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I am sort of sorry for the clickbait-ish title, but the fact is that is the truth and I am okay with it. This isn’t to say that I think my work is garbage and I should give up, but rather this says a lot more about me personally than my work. I have been creating things since I can remember. The first thing I can recall was legos and far exceeding what the instructions stated. After that, there was a vast number of outlets I attempted to use to create or pen my thoughts both digitally and physically. Each one of these projects has taken me countless hours, days, and even years. There is this ecstatic feeling I get when I finish a project, but that lasts days if not hours. When it eventually hits, and it always does, I start to loathe what I have created. It doesn’t start out as hatred. It just starts out as disinterest, but it evolves slowly and slowly. Thankfully, I am not alone on this feeling.

You see, I always strive for perfection. Rather, I used to strive for perfection. This sounds like a terrible interview response, but hear me out. We are always told to strive for the best. Achieve the best. Only perform at the best. It is no question that the best is what separates the “us” versus “them.” The win-lose mentality. It is what makes legends great. It is why LeBron James the caliber player that dominates a league. There are plenty of examples of this. Oddly enough, that is how I went by creating the majority of my work. Was it right? Not particularly, but I wanted to be the best.

Perfect is the enemy of good – Voltaire

You may have heard this quote. Winston Churchill said something similar with “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” Gary Vaynerchuk said “Speed is 4 billion times more important than perfection.” There is a commonality here with this. Perfection is bad. Perfection means there is an end to a beginning. That isn’t the case with us. As humans, we are meant to thrive on perceptual knowledge and growth especially on things we care about. This pushes us forward. This allows us to extend the boundary. This allows us to bend and even change the rules. This will always provide the itch that regardless how hard we try, we cannot scratch.

This is why I loathe everything I make. It isn’t that I hate the finish product. On the contrary, I think of ways to improve it; to change it; to do something differently; to do better. It plagues me as this happens on each and every project. I have been attempting to come to terms with this. It is extremely difficult with time constraints, and the fact that this will create a terrible paradox in which I never finish anything and always change or upgrading.

Although, I wouldn’t have this any other way. If I didn’t loathe everything I make, I wouldn’t push myself to grow. There would be no incentive to educate and evolve. I always joke around when I say this, but stagnation is death. Obviously, this is grossly exaggerated, but the idea behind it remains. If I loved my work, I wouldn’t learn. I wouldn’t constantly research the best methods. I wouldn’t experiment with new ideas. I wouldn’t get better. I wouldn’t evolve. I would just do nothing at all.

That brings me back to my work. I loathe it and that is okay. I embrace the feeling. I appreciate feeling. I am loathing it because I want the best and in order for me to do the best, I have to loathe my past work in order for my future work to be better as I know I have the potential to provide better. I rather loathe my work than to not do any work. At the end of the day, I appreciate the journey and not the destination. I will always loathe my work, but it is only as of recently that I have accepted that I will loathe it. Progress isn’t pretty, but I love to get into the nitty gritty when it comes to projects.

Plus, if you like it. That is what matters most.

For those who aren’t familiar, I run a electronic dance music website where we constantly post the latest music and news in the industry. At the end of January, I decided to take my knowledge of web design, digital marketing, and my knowledge of the music industry to help up-and-coming producers. I will also be cross posting all of the articles here as while the information is made for electronic dance music artists, it can be easily translated into any other industry.

Did you click on this article because of the aggressive clickbait title? Of course you did! If you didn’t, I commend you. Just, please don’t exit out immediately as this wasn’t intended on being a misleading title. In fact, I am going to address it all. This week’s article was going to be about another service. I was going to write about Twitter and how interesting the social media service is in regards to people. Instead, I wanted to focus on something radically different. I want to focus on you, the artist. I want to help you out. I want to essentially take your mindset and completely reset it. I am going to give you the secrets to the most successful artists and people. I am also going to address some of the articles I have written already and even doing something unusual and address another Electronic Dance Music website which is essentially taboo because we want to keep you on our site. Although, they make great points on both sides and I want to address them in today’s post. First, let us look back on the past few weeks.

Started From the Bottom; Now We’re Here

On January 23rd, 2017, I started this series with a post introducing this series, Shaping the Next Big Artist with what I had planned. I did it because I have talked with artists big and small about how they got where they are. I am no producer. I barely consider myself a DJ as I only did it through college for fun. I am more fascinated on how to reach people. I am also fascinated by the music industry. With this series, I wanted to finally combine the two passions to help others. These are topics that people pay for and personally, there is no reason to pay for it. Although, if you see this on Amazon one day for $0.99, don’t hate me. Sorry. I digress. Anyway, I remember seeing this image as I addressed in my first post.

Since the first post, we talked about being a public relations manager with discussing how to make contacts / writing emails. We discussed being a producer in the sense of understanding on how to go about receiving criticism. I talked about becoming a social media networker with the basic overview of social media as a whole and fully understanding the power of Facebook. We understood the idea behind label owners or merchandising heroes when it comes to basic branding as well as planning out your moves. I made being a web programmer very simple by giving you options for the beginner or advanced user when it comes to websites. Now, I want to bring everything I’ve wrote on together before I continue writing more informational articles.

Social Media Sucks

*Queue big taboo moment.* This past weekend, in between me drinking an inhumane amount of alcohol, I spent my time doing some reading and listening to fireside marketing chats because honestly, I thoroughly enjoy that more than anything else currently in my life. Three articles caught my eye along with a few conversations which spurred this whole post. I read Hashtag Blessed: Music’s Unfortunate Social Media Side Hustle by Wolfgang Gartner (he wrote this in 2015), Connected Not Neglected: An Artist’s Online Presence Is As Important As Their Music by Funster who is Mixmag’s Deputy Digital Editor, and finally Fuck Social Media: To Succeed In Dance Music, You Just Need Great Records by Louis Anderson-Rich who is Mixmag’s Digital Intern. Can you see where I am going with this.

Social media doesn’t mean anything. You don’t need social media. Forget about social media. You may be confused now. I am saying social media stinks and you don’t need it, but if you read my other articles, I am being a total hypocrite. Yes, but no. Here’s the thing. I read these two competing articles between Mixmag writers and they all made very good points and valid points. They bring in examples. Those examples work. They also don’t work. I am being very confusing, but stick with it. They work because obviously those examples are proof in the words. They don’t work because they’re not you. I can give you examples all day and I do in all my articles, but at the end of the day, they’re not you. You should not copy them because you’ll fail.

