Ep 17: Some Thoughts on Social Media

In this episode, John lays out a clear, no-nonsense strategy for how working musicians should approach social media if they actually want it to support their gigging life. 

This isn’t about chasing trends or trying to go viral. It’s about showing up with rhythm, saying something that matters, and building real connection over time. John covers what to post, how often, what works, and shares a few thoughts on artificial intelligence.

If you are afraid of social media, don’t know what you should do, feel stuck, or if you’ve ever felt like you’re posting into the void or wondering if any of it is even worth it, this episode will help you get focused and get to using social media as a tool that keeps you in the game.

Transcript

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You are listening to the Gig to Live Podcast. Welcome everyone. I'm John Foles and I'm a full-time working musician. This podcast is about building a music life that holds up over time. It's practical, enjoyable, sometimes uncomfortable, but it's always about helping you stay in the game and actually enjoy the life that you're building. We'll meet some wonderful working musicians from time to time. So whether you're just getting started or you've been doing this for years, you're in the right spot. This podcast is for you. Well, welcome everyone. You found it. You found the pot of gold at the end of the music podcast rainbow. This is the place that we gather. Let's pretend we're all just hanging around in my living room together, okay? So help yourself to the fridge. If you have to use the restroom, you know where it's at. Just hit pause. I'll be right here when you get back. I appreciate all of you. Today we're going to talk about social media. I spend a ton of time on social media making concert flyers and posts and reels and stories and visiting my friends' sites and liking and commenting and commenting on venue social media, which I think this is super important, by the way, going to venues that support you and following them on social media and commenting on their social media. Let them know that you're in their corner. People know that I have fun with it. Anyone who knows me knows I have fun with social media. Shoot. The first published book that I ever wrote a few years back was about how to use social media and understand it. Oh my gosh, it's changed so much since I wrote that book. And even back then, you know, I was just trying to describe ways to understand it as best we could. And today, anything we talk about today, we're talking about as best we can understand social media because social media is evolving. And as soon as we define rules for it, it changes on us. And then we need to unlearn things and we need to learn new things. We need to relearn some things. As a communication student and a teacher, I love to study and learn about how to communicate in different spaces. And I love to understand and to challenge expectations for those spaces. Now, for a bajillion years, we basically lived our lives in four spaces: public space, social space, personal space, and intimate space. For as long as we've been talking about the study of spaces and the use of spaces, those have been recognized and identified as four spaces that we live in. They all have expectations and they have rules for engagement. The study of space, by the way, is known as proximics. I'm fascinated by it. It has helped me so much over the years in understanding what are fair expectations for any given environment. And if you want to read any books about this, then hit me up and I'll send you some recommendations. But the internet and how we communicate in social media is still evolving. We are still establishing new rules as technology opens up new possibilities and it gives us new problems to solve. I like to call social media the not-so space, partly because it sounds like nutso, which it absolutely can be, and partly because it's undefined in so many ways. But bottom line is we need social media. As gigging musicians, there's no way around it. And I'd love to be able to convince anyone who wants nothing to do with it or is afraid of it to stop trying to find ways around it and embrace it and learn it and adapt and harness it, use it, let it help you grow. Okay, that is as deep as we're going to get today on any sort of philosophical or educational level. And I just want to talk practical now. Someone recently asked me if I have rules for social media, and I actually do. They feel like part of what I do now, I don't really follow a list anymore, though I actually did follow a legit list at one time. And I reserve the right to change my habits at any time and to adapt to changes and to needs. You know, whatever's going to serve me the best. Whatever's going to serve you well, that's what you want to lean into. But I thought I would talk to you about some good guidelines for social media as a musician from a communication standpoint, from a branding standpoint, to help us all step up our social media game so that it's working. So here it is. Today's top 10 drum roll, please. The top 10 rules for social media. Honestly, it was hard to boil this down and keep keep things simple, but I think this is a decent top 10 primer. You may know some of these rules, maybe not. Maybe this is all new to you. I am hoping to meet us all somewhere today in the middle so that this proves to be helpful to everyone. Number ten. Post consistently. You don't need to live online. This is the major complaint I hear about social media is, you know, I'm not gonna go on social media. It's gonna melt your brain. Too much screen time. People spending too much time and it ain't real communication. I gotta get face to face. I don't know why I use that voice, but that's the voice that I hear in my head when somebody uses that line of reasoning about social media. Look, you don't have to be on 24-7, but you do need some kind of a rhythm. And as far as it not being real communication, uh okay, but it is communication of some kind. It may not be the best communication for certain things, like