Whether you like the fact or not, Instagram and social media as a whole is a huge part of building an online music business in the modern age.
Your ability to utilise social media to get clients and session work as an aspiring professional musician may have a direct correlation to your success (or lack of).
You may have been posting great content on your business Instagram profile for a while but you’re just not landing any clients or even getting a glimpse of interest.
This is frustrating for you because you’re investing all of this time and effort into it but aren’t seeing any rewards for doing so.
Your lack of leads (potential clients) from your Instagram may be a result of a few things; lack of followers, your followers not being your ideal audience etc.
These factors mentioned above, you have limited control over, however the third reason for this is that your Instagram profile may look shabby, unprofessional and amateur.
If your profile doesn’t leave a lasting impression, you’ve ruined your chance to make the best first impression and potentially land a follower that you could nurture into a client in the future.
Make a good first impression and there’s every chance that person will follow you, check out your website linked in your bio and enquire about working with you.
So now, I’m going to give you 4 simple but effective steps to improve your Instagram profile as a professional musician, so you can land more clients and projects.
Your Username
It may sound trivial, but your username is one of the most important aspects of your profile and this is because it is usually the first part of it a person will see or notice.
The image of yourself that you portray with your username will determine whether or not that person decides to click onto your profile.
A good analogy for how your username effects your chances of appealing to someone, is just like a potential employer seeing your email on your CV; is it simple and formal, or one you made when you were 15 years old?
If you were in a duo; guitarist and vocalist and needed to hire a touring drummer, who’s profile would you click onto first to find out more about them?
Assuming both of these are trying to land session work from Instagram, Drummer B clearly takes himself more seriously whereas Drummer A looks more like a hobbyist.
I literally see this day in and day out, don’t let potential clients slip through the cracks for something as silly as your username.
Make sure it’s simple, to the point, no numbers or nicknames. The fail-safe username of choice is usually your name and your craft/instrument.
Contact Info
Very simple concept here; if there’s no way for people to contact you, people won’t contact you. Don’t just rely on thinking people may just direct message you, give them as many options as you can.
This includes an email and/or a phone number. Of course it’s up to you whether you want to disclose your phone number online, but I recommend creating a dedicated email address for your business.
As touched on in the previous step, your email needs to look professional in the same way as your username does. I recommend using your username as the domain followed by @gmail.com, for example.
If you’re serious about earning a living as a professional musician, please just go one step further and get your own personal domain for your email. It costs less than $5/month to set up one with Gsuite and ensures you look professional.
At the end of the day if you appear professional online by having your own personal email, people will assume that the services you offer are professional too.
Your Bio
I’ve seen thousands of session musician Instagram bio’s and I have literally seen it all. This is where most people fall short and portray the ‘hobbyist’ trait instead of the professional one.
Some people are so lax with this. Here’s some of the worse ones I’ve seen:
Straight up now, if you have one joint account for your business and personal life, just create a new account. Now.
Yes you will have to start again with one account or the other, however you’re never going to land clients from an account where you’re posting your opinions on politics and what you ate for tea.
This isn’t a personal attack on you if you fall into any of these categories, but also if you have a line like “DM me for enquiries” or “DM me to collab”, please delete it.
This isn’t enticing or interesting in the slightest. No one has ever read a line like that in a bio of someone aspiring to be a professional musician and thought “ooh interesting, I’m going to DM them”.
Show your personality, explain exactly what you do/offer, who you want to work with, what niche you’re in etc. Then entice someone to take an action.
For example, one of the best ones I’ve seen recently: “Need HUGE drums for your music? Hit the link below to find out more.”
Although it’s still a little vague, it’s much better and interesting than the previous examples, it speaks to people and calls them to take a specific action.
In short, your bio needs to include:
Your Content
Even if you do all of the above perfectly, if you aren’t consistently active on your social media account, or post sub-par content, potential clients will U-turn so fast you won’t believe.
For example, if someone clicks on your profile to find out more and your last post was 2 months ago, they begin to think “is this person still active?” or “is music just a side-hobby for them?”
Also if you’re posting quality content, people assume the work you do will be quality too. It’s the easiest and most effective way to show your skills and build trust with people.
So I recommend posting once per day, or every other day at the same time each day. Your followers will notice this and begin to expect your content.
Ultimately, this puts you top of mind in many people’s heads, so if there comes a point where they require someone with your skills, they will be thinking of you first, not someone else.
Extra Tips For Instagram Growth:
I hope you have found this article useful. Nothing in here is rocket science and is very easy to implement, so if you’re a professional musician wanting to land projects from your instagram account, take action on these 4 simple steps.
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