One of the most common issues musicians tell me they have with social media is that it feels inauthentic.

I get it. It easily could be without taking the right approach.

And in many cases, musicians don’t take the right approach and end up feeling too much resistance to justify continuing with it.

They might attack social media the wrong way (or not attack it at all) because of some predetermined idea about what it ‘should’ be.

Or it might be because everywhere they turn, there’s someone giving social media advice that appeals to the masses but doesn’t consider the many musicians to whom it doesn’t apply.

If you’re one of these musicians who struggles with finding an approach to social media that feels authentic, this is for you.

Today I’ll present to you 8 different ways to show up so you can find an approach that feels authentic, helps you stand out, and actually works.

One way you could think about this is: What will I be known for on social media?

Let’s dive right in.

Way #1: The Artist

Great for: Those who don’t want to share their personal life or show what’s behind the curtain.

The first way to show up is as The Artist. Think of this as always being “in character” when you show up on social media.

Everything you do will be through a lens of the ‘artist you’—and while that could look like a bunch of different things, a good way to think about it is that you’re always being performative.

There’s always this invisible screen between you and your audience.

They still love and feel connected to you, but they’re not getting the super raw, personal stuff.

Mostly, they’re getting a carefully curated image version of you.

In terms of image, you’re a little elevated—almost creating an illusion of being not like a ‘normal human’.

This might sound like a terrible strategy to some (not showing the person behind the artist?) but done right it can be powerful.

For example, Witchz would be The Artist on social media.

He still shows personality, but his approach to social media is extremely performative, and he doesn’t show us really anything behind the curtain.

So while this could mean a lack of connection between you and your audience if it wasn’t done right, it can be powerful.

Way #2: The Person

Great for: Those who don’t want to be performative and prefer a casual approach to social media.

I know this sounds weird because we’re all people, but specifically here I’m talking about the opposite of The Artist approach.

This approach to social media is very casual. People can see the real, raw you in lots of detail.

If you’re someone who:

• likes the idea of doing vlog style stuff
• prefers to show up casually without being too performative
• wants to show people the ‘real’ you over some carefully curated image version of you

…this might be a good way for you to go.

With this approach, you still need to think about the stuff you’re putting out—it’s important that people get value from your stuff.

But not being performative is part of the charm here.

Way #3: The Educator

Great for: Those who love to educate / help (primarily musicians who offer a service).

If your main focus is selling a service or educating others, this one could be great for you.

The easiest way to explain The Educator is doing tutorials, talking head videos where you’re giving advice, ‘how to’ stuff.

I would fit into this category in large part at the moment.

A lot of artists worry that the only way they can build a presence on social media is by going down this road, and that’s just not true.

This is 100% a choice, and it only really works if you have something genuinely good to offer.

Simply giving tips alone is not a good strategy—they have to be good, specific to your audience goals and struggles, and presented in a way that stands apart.

This approach will appeal to a specific type of musician, and if you decide to go down this road, know that you’re stepping into a different world.

But although this doesn’t appeal to a lot of artists, a lot do want to share things they’ve learned and help other artists in some way.

And so what do you do here? Do you lean into the tutorial thing and just suck it up or is there a better approach?

There’s a better approach.

Way #4: The Guide

Great for: Artists who want to help (and maybe sell stuff) but not be the authority or do tutorials.

The Guide is very appealing to artists who want to help but don’t want to be known for tutorials.

It’s similar to The Educator, but more flexible, more casual, and less authoritative.

Think of it like this: Instead of “how to do x” it’s “how I did x”.

This is where your content strategy can be (at least in part) using your personal experience to offer guidance—and it’s a decent strategy.

Some people prefer insight from artists talking about their direct experience over someone who fits more into the Educator category.

One of the downsides of doing social media the way I do is having people automatically assume you don’t really care about them and that you just want their money.

You have to fight to earn people’s trust and show them that you actually do care and genuinely want to help.

Whereas if you go down the path of The Guide, people are much more open to embracing you straight away.

It doesn’t feel like there’s an underlying sales pitch, even if you’re offering a service to make an income from your music.

You don’t have to be selling stuff for this to be a good strategy, but you also can be.

It’s also just another really great way to build a personal brand—there’s clear value in what you’re offering through content, but people are also getting a lot of personality and getting to know you.

And not all of your content has be this stuff. You can choose how much to lean into it.

One example of The Guide would (at least in part) be Russ.

Another is an artist I coached, Nadia Struiwigh. She’s done an amazing job of building a brand as an artist who also offers services.

Way #5: The All Music Approach

Great for: Musicians who only or mostly just want to showcase their music.

This approach is exactly what it sounds like: All you do is share / perform / play your music, and maybe covers if you’re into it.

