**Guest post written by Wassim Awess, founder of the Music Career Guide.

"Understanding the importance of social media in this day and age is not enough to take you to the next level. It’s very much about testing, seeing what works out for you when you use the platform and how you use it.

Here are 8 tips to help you maximize your efforts with social media marketing, which will guarantee you positive results if you implement them properly and consistently.

1- Go live:

Frequently going live on Instagram/Facebook means being active enough to make sure you increase engagement with your social media following.

+5 Ways to Use Facebook Live to Grow Your Band's Reach

2- Develop a content marketing strategy:

Work on a content marketing strategy and include all the social media platforms you use. You’ll get more likes and followers by mixing up your content and making it more engaging.

Prepare a list of content you'd like to post and make sure to market it properly.

3- Find your influence:

We all have our favorite music artists we follow on social media, who's your favorite? Use those artists' social pages as a guide for you to build your own, but remember... DON'T COPY. Instead, take the elements that help the artists' share their social appearance (such as their bio, type of content they upload, what they comment on, etc) and use it to build your own elements.

4- Maintain your persona:

Maintaining an artistic persona on social media is something many artists fail to do. It's easy for people to pass judgment and criticize you. As an artist, you're going to deal with many haters in your career, yet you don't want to fall into that trap and respond to hateful comments. Remember your principles as well as the traits that shape your persona, and let them guide you in every situation.

+Principles of Playing an Excellent Show

5- Track your data:

It may seem like an unimportant, boring task, but putting aside time to track your data actually helps you reveal a lot about your audience. Viewing your analytics lets you evaluate your current performance results and helps with creating a new, updated content marketing strategy to grow your audience even more.

+Find Your Fans: Using Data to Analyze Your Audience

6- Check what's the best time to post:

A well-timed post can increase engagement and help you reach more of your potential fans. Check when it's best to post according to your time zone and make sure to test the effectiveness of posting at different times of day.

7- Facebook ads:

Since facebook’s organic reach is pretty much dead, Investing in Facebook ads can be a great way to gain exposure and maximize your reach.

+How to Harness the Power of Targeted Facebook Ads to Build Your Fanbase

8- Content Variation:

Be sure to change up your types of content. Rather than just promoting and marketing your music... Share tips with your audience, struggles you face as a musician, BTS content and host contests or giveaways.

Mix it up to appeal to more potential fans.

Final Thoughts

Gaining exposure as an artist means putting yourself out there in every way possible. Be present online where people who care about your genre are.

Let your fans know they're your friends. Don't be afraid of being creative and authentic. It's not enough to create content. You have to interact with your community.

+Your Three Communities

I really encourage responding to every fan at the start. There's so much importance to knowing your audience and engaging with them.

Have a good 30 minutes to one hour every day of social engagement combined with content creation.

Have presence on all over social platforms to get the most possible potential for reach. Your next fan might not be so interactive on twitter yet scrolls through Instagram 5 hours a day. It's all about being where your audience is and engaging with them authentically and consistently.

So go ahead, check out new social media platforms right now and create an account on each one.

Use your message, brand, and personality to bring authenticity to the table, and start engaging as well as creating content to win over more people. "

Related Blog Posts:

+5 Actionable Tips To Boost Your Social Media Following

+4 Tips For Building More Fun Into Your Next Tour

+A release strategy to fill your yearly calendar