if you're trying to solve an argument, you know, do conflict resolution, don't do that online. It's a horrible place for that. Face-to-face communication rules, 100% of the time for conflict resolution. Nobody's winning arguments on Instagram and Facebook. Uh so great, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about building a brand. We're talking about you sharing your life with people and letting them know what's going on in your life and inviting them into your life so you can build something that lasts, something that's going to have longevity. And social media needs to be part of that. It used to be radio and television and the newspaper, and it's just not anymore. It used to be flyers around town, which is fun and kitschy, and I still kind of dig part of that, honestly, but it's not the major way that people find out where you are playing. So post consistently. Find a rhythm. What does a rhythm look like? Well, this is what I do. For Instagram, I think that three to five posts a week is a good place to start. For stories, you know, those things that stay up there for 24 hours. Most days, I think. This is your daily presence online. And honestly, people aren't sitting around waiting for your next story to drop. They're not going to see all of your stories. They're going to see some of them. So posting consistently every day with stories can be a very good habit to get in. Reels, posting reels one to three times a week. Reels are the big engine right now. And we'll talk a little bit more about this uh as we get down the down the line in this top 10 list. Uh, Facebook. I like to post a few times per week, especially around gigs that I'm doing on Facebook. And uh, as far as posting consistently too, don't be afraid of repeats. Repeat for sure because no one saw your first post. Or, you know, we we think that we're going to put something out there and everybody is going to see it. And that is just not the case. So don't be afraid to repeat. If you've got shows coming up, um, don't go silent for days at a time. You know, set some time aside. Uh I think that professional communicators online don't just wait for inspiration, they work it into their routine. So post consistently. Number nine, be intentional. Don't just post to prove you're live. Although, you know, as I say that, it's good to let people know that you're live and kicking. But but I think that every post we put out there should do something. Um entertain. You know, a new song perhaps, a live performance. Educate. Things like quotes, things like, did you know? Education is fun for posts. Um inspire. Inspire by posting other musicians, inspire by posting stories. Uh you can be intentional by building trust, you know, high quality content, uh, quick responses to people, collaboration with other people, build trust, sell tickets or fill a room, highlight people, fans, venues, other musicians, announce something or remind people about something, tell a story. We're all craving good stories. So be a story voice. Show your world, show your your backlot tour, I like to call it. I don't know if you ever went to Disneyland when they used to do the backlot tour, but it kind of ruined me as a kid, honestly, you know, seeing all of the broken animatronics uh behind all of those alleys. I'm not uh but but there's something about letting people see what's behind the scenes in our lives that is really endearing. Uh meeting our family, seeing us on vacations, those things like people dig that. And when they come out to see you at a show, they feel like they they know you a little better. And that's a that's a good connection point. Um you can also be intentional by tracking what works and then doing that thing again. I think that every caption that we put out there should have at least, you know, one short story or opinion or question or some kind of call to action or uh, you know, some kind of real moment uh or some kind of an invitation. So if you're making a post, don't just say it was a great night, but be intentional and say something like, Dear Room, you know, I showed up and gave it my all tonight, but you know what? You outdid me. You gave it all back to me. Thank you. It was a great night. Number eight. Be emotive. Um What does it mean to be emotive? Move people to action. You know, stir some emotion in them. Many people post like they're writing a shopping list, but you know what? Let make us feel something. Even easy tweaks that make you sound human and conversational rather than uh a bulletin board. So don't don't just say I'm playing at venue ABC on Friday. Say Friday night, we are going to turn an empty room into a blowout extravaganza, come be part of the shenanigans, right? We are selling adventure and excitement. We're selling a night on the town, we're selling date night and experience. We're selling something that's not boring, so let's not be boring. You know, come to an enchanted place where the staff makes you feel like you're part of a family that you've always dreamed about. Be emotive. Number seven, make it about other people and not just you. I like to use my social media in different ways, so I feel like I'm hitting on all cylinders. My Instagram posts on my personal Instagram, John Voles Media, they're mostly my fun and creative gig posters. And people love those things. I spend a lot of time with them. I try to be creative and fun and silly with them. They constantly tell me how much they love them. But I know if it's all I did, it would get boring fast. So my stories, my Facebook page posts, they all offer something different. And uh yeah, I do something completely different on my Gig2Live podcast Instagram. And I hope you're following me there too, Gig2Live Podcast. But in relation to music performances, uh particularly, when I show different people doing things, when I show uh my fellow musicians in the town doing things, I show the crowd, I show conversations, uh, I show the venue staff, or I show the moments before and after the music. Those are always the things that get monumental traffic for me. Because people connect to people, not just performers. So make