Category: Social Media Escape ClubCategory: Social Media Escape Club

Give yourself a break; you’re just one person.

From ‘Publishers move past seeing social media platforms as traffic drivers,’ over at Digiday:

“The Washington Post has about 16 people on its social team, which is split into two sub teams: its Instagram team and its ‘core social’ team, which focuses on all the other platforms.”

Maybe you don’t need 16 people, but you could probably use one full time person doing your socials, right?

This morning Embedded sent out ‘Promotional labor,’ which is well worth the read.

Over the past five years, social media platforms have demanded more and more work from their users in order fulfill the promise of keeping connected. If you want your followers to see you on Instagram, you can’t just post a picture, you have to make a video. And if you want them to see the video, you need to produce, shoot, and edit it with some level of skill. And even then, if you’re not catering to a specific trend, the video still might flop—so you try again, and add “comment five times, go live for five minutes” to your growing list of unpaid tasks required for the basic privilege of being seen. 

More work for the chance of reaching your audience sounds horrible, and not a great investment.

Get your social media audience on your email list while you still can. Here’s a very basic plan on how to do that.

Go easy on yourself. You’re just one person, and your magic is probably mostly wrapped up in the main thing you do, like making art, playing bass, or releasing records.

That’s why you have a fanbase in the first place.

Below I’m blasting SOCIAL MEDIA, not Fear Factory!

I could do this sort of surface-level reporting for almost every metal band out there, since social media is horrible for all of us, across the board.

That said, posting a notable anniversary on social media is fantastic way to drive engagement! Great idea!

Right?

Yikes.

Here’s the surface level breakdown:

• 780,300 total followers (Twitter + Facebook + Instagram)
• 45,600 views (across all three platforms)

That means 6% of their total social media audience saw these posts.

Which means 94% of their audience on social media had no idea about the 13th birthday of ‘Mechanize.’

That means 734,700 followers probably didn’t stream the album on a DSP, or watch this video on YouTube:

Again, not pointing fingers at Fear Factory – this is across the board, friends. We’re all in this same boat, and it’s filled with holes.

So start thinking about your Social Media Escape Plan, as it won’t get any easier (or cheaper) to reach your fans this year on any of the social media platforms.

➡️ If you’re the person doing socials for a company and the main draw is YOU, be careful.

From ‘Social Media Managers Are Becoming the Main Character,’ over at Link In Bio:

Are you being paid like a social manager or are you being paid like the face of a brand? More traditional faces of brands that you see in commercials can reportedly get paid from $250K to upwards of $1M per year. I understand TikTok is different, but there’s value beyond social strategy that a company is getting by using your likeness to build their brand.

I also think protecting yourself through a talent contract is important. Things like exclusivity, term, and paid usage could all be things that are negotiated here.

This might not be applicable to bands, but maybe for labels, or people working at media outlets.

➡️ Did you spend time working on the whole shopping integration on Instagram? Well surprise, “Instagram is kicking the shopping tab out of the home feed.” Facebook (the owner of IG) says, “you will still be able to set up and run your shop on Instagram as we continue to invest in shopping experiences that provide the most value for people and businesses across feed, stories, reels, ads and more.”

Sure!

➡️ And are fans watching your music videos? Jesus Christ, no, they’re watching something called YouTube Poops (from Garbage Day):

[VIDEO REMOVED]

On short-form video apps like TikTok and Instagram, a lot of channels try and game the algorithm by combining random video clips and sounds to catch users’ attention. The video above is a good example. It’s the video and audio from a scene from Family Guy, stitched together with footage of a pleasing sensory video and a playthrough of mobile Temple Run-style game.

And this also Garbage Day (yes, Garbage Day is a great read) :

The line between meme or internet trend and spam has never been particularly clear, but I think A.I.-generated content trends make it even blurrier.

This video, which is just AI generated still images and a royalty free track called “Labyrinth Of Lost Dreams” from Darren Curtis Music has over a million views since Jan 5th, 2023.

Aren’t you glad you spent $5,000 for your latest music video?

➡️ On a more serious note, “two Seattle area school districts are suing 5 social media companies,” accusing them of “harming students’ social, emotional and mental health.”

I’m not trying to be all “oh, stop using things that might lead to bad stuff,” because then we’d never use a bank, drive a car, or shop at a store.

But dear lord – our social media posts appear alongside auto-playing videos of police brutality, racist remarks, transphobic screeds and 100 other horrors, every minute of the day.

Set up your website, start your newsletter, and build your own quiet corner on the internet. We have all the tools and systems for becoming our own media empires.

Kiana Tipton recently posted her social media predictions for 2023 on LinkedIn, including this gem:

As concerns about the TikTok Ban increase, creators will prioritize owned channels + become more cross-platform (are we reentering a modern blog era?)

I think the solo efforts like Gawker and Wonkette and Just Jared (my memory is a little hazy, this was all a long time ago) are due for a come back.

Services like Ghost, WordPress.com, and Substack let you upload native video (see how I did that here), allowing creators to own 100% of their experience and branding and vibes, without platform lock-in.

And they’ve also got monetization tools built in, so you don’t have to send your fans to other sites like Patreon or Kofi in order to make money.

Yes, there’s still a place to post content on all the social channels (while the impression rates are still hovering around 2-3% hahaha), sure… but as billboards, directing fans to come to your site to experience more.