At the end of the day, it comes down to your music. It comes down to your music. It is either great or it stinks. That’s the binary way of viewing it. Outside of that, it is based upon whether other people think it is great or it stinks. Social media isn’t going to make your music better. This is the statement where if The FPIA reads this, he’ll drop names that are big because of social media. You’re not wrong. There are artists who aren’t really artists and they are huge because of social media. We can’t deny that. Hell, those “artists” may not make the music. They may have an agency tweeting and posting on Facebook for them. They will probably be using Instagress or Boostgram to auto follow or comment on social media. Honestly, that’s the truth. An artist most likely didn’t find your photo of you on your account with 100 followers, smiling in a crowd, liked it, and commented a fire emoji. Sorry to break that news to you.

You’re in a marathon and not a sprint. This isn’t a race to get on a mainstage and make a million dollars. Sure, that’s good, but once you realize you can sustain that because you’re constantly relying on others to keep you relevant. This is why artists like Carl Cox are still around. This is why Deadmau5 continues to kill it. This is why plenty of artists have been in the game for 10, 20, 30+ years. Was social media around in the 80’s? No. Was it relevant in the 90’s? No. MySpace was the first company to truly attract artists and relevancy with social media. Music didn’t begin with social media.

Social media is a tool. You don’t have a toolbox full of just hammers. The end of the game is to get your music in front of people. I don’t care if you use smoke signals, tv commercials, or tweet it a million times. The whole point of social media is to use it right. I will do it again. I will break down what social media for you from my basic overview of social media.

First, let’s read how Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “social media.”

forms of electronic communication (as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)

Social media is essentially a buzzword. That said, let’s break it down a bit more. The definition of social is:

of or relating to human society, the interaction of the individual and the group, or the welfare of human beings as members of society

The definition of media is:

a medium of cultivation, conveyance, or expression

If you don’t like Instagram. Don’t use it. If you don’t like any social media, don’t use it. There is a running joke that was visualized by The Oatmeal that slow internet is far worse than no internet. You rather have no social media than half done nonsense. Straight up, don’t even bother. Unless your career is social media, then you better be on top of social media.

Will social media help you get your name out there? Yes. Will it help communicate to your fans? Yes. Will it help expedite you in growing your brand? Absolutely. Is it required? No. So when I saw those three articles, I agreed with all of them. I understand the underbelly that Wolfgang Gartner talked about in 2015 and essentially predicted what was happening in 2017. Do I believe that an artist’s online presence is as important as their music? NO! MUSIC IS PRIORITY. Now, if we’re talking about your brand outside of your music; it is in that case that social media becomes a huge priority.

At the end of the day, people complain about the image I show above because it is hard work to be an artist now-a-days. As DJ Khaled said, you played yourself because anybody who runs any business knows that you need to be able to do everything and anything. The best boss has done the bottom tier jobs and the executive jobs.

You Suck. Give up. Call it Quits. Get a normal job. Be a fan and not an artist.

If you’re not willing to put in the grind, put in the work, don’t bother making music. If I had to guess, you’re not a prodigy and it doesn’t come easy. Nothing does. I don’t care if you’re the best or the worst. Everyone started relatively the same place with knowing nothing. If you don’t want to put in the time practicing your craft, give up. If you don’t want to focus on your brand whether or not you use social media, don’t bother. If you think this is about rock n’ roll lifestyle, just buy some booze and drugs and save yourself the time trying to get that messed up on stage. If you take to heart what others say to bring you down. Listen to them. Just give up.

If you are giving up. Good. The industry doesn’t want you. If you read any of that and you’re still willing to put in hours upon hours in the studio experimenting and trying to create music for you and you to share, then you’re in the right place. Those who are successful don’t care what others say. I am going to use an example of a kid who is new with our team. We’re still vetting him. Although, he said something that stood out to me and this wasn’t the first time I’ve heard it and it won’t be the last. He was telling me that he has been making music for a number of years now. He wants to be in the industry, but right now he doesn’t think it is viable. I asked why. He said his parents and some friends think it is silly and won’t get him anywhere. I asked him did he try. He said no. He listened to them.

I told him to ignore his parents. Ignore his “friends.” Ignore everyone who says you can’t. They’re garbage. I told him to continue with it. Now, I understand if you need to make money and go to school. There are days that you are off and out of the 24 hours-a-day, you’re not busy during every single second of every single minute of every single hour of every single day. I told him focus on it as much as he can. If you start to become successful and have proof, go with it. Your parents and friends will understand then and probably stink up to you a bit.

On March 7th, 2015, I met and interviewed Robby and Freddy of Louis the Child at Snowstorm Winter Music and Arts Festival in Chicago. I wish I still had the interview which was lost (THANKS SOUNDCLOUD FOR SUCKING). Although, I will NEVER EVER FORGET this moment. At the time, Robby was a senior in high school and about to go to USC and Freddy had a few years to go. They’re young. I knew they were going to blow up when I check their set out instead of seeing Trippy Turtle and they captured my attention away from one of the main artists I wanted to see at the time. I asked them the following:

What do your parents think about your music career in regards to schooling

The question is one of my top ones for young artists because juggling a lifestyle like this is very difficult without school. Freddy told it best. Prior to them blowing up, Freddy’s parents told him that he can focus on his career in music and even go to college for it, but it had to be either a second major or (most likely) a minor. Then, they started hitting a million listens on Soundcloud. He said after that, his parents attitude was to go full into music because clearly there was something there.

I may or may not have slightly butched semantics, but the point I am making is that people change. Perceptions change especially when you have proof. It is difficult to see someone work hard and picture them doing well. It is another to see them working hard and succeeding. In the case of Freddy, they encouraged him to continue, but wanted to have a major that was a backup. In the case of our new guy, he needs to ignore his parents. Get berated for a bit. Use that as fuel to increase your passion.

I can post motivationals all day long like by Casey Neistat (and Max Joseph) who really takes what I have been saying here and puts it into an awesome video:

Learn to tell people off. Tell them off and focus on what you love. Everything else will fall into place as long as you really put the effort and passion in.

Does Social Media Suck?

If you have made it this far from my clickbait title and my rants, congratulations. I commend you and thank you for sticking with me so far. If you watched the videos to enhance my content as well as read the other articles, you’re awesome. Although, you want answers. Well, it depends on you. Do you like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, or whatever social media there is out there? If the answer is yes, social media stinks. If you like one over the others, focus on it. Develop content around that using your brand and your music. Don’t put your eggs in one basket it unless you’re relying on your own website. Look at Vine. Vine stars had to switch outlets or become unheard of. Now, most are on Instagram. Look at people who relied on Snapchat, they’re on YouTube. Your fans will follow you. Your fans will find you if you love the social media and treat it like the site is developed to be treated. That is how it works. It is a tool you’re using to broadcast your brand and in turn your music. They come for the music. You provide the music. Content is king and in this case, your music is your content.

Do You Suck?

Yes. 100%. You stink. If you listen to me, you have bigger problems because I am not stopping you from continuing. I can tell you that you stink all day long, but if you’re scared of what I tell you or what your parents tell you, then you’re feeding into that rather than what you believe. In which case you shouldn’t have to ask if you need to give up, because you should already have done it.

If you think you stink and your work stinks and you’re afraid to share. YOU ARE YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY. There is no such thing as perfection. Perfection is a figurative expression. It doesn’t exist. Put out that work you’re sitting on. One of the funniest things I saw recently was Deadmau5 released a new album, W:/2016ALBUM/. If you’re familiar with the EDM world, you would know he disliked his album.

i don't even like it. it was like… so fucking rushed / slapped together. but i mean… hey, if you like it i wanna like it too, just dont.

— dead mow cinco (@deadmau5) November 20, 2016

Although, people enjoyed the album. At the end of the day, it is the market aka fans that determine if your album is good. Obviously, you want to put out the best work possible. If you’re not going to release your work at all, then your work can’t be even told it is good or bad. The good news is if your work is bad, well, you know how to go up from here. We all take criticism. We need to learn how to receive criticism. Use it to be better. Use it to grow. Don’t let failing stop you. It should have you grow. We all are afraid of being hated, but you should appreciate it.

Plus, who cares what people say that are random in the internet? What are they going to do to make your life worse or better? Seriously. Answer that question.

Should You Give Up?

Yes. Although, if you ignore those of us who tell you that you stink. You keep grinding out. You ignore those who tell you to quit and just do something that is proven, then you’re on the right path. Will the be right? When you give up and prove them to be right will the only time they will be right. Sorry to tell you, there is no right path. There is no wrong path.

That is why I grouped these topics together because having social media or not having it doesn’t matter. It matters on whether or not you’re creating music and not letting anyone especially yourself stand in your way from doing what you love, trying to make a living off what you love, and succeeding by sharing your music with the masses if that is your goal.

The best part about all of this is you’re going to stink in the beginning and that is when you’re going to get the most hate. This will exist with anything – the gym, school, work, sports, anything. The best part is the journey of getting better. It is about the hours learning, it is about the hours of experimenting, reading, testing, trying, sharing, and developing. Stick with it! 

For those who aren’t familiar, I run a electronic dance music website where we constantly post the latest music and news in the industry. At the end of January, I decided to take my knowledge of web design, digital marketing, and my knowledge of the music industry to help up-and-coming producers. I will also be cross posting all of the articles here as while the information is made for electronic dance music artists, it can be easily translated into any other industry.

It was a month ago today that I wrote about the original Shaping the Next Big Artist base article about Social Media in general that briefly discussed Facebook. I do want to fully disclose that in 2014, I researched heavily about Facebook pages on my personal blog. Of course, quite a bit has changed, but the majority of information there is still relevant and how to handle it. Although, I have now used Facebook Advertising system and will be able to help you with that as well. I can arguably say that Facebook is the most important social media to have, yet the most difficult to build. Facebook has so much potential for your pages.

As I said in the Social Media post, there is an average of 1,500 posts that are eligible to appear in a Facebook user’s feed each day. Potentially, this could reach up to 15,000. [1] When I first wrote my article on my blog, an organic reach for your page was 6.51%. [2] When I updated it months later, they said that Facebook’s page reach was in the process of going down to 1% to 2%. [3] Today, above 1% is good. 0.5% to 0.99% is average. Below 0.5% means you need to change things. [4] Scary? Right? I know. Although, I will explain why that isn’t a bad thing, how to combat it, and everything in between.

I do what to note that the majority of statistics aren’t all recent, unfortunately. It used to be that Facebook disclosed some of their information in their annual report, but they haven’t in a number of years With that in mind, just assume that there is a margin of error. 

The First and Only True Rule of Facebook

Any and all content that you post on Facebook, you must think to yourself the following: “Would I be willing to pay to boost this content?” If you say yes, post it. If you say no, don’t post it. I say this not because you should boost all your posts (though it doesn’t hurt whatsoever especially if you have the budget). It is all about consistency and quality. The two go hand-in-hand. I will go into further detail this below, but I wanted to come out and address this immediately.

History of Facebook Pages

To properly explain Facebook pages, I must give you some history. I will give you an abbreviated history for the sake of keeping your attention and for the fact that you want to learn how to improve your page if you have one already. Facebook pages were originally created in November of 2007. [5] They were treated solely as advertisements and it wasn’t available to just anyone. This eventually changed in March of 2009. Mark Zuckerberg had this to say about them. [6]

Starting today, we are announcing new profiles for public figures and organizations. Once called Pages, these new profiles will now begin looking and functioning just like user profiles. Just as you connect with friends on Facebook, you can now connect and communicate with celebrities, musicians, politicians and organizations. These folks will now be able to share status updates, videos, photos or anything else they want, in the same way your friends can already. You’ll be able to keep up with all of their activity in your News Feed. This means that you can find out that Oprah is reading a book backstage before a show, CNN posted a breaking story or U2 is working on a new song, just as you would see that your friend uploaded new photos from her trip to Europe.

Breakdown of Page Statistics

As of December 31st, 2012, there were more than 50 million pages with ten or more likes. [7] If you told me now that there were 10 times the amount today, I wouldn’t be surprised being the difference is 4 years. At the time Facebook released the statistic, there were 1.06 billion monthly active users with 618 million being daily active users for a percentage of 58% daily active. [7] Today, that number is 1.86 billion monthly active users with 1.23 billion being daily active users for a percentage of 66% daily active. [8] This makes Facebook the largest social media site (in terms of monthly active users) by far and number three site of all time globally (behind Google and YouTube).

As of April 2013, the average Facebook user in the United States like 70 pages.

Creating a Page

I really shouldn’t have to do this, but for the fact that I want to cover everything, I will talk about this. There are four steps to make a page look top notch.

Step 1 – Images

Profile Picture

We need our pages to have the profile photo and cover photo. Your profile photo represents you anytime you post and it is your little icon when people search your brand. Ideally, this is a photo of you or your logo. Although, I am not one to tell you what to post. This is a potential fan’s first look at your page and they need to recognize that this page is yours. Profile pictures display at 170×170 pixels on your Page on computers, 128×128 pixels on smartphones and 36×36 pixels on most feature phones. Make sure the photo can scale well. Can be bigger. Just make sure it scales. [12]

Cover Photo

This is a really cool feature of your page. This is what a majority of artists use to feature their latest track or festival. This is your billboard – your digital billboard. Use this to your advantage to advertise yourself. Cover photos displays at 820 pixels wide by 312 pixels tall on your Page on computers and 640 pixels wide by 360 pixels tall on smartphones. Cover photos oad fastest as an sRGB JPG file that’s 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes. [12]

Step 2 – Fill Out Your Information

Your Facebook is good as the content you put. Although, there are plenty of behind the scenes things that people use. There are a ton of sections such as the about section to fill out. Give your story. Tell people about yourself and your story. This is more used by industry people or people trying to get to know you more. Posts are good, but there is more than posts. It asks for your short description, your long description, members of your group (if it isn’t just you). Spend 10 or 20 minutes and fill it all out.

Step 3 – Organize Your Layout

Along with the about me, there is photos, videos, events, etc. Set them up to what you want to use and what you don’t want to use. Facebook Pages allow you to set it up in many different ways. You can also use custom tabs if you so choose. I know third party sources like Eventbrite have custom tabs if you want to add it. This all depends on your needs.

Step 4 – Content, Content, Content

This is the meat and potatoes. We need content. We need posting. Consistent posting. Whether it is your images of you in the studio, on stage, with fans, whatever it may be. We need content. You need to do some text. Add some videos. We’re in the 21st century. We need media and mixed media. The hierarchy of media works like this.

1. Live video. Facebook is really promoting live video hard. They send out notifications to your followers and it only grows with more people who enter in and engage with you. There are tons of options for this where you don’t necessarily have to use your phone. They allow programs and your computer. You can livestream your computer as your producing or live stream a set as you perform for a crowd. There is this copyright issue with that, but that is at your own discretion.
2. Regular video. Video was the most engaging media on Facebook prior to Live. Although, one will argue that regular is better than live. The only downside to this is autoplay can skew results. Regardless, you rather have video.
3. Photo. Photos are engaging. Photos get results. People still love photos on Facebook especially with tagging others and such. You can post photos as posts, but also in comments which if you’re creative can work to your advantage.
4. Text. I don’t ever recommend just plain text, but it still is valued on here.
5. Link. Links aren’t really valued well on Facebook. Think of it from their perspective. They’re trying to keep people on their site.

We Talking About Content

The 20% is you sharing other people’s work. Maybe, you’re sharing a photo of another artist that may relate to you. Maybe you’re sharing a festival that you’re in or a small show. This is where you’re showing that it isn’t all about you, but in reality, it expands who you truly are.

The last 10% is all you. This is you posting that track. This is you selling tickets. This is you selling your EP. This is you asking people to vote for you for a remix contest. This is where you ask your fans to support you. When you build a repertoire with your fans, they want to support you. There is a reason people drive eight hours to see their favorite artist. There is a reason people buy fan merchandise. There is reasons people get tattoos which are for the most part, permanent. They support the artist through and through. You need to build that repertoire.

As I said in the Social Media post,

This isn’t something you may want to hear, but if you want to pull in fans, you need to produce content. You need to be a content machine. Once again, you cannot get away with posting the same thing on all your socials. That’s the lazy way out. You need to post similar, but unique content. For instance, what becomes popular on Instagram doesn’t necessarily become popular on Twitter. What people love to see on YouTube is different than Facebook. You need to tailor your content to each medium. Is it extra work? You bet it is, but original content is what will drive home the best fan. You also need to understand what is the priority focus of the media on these different sites. Here are some examples. 

Tips to Content

Here are some tips using the information of the 70/20/10 or the Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook when it comes to Facebook.

1. Be consistent.
2. Be relevant. This may sound silly, but it works. There are a ton of viral music. Mannequin Challenge. Harlem Share. Hit the Quan. Cat Daddy. Whatever. Use that to your advantage. Same thing with like the Ice Bucket Challenge.
3. Base your posts on time. Facebook provides when posts are considered most popular. Schedule your posts around these times. This isn’t mandatory, but only helpful. Needless to say, they change frequently.
4. Keep your text short. There is a reason why people love Twitter. It is short and sweet. They’re not reading a blog, but rather a status. Stick with 150 characters (give or take).
5. Be relevant. This should be understood. If you’re about electronic dance music, you wouldn’t talk about carpentry. If you’re about cars, you wouldn’t discuss women’s fashion. At least give a relation to your topics.
6. Be up-to-date. Your industry is constantly changing. Stay up-to-date.
7. Have some value. No one wants to hear what you are eating for breakfast unless your page is about breakfast. Imagine what your fans want to see. Give it to them.
8. Entertain. Be funny. Use video. Memes. Make sure you’re doing it right if you do. There is a reason why sports pages go viral because they playfully taunt other teams and fans. There are limits to this. See below where I discuss this in detail.

Memes – Yay or Nay?

I get this so often. I see that people are even hiring others to make memes. This is a very difficult subject to address. Do memes work? Yes. People love memes. It translates emotions and a story through a silly photo. Here is my problem. People lean on memes hard to provide engagement. Unfortunately, it doesn’t necessarily translate well. What I mean by that is that if you’re posting memes and they’re not original or related to you, you’ll get engagement, but you’re not getting a quality fan. This will mean when you post the 10% of your music and such, they won’t care. They want the memes and you’re trying to build your brand and share your music. I can understand if you make yourself into a meme, but those don’t translate well as a majority of them are just forced and bad. One could argue that if you do relatable memes and provide a description on how it relates, it could be considered solid content. Although, people read memes as it is short and sweet, not your story. I am against it. This is personal, but my reasoning makes sense. I don’t think you need to cheapen your Facebook Page.

