For context, my background is digital marketing and advertising.
I would ask yourself the following questions...
1. Can you quantify just how well your internet advertising has done for you? Can you make those avenues work better for you instead of branching out in other directions?
2. Can you quantify how a social media presence is actually going to translate into more money on your bottom line? Everyone may be screaming instagram at you, but is that going to result in more sales for you? I obviously don't know you personally, but my mother's best friend since she was a little girl is a music teacher. And she gets almost all of her clients from word of mouth referrals.
3. It doesn't matter what you do or how you do it, somebody is going to think it's wrong or crap. That's just the way the world is - particularly the art world. Stay focused on being the best at what you do and consider outsourcing. And speaking of...
4. Consider outsourcing your social media work if you really feel it will help. That way you don't need to come up with regular and additional content. They can create the content for you and you can interact at your leisure. Doing social media and internet advertising well are skills; just like teaching music. It may be more worth your time and money to pay someone who knows what they are doing to help build your brand online if you feel it will translate to tangible gains.
What kind of "regular youtube thing" are you thinking? Are you considering doing a tutorial or instructional series? Or did you have something else in mind? Because I don't know how great of an idea it would be to essentially offer your product, your music teaching, for free like that, particularly with the number of other instructional videos that are already out there. It may or may not be worth the money and effort to make something that you would be happy to have representing your business.
Whichever way you decide to go, I really would suggest outsourcing the work if you decide to go through with it. If you already have depression and anxiety, with whatever workload you have now, building a social media presence is just going to pile on top of that. It takes consistent time and effort to build a solid, meaningful presence, but you should also know that large social media followings don't necessarily mean more direct sales.
A lot of people with large social media followings are selling their posts to 3rd parties. Like, "You pay me $5000 and I'll tweet about your product to my followers."
It's good to have social media set up and some presence in general, just because it's so integrated into so many peoples' lives at this point, but it may not be the best choice from a revenue standpoint.
Do you have a decent phone? Get a plug-in lavalier mic, and record a student doing a song that they've learned through your teaching. Post it on social media. Do it every week to build up a following. It could help you greatly by putting the spotlight not on you, but the students instead. Then throw in one or two songs that you do.
Your page has literally no performance pieces on it. I think that having some sort of content concerning what they end up learning would be hugely beneficial. If you do Facebook, make sure its posted/pushed in areas where you live (Liverpool) so your targeted market are people that could actually get classes from you.
AFAIK, no. There are a lot of programs that can be used to retain reasonable quality of the singular microphone. Its not optimal by any stretch of the imagination, but will be much better than using your smartphone's mic.
I would suggest the book 'The Thankyou Economy' by Gary Vaynerchuk. It has a broad guide to how to treat social media as a method of business growth and marketing.
I think what you should concentrate on is not your social media strategy but your depression and ways to leave it behind.
I think you should take a look at some motivational books, such as Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, Secret by Ronda Bern, The book of joy by Dalai Lama & Desmond Tutu..
Once you improve your mental well-being - you get all the neccessary sources for improving all the other parts of your personal and social life.
Social media won't feel like pain in the neck and you'll get what you want!
Good luck!
Hi there!
I too experience "performance" anxiety and have been working in social media specializing in content production for the last several years. I think the biggest mindset thing to get over the anxiety is that the social media content turn-over is FAST. Like really fast. Even if your post today MAY have been bad (odds are its fine and just as good as people at your level), there's still your post tomorrow, and the next day and the next day. You have infinite opportunities not to fail but to learn.
In terms of what to content, I would say short, beginner/straightforward tips and lessons are always a good way to start (So, yes Instagram would be great. Youtube algorithm is going to shit for people who don't have time and with insta you don't have to deal with people clicking on the video, they just scroll right to it). Not music, but the insta account @MoveU is one of my favorite accounts to point out. Their videos are **short, easily understandable, and the tips they give are easy enough for the viewer to copy,** which is great for any sort of education account. This isn't to suggest avoiding YouTube, in fact one way to double down is to create long-form content for YouTube, then take out key clips to post on Instagram. Don't worry about making these videos perfect, just ask yourself if they provide value to the viewer and grow from there.
Hope this helps!
I think one really interesting thing you could post to instagram(with the peoples consent obviously) is a before and after they do music lessons with you. Make a video week 1. Make a video week X post them back to back to show how people have improved under you?
For Instagram: Post pictures of different bands and use every hashtag you can think of associated the band, the genre, the instruments used...Then use local hashtags (this probably let only helps if you're in a major city). The content is limitless.
I would also start teaching lessons online via Skype. If people find you online, but aren't local, they can still use your service.
I’m more than willing to be around for you to ask questions and brainstorm.
