Tips for Musicians to Grow Their Following on Instagram

In today’s digital age, Instagram has become an important platform for musicians to promote their songs, amplify their reach, and connect with a wider audience. With 1.5 billion monthly active users, among which 72% are teens who love music, Instagram is the most valuable platform for musicians to grow their fanbase. Whether you’re an emerging artist or an established musician, increasing your Instagram following can help you get recognition and boost career opportunities.

However, standing out in such a crowded space requires more than posting content. It requires a strategic approach where you not only post appealing content but also leverage the platform’s features and tools to make it reach the right audience in the right manner. When you use a combination of strategic content and practical tips, you can build a loyal and engaged audience community. In this blog, we are going to share some effective and actionable tips for musicians to grow their following on Instagram and skyrocket their fame and success.

Use an Appealing Profile Picture

Profile Picture is the face of your Instagram page that acts as a first visual impression to attract and engage your audience. Therefore, using a relevant and appealing profile picture that resonates with your brand personality is crucial. Adding a normal picture is too basic to attract an audience; it should be something that sums you up as a musician.

For example, you can include a photo of yourself recording a song in your studio, performing live, or holding your musical instrument. Such profile pictures show you as a renowned musician, boosting your credibility and attracting audience interest. Besides that, you can create and use a logo or album artwork as your profile picture to set a distinctive brand identity.

Craft A Gripping Instagram Bio

Your bio speaks for your brand, and as a musician, you need to put good effort into creating a compelling and impactful bio. The three most important elements of a bio are “who you are”, “what you do”, and “what you will be doing”. In simple words, add your band name to the bio, followed by brief information about your journey, past performances, upcoming tours, recent releases, and a link to your YouTube channel.

Besides that, at present, hashtags are also important in the bio to increase the reach and visibility of your profile. However, if you are just starting out, increasing reach is tough as Instagram promotes pages with higher likes and comments. In such a situation, you can purchase likes with automatic delivery to boost your posts’ engagement and increase their organic reach.

Always Prefer Quality over Quantity

As a musician, it’s important for you to add high-quality content that takes your audience on a musical journey and makes them connect with the emotions and stories behind your music. To do so, ensure that your videos have pleasant lighting, clear audio, and proper editing. Quality Content for a Musician includes:

Live Performances: You can post clips of your live performances in any part of the world to showcase your live music skills and how the audience groves on the beats of your music.

Behind-the-Scenes Content: Share behind-the-scenes footage from rehearsals, recording sessions, backstage photos, fan meetings, and music video production. This gives your fans an insight into your creative process and personal life.

Music Previews: Share snippets or teasers of upcoming releases to build anticipation and excitement among your followers. This increases the intrigue for your upcoming projects and creates organic hype.

Personal Connection: Share your personal stories, challenges, thoughts, achievements, or insights about your music journey. This fosters a strong bond with your audience and creates a devoted fan base.

Engage with your Audience

No matter in which niche you are working, interacting with the audience is crucial to building a community and fostering a loyal fan following. Engaging with the audience makes them feel valued, ultimately boosting engagement and followers. Take a look at how you should engage with your audience:

Respond to Comments: The simplest way to engage and communicate with your audience is to respond to their comments on your posts. This shows them that you value their feedback and presence.

DM Conversations: You must get a lot of DMs regarding various topics. Make sure to have genuine conversations with such followers, thank them for their feedback, and answer their questions if possible.

Polls and Q&A: Conduct interactive polls and Q&A sessions on Instagram stories and ask for suggestions and feedback from your audience. This makes them feel valued, which may turn them into dedicated followers.

User-Generated Content: Motivate your followers to create reels featuring your music and tag you in the caption to get featured on your account. When your followers create content featuring your sounds, it boosts engagement and makes it reach a wider audience.

Like Other’s Posts: If there are creators who personally interest you, don’t avoid following them just because they are your competitors. It is possible that they might check your account and give you follow-back, which will boost your credibility.

Use Instagram Music Hashtags

Hashtags are like a bridge that connects your content to the Instagram audience. Therefore, it’s important to use the right mix of niche-specific, trending and brand hashtags to increase the reach and discoverability of your content. Hashtags help audiences discover new content, and when your content appears under such engaging music hashtags, there is a chance that music lovers will check your page and follow you.

However, don’t aim for more than 15 hashtags in a single post, as it looks spammy and unprofessional. Some top music hashtags include: #music, #musicmonday, #rock, #livemusic, #instamusic, #band, #musician, #pop, #dj, #beat, #hiphop, etc.

Leverage Instagram Features

Instagram is a feature-rich platform that offers different ways to create and post content. Leveraging different features makes your content diverse, engaging and appealing to a wider audience. Best Instagram features that you should use are:

Instagram Stories: Use Instagram stories to share regular updates, BTS, teasers, live performance visuals, upcoming tours, reels and post promotions, latest gigs, countdowns, fan interaction, etc.

IGTV and Reels: Post long videos such as whole music videos, complete live performances, interviews, podcasts, documentaries, etc., using IGTV. Reels, at present, have the highest visibility and are the most loved content on Instagram. You can post music performance clips, behind-the-scenes, teasers, collaborations, etc., on reels.

Image Post: You can use image posts to share the artwork of your latest release, pictures from your previous tour, instrument close-ups, the announcement schedule of your upcoming tour, studio photos, throwback photos, etc.

Conclusion

Instagram is the best platform for musicians to maintain a robust presence and build a loyal fan base for their music. We have mentioned some of the best ways for you to stand out from the crowd and grow your following on Instagram. From using appealing profile pictures to leveraging Instagram features, follow these tips to promote your music videos, live performances, upcoming tours and documentaries in an engaging and effective manner.