Think outside the obvious social channels
Your current focus may be on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube because these are the big hitters but it’s vital that you research your audiences and stakeholders and segment them. If you are looking for patrons or commercial sponsors, consider their use of LinkedIn for professional purposes.

Adopt the 80/20 Rule

Retweet information that is useful or relevant to your industry, and for every two messages you post about you, yourself or your organization, share eight messages about something or someone else. Either that or retweet something other people in your industry are doing. Don’t just talk about yourself and your organization over and over again – it’s off putting. Don’t be afraid to retweet and share other people’s news too; you may be helping people who follow you and encouraging more follows.

Newsletters are social too

In addition to the more common social channels, e-newsletters can be a great way of keeping in touch with your supporters, highlighting new content and opportunities to them. In addition to enhancing your Website with social share buttons, I think it’s also worth giving people opportunities to join your mailing list.

Use YouTube

Using the site as a social platform isn’t too different to blogging. You can subscribe to others, comment (constructively) on their videos, favorite other videos, hit the like button occasionally, reply to people and let your content be guided by feedback from the community.

Schedule updates on off days and weekends

If an artist or organization only has the capacity on certain days to tweet, either make sure there are some tweets scheduled on your off days or tell people in your profile that you’ll be there at certain times. It really helps if people know they’re likely to get a response from you on certain days and it also limits expectations.

Track the effectiveness of your social media

Trackability is key and should also be the norm for any artist or organization looking to understand which elements of their marketing, communications and promotional mix works best for them and how they work together.

Be social

If you’re only using social media to only sell, it usually shows. The most important thing about social media is that you are genuinely social, i.e. enjoying the interaction for itself. If it’s all about the marketing your time and effort is probably better spent on other ways of marketing yourself.

These are the kind of connections that make social media so pleasurable and effective… just be who you are and see what happens!