Social Media has provided DJs with the opportunity to promote their gigs, to discover new tunes, to get their music heard by labels, and to inform us of how annoyed they are by the baggage handlers at Ibiza airport. It’s a wonderful thing, connecting us all in our global dance music family, spreading our message of dance floor transcendence and totally banging tunes far and wide.
However, there are a few things that it might be worth remembering as you embark on your online DJ career. For many people, your online profile will be the only thing they see of you – so if you exhibit low levels of chill online, this might impact on your reputation and even your bookings. May we suggest a few things not to do:
Attention Seeking: Don’t do that thing where you say ‘Big news coming, can’t say anything at the moment!’ – you wouldn’t walk into a club or a restaurant and tell everyone that you had something great to announce but you could’t tell them what it was. Why not? Because you’re not eight years old, that’s why. If you want attention, then post a brilliant mix you’ve done, or recommend a rare tune, or offer me a place on your guest list for tonight.
Stop being ‘humbled’ and ‘honoured’ when you score a gig: You’re just making promotors nervous if you post how utterly humbled you are that you’re warming up on a Tuesday night – and they’re going to start to wonder if you’re not as successful as you said you were. A little humility will get you far in this industry, but there’s no need to over do it and become honoured or humbled. That’s just one step from lying on the floor, flagellating yourself with an old Mood II Swing 12” while chanting ‘I’m not worthy’, which is never a good look.
Intercontinental Invites: Thankfully this is a decreasing trend, but there are still some people who are sending blanket invites on social media. Don’t invite people to come to your gig if they live on entirely different continental landmasses to you and will have to literally cross oceans to attend.
Unauthorised Group Adding: It’s just not polite. Don’t add people to your group in a thinly disguised attempt to spam them. If you’re going to spam someone then be honest about it and just rock up to their wall and spam them in the face.
Don’t go back to the lab: Just don’t.
If you’re currently doing some or all of these things as part of your DJ ‘marketing and promotion’, you might want to think about offering your audience something of value in exchange for their time and attention: post something interesting, link to a recently discovered DJ mix or a new artist, tell us why you’ve started playing Trance again, post about things you feel genuinely strongly about, create the kind of content that you want to see. Trust me, the rest of the internet will thank you.