it about other people. Number six, use reels. Okay, I said we'd come back to this. I am finding more and more that this is not optional. Reels are the engine right now. So one to three reels a week is ideal for me. One, I think, minimum, if you're if you're serious. Uh, easy ideas for reels. You know, a clip from a live show, a crowd reaction, setting up your gear and talking to people, packing up late at night, a 10-second moment that that felt real, uh, walking throughout your town and capturing other live musicians. And reels don't need to be perfect. Actually, nothing needs to be perfect in social media. It needs to be real. You never know what is going to hit. I posted a reel the other day of my friend rocking it on guitar. And when I looked this morning, it had about 900 views. That same day, I posted some folks dancing in an assisted living facility that I played at. And when I looked at it this morning, it had 2300 views in less than a day. Two weeks prior, I captured some uh video from a band on the street. And when I posted that, I I had no idea what was going to happen with it. And this morning it had nearly 6,000 views. I posted a really polished song weeks before that was me playing, and it got a total of, are you ready? 65 views. So it doesn't have to be perfect, it needs to be real. And this is a good segue to our next point. Number five, stories went out over polished content. If perfect video and believability, believably human video and perfect video met in a dark alleyway and they have a fight, then believably human is going to win almost every time. A slightly messy clip that feels real is going to outperform a perfect, you know, promotion graphic. So post things like quick check-ins, travel moments, load-in, sound check, random thoughts, conversations that you have with people on the street. Let people feel like they are along for the ride. And if you're if your captions all sound like a press release, uh then those things are gonna get ignored. Write like you talk to someone after a set. Just write conversationally. Drop the polish, keep the clarity. Uh and the same goes for your text as your video content. All right, stories always win over polished content. Number four, ask questions. We're not performing at people, right? We are building something long-lasting right alongside them, right with them. So including them by asking questions is a very powerful thing. You know, what song should make it to my set list this weekend? Uh, what is a song that you have never heard me play and you would love to hear me play? Uh what's your favorite song that I play? Where should I play next? What is your go-to song when you need a lift and you're driving down the road? Uh what is a song that ties you to a memory of the past? What is a song that makes you cry every time you hear it? Anything like that uh, you know, brings people into the conversation. Engagement with our audience is a beautiful thing, and questions are a very good way to engage. Number three, respond. And not only that, but respond in a timely fashion. And this is where most musicians drop the ball. We need to reply to comments, we need to respond to direct messages. When people ask us a question, we need to answer it. We need to acknowledge there are real people on the other end of our posts and our stories and our reels. A responsive page feels alive and interactive. It's a conversation. But if we ignore our pages, then they start to feel irrelevant really fast. Number two, keep your voice consistent and honest. I think that our our pages, our Instagrams, they should feel like one person. Now, we can have different tones that we've throughout thoughtful, gritty, humorous, reflective, you know, blue-collar, but it should always sound like us. And I think this is a good time to have a word about artificial intelligence. AI is here to stay. You don't have to be afraid of it. Uh you don't have to vilify it. If you think it's cheating, you're right. It can be. It can be really lazy. Someone told me once that auto-tune didn't create bad singers, it just exposed them. And I understand where they're coming from when they said that. Now, if you want to be a better singer, you sing more, you learn more, you train more. If you want to be a better communicator, it's the same thing. AI is the auto-tune of the social media world, the post world, the uh wordcraft world. If you're using AI to replace your voice and you aren't working on your own stuff, then it makes your posts feel flat and predictable and obvious BS. People want to hear you. If you are just using AI to check your work and organize your own thoughts, then it can be super helpful. But don't use it to create something out of nothing that doesn't sound like you. AI will start to sound repetitive. It will start to sound gross after a while. Robotic, stale. I have a friend who uses AI a lot in their posts, and every time I read one, I say to myself, that's not them. They don't talk like that. Why are they trying to sound impressive? Why are they trying to sound romantic? AI cannot be better at being you than you. The only person that can improve you is you. So just be you. Please. We're all begging you. Number one. Stop chasing viral posts. Viral posts don't build longevity. They are super fun, but they are not the goal. You know what builds longevity? Trust. So the goal is this. When someone thinks we need music, we want them to think of us, right? And that only comes with building trust over time. So we could stop worrying about numbers, how many people are watching things, how many times things get re-reposted, if they're going viral or not, studying what it takes to have a viral post. We can put all of that aside. If we do everything numbers 10 through 2 that came before this, and we stop chasing viral posts, we are going to see a difference in our social media. And that's it for today, gang. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe if you haven't already, and pretty please, with sugar on top, tell your friends. And remember, stay creative, stay after it, stay hired. Let me live, let me live, let me live.