Marketing Secrets for Musicians Series: Instagram Traffic Secrets (Part 2)
Episode 017 of The Indie Musician Secrets Podcast
--
TRANSCIRPT
INTRO: There are no secrets to success, just things you haven’t learned yet. And once you learn them, it’s up to you to apply them. I’m Jamaal, aka Boss Eagle, Billboard-charting hip hop artist and music business coach. Join me as we talk digital marketing, social media, technology and more, and share interviews with industry professionals to help you unlock the “secrets” and take control of your music career. Because we ARE the new music business, and this is the Indie Musician Secrets Podcast.
What’s up? What’s up? What’s up and welcome to The Indie Musician Secrets Podcast. I am your host Jamaal aka Boss Eagle, Billboard-charting hip hop artist and music business coach and Business Minded Musicians. I want to say thank you for tuning in wherever you are listening. I greatly appreciate it. If you wouldn’t mind also downloading, rating, reviewing, subscribing — all of that good stuff — wherever you’re listening. That would help to continue to push the podcast forward.
We’re picking up on our Marketing Secrets for Musicians Series. This is Instagram Traffic Secrets Part 2. If you want to review, or if you missed Part 1, that was back in episode six. You can go back and review that. We started talking about how to use Instagram for getting traffic and hopefully turning that traffic into customers and fans. So if you want to check that out, that’s episode six. We are diving (back) into the book, “Traffic Secrets” by expert marketer, Russell Brunson. You can get a free copy of this book at: tsbook.bizmindedmusic.com. I’ll also leave a link in the show notes and the description below.
Today what we’re going to be talking about identifying publishing strategies and creating your publishing plan on Instagram. I know for a lot of us, including myself, it’s hard to know what to post, when to post & how to do it so that it doesn’t seem like you’re just putting anything out there. Or, you’re inconsistent. I know I’ve struggled with those things, too. So we’re all in this together. But what we’re going to basically look at it, as the book does, is we’re going to break down the core sections of Instagram. We’re really starting to look at it from more of that producer mentality versus a consumer mentality. That’s what we’ve talked about before — how do we become producers so that we’re contributing, and not just scrolling? We lose track of time and, now we’re four hours in, we’re hungry and the sun’s gone down. We don’t know what happened. We got sucked into Instagram, right? [No], we want to use it from a business perspective. So we’re gonna look at the core sections.
Those four core sections are: your Instagram profile, IGTV, Stories and [IG] Live. And, I know what you’re thinking: ‘What about Reels?’ Since this book was published Reels has become a lot more popular. What we’ll probably do is look at Reels by itself, because what Reels really became Instagram’s response to TikTok. So, we’ll probably cover that another time. And yes, TikTok is all the rage right now — I get it. But in my opinion, Instagram is still the best social media platform in terms of fan engagement. There are new features that are continuing to be released. Instagram just continues to get better and better. So…that’s what we’re going to talk about today. We’re gonna talk about Instagram. This is just going to be an overview of the strategy and publishing plan. We’re gonna go through each of these in different episodes because I don’t want them to get too bogged down. But I want you to just start to get an idea of how [to] start to look at this differently. How [to] start to really pick out these different sections of Instagram and focus on each one of these these aspects; or maybe one or two of them for now. As we dive in, we’re going to be looking at two main areas where these four core sections live.
Alright, so the first one is the HOOK. As musicians, we know all about hooks, right?! That’s basically what we do. The Hooks according to Traffic Secrets are where we produce images and videos, etc., that grab our dream customers’ or dream fans’ attention, and turn them into followers. That’s all that we’re trying to do. We’re just trying to hook them. It’s the same as going fishing, right? You cast the reel out, and then you hook the fish. But that’s only part of it. You haven’t brought it into the boat just yet. You haven’t filleted it or grilled it up with your tartar sauce and all that. That’s coming! We’ve got to hook these these dream customers and fans in order to turn them into followers — using our images and videos, etc.
According to the book, we’re rarely selling anything with this content. A lot of times when we’re posting photos and videos and stuff, it’s just about that ‘hook.’ We’re not trying to get them to buy our album. We’re not trying to get them to buy merch, necessarily. We’re trying to put content out there that grabs their attention, because we want to turn them into followers. We want them to click that follow button. The focus is on getting likes, comments and follows.
The core sections that fall into the HOOK area are: your [IG] profile and IGTV. Your profile is your gallery. That’s where all your pictures and your videos and stuff. That’s what people see immediately, and then IGTV is your produced video content — whatever it is that you want to put out there. If you want to create a show. If you want to create some type of series. If you want to do a behind the scenes of you making your album, you could do that. This is like your own TV station, basically. It’s a great opportunity to use that content to hook people with what you’re doing.
The second main area is the HOME. This is where we’re directing people to our funnels, to our website, to our crowdfunding, or whatever it is that we’re doing, with the purpose of selling — making that conversion.
The two core sections in the Home area are: IG stories, which Russell Brunson calls your reality show, and IG Live, which is your live show. Those things are self explanatory. Stories [is] your reality show, right? Little bits & snippets, 15 seconds or whatever, that is going to show up, and people are going to see it, and it’s gonna happen really fast. [They’re] “in the moment” types of things [that] go away (unless you add them to your highlights, which you can do and keep that content living on your main page for Instagram).