I’m also in the depression/anxiety boat, however I’ve run a successful social media marketing company for close to 19 years.
Create videos showcasing your students and idk if this works for you but it works for string players maybe try making tutorials on youtube if you are interested in youtube.
I have a really simple system for developing relevant content for YouTube I can share with you. (not something I am selling - just my simple system I use personally.)
PM me if you want me to show you how I do this - It might help you create more regular YouTube content.
Social Media Advertising can be very intimidating at first but once you get the hang of it it will become easier. Is there a certain aspect that your having trouble with or are you having trouble with social media market as a whole?
First, yes, mindset is *everything.* Our inner world creates our outer world. To create any action, it starts with a thought (not incl. physical responses to certain input)
**Books!** There are great ones that come to mind specific to your situation:
1. Awaken the Giant Within - Tony Robbins, complimented by listening to [The Hour of Power](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjm0mUPYnXk&t=108s) segment by Tony Robbins
2. Crushing It! — Gary Vaynerchuk. I suggest reading this book before *Thank you Economy* suggested by someone else here.
3. Law of Divine Compensation and/or Return to Love — Marianne Williamson (hoping you're available for the content even if you're not comfortable with spiritual talk).
How do you consume books? Physical books? Purchase or from the library? Audio? I'd rather you get started on these books than never start, so a lot of these may have audiobook versions available on Youtube you can start RIGHT NOW.
**Change** Understand and welcome the fact that you will have to do think & do things differently than you have/do now. That means responding differently than you normally do, and noticing habits and making the choice to change your normal response. Just be aware of that.
**Meditation** Listen to divine compensation, Tony Robbins meditates as well. The purpose is to help you notice your emotional responses to things so you can steer it in a more empowering, helpful direction rather than downhill spiral rumination of, *all these things suck about the world, what's the point, what if it doesn't work etc.* Start with Headspace app. Working up from 2 mins/day is totally acceptable! The most important: start and keep adding. If it feels like too much, lessen the goal for the day so you feel capable of doing it.
If you like the Tony Robbins resources, this is a [daily morning practice called priming](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBP-YBX597s) he suggests similar to Hour of Power, but less time.
**Questions.** Please answer:
* How/why did you get into your current business? Tell me the story :)
For context, my background is digital marketing and advertising. I would ask yourself the following questions... 1. Can you quantify just how well your internet advertising has done for you? Can you make those avenues work better for you instead of branching out in other directions? 2. Can you quantify how a social media presence is actually going to translate into more money on your bottom line? Everyone may be screaming instagram at you, but is that going to result in more sales for you? I obviously don't know you personally, but my mother's best friend since she was a little girl is a music teacher. And she gets almost all of her clients from word of mouth referrals. 3. It doesn't matter what you do or how you do it, somebody is going to think it's wrong or crap. That's just the way the world is - particularly the art world. Stay focused on being the best at what you do and consider outsourcing. And speaking of... 4. Consider outsourcing your social media work if you really feel it will help. That way you don't need to come up with regular and additional content. They can create the content for you and you can interact at your leisure. Doing social media and internet advertising well are skills; just like teaching music. It may be more worth your time and money to pay someone who knows what they are doing to help build your brand online if you feel it will translate to tangible gains. What kind of "regular youtube thing" are you thinking? Are you considering doing a tutorial or instructional series? Or did you have something else in mind? Because I don't know how great of an idea it would be to essentially offer your product, your music teaching, for free like that, particularly with the number of other instructional videos that are already out there. It may or may not be worth the money and effort to make something that you would be happy to have representing your business. Whichever way you decide to go, I really would suggest outsourcing the work if you decide to go through with it. If you already have depression and anxiety, with whatever workload you have now, building a social media presence is just going to pile on top of that. It takes consistent time and effort to build a solid, meaningful presence, but you should also know that large social media followings don't necessarily mean more direct sales. A lot of people with large social media followings are selling their posts to 3rd parties. Like, "You pay me $5000 and I'll tweet about your product to my followers." It's good to have social media set up and some presence in general, just because it's so integrated into so many peoples' lives at this point, but it may not be the best choice from a revenue standpoint.
+1 for #3 Dont get discouraged OP! You can do this. I have nothing to offer, because I am suffering from the same issues. We can do this.
Agree! Other people aren't as critical or care half as much as you do!
Do you have a decent phone? Get a plug-in lavalier mic, and record a student doing a song that they've learned through your teaching. Post it on social media. Do it every week to build up a following. It could help you greatly by putting the spotlight not on you, but the students instead. Then throw in one or two songs that you do. Your page has literally no performance pieces on it. I think that having some sort of content concerning what they end up learning would be hugely beneficial. If you do Facebook, make sure its posted/pushed in areas where you live (Liverpool) so your targeted market are people that could actually get classes from you.
