15 Social Media Marketing Tips for DJs (Practical Advice)

Social media can be a confusing space at times. There are some areas to steer clear of when operating on social media and there are some techniques to really hone in on.

Using this list of social media tips I hope you gain some technical knowhow and inspiration to put your social media content in the right direction.

To progress in marketing, especially as a DJ, you need a plan. Here’s a great marketing planner to give you a good head start and get your direction in order. And if you’re looking to promote an event here’s another great article for effective promotion.

1. Don’t Buy Likes

Don’t buy likes, it’s as simple as that!

Buying likes does you no favours, they are “empty” likes.

If you want like to be boosted for your social media profiles, then fine, have a bunch of social media likes with NO engagement. What you need is genuine likes, from actual people that want to engage with you and follow your interesting content.

Having genuine likes enables you to see and review which types of posts and content is performing the best. Giving you the best understanding of which content and posts to release in the future. Knowing this will also let you understand how to plan your social media content ahead of time.

2. Have a Goal

Each post that you push on your social media channels needs to fit within your overall goal and DJ “brand”. Otherwise what’s the point.

Your goal for your social media strategy could be to connect with music lovers, clubbers and also other music industry people, e.g. club promoters, DJs and producers.

Each post that you make, always have that in the back of your mind or ask yourself “Does this post fit in line with my social media strategy and goal(s)?“

I suppose you can put it another way, are you posting content that’s inline with your DJ “brand” and the vibe that you want to give off?

Some DJs in the past have not come across so well with posting about their political views on things which doesn’t go down too well with everyone. And rightly so. Being a DJ you’re trying to show off some professionalism and respect too.

3. Post Consistently (Plan Ahead)

Post consistently throughout the days of the week. It’s worth doing this at the start of your social media profiles to get an understanding of which days work the best for engagement.

Then you can work towards tailoring your consistent schedule at specific days and times.

Thursday and Fridays are usually highly engaged days for content that’s related to clubs night and DJs talking about the club nights that they’re playing.

Earlier on in the week could potentially be more lifestyle, music or reminiscing DJ / music topics.

What ever you decide on topics, it’s sometimes a good idea for you as a creator and your followers by having recurring themes for specific days that you release content.

For example, “Magic Mix Monday”, “Throwback Thursday”, “Shout Out Sunday”… maybe these aren’t the best examples but you get the direction 😃

Either way, keep it consistent, your followers will become fans, and the social media algorithms love it too.

4. Keep it Real

People on social media do want to get a glimpse of the real you.

If you’re not keeping your posts and content real, it’s going to be a struggle to keep trying to think of things to post.

People want to see the journey you’re on, believe it or not it can be inspiring to see the work that you put in to make it successfully into DJing.

Some DJs such as Deadmau5 are sometimes too real and can upset other people on social media. Sure some people might not get on with the DJ’s opinions, but some fans are even more behind him because of his views.

Also, people see right through you if your posts aren’t “real” anyway. So keep it real and you’ll be fine.

5. Evoke Emotion in Your Posts

People remember you based on how you last made them feel.

This is very important to understand because evoking emotions will allow you to post content with ’emotion’ in mind.

Whether it be any of the below points, so you’re not limited to just one type emotion provoking post.

comedy / humour
happiness
anger
creativity
passion
inspiration
sadness

I’d say in the world of DJing evoking humour and inspiration are definitely a couple of great angles to go with in your social posts.

6. Leverage Video Posts

According to this study featured here, “80% of people would rather watch video from a brand compared to reading an article“.

This is another great way to diversify your content posting onto your social media.

Even quick and short videos known as stories, posted on instagram and snapchat, can massively increase the amount of authenticity of your brand and improve engagement on your channel too.

7. Live Stream to Your Audience

Live streaming on social media has certainly become more than a trend that’s grown since 2020.

Since the covid-19 pandemic, people have been stuck inside their homes, but still wanting to interact and communicate with other people. Therefore making live streaming a great way for DJs to interact.

Even artists like Disclosure have been popping up on Beatport LIVE stream and on their own social media too, also twitch for music production live streams too.

With social media audiences only getting bigger it makes sense to cater for all formats of content on social media, and live streaming is one of them.

