For independent musicians, the world of technology and the advent and growth of the internet is one of the greatest resources to tap to reach new fans. With the right online marketing strategies, you can reach anywhere from dozens to millions of people with a few simple keystrokes and a little motivation.

Take a page out of the Deftones’ book of online marketing strategies. This highly famous hard rock band didn’t find it beneath them to host an Instagram photo contest, in which they asked fans to take pictures of live shows over a two-month period, featuring the winning shots on their Facebook page. The grand prize photo went on their website.

Consider the effect it could have if you asked your fans to take pictures using Instagram, and post them to a contest on your Twitter account. Just holding the contest alone could draw in a ton of additional followers, but think about the free pictures you’ll have that you could potentially use on a website, publish on other social media sites, and turn into fan mail, simply by recognizing the name of the individual who took the shot.

Once you’ve got the entries, pick favorites, and repost to your Facebook page (where hopefully you’ve already blasted about your Instagram photo contest), so you can reach even more followers. Word of mouth can’t spread that fast!

Stay Connected

Keep in mind that, if you are going to embark on this endeavor, it’s not a ‘set it and forget it’ process. Even if your deadline for entries is two months away, you have to remain active for these online marketing strategies to work. You should be updating information about the contest on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram so that fans don’t forget. This also makes it more likely the information will appear in front of another user, who will then become a follower, steadily increasing your overall fan base.

Tagging Images

Have your fans write a short caption when submitting their photos. Why? Because this will give you the information you need to properly tag the photos. Doing so keeps them indexed in a way that users and fans can find them easily, and the less hassle involved in finding the pictures, the more likely someone is to spend more time on your social media site, looking at other information.
Tag the photographer, the show date and location, and if possible, the song you were playing when the picture was taken. This will keep users from getting frustrated as they search for a picture in a photo album.

With online marketing strategies like this, you can really pick up a great many new fans, while keeping the old ones interested, and never pay an outrageous amount of money to get your name out there! Take advantage of social media, and of services like Instagram, to do what they were intended for and draw in parties of interest so you can grow your fan base and feed them the information they crave about tour dates and new releases.