Social Media Marketing Guide for DJs
Social Media Tips for DJs; Like many professionals, you’ll find DJs on Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok and more social media platforms. For a number of years now, curating a strong social media presence has been important for furthering your career, especially when it comes to DJing and the wider music industry. Of course, the central importance of social media is only going to get bigger as the years go on.
What sort of social media habits do you need to get into to become a successful club DJ? Explore our list of tips and warnings below, so you can ensure your platform goes platinum.
By way of introduction, DJs generally use their social media platforms as a way to reach potentially global audiences of fans and followers. It offers an opportunity to interact with other successful DJs in the industry and provides an effective way to engage in professional yet necessary self-promotion.
There’s no one way to run a DJ account on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter. Some DJs focus their attention on mostly engaging with fans, others use it for promotional purposes only, and some simply utilise social media as a type of announcement board to let people know about their new releases and upcoming gigs, and the like.
Top Platforms for DJs
To become a successful club DJ, you would do well to utilize multiple platforms and social media channels. This might seem like a lot of work, but with a variety of free (and not-free) social media account managing software out there (more on this later) getting across multiple social media doesn’t have to be a gargantuan task.
The general consensus in terms of important social media you should ensure you have a presence on are:
- Snapchat
- TikTok
Social Media Post and DJ Promotion Ideas
At the end of the day, all of your social media engagement will be somewhat aimed at growing your DJing success, but not all promotional posts on social media are overt in that way. Here are some content ideas and ways in which you can subtly engage in self-promotion:
Personal Content
Social media is becoming increasingly concentrated on being authentic. Your audience wants the real you, so give them an insight into the DJ behind the DJing as well as your professional work.
Previews
If you’re dropping a new album or releasing a new EP, your social media feed is an excellent way to make that announcement or offer a teaser. Photos, clips, videos, or artwork are all excellent for spreading awareness and drumming up excitement.
Glimpses Behind the Curtain
People love to see what goes on behind the scenes. So share some videos or pictures of what you’re working on and what it takes to bring it to life.
Collaborations
If you’re working with other artists, it’s important to leverage the access to extra audiences and reach more people.
Events
Are you attending a gig? Checking out a new venue? Make sure you post about it and tag it. This will help increase your reach and let your fans know what you’re up to.
@will_sparks???
Share the Love
Shoutouts to friends and colleagues in the industry is an excellent way to help out a friend by amplifying their reach and enjoying a bit of shared spotlight at the same time. Who knows? Maybe they will reciprocate later on as well.
Polls, Hashtags and Live Streams
While we’re talking about live streams specifically later on, polls and hashtags are also excellent ways to shake up the sort of content you share with your audiences. Both allow fans to engage with you and participate in the conversation your posts are generating.
Other Content
From memes to inspirational quotes, and music facts to random questions, if you’re all quiet on the gig or EP-drop front, make sure to keep your social sites active and your presence front of mind for your audience.
Social Media Do’s for DJs: What you need to be doing
Determine Your Goal and Stick To It
This might seem like an ‘airy fairy step’ to skip, but don’t! Decide what you want out of your social media strategy and focus every post through that lens.
Interesting Content
Heard the phrase, “content is king”? Well, it’s true. Take the time and put in the effort to make interesting, original content that your audience will actually want to see on their timelines and feeds.
Post at the Right Time
Not promoting a Friday night gig on Monday morning might seem obvious, but there are even right and wrong times to post in general. Thursday and Fridays are usually high activities for club-related content while Mondays and Tuesdays are great for lifestyle, behind-the-scenes content. So consider when you’re posting as well as what you’re posting.
Be Consistent
Good content is one thing but sporadic and erratic posting is not going to get you very far. You need to commit to consistent posting at least a few times a week. This can be hard and time consuming when you’re just starting off but it is essential for success.
Encourage engagement
The most active social media accounts and the most successful club DJs all focus on encouraging engagement with their followers. There are lots of ways in which you can encourage shares and likes and comments. The important thing is that your audience is as active following you as you are sharing with them.
