With social media being a leading pioneer in the way the most businesses and creators share their content, there's no excuse for being limited to lack of platforms, apps or other means of connecting socially to your audience. Even if you're not much of an online person, there are ways to invest in yourself as a content creator and market a brand new single that no one has awareness of. Getting your friends to share and listen is hard enough without having to pitch to a bunch of strangers, but hopefully we can make the techniques of sharing much easier for you with a few tactics we have personally used for artists ourselves.
1. Book Gigs & Perform Your New Song
Drawing in a crowd can be tough, but when a minimum established fan base is in place, you can easily lure them to your show but not only offering limited edition merchandise that won't be available in your online stone (if you own a personal website) along with the incentive that if they come out, they'll be the first to hear the song before you release it to the rest of the public via streaming platforms. Whether it's at a major venue or just an average intimate setting, use live streams to your advantage to share with your fans who can't make the show (of course, don't tell them you're going live or else they'll feel like they won't need to show up in person). Perform a shorter version of the song that is still familiar to the original recording but is not revealing enough to ruin the whole surprise, leaving room for the listeners to explore more of the track while streaming or purchasing. This will make them love the song even more.
2. Release the video first, THEN the song
We know this may sound a little backwards to some of you, but it works! Having the song already recorded as well as the video leaves room for more marketing and promoting and less stressing about not having enough time to actually record a video within an appropriate window so people won't forget about it. Releasing the video on your VeVo or Youtube channel allows the listener to experience the full effect of your vision and the song simultaneously. You can then leave in the description box that the song will be available for purchase/download/stream on all platforms within the next week. This enhances your views because listeners will want to watch the video just for the song, whether they like it or not. Be sure to copyright the video and add a Youtube to MP3 converter, that way they can't download the song before your intended release.
3. Tease the audience
Say for instance you've already recorded your music video and have not released the song yet (assuming you're trying #2), then simple tease the audience by release "Boomerangs" or short 5 to 10 second clips of the video with just the hook or instrumental of the song and place a hash tag at the very end to get them them talking. Say for instance you haven't recorded the video but are in the mist of releasing the song. Give yourself at least 2 to 3 months of promotion to work everyone up to the release. This includes mentioning it during press, shows, interviews and even during regular friendly conversation. With 2 to 3 weeks before your set release date, release creative and interactive video clips or gifs as a countdown leading up to the release. You can also ask your more dedicated fans and supporters to change their profile pictures to the cover art up to 3 days before the release. For example: for Indie-Pop artist Shenna's first single release for "Me Vs You", we asked many of her family, friends, fans and supporters to change their profile pictures to the cover art of her single, sparking the flame of anticipation and buzz. This led to those same people and people who did not change their photos to share and repost the video 25% more than her other approaches.
4. Contests and Giveaways
Some artists may ask themselves, "Well, exactly do I have to give away?"This is a great question especially if you're allowing your single to be streamed for free OR if you're just starting out and don't really have any merch. If you do, give the people something that they want. Just because you have some left over T-Shirts, bracelets and stickers doesn't necessarily mean that the fans will want them if you're giving away JUST that. Try partnering with a small entrepreneur or business who may have just a bit more followers than you do and collaborate with them that way you benefit from their customers and they benefit from your fans. If you're a bit more up on the ranks you can always give out concert tickets such as Lizzy Ashliegh who's team gave away tickets to see Childish Gambino and Rae Sremurrd in order to promote her new single and video for "Feel". Or like X-YLE who gave away a free "BreakTape", (a modern portable mp3 cassette tape) who he collaborated with to promote their business, to a attendant of his album release party. If it's not within your budget, a simple gift card will do (try not to limit it to Starbucks but perhaps a $40 iTunes card with a free download of your single before it releases to the public).
Photo: X-YLE giveaway BreakTape
5. The Beyonce
Sometimes you plan and plan and in the end you don't receive the results you were looking for. With a combination of #5 and #3 you can probably get away with pulling a Beyonce and dropping a single without any OBVIOUS amount of promotion. You can always hashtag the name of the song on all of your posts and pictures a month before. You can always turn it into an inside joke when you want videos making people believe that is your new signature or slogan. You can order drinks or food and instead of giving them your name, give them the name of the song and post it on social media. You can create stickers with the hash tag or song name and the link to where you would post it and stick them around your neighborhood or places where it would be subtle but recognized. There are various ways to be "hush hush" about your marketing without actually being loud about it. You can create riddles or hidden messages and codings in what you post in reference to the single. As long as it all makes sense and comes back to the single as a whole, your true fans will catch on and figure it out after the release. Be discreet, be mysterious but never be so invert that nobody gets it.
What unique ways have you used to promote your single?