If you’ve been following along, I’ve leaned pretty hard into the “link in bio” strategy to promote this HEAVY METAL EMAIL and avoid the ire of social media algorithms.

Alas, the last few days I’ve seen zero traffic to my LinkTree, even though I’ve been posting to Twitter, LinkedIn, and IG stories. I’m sure I’m in some social media purgatory right now.

But that’s okay.

In this same time (Dec 15 – Jan 15) I got almost 1,000 views from Substack, Google, or direct traffic, and 32 new subscribers; that’s a 3.2% conversion rate, and all I had to do was… keep writing.

So keep writing, friends!

Hit me up if you have questions or ideas (seth@socialmediaescape.club)!

They say everything old is new again for a reason.

From ‘Inside the Baffling Revival of the Cassette Tape’ over at Rolling Stone:

According to Luminate CEO Rob Jonas, “Millennials in the U.S. are 42% more likely to buy cassette tapes than listeners from other generations” as a way to support their faves.

Vinyl sales are up, people are buying cassettes (I always loved cassingles), and I’m sure CDs will start to creep back in, too.

Heck, teens are using digital cameras again.

Back to emails, though; this according to Sale Cycle:

59% of respondents said that marketing emails influence their purchase decisions, while just over 50% buy from marketing emails at least once a month.

Read that again: almost 60% said marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.

So if you’re posting on social media multiple times per week for just 5-10% of your fans to see, you should probably “repurpose your social media posts” and put them into a weekly email newsletter.

Weekly? YES.

I bet your fans would love to hear from you every week (which is why they followed you on socials, came to your show, and bought the record).

Try it for two months then look at the data. You are looking at the data, right?

It’s easy to say “that’s too much.”

It’s also pretty easy to copy and paste your social media content that hardly any of your fans see, drop it into Mailchimp or Substack, and hit send once a week and actually find out.

FOUR THE WEEKEND TASKS:

1. Have you replied to more fans then you’ve posted? Reply to three fans on your socials this weekend. Bonus points if you make it a personal video.
2. Valentines Day is now 31 days away – got anything planned?
3. Have you given your fans a reason to visit your website? Updated it in the last month? Freshened up your bio? Or are you content to just keep shoveling your photos, art, images, music, and sound onto social media platforms that you don’t own or control, neglecting the fact that Google can send you more traffic than all those social media sites combined.
4. Have you asked ONCE in 2023 for fans to sign up for your email list? Is your landing page in order? Did you just lead with “Sign Up For Updates” and wonder why only two people signed up? It’s because that “offer” is “for department stores and car dealerships,” and you’re a lot more exciting than that.

Social media numbers teach many lessons.

Carter Vail is quirky musician I follow on Instagram. He’s not a metal guy at all, but he writes some catchy tunes that I think any music nerd could appreciate.

He’s got the numbers that most any independent artist strives for:

• 137,000 Instagram followers
• Reels with 35K, 100K, even a MILLION views

He started his Patreon in December 2022, and posted to it twice. In the new year he’s been promoting it through IG (and elsewhere probably), and posting a bit more, and he’s now at 13 patrons and about $65 per month (before Patreon and PayPal fees).

The lesson here is that even with 137K followers and millions of Reels views THIS SHIT TAKES TIME.

Remember, social media can be a full time job (go look – there are job listings that pay lots of money for it).

So if you’re an independent artist / musician / photographer / band / producer – you can’t expect full-time results without the full-time effort.

I know this isn’t a SOCIAL MEDIA newsletter, but I’m 100% in favor of using social media as the delivery truck to my own stuff, and I’m sure you are, too.

So control what you can control:

• Post consistently. Schedule posts if you have to, but make sure you’re putting up something every day or so.
• Make it easy for people to support you. Link to your Bandcamp, have a Patreon or a Substack, and make sure your online store is working.
• Focus on getting people to your website. This should be the hub for all your operations; your store, Bandcamp, Patreon, tour dates, news – get in the habit of keeping it updated and fresh!
• Offer fans a reason to get on your email list. Exclusive deals, pre-sales, behind the scenes reports, tour diaries! For inspiration look at the editorial features all the music sites.

Social media is the food court, and you don’t wanna hang out there all day.

It’s time to leave the food court at the mall.

Your art is your restaurant.

You set the menu and you set the hours. You adjust the lights, the atmosphere and the vibes are up to you.

PATREON NUMBERS

Below are a handful of bands, media outlets, notable characters, and reaction channels with Patreon pages.

Go check out what they’re doing, and how they’re promoting it on their websites and social channels.

William Ramos, 1,081 patrons
While She Sleeps, 1,017
Two Minutes To Late Night, 854
Banger TV, 720
Ne Obliviscaris, 712
Alissa White-Gluz, 588
Nik Nocturnal, 485
IGNEA, 469
Lords of the Trident, 431
Bullet for My Valentine, 248
Darkest Hour, 240
Jamey Jasta, 226
66Samus, 224
Northlane, 211
ELEINE, 192
Matt Pike, 117
Requiem Metal Podcast, 79
Alex Skolnick, 66
SeenFeen, 54
Cane Hill, 45
Into the Combine Podcast, 43
Judicator, 29
Lambgoat, 11

Some of these folks have been putting out seminal albums since the 90s, and some release cover songs with members of TOOL. So use that list as inspiration, and get out there and do great stuff.