Gaining Twitter Followers (For Bands)

Tweeting can be fun and useful for promoting your band or just unwinding. Tweeting to a small base of followers, on the other hand, can be quite depressing.

You need to have followers to be heard!

I will use an example of a gigging rock / pop band trying to expand a twitter fan base in the hub

It is hard work promoting anything on Twitter, especially if there are not a lot of people actively seeking you out. When you do get a small audience, the next step is more difficult. What do you do to keep everyone engaged and retweeting what you tweet?

There is no foolproof method for gaining followers and spreading your message, much has to do with what your message and the quality of your output.

A good first step is:

Fill out your bio on your Twitter account. Let people know where your band is based at (your home city) and maybe let them know some of your influences (the bands you like). Birds of a feather flock together and sometimes fans of one popular band will want to find similar bands to listen to.

Connect all of your other social media accounts together. Let everyone on Facebook know you have a Twitter account.

Take a second to think of a band that you think would have similar followers. Think of a venue you have played at, or are going to play at.

Do they have Twitter accounts?

Check out the followers of these Twitter users and start following ones that you think would like your music. After a few days, look and see if any of the users that you followed have started to follow you. It might be a 5% return, but it didn't cost you a thing!

All the users that you don't want to follow (or the ones who didn't follow you), just purge them by un-following them. Repeat!

Keep your eyes out for hashtags that tie your tweets to your local scene or musical genre that you associate yourself with. Using relevant hashtags will widen your influence to a larger audience of readers.

Example: If you are playing a festival, see if there are any hashtags for the festival or the sponsors who are hosting the show. Use them when referring to the gig in your tweets!

Engage people, especially people who know you in real life! The more active you seem on your Twitter account, the more attention you will receive throughout the whole social network.

To keep people engaged, find the right rhythm of posting enough to keep fresh content available, but not to over saturate your followers feed.

Don't be a SPAMMER!

You are a musician, not a IT tech. Twitter is a tool to widen your audience and to inform your fanbase, but it will not make or break your musical career. Don't get too caught up in social media because word of mouth is still the most effective advertising.

Get out there, play and HAVE FUN!