Let’s Get Creative

Facebook allows for you to get creative. Creativity flourishes. Creativity will allow you to get more fans because people share creative content. My absolute favorite example of creativity when it comes to Facebook is Mashd N Kutcher. Those guys are geniuses. Remember when the Mannequin Challenge came out? Everyone and their mother had a video. They were able to combine it in a live show with Party Thieves and it went viral. My friends who never heard of Mashd N Kutcher heard of them after that video.

16,000,000 (16 million)+ views. 416,000,000 (416 thousand)+ likes. 210,000 (210 thousand)+ shares. That is the definition of viral. They just took what everyone else did and made it their own. It relates to them as they were performing as showing their skills. This is why they have a million plus likes.

Another example that comes to mind is Snails posting a photo of himself and asking his fans to photoshop him.

The reason this sticks out is that the responses were incredible. Bonus was this got picked up by a ton of blogs for even more publicity.

Obviously, these things can’t be done by everyone all the time because they’ll become moot. Although, it doesn’t stop you from posting other content. Laidback Luke uses his Facebook page to post his vlogs which are very entertaining.

He posts them on Facebook despite the fact that having them on YouTube makes some profit with Adsense and Facebook doesn’t provide any profit. Although, the content is gold and people thoroughly enjoy them.

Will People See Me?

This is the part of the article where I would have talked about EdgeRank and the formula Facebook came up with. I even discussed it on my personal blog. That said, what I didn’t know then, EdgeRank was dead. Well, sorta. Facebook posts used to have three things in order for it to become big on the news feed.

• Affinity — i.e., how close is the relationship between the user and the content/source – a friend, a family member, co-worker, stranger?
• Weight — i.e., what type of action such as comments, likes, etc. was taken on the content?
• Decay — i.e., how recent/current is the content – posted yesterday or last week?

That was the easy times. Now, according to Lars Backstrom, Engineering Manager for News Feed Ranking at Facebook estimated there are as many as “100,000 individual weights in the model that produces News Feed.” [15] Just like Google SEO and Bing Search, we don’t know how it truly works and that is so no one can manipulate it. Plus, it changes frequently. What worked this week may not work next week. A good example of this is the live voting videos and now photos. This is in fact against their brand rules. [16] Up until 2014, the hot thing to do was download gates where you had to like the page to get a free track. It got out of hand and that too was banned. [17] You can’t ask for liking a status, but you can ask people to like your page in the comments.

Here are 3 tips outside of everything I talked about already to help with your reach.

1. Inform your fans that they have a page feed that is separate from their news feed so they can see the content from your page (along with all the other pages they liked).

This is really simple. It helps you along with your competitors (if they liked them too).

2. Have your fans become “super fans” by changing their notification settings.

There is this neat feature when it comes to pages (and profiles). You can alter your news feed manually by changing how you follow a page or person. Ask for your super fans to do what you see above – “See First” in their news feed and All On in their notifications. From then on, they’ll get a notification that you posted and will be on the top of their news feed.

3. Drop Some Money and Advertise.

Facebook’s advertising system is crazy. I mean, it is absolutely crazy. You can target individuals based on their demographic, interests, behaviors, and so much more. They have a ton of tools such as:

• Conversion Tracking: Track what your fans are doing after viewing your Facebook Ad.
• Custom Audiences: If you have an email list, you can use Facebook ads to target them.
• Lookalike Audiences: You can target Facebook users that are similar to your fans.
• Audience Insights: When you create ads, you get a ton of analytics. You can better target your audience based off these ads.
• Website Custom Audiences: If you have a website, you can target those who visit your website.
• Facebook Exchange: You can retarget ads for those who’ve checked out a certain part of your site.

Facebook is Here to Stay

I really hope all this information can really help you develop your Facebook page into something amazing. People tend to swear off Facebook because it costs money to get anywhere. Truthfully, with good content and $5, you’ll be fine. Money just expedites everything, but it isn’t necessary. Facebook is here for a while. This isn’t a social media that will come and go. A billion plus users means you have a lot of people you can advertise to. There is so much you could do and achieve with Facebook. I didn’t really go in-depth in Facebook Advertising and I apologize. It is very difficult to write about such a topic outside of what I just explained because it is so personalized. I can’t give you tips that I use because it could be different than yours. That said, everything I explained in here for content will work ideally for posts or advertisements. If you want to learn more about Facebook Advertising, they have a free course called Facebook Blueprint. It is a phenomenal resource to help you become good at it. Although, it isn’t necessary to build a fantastic account. It comes down to content, content, content. “Content is king. Context is God.” Gary Vaynerchuk.

For those who aren’t familiar, I run a electronic dance music website where we constantly post the latest music and news in the industry. At the end of January, I decided to take my knowledge of web design, digital marketing, and my knowledge of the music industry to help up-and-coming producers. I will also be cross posting all of the articles here as while the information is made for electronic dance music artists, it can be easily translated into any other industry.

Outside of electronic dance music, the one topic I can talk all day about is websites. I have been making websites since the end of the 1990’s and ended up majoring in computer science in college. I have built this site as well as all the other versions with EDM Assassin among my other projects. I may have a bit of a bias when it comes to websites, but I do it for a good reason. Although, knowing that I tend to go overboard on this subject, I’ll be making this extremely simple for you to do as well as create by yourself. I can understand how individuals or agencies charge thousands for websites, myself included, but the majority do it within reason. I will break this down for you section by section along with giving multiple options and explaining it all.

Why Need a Website with Social Media?

This is the most asked question I receive from artists when I inform them that they should have website. I get it. You don’t pay for social media. It is out there for free. Although, social media changes. It updates. Algorithms change. Popularity of said social media changes. Remember MySpace? What about Friendster? Remember when people were hating on Facebook and said it was dead to them. I can say the same about Twitter and other social media websites. Nothing is forever when you don’t have control. A website is under your control. As long as you maintain (the little maintenance that it requires) and have backups (always should have backups), websites can last forever. It is also your little piece of the internet. You can culminate everything you’ve done on your website and not rely on another website. Soundcloud goes down? Least you have your music on your website. What about that awesome photo someone took of you, but they deleted their Facebook. If you saved it, you can put it on your website (with their permission). Your website will not go anywhere unless you choose for it to do so. Simple as that.

