8 Tumblr Tips For Musicians Seeking To Grow and Engage Their Followers

Guest post by Nick Susi, co-author of the Music Makers Case Studies on Portugal. The Man and Esperanza Spalding, and occasional writer on the SchiffBlog. You can find Nick online at @nicksusi or in person in NYC.

Tumblr is a highly customizable platform that combines microblogging with social media. Through its diverse content of photos, videos, text posts and more, it is a versatile tool to use as an extension of your art and engage your audience. Here are some tips:

1) FOLLOWING– Follow other like-minded Tumblrs, who in return, may follow you. But they will only reciprocate if your Tumblr content would be of value to them and their interests.

2) REBLOGGING – Reblogging other Tumblr content onto your own is a great way to engage with others. But don’t just reblog anything. Find content that you value and wish you posted yourself.

3) ENGAGING CONTENT – It’s not worth my time to tell you to post only photos to get the most likes and reblogs. Instead, my advice is to experiment with all content options – post text, photos, video, audio and have fun with it. Then after a few weeks, look back, see what types of posts got the biggest response, and use that information to influence your decisions about future posts. Were your photo posts more popular than audio posts? Did you get more activity on a certain day of the week or a certain time of the day? Try, analyze, adjust, repeat.

4) EXCLUSIVE CONTENT – Post content that lives exclusively on Tumblr, that your audience would not be able to find on your Website, Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere. This special content will help make your Tumblr unique, and it will give your audience a reason to follow your Tumblr when they may already be regularly checking your other platforms. Plus, Tumblr is the only platform that supports GIFs, so use the exclusivity of GIFs to your advantage in driving interest around your Tumblr.

5) GIVEAWAYS – Whether your art is a product or a service, use Tumblr as a platform to give something away for free. Launch a promotion that requires your followers to reblog a particular post to be entered to win. But make sure the prize is worth the action of reblogging. Ask yourself, would you be excited to enter your own giveaway?

6) TAGGING – Use focused tags to make it easy for others to discover your posts through Tumblr’s search tool.

7) FACEBOOK & TWITTER – Don’t forget about your already established audiences on your other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Post links to your Tumblr on your other social networks to kickstart driving more traffic and followers to Tumblr.

8) GENUINE CONTENT – Above all, you should not be posting to Tumblr for the sake of posting to Tumblr. You should be building an engaged community around the core of what you do, which is your art. Tumblr, like all social media, is an extension of your craft and brand. Take a deep look at your voice, your image, the feelings you want to convey with your art. Then embody that in your posts.

Keep at it. Like anything, it takes time.

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