In this section, I will look into the importance of social media within the new music industry.
The UK has 57 million social media users, who spend an average of 1 hour and 56 minutes each day on social platforms.
(We Are Social UK, 2023)
The above images show that UK social media users are often on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok the most. It would be wise as a musician to use these platforms over others such as Snapchat, due to the number of accounts you are more likely to reach.
Jim Coleman, UK chief executive officer of We Are Social UK, says, “While social giants like Facebook and WhatsApp are firm favourites across the UK, the rise of TikTok and BeReal shows there’s still room for new platforms to make their mark on the social landscape.” My interpretation is that we should continue to use the top favourite platforms. Still, we should also begin to create a platform on new social media networks such as TikTok to remain current and successful in the future.
4 Cs of Social Media:
• Collaboration – Participation, Sharing & Engagement
• Content – the tool of communication
• Conversation – Feeds, Updates, Tweets, Re-Tweets, Comments, Likes, Shares etc.
• Community – Connection
(Pulit, 2018)
What Platform is for What?
Pulit’s report on Social Media Marketing (2018) states that Facebook’s monthly 2.072 billion users are 53% female and 47% male. 87% of these are between the ages of 18-29 and the best times to post are on Thursdays and Fridays between 1 and 3 PM. (Source:’Omnicore’and’Wordstream’).
This same report breaks down other platforms such as Snapchat, Pinterest and Twitter. However, the other important one is Instagram. This platform had a total number of 800 million monthly active users. 68% of which were female. 48.8% of Instagram users are brands. It was noted that posts with at least one hashtag gained an average of 12.8% more engagement than those without. Similarly, posts containing photos with faces gained a whopping 38% more likes (Pulit, 2018).
Why Do Users Share Content?
• •To bring valuable and entertaining content to others
• To define ourselves to others
• To grow and nourish our relationships
• To get the word out about causes or brands
• Social Currency – things that make us look good
• Emotion – sharing is caring
• Practical Value – news
• Stories – great brands learn to tell stories
(evryonesocial.com, 2023)
What Have I Learned From This?
From this research, I have learned that the majority of social media users are young females. This allows me to tailor make my content to reach more of an audience. Something that surprised me is that Facebook is still one of the most used social platforms. It is interpreted that Facebook is used by the older generation and is almost obsolete, but this is evidently not the case and has made me rethink my social media strategy.
My Links:
Bibliography:
Get more likes, shares and follows with Smart Website Tools (no date) AddThis.com. AddThis. Available at: https://www.addthis.com/ (Accessed: April 21, 2023).
Pulit, K. (2018) Social Media Marketing. rep. London, pp. 1–147.
We Are Social UK (2023) New report: Digital 2023: The United Kingdom, We Are Social UK. We Are Social UK. Available at: https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2023/02/new-report-digital-2023-the-united-kingdom/ (Accessed: April 21, 2023).
Your employee advocacy platform (2023) EveryoneSocial. Available at: https://everyonesocial.com/ (Accessed: April 21, 2023).