This could also include like constant skits where you’re showcasing your music, or anything like that where it’s primarily about the music.

A lot of TikTok and Instagram accounts are 99% them performing songs and that’s how they build up a fan base (think Witchz again, or Conor Price who does it with skits).

This is a highly effective strategy if it’s done right.

You need to make sure if you’re only sharing your music that you present it well.

The experience should be as high-quality as possible for the viewer, and your videos should communicate your brand.

Aesthetic matters. Audio matters. Video quality matters.

All of the stuff I regularly talk about the makes content ‘good’ matters.

But if you can nail that stuff and you mostly want to focus on just sharing music, it can absolutely be done.

Way #6: The Disconnected Approach

Great for: Musicians who don’t want and need to ‘play the game’ on social media.

This approach is something a lot of artists want, and it can work, but it’s conditional.

The disconnected approach is what you’ll see a lot of big artists do.

They’re not playing the social media game, but instead just using social media as a way to update people, or just to kind of have a presence.

Maybe they’re also trying to entertain people a bit, but they’re not trying to get on the algorithm’s good side… because they don’t have to.

They basically post stuff that people wouldn’t care about if they weren’t already known and loved, but they can get away with it because they are known and loved—the place every musician wants to get to.

You’ll also see a lot of artists and bands struggle with social media because they’re taking this ‘disconnected’ approach.

They want social media to work for them in this way, but they don’t ‘meet the conditions’ to make it work.

There’s really only one scenario where you can get away with this approach: If you have traffic coming from somewhere else other than social media.

For example, if you’re doing a lot of live stuff and people are discovering you that way and then coming to your socials.

Or say if you’re running ads and they’re effectively driving traffic to your profile consistently.

Or if you’re making a name for yourself in some other big way.

This can take a lot of pressure off you having to create ‘algorithm friendly content’, but you have to understand what this means for you:

Whatever energy you don’t put into social media you have to put somewhere else to make this work.

Way #7: The Gimmick

Great for: Musicians who have something specific and stand-out they can use to create a name for themselves on social media.

This could easily blend with some of the other approaches, but I want to give it some separate attention.

Some musicians on social media build big followings because they have a kind of ‘gimmick’.

Gimmick is probably not the right word here, but I’ll show you what I mean with examples.

​@elestepariosiberiano— The insanely good drummer.

​@madtwinzofficial—The insanely good beatboxers.

​@disco.face—The artist with a disco ball mask that clearly stands out.

So you see when I say ‘gimmick’, I’m really talking mostly about exceptional skill that separates you from most others on the platform—but it doesn’t have to be a skill.

If you want to be known as the musician / artist who does ‘x’, or who’s “the funny one” or “the one who’s constantly screaming in their videos” or something like that, this ‘gimmick’ approach can be powerful.

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Way #8: The Entertainer

Great for: Those who love to entertain people and want to bring that energy to social media.

This is another one that could easily be lumped in with many of the approaches I’ve already mentioned, but I feel it deserves its own category.

There are some musicians / artists who show up on social media with the primary goal of entertaining people.

It’s performative, but not necessarily in ‘The Artist’ way (although it can be too).

Lewis Capaldi I think would sometimes fit into this category (as well as ‘The Person’). And you could say Conor Price fits this as well.

If you’re someone who loves to entertain and you feel like you’d get the most out of social media by showing up in this way, this might be the way.

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Final notes:

First: You can blend these approaches.

You don’t have to be rigidly one thing, although you can be if you want.

Lots of artists do blends, and it works well.

If you don’t want to be locked into one specific thing, you don’t have to be—choose a blend and go for it.

These approaches are here to give you direction, so you can actually create a strategy, but that strategy can include multiple approaches.

And second: Each of these approaches comes with its own set of challenges to make them work.

Basically, the standard is high no matter which path you go down—there’s still effort required no matter what.

So I don’t want you to pick one assuming it’ll be way easier than all the others, because it won’t.

Accept that all of them are challenging and pick one or a few that you think you’ll most likely enjoy and that make sense.

Ok, let’s wrap this up!

I hope this has given you something to think about and opened up your world a bit with social media.

You may go through this letter and on this information alone now have clarity on what to do.

Or you may be intrigued by one or some of these, but not really know where to take it from here.

This info is a snippet from one of many, many things I help with in my course/coaching program Awaken Your Music Brand On Social Media.

It’s currently closed, but doors will be opening up again soon.

And this next time, I’m limiting the spots so I can help each artist individually (1:1 coaching from me is included).

If you need some help and you’d like to make it into the next round, you can join the waitlist here.

The list is already building up, so if you want in, don’t wait 🙂

All the love and stay awakened,

Alex