Use Live Stream
Live streaming is an important social media tool and helps to cater for all sorts of engagement and use by your audience. Some people take to live streaming more naturally than others, which is okay. But as long as you give your live streaming fans some attention every now and then, you’ll be fine. You can live stream DJ tutorials, while you are busy at work on a mix, during a live production session or even interviews with collaborators and other people in the industry.
Music Promotion
This is the big one. You’re a DJ and your music is at the heart of everything you do online. Encourage people, especially other artists, to re-post, comment, share and engage with your music related posts. Of course, there’s a nice way and an abrasive way to self-promote, but if you’re confident yet humble, you’ll really connect with your audience.
Engage With and Support Others
Follow your friends, artists and collaborators. Make sure to post and help promote their music and gigs. Not only will this make you increasingly visible to their fanbase, but it’s a nice thing to do and will encourage them to do the same for you.
Use a Platform Manager
Instead of juggling posts across multiple platforms, you can use a platform manager to keep on top of multiple social media accounts and post across all of them instantly. Time is often money, and you don’t need to waste time posting the same content multiple times.
Let Your Audience Into Your Life
While this doesn’t mean baring your soul and being an emotional drain on your audience, part of being genuine online is letting your followers into your life. Take the time to show them around what it’s like to be a club DJ. Post tours of your gigs, invite people (virtually) into your production sessions, and even connect with them when you’re not actually DJing. People love being a ‘fly on the wall’.
Follow Venues and Clubs
It’s not just other DJs that you should be following. Becoming an active follower and commenter on your local clubs, venues, and entertainment destinations is a great way to help introduce yourself and your music to more and more people.
Invest in Professional Photography
You don’t need to be followed around 24/7 like you’re on the set of a reality TV show, but getting some high quality and professional photography of you to form the foundation of your social media account is a great way to establish credibility and make a strong impression.
Invest in Basic Photoshop Skills
Whether you’re touching up a photo before posting it or adding logos of the gigs and venues you’ve performed at, even a base level of photoshopping skills will go a long way to improving the quality of your social media posts.
Instagram Stories
DJs on Instagram often use Instagram Stories, and there’s a good reason for that. Not only can you automatically share the content to Facebook (which saves time and effort) it also gives you the opportunity to post less polished and considered content when you’re short on time or want to invite your audience behind the scenes.
Social Media for DJs – Don’ts
Don’t Buy Likes or Followers
Believe it or not, you will be tempted to buy likes and/or followers. Despite the temptation, these likes are empty and will not only do nothing for you long term but can actually degrade the appeal of your channel. It’s worth doing the hard work and building up a quality audience that engages with you naturally.
Don’t Be Ingenuine
Be yourself. As a DJ, you are part of your brand. Keep your content and your posts real. It’s okay to have ups and downs. It’s okay to share failures as well as success. Just be real and be genuine and your audience will respond.
Don’t Be Unprofessional
This is a fine line depending on your personal brand. Lots of audiences want to see what sort of social or political movements you feel strongly about and don’t mind you getting worked up. But DJs who rant, post when angry or upset, become offensive or insulting, or get carried away unprofessionally on social media always live to regret it.
Don’t Keep Your Journey A Secret
Dreaming of being an overnight success? Even if it could happen, your social media account doesn’t depend on it. Fans love to experience your journey with you and it can be inspiring and motivating for them to be a part of the ride, share in your success and see what it takes to become a successful DJ.
Don’t Just Guess
Do. Your. Research. Whether it’s what image dimensions you should be using for a specific type of social media platform or the whole way in which you should engage with your audience, do your research. Look at the accounts of other successful DJs you admire and help use that as inspiration for your posts.
Don’t Post Too Much
We get it, the balance is hard. While posting too little is no good, posting too much can make your audience feel badgered and make you seem spammy. Keep your posts regular and consistent but not overly often.
Social Media – Have Fun and Work Hard
Like working as a club DJ itself, social media can be hard work but fun at the same time. Be real, stay strategic and you’ll find your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok or Snapchat will only help rather than hinder your path to success.