Domain Names

As I have mentioned on the articles revolving around Basic Branding and Social Media, you should have a domain name for yourself or your group. Domain names are simple to purchase and simple to handle. There are plenty of registrars out there to purchase domain names from. I use and recommend Namecheap. There are others such as GoDaddy, 1&1, Google, Name, etc. Any of them are good, but I chose Namecheap. Two things to note when doing domain names. Always setup two-step authentication and always use a registrar that is different than your host for security reasons.

When it comes to choosing a domain name, there are few recommendations or guidelines that I always stick with. This doesn’t mean you have to follow, but you’re trying to appease your following and they may not always see it the same way as you do. The idea is to make it easiest for them to find you.

1. Always use a .com

When you think of websites, you think of .com. I know there are a ton of different top level domain names including specialty ones, but when you think of any domain name, you think about .com. It is inherent. It is unfortunate that it works this way, but it is extremely rare to find something that is outside of this rule. I have a portfolio that uses a .org, but I have a backup .com that I give to clients for this very reason. Why cause any issue and lead them to another site? Just get a .com.

2. Never ever use a hyphen

This is the most simple rule I can give. I will give you a real life example. My first domain name I ever got was perfection-studios.com. I don’t own the domain name anymore, but when I kept telling everyone about the site, they would go to perfectionstudios.com. I never said go to perfection “hyphen” studios dot com. This is a preventable mistake that can lose traffic. A majority of your traffic won’t come as a referral, but rather as direct traffic meaning they’ll enter in your web address.

3. Shorter the better

There is no reason for a long domain name. If it isn’t taken, get rid of extraneous words such as The, DJ, etc. Keep it the same as your branding unless the domain name is already taken. A-Trak uses atrak.com, but he also bought djatrak.com. Hell, Facebook went from The Facebook to Facebook. You can keep them both and redirect to one, but always use one and stick with the shortest one. I hate to pick on my friend, John, but I have told him this numerous times and now he makes for a great example.

My buddy John Lutchman is a great DJ and does some great work. He has a solid site, but I am judging him hardcore for his domain name. His domain name is TheDJJohnLutchman.com. There is no reason why it should be that. He doesn’t call himself The DJ John Lutchman. He doesn’t even have DJ John Lutchman in his branding. These are extra words where you can screw up spelling. An issue would be with the double “J” or just writing teh. Of course, these are silly, but you’re trying to minimize this as much as possible. Plus, JohnLutchman.com is available to purchase which gives him zero reason to own it. BUY IT, JOHN!

4. Always use whois protection

When purchasing a domain name, you have to enter all your information. It is a rule. For an addition $2.99 (price may vary), you can get this thing called private registration or whois protection. GET IT. Don’t question. Don’t cheap out. If you don’t, your information is public information. That includes where you live, your full name, and even your phone number. You don’t want to allow yourself to be doxxed. No way! Just buy it and set it. It will give information that will only get to you if need be such as a problem with hosting and lawsuits. That is extremely rare and 99.9% of the time won’t be an issue whatsoever.

Hosting

This is a difficult process for me to write as it all determines how much you understand. I’ll give you two options. I do want to note that there are many other options, but these are what I feel are best for artists as well as the bang for your buck. This can potentially get expensive, but the majority of readers aren’t getting extreme traffic so that isn’t a major issue.

If you don’t know anything about coding or web design go with WordPress hosted

I use exclusively WordPress when it comes to websites. One can argue using different content management systems such as Joomla or Drupal or even a flat content management system such as Grav. They are all great options, but I am a fan of WordPress. 27% of all websites on the internet agree with this which is why I love it as well as the vast community behind it. Also, for those who have zero clue what I am talking about, WordPress hosted is perfect for you. At this rate, as long as you know how to use a program such as Microsoft Word, you’ll be golden. WordPress.com is what you want. There are different packages starting at free, but you’ll need at least the Personal plan which costs only $2.99 a month (billed yearly). If you want more out of them, they have other options that cost $8.25 a month (billed yearly) or $24.92 a month (billed yearly). This is extremely cheap and they handle everything.

The downside to this method is you don’t have a completely custom website. There is nothing wrong with this. If you’re reading this, you’re starting out. So, you’ll take a hit on this. There is nothing to be embarrassed about as a majority of sites aren’t custom. Your favorite blogs use a template or a framework. WordPress provides quite a number of different themes and it allows you to changes colors and other such options. This will still make you unique. Plus, it doesn’t involve any coding. Probably, the most coding you’ll be involved with is hex codes which is the code for colors which is easily to look up via Google or if you have Photoshop. Outside of this, fill in your information as well as your content and you’re good. Website done. Seriously, that is all you need.

If you do know something about coding or web design – get hosting

There are like a gazillion web hosts out there – big, small, managed, unmanaged, dedicated, shared, etc. I wish this was an exaggeration, but there are so many. We use LiquidWeb and we highly recommend it. Although, that is most likely too much for you. There are plenty of options. I would recommend searching whatever you’re about to use on WebHostingTalk for legitimate reviews and thorough uses. Usually the rule of thumb is if it is too good to be true, it usually is. Although, the difference between this and WordPress.com is that there is plenty of more customizations. This is used if you’re bringing in a web designer such as myself or if you plan on doing it yourself. You also do not need to use WordPress as you can do a static site via plain HTML and CSS or use any content management system of your choosing. All of this can be done on hosting and it could cost anywhere between $10 a month to thousands, but being that you’re not a heavily trafficked site, you don’t have to worry about heavy hosting bills

Rules of Thumb to Web Design

1. Mobile responsive websites are critical

We use all types of iPhones, Androids, tablets, iPads, and more. Why hate on them? Plus, Google prefers this.

2. Always believe in KISS. Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.

This is a legitimate principle. You don’t need to have cover pages. You don’t need music playing in the background. Just your content and you. That is all.

3. Optimize everything.

This may be a bit complicated, but it really isn’t. There is no reason for you to have a huge image that is 5000px big that is 25mb large. That isn’t loading well on anything. The smaller, the better as it loads quicker.

What to Put On Your Website

You have gotten your domain name. You’ve found your hosting. You got your look. You build the site. Now, you need content. What do you put? This is the central area for you. This is where everything you put on all your socials comes to culminate. It is all about you. Feel free to put your music, obviously. All of it – bootlegs, originals, remixes. You can put up it for download. You can add Soundcloud, Spotify, YouTube embeds as well as whatever else you prefer. You want to put all your socials. There can be an about me as well as a contact form. Feel free to put a presser on there.

