Talent is the main ingredient for the recipe of success. But to draw attention to your dish, it is important to have the right presentation of your preparation. In this context, social media acts as that garnish aka stage which brings your dish, your talent, to the spotlight. With the power to go viral, social media is definitely a favourite amongst all those artists who wish to make the world see their passion. Let’s specifically look at some dance artists who have used this secret ingredient to enhance the flavours of their success. Social Media rules are applying to performing artists like never before and Social is the way to go…er…perform.
Amymarie Gaertner is a self-taught dancer and choreographer. She hails from the small town of Ohio. At a young age of 22, she is already a social media celeb! It is through this platform that she established herself. Her first video was uploaded on Vine, after which she her popularity started growing at a neck-breaking speed. She has more than 5,50,000 subscribers. She posts dance videos and video blogs that are shared in huge numbers.
Chloe Lukasiak started taking dance lessons when she was just 2 years old. But it was only when she appeared in the show Dance Moms that she became known. However, her popularity took a flight after she became active on social media. She has over 1.34 million subscribers. Now she’s a dance superstar on social media with more than 5.6 million followers on Instagram. She keeps her fans updated about her life through posts and tweets, all of which are shared liberally.
Big players also do not make the mistake of overlooking the power of social media. Rap superstar Snoop Dogg managed the various social media platforms smartly as a part of his campaign to introduce his new identity: Snoop Lion. Considering such a shift could make his fans confused and might even lead to a decline his popularity, the artist was careful to keep his fans involved at all stages of his transformation from Dogg to Lion. On various social media platforms, he conducted Ask me anything sessions, hosted weekly news show and Q&A sessions. As a result of this, he accumulated 31 million Facebook fans, 11 million Twitter followers and over 2.6 million Instagram followers. But above all, he was successful in keeping his fan base loyal and happy.
Maritime Bhangra group has been increasing the traffic on social media since being shared on December. Their video has received over 1.6 million views and over 25,000 shares on Facebook so far and is still counting. This video has been titled as the Holiday Happiness video. This was not the first time that they have grabbed the attention of people so successfully. Last year, they released a bhangra video of them performing on the rocks of Peggy’s Cove. But the fact that their second video took off much faster than their first shows that their popularity had increased manifold after the release of their first video, thanks to social media.
There are numerous companies out there waiting for new and fresh talents and they are now taking the help of social media to reach out to the interested people. For example, multi-award winning casting director Mark Summers tweeted, “Just about to book talent I found on twitter 
#paystofollow”, to his 20,000 followers. So all that one had to do was to connect with Mark via Twitter and that’s how they got booked. By carefully choosing your hashtags and being a part of platforms that that have good reach to relevant people, like Localturnon, you have a easier way of standing out. By being a part of such groups, you raise your chances of getting discovered. Promote yourself wisely and dance to the beats of your success!
#paystofollow”, to his 20,000 followers. So all that one had to do was to connect with Mark via Twitter and that’s how they got booked. By carefully choosing your hashtags and being a part of platforms that that have good reach to relevant people, like Localturnon, you have a easier way of standing out. By being a part of such groups, you raise your chances of getting discovered. Promote yourself wisely and dance to the beats of your success!
It’s not just about managing brand and getting to know your audience. Social media is a great platform to reward your fans. Contests and offers given through social media reach a wider audience. Moreover, since a two-way conversation between the brand/company and the customers is possible through social media, credibility of such reward gets proved as the winners respond with delight. This also increases the participation from the other followers. And since it call comes down to how innovative and engaging can you be with customers, Music Companies and labels have started having dedicated social media team and agents to help them with newer “more viral” ideas as they call it. From live recordings, jamming casuals, fan speak, fan advise to even outsourcing their Instagram or blog accounts for a week to popular band or artist is in vogue. Not only does it benefit the Music Companies getting some social “hits” in terms of subscribers and likes it also gets them the coveted “happening” or the “talked about” tag
Every person is a brand and this is no different for an artist. What determines the success of a brand is the way it is promoted. The product quality (or in case of an artist, his or her talent) is undoubtedly crucial, but equally important is the need to make it reach the right audience at the right time. And the world of social media is just the apt platform for it.
With such large number of musicians, singers, dancers competing and battling out there to get the attention to their talent, ignoring or underplaying the social media platform is nothing but fatal. Social is the way to go.. Social is the stage where you need to be!
PS: Localturnon has just launched its ARTIST TALENT PROMOTION PLAN starting at just Rs 50 / day* (LTO Genie Small for 6 Months) and should you be interested do reach them at neha@localturnon.com
With Inputs from Poornima Venugopalan (MICA)
“Turn On Music || Turn on Happiness || Turn on Life!”