Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

The SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE CLUB is where a few of us get together on a Zoom call to talk about, well… escaping social media.

It’s scary, of course, because we’ve all been doing it awhile, and we see other people doing it. Like, we literally see people doing it – they’re posting videos and photos from the studio, from stage, from back stage and side stage, from meet and greets, from flea markets, and truck stops.

We all bought into the story that if we’re online enough, posting and engaging, more people will find us, and then we’ll catch that big break.

But the whole thing is falling apart.

Substack recently wrote, “at the start of the year, Twitter on average drove less than 3% of all views across Substack. Today, it accounts for less than 2%.”

I wonder how much traffic Twitter drives to Bandcamp or Spotify?

All these social media platforms profit by keeping you on their site. None of them exist to send you free traffic. And none of it is free, anyways, because we’re all paying with our time and that shit is always running out.

All that time on socials that could be spent writing, recording, mixing, crafting, learning, spending time with friends, being fully engaged with the world around us.

That’s why I’m such a big proponent of the email newsletter.
Of your newsletter. It’s your direct line of communication to your biggest fans.

You can write a newsletter every week, and it’ll do the job, letting your fans know about your latest work, your new projects.

If they miss last week’s newsletter, they’ll get the next one.

Like Professor Pizza of Axe Slasher said in one of our SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE CLUB hangs, “why should I give my best material to Twitter?”

Text memes to your friends.
Call an old pal.
Go to that art opening.
Update your website.
Send a newsletter week.

Then we get back to the real work.

I cry when I see a social media post like this:

This might be the only post a fan sees this week. Or month.

And even so, then what?

We can’t stop at just reaching our fans on social media, oh no.

We have to help our fans escape. To unplug from the system.

It’s not easy, though, like Morpheus says in The Matrix:

“You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.”

We are at war, and our mission is to reach our fans without appeasing algorithms, making dance videos, or hopping from one new social media platform to the next. No.

So, the next time you’re thinking about posting something to get your fans talking, figure out a way to get those fans subscribed.

Once they are subscribed, you have a direct line of communication with them.

First, set up a landing page. This is where people go when you ask them to sign up for your email list.

🚫 Don’t ask people to DM you their email address
🚫 Don’t ask them to email you, and you’ll add them to your list later

Set up a landing page. Trust me on this.

Using Mailchimp? Read up here, here, and here.

Using Substack? Read here.

Using Squarespace? Read here and here.

Still no clue? Get in touch.

Once you have that sorted, make a social media post like this:

Once you’re ready to release your magic to the world, you send it to your email list first, and skip the rigged game of attention roulette that you play when you post on social media.

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Oh yeah, here are 25 things you can post to get people to click the link to your shiny new landing page:

1. New track is done, who wants to hear a snippet?
2. New product coming to the shop next week – get on my email list and I’ll send YOU the link first!
3. I’m writing a new piece on something near and dear to my heart – subscribe to my email list and I’ll send you my hand-written notes.
4. Working on a new photo project with a friend, and it involves a ladder and 30 gallons of red paint. Get on my email list for a sneak peek.
5. Shooting a music video next week. Want to see all the behind the scenes photos and silliness? Click to get on our email list.
6. Someone stole my guitar two months ago at a gig. Want to know how I recovered it? Sign up for my email list.
7. We’ve got like 20 ideas for the name of our next album. Help us narrow it down.
8. My writing isn’t just about opening the laptop and tapping on the keyboard for several hours. Let me show you my writing space, and how I maintain my creativity.
9. Love nu-metal? Our drummer has a shrine to nu-metal, complete with sealed vinyl, signed posters, and, well… get on our email list to see it!
10. I visited some creative friends this past weekend, and we had such an ah-hah moment, that we nearly cried. I’ll tell you all about it in my next newsletter.
11. We hit 23 cities on our last tour. 17 diners. 12 truck stops. 10 motels. And five… well, subscribe to our newsletter. Next week we’re gonna send out a big tour wrap up.
12. Thanks for all the love and support! Next week I’m hosting a Zoom call with you, my amazing fans. Get on the email list and I’ll send you the details.
13. Next week will be the two year anniversary of the release of my first book. Sign up for my newsletter because next week I’m sharing everything I’ve learned about releasing a book in those two years.
14. Over the last four years of running my podcast, I’ve asked every guest their biggest piece of advice for anyone just getting started, and I’m sharing my favorite bits in my newsletter next week.
15. I was 17 when I played my first show, and I told the sound man “fuck you” on the mic. Yeah, don’t ever do that. I’ll explain in my next newsletter what he told me after the show.
16. I’ve got over 200 effects pedals, and every week in my newsletter I talk about one with a quick video.
17. I found a store that sells horror movies on VHS, and I’m in love. Full story in my newsletter next week.
18. Did you know I broke two bass drum pedals on my first tour? It’s true. Sign up for my email list and I’ll explain how to not break all your gear when you’re on the road.
19. I’m halfway down with my new book, and want to celebrate the milestone with a rough draft reading. Get on my email list and I’ll send you an audio snippet.
20. The theme of my radio show this week was sad songs, and I had a hard time limiting it to one hour, so next week’s newsletter will have the songs I left off the show.
21. My favorite poet just celebrated their 60th birthday! Subscribe to my newsletter because I’ll be talking about my favorite pieces from them over the years.
22. Summer is coming up and that means SUMMER TOUR SEASON. In my next newsletter I’m sharing the story about the time I got left at a truck stop (without my phone).
23. When I was a kid I worked this summer job and made friends with this older kid who played in bands, and he gave me a worn out copy of Slayer’s ‘Hell Awaits.’ Ten years later I ran into him and you won’t believe what band he’s in.
24. I’m visiting my favorite record shop next week when I visit NYC. Make sure you’re on my email list, because I’m planning on spending lots of money there, and I want to tell you all about it.
25. I make sleepy time metal mixes every week. For some people it puts them to sleep, others say they’re great for working or studying. Subscribe and listen for yourself!