Live streaming ideas for DJs include:

Q&A with you audience
DJ Tutorials explaining how you DJ
Live DJ mixing
Interview other DJs
Live music production session (if you’re a producer)

8. Promote your Music

If you’re a Producer as well as a DJ, then definitely leverage your music releases to drive a larger following, more engagement and really hit home about you as a DJ Producer.

Get any of the artists that you’ve worked with on your releases to post, re-post comment and like your music release posts.

You can always do spin off feature content, such as:

Producers insider: how I made music release XYZ
Go live on Twitch and do a Q&A and run through how you made a track
DJ mix live stream or record a mix and post on socials / YouTube, feature some of your own music releases within the DJ mix.

Finally, remember to direct people from your posts to your related social media profiles and other platforms that you feature your music on, such as Spotify, Mixcloud, Soundcloud etc.

9. Write about the Good and Bad Times

Humanise your content by featuring posts that reflect the good and the bad times in your life. If it’s personal to you then this might even resonate with your audience even more.

People want to see that you’re a human and not a brand trying to push a product. Shows that you’re not just posting fakeness and you’re actually a human.

Being a DJ can be tough at times, anything from long hours travelling, mental health, dealing with agents/dodgy companies and loss of equipment potentially.

Sharing those sorts of things can sometimes resonate with your audience causing some sort of interactivity.

10. Upload the Correct Image Dimensions

Uploading the correct image dimensions is key. Using a tool like canva.com is really helpful as all the dimensions are templates so that you can simply add your imagery to posts templates ready for each platform.

Hootsuite blog has a really great article that highlights all the different sizes that you need to know.

Check out the article on Hootsuite here: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-image-sizes-guide/

11. Use a Social Media Platform Manager (post multiple platforms in one go)

After a while posting on multiple different social media platforms you might find that you’re getting bogged down. Too many posts, not enough time.

Time efficiency is everything especially if you can leverage your time to work on other aspects of your DJing and DJing business.

Social media management tools are the answer.

The most known to many is Hootsuite, but there are plenty more listed below. Here’s a great article that compares a lot of others vs Hootuite, as it’s quite an expensive tool after a while of expanding.

These tools allow you to manage all your social media posts from one user interface. Giving you an extra layer of organisation to schedule posts, publish monitor and check out analytic related to your social posts, across multiple social media platforms e.g. Facebook, Instagram etc.

12. Post Fly on the Wall Type Content

Say if someone was to follow you around to all your gigs, music production sessions in your studio, relaxing and down time, then this is the sort of content to help get more connected with your audience.

People sometimes want to see what you get up to in your spare time, what kind of things you do as a person, e.g. travel between gigs, networking with other DJs, talking with your fellow music producers, or even just with friends.

This is not the pillar content that you’ll want to focus on but certainly helps contribute to the overall social media content strategy.

Example, if you’ve ever seen Gary Vee on YouTube, he’s a marketing entrepreneur. You’ll regularly see him on his YouTube channel just being filmed as he goes about his daily life. There’s clearly some editing of a video when it goes live, but can easily have some value extracted from it, especially helpful to re-purpose content onto social media too.

13. Support other DJs

Supporting other DJs by mentioning their names in your social media posts can be really helpful to them and to you.

Networking is so important in the world of DJing, it’s certainly easier if you get on with other DJs too. But point being is that supporting others can lead to them supporting you back. Thats great as all of your followings will start to boost and rise together.

14. Evoke Nostalgia in Your Posts and Artwork

Some DJs are very clever in their branding and the way that they post on social media. They have a sense of nostalgia surrounding their artwork and video content.

By nostalgia we mean bringing back the vibe of something that we grew up with e.g. a classic film, style of clothing, old school board games or dancing fashion.

People love reminiscing over the aspects of their past, especially when they were younger. It makes them feel comfortable, fun and happy, and if you can evoke those emotions in your social media posts, then you’re on to a winner.

15. Continuously Learn from Others

Podcasts are amazing, YouTube is endless and there are plenty of social media marketing companies out there that write blog posts too. New lessons and trends emerge all the time in the game of marketing and social media.

Make sure you’re on top of the next big changes, or slight tweaks you need to make your social media posts successful for your DJ brand. Just look out for music related industry websites and podcasts and you’ll be fine.

Here’s a list of resources to help you: