Creative Direction and Branding: 6 Ways Artists Can Improve Their Personal Brand
- SiX EiGHT ONE
- Oct 18, 2024
- 3 min read
Your personal brand, identity and creative direction is becoming more and more important as we go further into this digital era.
You never know who is watching, what they do and/or why/how they have come across your profile, so best not to assume that everyone is an existing fan who knows everything about, including your favourite colour.
As an Artist, presumably hoping to establish a long career in the music industry, you’ll want to put your best foot forward at all times, so to help you with laying out the groundwork that will help you to figure out your creative direction and branding, here are 6 ways artists can improve their personal brand:
#1 - Perform a 'digital health check'
Do some research, take notes, gather data and information of where things stand at present across your social media profiles and key DSP profiles.
Determine which are your strongest platforms based on the data and engagement, where are your core fans most engaged and reactive to your communication? Prioritise those platforms.
#2 - Focus on your key social media/online platforms
Based on your digital health check, ensure you have a good presence on the platforms where your audience are most engaged.
Don’t fall victim to trying to be everything everywhere, it’s better to be super engaged on one platform, than hardly there across five.
"Don't fall victim to trying to be everything everywhere..."
#3 - Be consistent with social handles/usernames
It seems pretty obvious and like a sensible thing to do, however, you would be surprised by the number of artists (who want to be found) have a different username/handle for every platform they exist on.
For example: if you are “@SpaceMan99” on TikTok, be sure to be “@SpaceMan99” on your Instagram, SoundCloud and any others you have a profile on.
#4 - Stay consistent with imagery, colours and headers
Again, if you have a headshot on SoundCloud with you wearing a beret, ensure you’re using the same headshot on your other profiles too.
Another key point to note, keep imagery current and up-to-date, if you’ve recently had new photos taken, get your platforms (including DSPs) updated asap.
#5 - Ensure consistency in biogs/descriptions
If your biog on Spotify reads simply “I am me…”, then you should replicate this across all platforms and social media accounts where possible.
In relation to the above, unless it’s part of your brand identity, you should try to avoid ‘one word’ or ‘smart’ sarcastic descriptions, at least on one profile (or somewhere) there should be some basic info about you that will be useful to people discovering you for the first time, e.g.: UK or US based? Any live shows/tours coming up?
#6 - Be sure music links and sites are available (and working)
Nothing is worse than clicking links that lead nowhere, or even worse, to someone else’s profile – make sure you check spellings and the URL you’re providing, if it’s no longer active, don’t include it!
Summary
As mentioned in the intro, you never who has taken an interest in what you do, ranging from a die-hard fan who saw your last gig, to someone from the rural countryside who heard your song in a TV show, or even a top record label/distro exec who is looking for the ‘next big thing’!
Bearing those points in mind, you want to ensure you have minimal ‘pain points’ or barriers for people engaging with you on their own terms, whether that is SoundCloud, TikTok, Deezer or Spotify, make it as easy as possible for you to be found and thus build a fanbase!
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SiX EiGHT ONE
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