Da Capo Digital

Time is tiiiiight when you're running your own social media accounts ⏰

So don’t make it harder than it needs to be.

Repeat after me...

We do not need to be on every social media platform.

OK?

Depending on your current audience and your goals for attracting new audiences, you likely only need to focus on 2-3 platforms.

Don’t need the drama? Skip X.
Looking for a Gen Z (or younger) audience? Get yourself over to TikTok.
Nurturing your existing audience? You’ve probably already got their attention on Facebook.

So, think carefully about where you actually need to be posting. Ask yourself: Why are people using those platforms, and what should you be sharing there?

What’s your favourite social media platform? Mine’s definitely Instagram, though I’ll always have a soft spot for (what was) Twitter 🫣

What was the last thing you purchased after being influenced by a reel? 💰

I just bought (another) hair curler 🫣

Selling tickets is not really about you or your music; it’s about the audience you want to come.

And recently, your audience has been a little distracted 😣

How can you make yourself relevant in your audience’s life?

Think about what they are considering at the moment. How can your music relate to this? How can it solve problems arising from these issues?

It might be as simple as vouchers to your venue being a perfect last-minute gift for a teacher. Or it might be a little deeper… if you can’t afford a holiday this year, a musical tour could bring some enjoyment instead 🥰

If you are using the summer to plan your marketing for next season, follow us at for ideas and tips.

Soz babes, we were busy 😬

Concert days can be hectic and if you don't have an extra pair of hands to help with your socials, here are 3 things you can do instead:

- Schedule a rehearsal clip in advance for the morning of the concert, then pop a post concert selfie on the next day.

- Arrive a little early and do some venue/setting up pics or video and post before your start rehearsing.

- Make yourself a list of things you'd like to capture if there is time and use for a post the next day to say thanks to your audience for coming.

If you're comfortable with this, you can also ask your audience to share any clips or pics they take and tag you on their own social media so that you can share it 🥰

Do you find it hard to post on concert days?

PS. Thank you La Serenissima for letting me take some bad pictures at your rehearsal yesterday - it was a great concert!

Love this from Brandon Brown! 🙌

It is so true.

Pointing out what is "wrong" about other peoples' content is easy, but teaching people how to do it better and creating content yourself is actually really, really hard.

And also, we'll never know what is going on behind the scenes that we can't see... perhaps their marketing budget has been slashed, or someone is off sick... perhaps the big boss doesn't understand social media but they've requested this post... maybe this content was scheduled weeks in advance and now it doesn't hit quite as well as it might have.

What do you find hardest about creating content?

But here we are, being asked to do it 😒

If you know me IRL, and I mean really know me, you'll know that posting pics of myself online is not really my cup of tea. I'd much rather be cosied up on the sofa, in my dressing gown with, well, an actual cup of tea 🫠

As much as I hate it, I get how important it is for the audience we're building to know a little bit about what goes on in our world. And that I should practice what I preach, at least occasionally.

But you've got to make social media work for you AND your audience.

If you're a natural in front of the camera, great - we love seeing your face.

If not, we create content to connect with our audiences and there are plenty of ways to share your unique talents, insights and POVs without videoing every moment of your life.

What social media post have you connected most with recently that didn't show the musician's face?

It's easier when you just talk like a person 🤷‍♀️

This week I found myself accidentally listening to two podcasts about copywriting back-to-back.

Unsurprisingly, there was A LOT of crossover between what these fabulous women had to say - The Two Lauras & Aubrey Bergauer 🙌

Here's what we try to do with our words when writing on social:

- Just write how we would talk. If you run your own social media, this is obvs much easier than when we run accounts for ensembles & musicians.
- Step away from the technical language. Not everyone has a music degree.
- Make it as easy to read as possible. Break up the text, keep paragraphs & sentences short.

But most importantly, practice! The more you write, the easier it becomes.

Oh. Also. Don't use ChatGPT for your final copy but do use it to spell/grammar check or for inspo.

What do you find trickiest about writing for online audiences?

Excited to share that we are partnering with Knight Classical to provide bespoke Social Media management services to artists and businesses 🙌

Head over to the Knight Classical website to see more about what's on offer: https://i.mtr.cool/ulfslmyrln

Remember when people kept telling you posting on social media was free?

Well..

Meta have just introduced new tiers of verified accounts, starting at $14.99 a month, all the way up to $499.99 A MONTH 🤯

Being verified will apparently come with a range of perks including being able to add links to reels, enhanced profiles and higher search rankings.

I won't go into too much detail because, let's be honest, most of us might not even be able to justify the basic tier at £150 and you can read more on meta's own update.

So what do we do if we can't afford to pay to play?

We have to up our game with our content (yes, me included once I'm not driving 20 hours a week 🫠)

We HAVE to keep an eye on what's performing well and do more of it.
We HAVE to invest time & energy into making content.
We HAVE to get over old rules and ideas and welcome tech into the arts, even just in a small & unobtrusive way.

If I were running an organisation or venue, here are the things I would be doing:

- Booking artists who are active online and willing to be involved with content.
- Educating performers about how marketing has changed; what is working in 2024; and refreshing this knowledge regularly.
- Encouraging audiences to get involved at a level that everyone is comfortable with. Don't want recordings of the performance? That's fine, but perhaps a meet & greet afterwards or a photo opportunity in the foyer.