Use these as inspiration, or copy and paste them as you see fit. These ideas are your now.

I recently saw a Reel of an artist explaining how they weren’t making sales because the Instagram platform was limiting their reach.

I clicked around and found their website (it was a store), and at the bottom they had an email sign up form, so I subscribed.

A few weeks went by, and by the time they sent me something, I had no idea who it was from.

This creative person, this spreader of whimsical words and imagery, posting daily their delights and magic. I subscribed, basically saying “hello, keep in touch.”

But instead of their magic and art, I got a menu.

A list of product images, prices, and the “BUY NOW” buttons below.

Look, it is a fucking MIRACLE that anyone opens any of our emails – including mine. I write emails about emails, for fucks sake.

My emails compete with much cooler newsletters. They compete with cool bands with new albums, cool clothing companies, and Netflix, and even though a lot of us aren’t remotely in this world we’re competing with the recent Met Gala whether we like it or not.

And most of us are getting “junk mail” in our email inboxes.

The race to the bottom is boring.

So easy an unpaid intern could send ‘em.

Now – if you’ve got 20K email subscribers and you’ve been in business for 20 years, fine – you’re probably doing great. Carry on. This isn’t for you, you’ve got bank accounts to look at and you’re doing great. I know this!

But if you’re the small fish in a giant pond, trying to make a name for yourself, and sell a few things to pay your phone bill, whew… it’s gonna take more than just a few product mock-ups and BUY NOW buttons.

I will die on this hill; “repurpose your social media posts – most of your followers don’t see em’ anyways!”

Re-purposing the content you’ve already posted means less time thinking about your next email newsletter, and gives you a jump on the creative process.

The same magic and delight you put into your socials is the same magic and delight you can put into your emails to your fans, your customers, your audience.

And it’s why they follow you on social media in the first place.

Just copy, paste, add a little text and context, and hit send.

Not everyone see your stuff. Not even all your fans.

There are plenty of “old” things you can repurpose and share with your fans:

• Upcoming tour dates, photos from previous tours
• Six month old releases, early product drops
• Old interviews, playlist adds, cool reviews

Remind people about interview you did earlier in the month (like my talk with Laura Kidd, an independent artist whose recent album ‘Obey Robots’ hit #14 on the UK charts, or the interview I did with Matt DeBenedictis, the Manager of Compliance at Mailchimp, or Zao drummer Jeff Gretz).

Your biggest fans might know these things, but not everybody does.

I bet half of you didn’t know I interviewed the drummer from Zao.

So with that, 70% of your social media followers probably missed that cool feature you shared, or a special you’re running in your web store.

Remember when Metallica released the first music video from their new album ‘72 Seasons’ (which just came out)?

Since releasing their video for ‘Lux Æterna’ on Monday, November 28th Metallica has not taken their foot off the gas:

Twitter posts: 17
Instagram posts: 18
Facebook posts: 19

That’s over 50 posts since MONDAY.

Remember – you’re an artist; get creative in repeating all the cool things you’ve done on socials, in your newsletter, and on your own website.

The multi-media world is busier than ever, so casually mentioning your latest offering once or twice ain’t gonna cut it.

Someone told me this decades ago, when I was running my first music blog;

“I know I can come back to the site in an hour and something new will be posted.”

The websites we visit most frequently are updated frequently.

When I ran Noisecreep for AOL Music there was a time when we posted 20+ times a day.

That got a lot of people to the site.

Your social media feed is updated basically every second.

We post to social media several times per day, or at least a few times a week.

Meanwhile, our websites collect dust.

Then, when a casual fan finally visits your site, they see old products and out of date photos. Then they bounce.

Why am I harping on websites so much when I mostly talk about email newsletters? Because getting people to your website on a regular basis makes it easier to get people to sign up for your email list.

Instead of freely giving Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk all your “exclusive” content (which they monetize, then turn around and charge you to reach your followers), publish the bulk of your work on your own website.

Don’t ask for an email address on the first date.

Show off your fine qualities on your website. Update it often. Feed it your videos, your quips, your rants from Twitter.

Get someone to visit a few times. Maybe they buy something and opt-in to your email list.

Then you can reach that fan without worrying about social media algorithms.