“How do you keep up with the socials? …things like that are just... well, hard for me because I am unorganized in many ways, but also hard for me to commit to. Advice?” - Flynt
Thank you for the question, Flynt. You’re absolutely not alone on this issue. Socials can be the bane of an artist’s existence, especially when you feel like you’re posting and no one gives a shit (stick with it because your regularity is what will build your future audience!)
Luckily, I have a very simple solution. But first, I want to review a concept that’ll be relevant to the rest of the discussion:
Types of Posts: GIVE vs. ASK
I think of the posts I make as being divided into two categories: posts where I'm asking people to do things (spin a track, buy a tee), and posts where I'm trying to provide entertainment. Basically ASK posts and GIVE posts.
You should be making GIVE posts (sharing interesting parts of your personality, your creative process, your hobbies, sharing other artists' work, etc.) once a day. ASK posts should only pop up when you really need them to (if you're releasing something new or have a show to promote). For a deeper dive on the concept and ratio of GIVE/ASK posts, check out my podcast episode here.
Ok, now on the the very simple solution I was talking about…
Organically Gather Content
Develop the habit of keeping your eyes open for GIVE post material. Your GIVE posts should reflect the honest and interesting parts of your personality. Everyone is interesting in one way or another. Every week, keep an eye out for engaging things to snap photos of, or make sure to film a song when you practice, or take a few pics of any artwork you’re creating, etc. Your goal is to organically capture enough material to make an interesting GIVE post every day in the coming week.
If you haven't harvested enough GIVE posts by the end of the week, look back into your timeline and grab one or two of your most engaging photos and repost with newer, more insightful text.
Schedule It
Sit down on Sunday PM or Monday AM and use the Facebook Creator Studio dashboard to schedule one post for every day of that coming week. If you don't know how to do that, I created a blog post about it here.
Pro Tip!
Download the Facebook Business Suite app for your phone and set it to send you notices when people comment on your posts. Try to respond to these comments ASAP, and try to keep each comment thread going by asking questions. The comments count will build up which will help give you social proof as well as please the algorithmic gods.
Conclusion: Get In, Get Out, Repeat Once a Week
Some people really go deep on creating spreadsheets for their socials, but this simple way of curating works for my bands. There isn’t a week that goes by where one of my peers doesn’t tell my we’re “killing it” on social. The honest truth is, I probably spend less time curating than they do! Which brings me to my last and most important point: set a 1 hour time limit for uploading and scheduling posts in the Creator Studio. Setting a time limit will force you to get it done quicker. Get in, get out, repeat once a week.
As I said, this is a very simple solution. I believe it’s the simplicity that makes it sustainable week after week, month after month. I hope this helps you curate social profiles that’ll have your buds giving you high fives, but ultimately, I hope it reduces stress and admin workload so you can get back to being a real artist.
// James
PS - Please hit me with a comment, let me know you’re here. Or, email me a question of your own at james@forestparkdiy.com