I am told the best thing to put on your website is your EPK or Electronic Press Kit. This allows those trying to hire you and those trying to learn about you find you easily and give them everything they need. The whole website can be considered an electronic press kit, but you can have a dedicated section for it.

Put whatever you want. Make it professional and you’re good. I wish I could be more expressive on this, but it truly comes down to you and your brand. You can put anything you want. Write blogs. Write about music. Keep it original. Do not copy and paste from other sites.

The great thing about this is you can add analytics for downloads as well as your whole site. You can see where people are going on your site. You can even see it in real time with Google Analytics.

Pricing

Let’s cut to the chase. How much will this cost you? Let’s make it easy.

Domain name (via Namecheap) is $13.75 a year. Good news, the first year will cost $9.84 as they do coupon codes if you Google it and private whois.

Hosting is $35.88 ($2.99 a month for 12 months) if you go with WordPress.com. If you go with plain hosting like Bluehost, Siteground, etc. prices start around is $7.99 a month, but there a plenty of deals for those who just get new hosting.

Outside costs can be whatever you choose. For example, you can buy WordPress themes on premium WordPress sites such as ElegantThemes or ThemeForest. You can buy neat scripts to enhance your site. It can get pricy, but there are plenty of free alternatives. One will argue they’re not as good, but your money and your website.

Website or no Website

I always believe that you need a website hands down. As I started this article, I stated that I wanted to keep this article simple and I am biased. This is extremely basic. There is so much into websites such as search engine optimization, server optimization, user experience, user interface, palettes, etc. I can go on and on and I do with clients. Honestly, they are important and I can discuss each one, but the goal is to get your name out there. If you’re popping up on Google and the first thing is your website followed by everything you’ve done and blogs writing about you, you’re doing it right. The best advice I can give is make the website for your fans as well as potential fans and no one else. They are the ones finding you and using your site. There is no harm with a website. Just maintain it by adding new content as you put it out and you’re done. Simple as that…or as complex as you want. In the meantime, I am available to work on your website if you want to hire me! Shameless plug at the end.

For those who aren’t familiar, I run a electronic dance music website where we constantly post the latest music and news in the industry. At the end of January, I decided to take my knowledge of web design, digital marketing, and my knowledge of the music industry to help up-and-coming producers. I will also be cross posting all of the articles here as while the information is made for electronic dance music artists, it can be easily translated into any other industry.

Nothing is what it seems, but actually it is the total opposite – PJC

This quote was told to me during my freshman year of high school. It becomes more and more relevant as I travel through this game called life. It is more apparent with the music industry. In the past few weeks, we have gone through making contacts, the core fundamentals of social media, basic branding, and more. They’re all good, but if you don’t have a plan, then they don’t have the biggest bang for the buck. You need to come up with a gameplan. Doing so is going to make everything easier as well as help prepare you if anything pops up. The whole idea is to build momentum in your career and have it snowball. Every big artist has a game plan. Strike that. Everyone who has ever made it has a gameplan.

This isn’t going to be the easiest post to write. I am not you. I don’t produce your music. I understand there are collectives and labels and everything that tend to be involved, but there is nothing wrong with doing it on your own. Every artist goes through waves (no pun intended, but partially why we have our name). You create a track, you share it, you gain listens, you gain fans, and repeat. Idealistically, you just keep getting bigger and bigger until you hit the festival mainstage. Well, that doesn’t happen for everyone. It doesn’t happen in a day, nor a month, or perhaps even a year. I need to stress this as this is the most frustrating thing to hear.

Overnight Success isn’t Literal

.@chancetherapper won best new artist, but started in 2011.

Overnight success is a figurative statement.

What's your excuse?

— ByTheWavs – EDM Blog (@ByTheWavs) February 13, 2017

There is a lot of summarization there so let me start from top to bottom. You need a plan. You need a plan that isn’t necessarily short term, but has milestones to keep you grounded and sane. This is going to be your roadmap. Where do you want to be? If your goal is to just make music and that is it, fine. Maarten Vorwerk would agree with you. If your goal is to play around the world at some of the biggest events, Tiesto travelling around the world over 62 times would agree as well. No dream is the same nor is it a bad thing to not want what others want. Remember, you’re creating art. If it happens to pay your bills, you have an ideal career. If that isn’t what you want, that’s perfectly alright.

Although, it is a good idea to understand your point Z. Most people call it point B, but I believe that to be nonsense. You see, the alphabet is finite. There is a beginning and an end. Your goal is your end game. Each step along the way to achieve your goal is each letter. Obviously, there isn’t going to be exactly 24 steps in between your point A to point Z, but this is metaphor, so step off! Now, to argue those who say well, the reason you get to point B is so your next step is point C, well, we can look at it that way or we could look at it my way. When you set a goal, you aim for it. You can set it as high as you want and aspire to it. Nothing wrong. When you finally achieve it, you’ve set a bar. Guess what? You’ll have a new goal. Something bigger. Time to reset that alphabet. That’s all. Similar scenario, but I like mine better.

In my tweet, I wrote that Chance the Rapper won best new artist. His music that I could find started in 2011. I am willing to bet that he started before that. For a new artist, that doesn’t sound very new. Six years. That’s how long it took him. I am willing to bet that 99% of artists will say the same. None of them had marketing budgets or huge dedicated teams. Nope. Not a freaking chance. I know it is hard to imagine what an artist was like grinding when you see them on television or their face on a billboard. It is the truth. Malcolm Gladwell said in his book, Outliers that 10,000 hours is the magic number to be an expert at something. While this is an oversimplification of the idea, his notion “is simply that natural ability requires a huge investment of time in order to be made manifest.” So what you need to take away from this is that create that goal. That all-time goal. Use that goal to propel your ideas, actions, and everything that drives you to make music and even wake up during the day.

Scheming Isn’t Always Done by the Villains in Movies

Scheme. You need to scheme. New track coming out? Is there any movement behind it? If the answer is no, you’re doing it wrong. You know what sells easily? If you answer sex, you’re not wrong, but that isn’t what I want to focus on. Stories sell. What would you rather hear; a track that came out and you enjoy or a track that came out about how you were in a happy mood and you enjoy? It will always be number two. Although, I use happy mood as an example, but replace it with anything. Point being is that people like stories. It is what captivates us on a daily basis. You tell a story, people are enticed. Every track you make is a story. It captures your current mood, your feelings, everything about you. A piece of your soul is in that track. Sell it. Sell it. Sell it.

