Photo Credit: Gizella

One of the main reasons for this site’s existence is to assist you, the artist and creator, in developing a more effective online platform from which to showcase your art.

So, what better way to do so than to ask some like-minded creative types for their most burning new media questions, then provide as best an answer as I can muster?

This is where new series ‘Artist Answers’ comes into play; a weekly feature that will help to deliver one of my three guide words for this year: Serve.

To kick us off, good friend and songwriter extraordinaire Khaled helped me out with the first query. Khaled is a hard working and social media savvy independent musician (and aspiring chef!) based in NJ/NY. He is in the process of recording his sophomore album, an effort partially funded online by his dedicated fan base, following a successful Kickstarter project.

Khaled asks: “We see plenty of advice on how to engage fans. But what about the opposite? What disengages an audience?”

It’s a good point and important to consider, as a lot of good work can be undone – particularly online – by just one or to behaviors that really bug people. Avoid these off putting habits to maximize the connections you’re building with your audience:

• Add nothing new to a platform. If your Twitter stream is simply a feed from Facebook, why would anyone follow it? If all your blog offers is a rehash of your news page, why bother reading it? Try not to phone in any of your social media efforts in this way.

• Devoid of personality. A formal tone or purely business content leaves out the one factor that can most distinguish you: your unique personality. Fill your posts and content full of what makes you you.

• Lack of incentives. Okay, your hardcore fans will follow you through Hellfire, but the rest of us need a little sugar to sweeten the deal of connecting with you, then staying put. It’s so easy to offer a free track, piece of merch, or something small as a reward for that connection. And it’s human nature to seek them out.

• No diversity. Predictable is often a byword for boredom in the social media world. Be consistent in your content delivery, but diverse in what you deliver. Need ideas for fresh content? Another friend of the site, Alejandra O’Leary, offers twelve sources of inspiration in this article.

• Fail to involve others. In the rush to push out communications to fans, many artists forget to also pull them in. Social media are intended to aid interaction, so a good portion of your posts and content should be designed to involve your fans. Most platforms reward such activity with increased visibility of what you post to followers and friends, so the pay off goes further than you may think.

At the heart of connecting with your fans online is empathy; understanding just what they’re expecting from you via social media. Tailor your activities to meet and exceed these expectations, at the same time as avoiding the various self-serving approaches covered herein, for noticeable improvement of your audience size and participation.

Over to you….

What did I glaringly overlook?

What obnoxious social media habits have you seen in yourself or others?