Perhaps you've already notice a massive drop in reach and engagement on Twitter since that became X? If you don't want Facebook and Instagram to go the same way, you need everyone on board and willing to pitch in now more than ever.

Yes, this is a toilet selfie. Bear with me... there is a point to it.

There has been a lot of noise over the last few weeks about various big arts organisations allowing audiences to take pictures and videos during their performances.

I don't have the brain space to delve too deeply into this right now, as my head is wrapped up in our looming house move. So this is just a quick post to say that this isn't a new phenomenon—just something that has been highlighted in the last week or so, despite being policy for a while.

As a performer, an audience member, and a marketer, I can see this from all the various viewpoints.

But the most important bit, I feel, is that your audience loves to see themselves in your marketing.

And the best way to create this is by asking them to film it themselves.

For multiple reasons, too: it creates authentic content, rather than staged; it's cheaper and let's face it, there's no money; and the excitement of the people whose clips you use when they see that the toilet selfie with their girlfriends made it into your promo... well, that's priceless (and will probably result in a significant number of shares and thus increase your reach).

This doesn't mean it's OK for your audience to film your entire concert and shove their phones in your face. Of course, that is not OK. But taking a few pictures during the applause or even a more relaxed encore, and encouraging them to share their experience is what will help your audience grow.

Huge thank you to Sarah at for contributing to our Werksy page!

Sarah has been a huge supporter of Werksy and everything we do here since she joined and we couldn't be more grateful for this amazing review 🤗

Head to our bio to claim your free 1/2 day at Werksy!

Because I am a massive Taylor Swift fan and not ashamed to admit it.

This is a genuine question, by the way, inspired by a tweet I saw earlier. Please let me know what else you listen to outside of "Classical Music."

Because in my head, EVERYONE enjoys various genres of music. Right? 🙃

My Nana regularly went to watch Berliner Philharmoniker and loves Tina Turner (I just called and asked)
My mum likes Donny Osmond and my concerts, of course (maybe that's not a great example 🫠)
My working musician friends would probably join me at the Taylor Swift concert. Or at least a great folk gig 😂

So let me know, your favourite artists - no matter what genre they are 😄

And doing your own Social Media is not free.

Before I started Da Capo, I had many musical jobs. I taught at home, at lots of schools & Saturday morning music centres; conducted a little; performed not as much as I'd have liked; worked in the admin teams at arts charities & festivals; ran the most gorgeous baby & toddler classes with Little Notes 🥰

When I decided to stop doing all of this, one of the things that really stressed me out was that teaching, at an hourly rate, always paid quite well and dropping down to a purely "admin rate" was quite scary.

And then my husband pointed out that for every hour that I taught, I did the same again in prep, in driving, in business admin - and this all needed to be factored into my hourly rate of pay. Which was suddenly not so great.

So when someone says, "Social media is free!" what does that say about how much they value your time? Yes, putting a post up on Facebook will not physically cost you a penny, but your time is valuable. And just putting a single post on Facebook won't get you very far.

Organic social media is a huge investment of time.

You have to show up, you have to be strategic, and you have to know what the stats mean to make it an ongoing success. You have to nurture the community that you build, which is a wonderful problem to have 🥰

It's all totally, totally worth it.

We have so many incredible conversations online, on this account and on our clients' accounts, and we love spending time in those conversations and communities.

But it isn't free. And I don't just mean because it's our job and people pay us to do it, but because your time is valuable.

Is there anything better than seeing your audience come back again and again? 🥰

There is lots of research and data around returning customers to arts events, ranging from 10-20% depending on what you read.

But even that higher figure - it could be better, right!?

What are you doing to help your new audiences come back to future concerts? 🤔

If you're spending Sunday stressing about how busy the next week will be, and how little time you have to promote your music, read on 👇

So many of the amazing musicians we work with tell us that they know they should be promoting themselves more on social media, but there are so many other things to do that this is the last thing on the list—or it's not done at all.

And that's where a social media manager can help:

- Help you free up time for other work.
- Help you to interact regularly with your audience online.
- Help you promote every aspect of your musical career.

So, here's what a social media manager actually does:

- Creates a strategy based on your goals.
- Posts to your social media accounts based on this strategy.
- Keeps on top of trends and updates across platforms.
- Researches and analyses other accounts in the same space.
- Reports on your account's success.
- Engages in response to audience comments and outwardly on relevant posts.
- Listens for when people are talking about you online and joins the conversation.

If these are things you could do with some support with, pop us a DM and let's chat 😄

One thing you'll hear me say a lot is to regularly introduce yourself on your social media, so following my own advice—this is me!

I am Sarah, and I help tiny arts organisations achieve big things online by providing all levels of support and advice on social media, from our free advice here to fully managed services—and everything in between!

Your turn! Who are you, and where can we hear your music? Let me know below 👇

My eldest is obsessed with Harry Potter at the moment. We've had it on in the car, she's watched 6 films over the hols, and she's even started reading the books (at 6!) 📚

I know, it's totally the wrong order but I so appreciate the enthusiasm as someone who queued at midnight at Waterstones to get every new book 🤓

So here's Voldemort to help you sell a few tickets, especially if you've got Harry Potter on your programme 😉