Here are some examples that a lot of artists do. When tracks are being made on Facebook live, Snapchat, Instagram Live, etc, the story of your track is being built. When it is shared on Twitter and Facebook, the story continues. When the track is in a mix or multiple, you have people craving. Finally, you release the track and it explodes. You see where this is going? There are many methods. No method is the correct one nor the wrong one. Each thing you put out should have a plan behind it. Share it with artists. Share it with blogs. Share it all ahead of time so when it comes out, you have the biggest bang.

Thinking Outside of the Box

The whole making a track, sending it to the blogs, become big thing doesn’t quite work anymore. Sorry. We didn’t fail you. We’re a 24/7 information overload society. You get your music and your information from every source possible. Why settle for the ordinary or what everyone else does? Do you remember the old Apple ads? I am not talking about their old school breaking 1984 ads, but the ones for the iPods. I’ll give you the example below.

They were neat. In fact, they were great for every artist who had their track featured in these commercials. It raised track downloads up around 4000% and more. This is the same with other commercials, but obviously different percentages. Although, this isn’t 2005 anymore. What about YouTube? Familiar with Casey Neistat? What about What’s Inside? Shonduras? Gary Vaynerchuk? I can go on and on naming extremely popular YouTubers. Do you see where I am going with this? A possibility would be sending your music to popular YouTubers. Some of these guys get over 1,000,000 views per video within 24 hours. Andrew Applepie is the man responsible for a lot of Casey Neistat’s music.

You know who agrees with this? Gary Vaynerchuk, the man responsible for awesome marketing ideas that you don’t realize you’re appreciating and buying products. Yes, you’re giving up something for free. Yes, you don’t make money off free. You have to think long term. People will come back.

Give Some; Gain More

There is a cartoon by The Oatmeal where a blog gets paid in exposure. He tries to buy hot dogs with said exposure. He gets laughed at. The same time, you’ll read and follow Gary Vaynerchuk and his methods detailed in his book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. I am in no position to give you the same type of information that he can do. He has clout and respect. But I can help relay some of that information and translating. I am not asking you to give music away. That is your livelihood. That is your lifeblood. You cannot sell bootlegs. You cannot sell mixes. You cannot sell playlists. You cannot sell yourself. There is no reason why you cannot share them and happen to gain followers. I emphasized this in the social media post, but you need to interact and create. Not just memes, but legitimate content. Content is king. To quote Gary Vaynerchuk one more time, “Content is king, but context is God.” This is legitimate in a time where Pewdiepie makes videos is called a Nazi. This is where ghost producing can never be more rampant.

To make it simple, be consistent. I have said this time and time again. If you do a weekly or bi-weekly mix, stick with it. If you do A&R and listen to other tracks, stick with it. If you put out a bootleg of a popular track, relevant or irrelevant, stick with it. I can name artist after artist after artist who does one or more of these. You need to hustle and grind. If you’re content and happy with where you are at, that is fine, but if you want to achieve your goal, you better give your all and then give some more. Bassnectar’s fans drive 10+ hours to go to his shows. Tomorrowland sells out in minutes. EDC Las Vegas brought in over $1,300,000,000 (1.3 billion dollars I wanted to write all the zeros for dramatic effect). I know we can talk about how art doesn’t equate to money and you do it for the art and not the money, but I want to emphasize how much this music means to people.

Give content. Give it away. You can ask for a follow as long as you don’t beat your listener senseless. I get it that collectives ask for this. I get it that you have to trade exposure for building up others brands. Although, you don’t need them every single time. Trade it off. Made one out of five times or one out of ten. You become one with your listeners and they’ll be more than willing to check out your latest track or even buy your next album. Although, if you’re not willing to give, you’re not worthy to receive.

Manipulate the Wav(e)s

Timing is everything. Timing will make sure everything goes smoothly. Idealistically, you want your track/EP/album to get the most traction within 24-72 hours. That can make or break it. Yes, there are anomalies to this, but that is neither here nor there. Think of this like a big wave. You can’t just have big waves. It becomes too much and then the big wave just becomes an average wave. So you warm it up. You have little waves. This will prepare you. This is you including it on social media here and there. This is you sending it to the blogs for any support. This is your sending it to vloggers, friends, family, other DJ’s. This is all before the official release. Give it out for free. Sell it. Whatever you may choose, but put effort into it and let those who know about you, know about the track. If you have to pay to get the track out there, pay. If you aren’t willing to pay for your track, is it worth it? Now, I am not talking payola type nonsense, but rather boosting a post on Facebook and Twitter.

This is a chart I made. Please don’t take this literally as I could have attempted to make this a bit better. This is ideally how you should treat your music. This is where you have a backlog of music ready to be shared. This may take some time before you build up a worthy catalog, but use it to your advantage. Having a catalog will allow you time to build other tracks before releasing them. This is how you should treat it. Build up the track. Drop it. The red represents the area where people are enjoying the track, but it starts to fade. This is where you start again with your next track. You can’t go immediately right away. No. That would be too aggressive. When Zhu started his music, he had new tracks come out every two weeks because that is when he reminded people he is back. If you look at The Chainsmokers lately, each track of theirs was huge and they dropped another track as they were barely fading. Sure, they could have waited a bit longer, but they’ve skyrocketed to huge heights.

Choices

At the end of the day, what works for someone may not work for you. What works for you may not work for someone else. That said, it is good to have a plan. I know someone is going to state Mike Tyson’s famous quote “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” He’s right. It may not be in the literal sense, but he’s not wrong. Although, I’ll argue to say that if you have a plan in place. You don’t have to have a specific time and day set out, but having a plan will allow you to have backups and be able to handle everything. You rather be over prepared than underprepared and by having a plan, you’ll be absolutely fine. In basic terms – create and distribute. Be smart and not random. Remember, this is more towards the person who is starting out and trying to grow. Once you have a big enough following, you can get away with doing what you want as it works out for you.

To go back to the quote, “Nothing is what it seems, but actually it is the total opposite.” I say this because while tracks seem to come out randomly or they “leak,” remember the majority of the time, it has all been planned in some sort of way or another. When everything seems to just happen, don’t think it just happens because it doesn’t. This isn’t a science or even hard. You could simply draw a calendar on a whiteboard and map it out. Use analytics from all your social media and your website to figure out what works best or you could just test the waters. You’ll be getting bigger in no time!