B08 - Brands, Marketing, and Advertising with Social Media
Engaging Customers
Social media provides artists and music labels with a direct way to engage fans and build loyalty. Strategies like behind-the-scenes content, Q&A sessions, and interactive tools (like Instagram polls) help create a sense of connection. For instance, Spotify’s 2023 Culture Next Report reported that 53% of Gen Z music fans discover new music via social media. Many artists, mainstream and independent, use platforms like TikTok to tease unreleased tracks, turning fans into active participants in the release journey. Responding to comments, sharing fan-created content, and offering exclusive previews via Instagram Live, Discord or Patreon can also deepen fan engagement. These tactics not only raise awareness of new music releases, but also create an emotional investment that translates into streams, ticket sales, and merchandise purchases. When engaging people online, authenticity and two-way interaction are key to turning casual listeners into long-term fans.
Building a Brand
Social media branding in the music industry relies on storytelling, community, and consistency. Visual cohesion, tone of voice, and thematic content help establish a recognizable identity across platforms. Indie artists often excel at this, an example being Laufey, whose brand of jazz-infused indie pop is consistently reflected in her visuals, lyrics, and captions—building a strong aesthetic that resonates across social media and bleeds into her live performances. Consistently, consumers prefer to buy from brands that share their values. Artists who align their content with their personality or message—which can range from political activism to emotional nostalgia to high-energy fun—are more likely to attract loyal audiences because authenticity resonates.
Both large label and small independent marketing campaigns both must stay consistent, engage with fans often, and share the “why” behind the music. Treat social media as storytelling, not just promotion. A memorable brand is built over time by showing up with intention and purpose across all content.
Finger on the Cultural Pulse
A successful social media branding example in music is Doja Cat. Her meme-savvy, humorous, and unpredictable content keeps fans engaged, helping her to go viral repeatedly. Not Doja’s first, but possibly her largest moment of virality, was with her single “Say So” on TikTok in 2020. Her team’s understanding of internet culture has led to huge commercial success. Alternatively, we could consider the case of Ashlee Simpson’s infamous SNL lip-syncing incident.
Cancel Culture
Though technically predating today’s social-media-fueled-cancel-culture era, her brand was unable to recover, perhaps partly because she lacked the direct-to-fan platforms that exist now. If modern social media methods were available to Simpson’s team, they might have been able to control the narrative better by immediately addressing the incident before tabloids wrote about it the next morning.
A more recent example is rapper DaBaby, whose insensitive comments at a live show led to backlash across social media and a drop in collaborations and bookings. This shows how quickly brand image can be damaged online. These examples highlight the importance of authenticity, cultural awareness, social sensitivity, and audience connection. Artists must navigate social media with both strategy and care to build lasting careers.
