Why music artists need to make the most of a first impression
Making quick judgements and assumptions the first time we encounter a person is something we all do. Right or wrong, our brains automatically make an association with past experiences and other data we can find, and come to a conclusion. Hence the old cliché, don’t judge a book by its cover. Whether we are correct with our assumption or not, is a whole other story. And make no mistake, people are doing this to you with your digital and physical self. So as a music artist who is trying to get people to listen to your art, and become a fan, it is important to keep this in mind.
This is not to say you need to be something or someone you’re not. It’s actually the exact opposite. It is to clearly and concisely represent the very best of who you are. And like it, love it, or hate it, the art of music is part of show business, and you should treat yourself and music as a business.
If you do that right, you just might be able to grow a pretty decent fan base and make a life living doing what you love, being a professional music artist. That’s the goal right?
For starters, when making a first impression, you need to make sure you’re representing yourself as a professional music artist. If you were going to eat at a new restaurant and you walked in and it was dirty, the staff was yelling at each other, and it smelled, would you want to eat there? Probably not. So please believe that potential fans are doing the same thing when they land on your Facebook, Soundcloud, website, or any other page of yours.
They are making a split second decision about your presentation. If you’re appearance isn’t up to par, it is going to reflect poorly on you and lead people to believe some things that may not be true. One of those things could be that you’re an amateur. And as an amateur, how good could you really be at your craft?
So before promoting yourself everywhere, make sure everything is in order on all of your platforms. Make sure you have a great header image and icon on your socials. Make sure all of the information is filled out, like the about, and contact information. Right away this will show potential fans that you’re on another level from the amateur, that you take your music career seriously, and listening to your track just might be worth their time.
If you don’t know where you can get a Facebook or Twitter header image just do a simple google search. There are plenty of sites that offer them for cheap and free. A cool one we found is TrendyCovers.com and I am sure there are plenty more like it.
If you need a logo, a cool place to check out is Fiverr. You can get a bunch of amazing services all for $5. I am sure you can get original social media covers as well.
Once you have your interaction points looking great, the next thing is a little psychology principle called Social Proof. Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation.
So what does that mean? Basically, when people are uncertain about a course of action, they tend to look to those around them to guide their decisions and actions. They especially want to know what everyone else is doing, especially their peers.
For example have you ever watched a comedy TV show and heard the laugh tracks they use? We’ll these exist for this very reason. So the question is how do you implement this for your music brand and use it to boost your first impressions? Simple, show off a little bit. Everywhere you can, and where it is appropriate or makes sense, give accolades and validation to what you are doing. In your bio or about section, list big name artists who have supported your track, awards won, DJ residencies or shows played. Right away this will show people and subconsciously suggest that other people like you should too.
A second way to do this is when posting or making announcements for new tracks, shows, info or anything else, hype it up a little. If you just released a track and it is doing well, make a post like; “Check out my new track, it has over 1,000 plays in two days.” Or “Check out my new track already being supported by (insert DJ, Radio Station here).”
Any way you can validate what you are doing and give ‘social proof’ for your music is good.
That is also why you need to make sure you are utilizing all the tools you possibly can, like Hypeddit and others, to get as much exposure as you can, increase plays, follows and engagement. This will show other people like what you’re doing.
Also I know many of you don’t like to spend money, but since your music is your business, sometime you need to treat it like a business and put some money into promoting it. It doesn’t need to be a lot, $50 would do. There are many places where $50 can go a long way, Facebook promoted posts, get a couple of popular Instagram people with your same demographic to post it, or use our Hype My Music feature where you can take advantage of some amazing promo offers including our spotlight feature.