IG Live is similar to Stories, but it’s less about the recorded, [and] more about engaging with your fans. IG Live is your live show. I know they sound kind of similar, but remember Stories is for quick pops — here’s what’s happening in the moment type of thing. IG live is when you’re actually getting on and engaging with people — you’re talking with them. You can play music on IG Lives and people can can tune in live. They can ask you questions, you can respond. They can make comments, etc. So the IG Stories and IG Live live in the Home area.
So we have the Hooks and we have the Home. Hooks are your profile and IGTV, and Home is IG Stories and IG Live.
As we continue to dive into this, and again we’re going to break these down in different episodes, I want to just kind of lay the groundwork for you right now. A couple things to keep in mind is that all of these platforms: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook — are constantly changing and evolving. Don’t get caught up [or] locked in on a feature because things are constantly changing. They’re constantly moving. These companies are always competing with each other. Like we talked about earlier with Reels, that was Instagram’s response to TikTok. Watch your DREAM 100 closely so that you can model and innovate on these ever-evolving algorithmic changes.
Remember what we talked about in Part 1 of this series: your DREAM 100 a lot of times are going to be bigger artists. Their social media [is] probably run by the labels or bigger agencies. These agencies are putting a lot of time and money and effort and teams behind running these social media channels. So let them do the legwork. Let them do all the hard stuff. Let them try to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. They have research and development and all this money and effort behind understanding how these platforms work, and how these systems work, so that they can make sure that their artists are upfront. You’re just gonna watch them and model what they’re doing.
Here me when I say this: When we talk about modeling, we’re not talking about copying. You don’t ever want to copy an artist’s material, pictures, words, etc., because it’s illegal. That’s copyrighted. It’s unethical and honestly, it’s just kind of yucky! And people [wonder] what’s the difference between modeling and copying. Copying their words, their content, material and making it seem like it’s yours. That’s illegal. Modeling, on the other hand, is watching what they’re doing to get ideas on what you can create. It’s looking for ideas to model, but you’re making your own authentic thing.
Because really, at the end of the day, you have to be yourself. You have to bring your own personality, your own brand, your own flair, to the space. You want to be, as Russell Brunson talks about, the Attractive Character. The Attractive Character is the voice for your brand. You want to be able to connect with people that resonate with you — your stories, your unique experiences. That’s what you’re gonna bring in. That’s what’s going to resonate as you tell your stories, and share your life.
And that’s what I mean by modeling—seeing what they’re doing, what kind of stuff are they sharing. But you’re not going to share their stories. You’re gonna share your own. You’re seeing what works, but you’re using your own material.
ACTION ITEM
Your action item is: To establish yourself as the Attractive Character on your own Instagram.
The best way to do that, to start, is with your bio. That’s the first thing people are gonna see when they come to your page. You want to make a good first impression. You want to give them a reason to want to follow. Utilize that link in your bio as well, because you want to start to convert people from what Russell talks about as earned traffic to owned traffic. These people have already come. Now we want to own that traffic, so let’s take them somewhere to maybe download something [so] we get an email or keep the conversation going. We get a little bit deeper in that relationship. You only get about 150 characters, so make it count!
As the book talks about, if you want some ideas on how [to] write [the] bio, what [to] say, how [to] structure it, check out your DREAM 100 and see what they’re doing. See what you like about different bios with those artists and structure your own. But make sure you make it your own unique bio. Are you more on the funny side, or more on the serious side? Sometimes I’ll just randomly change my bio. One time on my bio read: “I’m still trying to make the cover of Tiger Beat!” For some of the younger folks who may not know what Tiger Beat is, iIt was this old magazine (I think it still exists today), that used to have pop stars on the cover and stuff. Tiger Beat was so cool! I’m not gonna make the cover of Tiger Beat! But I like humor is what I’m saying. So sometimes I’ll add things like that.
If you want to get a free copy of Traffic Secrets, if you want to dive deeper into this and you want to expound on everything and learn all of the things that he talks about, you can grab a free copy at: tsbook.bizmindedmusic.com. I’ll also leave a link in the description and in the show notes as well. If you have any questions or topics that you’d like to have covered, send me an email to: Questions[at]IndieMusicianSecrets.com. Don’t forget to rate and review — I would greatly appreciate that. And please, please, please, as always, feel free to share this episode and any episode with other artists that you think this would be beneficial for. So with that, go do your action item. God bless and I will see you when I see you. Peace.
OUTRO: Thank you for listening. Don’t forget to follow the Indie Musician Secrets Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. And make sure to leave us a rating and review. Also share this episode with other indie musicians who you think it would be beneficial for. And for more helpful resources to help you grow your music business, visit us at: businessmindedmusicians.com. I hope this episode has served you we’ll talk to you on the next episode.
#makemoney #musician #Blog #Podcast #BusinessMindedMusicians #MarketingSecretsForMusicians #series #InstagramTrafficSecrets #Instagram #IG #IGprofile #IGTV #IGStories #InstagramStories #InstagramLive #Reels #TrafficSecrets #RussellBrunson #marketing
Is the book really free? Yes, you’ll actually get a physical hard copy of “Traffic Secrets” for free! You’ll just cover a small shipping fee, paid to Russell’s company. I do not work for Russell Brunson and, therefore, cannot know if/when this offer will expire. Click here to claim you free copy!
Affiliate Statement: You can safely assume that I may receive referral payments if you purchase products using my affiliate links. As with anything, conduct your own research before making any purchases.
