well to?  Shouldn’t you be giving them more of that? We wrote this song because we knew that it would provoke a response in everyone who heard it.

If that sounds a little calculated, let me tell you a little story. In 1976 at a gig in Sheffield, a rock band came off stage accompanied by their fans singing a song commonly associated with a football team.  Based on this ‘data’ they guessed that writing some singalong ‘sporting style’ anthems might be appreciated by their audience. That band was Queen and they went on to write ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions’.  ‘Nuff said.

Queen wrote two of their biggest songs because they knew it would generate a response from their fans

Tip: Know what you excel at, know what your fans like and write songs which combine the two.

The Song Started A Conversation

As mentioned above the topic under discussion is hotly contested topic, everyone has a different opinion on the matter. The post text for the video wasn’t “Listen to this song” is merely asked “What do YOU call them?” .  This was a call to start a conversation. Remember how recently Facebook tweaked their algorithm to prioritise conversations more than likes? Bingo! By starting a conversation about a hotly contested topic I got nearly 8,000 comments increasing the video’s visibility.

Despite being a single camera green screen affair, the video is designed to stop you in your tracks, even when played silently on a newsfeed. I even created a special Facebook version of the video with a more visually striking opening.  It’s important to catch people in the first few seconds of a video otherwise they’ll scroll on by.

The video and the song can be deemed to be ‘remarkable’ in that they cause people to make a remark. “Have you seen this?”  People shared it with their friends nearly 4,000 times.  These comments and shares caused the video to go viral.

Comments tagging other people increased the video’s reach.

Tip: When posting  your music to Facebook, try and use text which encourages the start of a conversation.  Create videos which people find ‘remarkable’ and will want to share.

I used Ads To Boost The Reach

Once you have a good idea who your target audience is, Facebook is the best marketing spend for DIY musicians, hands down. Whenever you have a piece of content that is performing well with your own audience, you should consider running Facebook ads to get it fresh eyeballs.

I spent something in the region of £400 giving me a paid reach of an extra 150,000 people. I based the advertising mostly around towns and cities where we are likely to be playing in the next two years to hopefully start new people on a ‘fan journey’ in those locations.  I have a 50% viewtime Custom Audience of 50,000 for that video of which I’ve already started running offers against.

Tip: Use ads to get a better reach on the stuff that is working well with your fans.  

Other Points Of Note

• This song isn’t new, its an album track that is nearly two years old.  Don’t think you only have to create a video for new singles.

• Videos don’t need to be expensive.  The camera and equipment was already purchased, we just rented a space for a couple of hours and created some t-shirts.

• Answer all your comments.  Start conversations in the comments.  If new people are commenting that they are digging your stuff, point them to a Spotify/Apple/YouTube playlist of your best songs so far.
  

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  Got any questions about this post or how you can better market yourself?

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