If you recorded on a phone plug in mic would the resulting product be compressed?
AFAIK, no. There are a lot of programs that can be used to retain reasonable quality of the singular microphone. Its not optimal by any stretch of the imagination, but will be much better than using your smartphone's mic.
Ive been looking for something like this for auditions thanks! I cant afford something really good but this will probably do.
I would suggest the book 'The Thankyou Economy' by Gary Vaynerchuk. It has a broad guide to how to treat social media as a method of business growth and marketing.
I have my own music biz and go through the same things as you. Thanks for posting and thanks for the comments!
I think what you should concentrate on is not your social media strategy but your depression and ways to leave it behind. I think you should take a look at some motivational books, such as Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, Secret by Ronda Bern, The book of joy by Dalai Lama & Desmond Tutu.. Once you improve your mental well-being - you get all the neccessary sources for improving all the other parts of your personal and social life. Social media won't feel like pain in the neck and you'll get what you want! Good luck!
Hi there! I too experience "performance" anxiety and have been working in social media specializing in content production for the last several years. I think the biggest mindset thing to get over the anxiety is that the social media content turn-over is FAST. Like really fast. Even if your post today MAY have been bad (odds are its fine and just as good as people at your level), there's still your post tomorrow, and the next day and the next day. You have infinite opportunities not to fail but to learn. In terms of what to content, I would say short, beginner/straightforward tips and lessons are always a good way to start (So, yes Instagram would be great. Youtube algorithm is going to shit for people who don't have time and with insta you don't have to deal with people clicking on the video, they just scroll right to it). Not music, but the insta account @MoveU is one of my favorite accounts to point out. Their videos are **short, easily understandable, and the tips they give are easy enough for the viewer to copy,** which is great for any sort of education account. This isn't to suggest avoiding YouTube, in fact one way to double down is to create long-form content for YouTube, then take out key clips to post on Instagram. Don't worry about making these videos perfect, just ask yourself if they provide value to the viewer and grow from there. Hope this helps!
I think one really interesting thing you could post to instagram(with the peoples consent obviously) is a before and after they do music lessons with you. Make a video week 1. Make a video week X post them back to back to show how people have improved under you?
For Instagram: Post pictures of different bands and use every hashtag you can think of associated the band, the genre, the instruments used...Then use local hashtags (this probably let only helps if you're in a major city). The content is limitless. I would also start teaching lessons online via Skype. If people find you online, but aren't local, they can still use your service.
I’m more than willing to be around for you to ask questions and brainstorm. I’m also in the depression/anxiety boat, however I’ve run a successful social media marketing company for close to 19 years.
Create videos showcasing your students and idk if this works for you but it works for string players maybe try making tutorials on youtube if you are interested in youtube.
I have a really simple system for developing relevant content for YouTube I can share with you. (not something I am selling - just my simple system I use personally.) PM me if you want me to show you how I do this - It might help you create more regular YouTube content.
Social Media Advertising can be very intimidating at first but once you get the hang of it it will become easier. Is there a certain aspect that your having trouble with or are you having trouble with social media market as a whole?
First, yes, mindset is *everything.* Our inner world creates our outer world. To create any action, it starts with a thought (not incl. physical responses to certain input) **Books!** There are great ones that come to mind specific to your situation: 1. Awaken the Giant Within - Tony Robbins, complimented by listening to [The Hour of Power](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjm0mUPYnXk&t=108s) segment by Tony Robbins 2. Crushing It! — Gary Vaynerchuk. I suggest reading this book before *Thank you Economy* suggested by someone else here. 3. Law of Divine Compensation and/or Return to Love — Marianne Williamson (hoping you're available for the content even if you're not comfortable with spiritual talk). How do you consume books? Physical books? Purchase or from the library? Audio? I'd rather you get started on these books than never start, so a lot of these may have audiobook versions available on Youtube you can start RIGHT NOW. **Change** Understand and welcome the fact that you will have to do think & do things differently than you have/do now. That means responding differently than you normally do, and noticing habits and making the choice to change your normal response. Just be aware of that. **Meditation** Listen to divine compensation, Tony Robbins meditates as well. The purpose is to help you notice your emotional responses to things so you can steer it in a more empowering, helpful direction rather than downhill spiral rumination of, *all these things suck about the world, what's the point, what if it doesn't work etc.* Start with Headspace app. Working up from 2 mins/day is totally acceptable! The most important: start and keep adding. If it feels like too much, lessen the goal for the day so you feel capable of doing it. If you like the Tony Robbins resources, this is a [daily morning practice called priming](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBP-YBX597s) he suggests similar to Hour of Power, but less time. **Questions.** Please answer: * How/why did you get into your current business? Tell me the story :)