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Latest CMU:DIY x Urban Development session puts the focus on social
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 14 March 2016
CMU:DIY teams up with Urban Development once again this Wednesday for another Industry Takeover Seminar aimed at new talent at London’s Red Bull Studios.
These sessions put the focus on a different topic each month, and this time it’s all things social media, with an expert panel set to look at the challenges and opportunities social channels pose grass-roots artists, how you’re meant to decide which platforms to embrace, and what you need to do to keep fans engaged.
Says CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke in a pre-event blog post: “The fact that artists can [now] so easily talk directly to their core fanbase is amazing. But it also means more work for both artists and their teams, especially at the grassroots. Most social media need a constant supply of content to keep fans engaged, which means that artists who used to put out an album’s worth of songs every couple of years, now need to be thinking of something to say and share at least once a week. Which can be exhausting”.
Cooke also notes another challenge, “the fact that social media itself is evolving so much. Each social media platform evolves. Facebook went from being a free promo platform to arguably becoming an advertising platform, in that you probably now need to spend money to make a real impact on that network. And, of course, Facebook now has ambitions in video, so artists posting video content will be prioritised by the Facebook algorithm”.
“But even if you can keep up with those changes, you also need to be aware of how your fans are evolving too as social networkers”, he goes on. “If you are pitching at a younger fanbase, there’s a chance you’re shouting to an empty room on Facebook. But how can you make use of Instagram and Snapchat? Can you infiltrate Whatsapp? Where, exactly, are your fans hanging out?”
These are questions Cooke will be putting to his panel at the Urban Development session, which runs from 6.30pm-9.30pm this Wednesday, 16 Mar, with PC Music affiliate Hannah Diamond, Complex Magazine’s Joseph ‘JP’ Patterson and MAMA’s Aria Alagha among those set to share words of wisdom. Read Cooke’s full pre-event blog post here, and book tickets for the event here.
