Social media is an integral part of most music marketing strategies. Implement these six tips, optimize your online presence, and you’ll be on your way to having a booming social media fan base.

This post originally appeared on GigSalad’s Community blog. Reprinted with permission.

Music artists and entertainers have always understood that attracting and interacting with a vibrant community of fans is critical to success. Perhaps this is why musicians were among the first to use social media as a way to engage and communicate with fans. And the most successful at using social media to connect to their fans know there’s much more to social strategy than creating a fan page, posting photos, or amassing a large following on Twitter. An effective marketing strategy requires that you build a broad, engaged community around your act, and social media can represent a healthy percentage of your marketing efforts.

These six social media marketing tips will get you on your way to a successful music marketing strategy.

1. Quality, not quantity

Creating, performing, and recording music keeps you busy. You don’t have time to pour hours and hours every day into creating an amazing social media presence across multiple platforms. Instead of having a mediocre presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, it’s better to have a strong presence on just one or two of these platforms. Choose the social network(s) that suit your business the best and encourage the most interaction from fans. For example, if your act has a major visual component to it, you might opt for Facebook and Instagram. If you’re a singer/songwriter with a sense of humor or an advocate of social issues, you may have a better experience on Twitter.

2. Know your audience

Different social networks are popular among different groups. Knowing your target audience’s demographics can help you decide which social networks are best for you and when the best times are to make posts. Here’s a graphic to get you started.

3. Analyze your content and traffic

If you’re just starting out, it may take a while for you to build a fan base. But, if you’re an old pro and you’re selling out shows, let’s see those numbers! Pay attention to analytics. How many people have followed you or unfollowed you? Are your posts generating likes and comments? What types of posts are getting the most interaction and when were they posted? Facebook offers an analytics tool called Facebook Insights for band pages, but you can also measure your analytics using sites like Google Analytics, Followerwonk, Brandwatch, Hootsuite, Moz, and many others.

Make your social media presence really social – and find ways to build up and engage your fan base. Interact with fans personally by responding to comments or tweets, share behind-the-scenes photos or videos, and host giveaways or invent online contests. Do you have a show coming up you can give away a pair of tickets to or a new album or t-shirt to offer one lucky fan? Whenever you can, it’s great to do something nice for your fans. Word of mouth spreads fast, so keep your fans happy!

4. Link, link, link!

If you do have multiple social media profiles, make sure that they all link to each other – and always make sure your band website is part of that mix. Chances are, your fans are also on these social networking sites and want to follow you. Having links to your other social media profiles takes the guess work out of searching for you, and makes it easy for your fans to keep up with you all across the board. Many social networking sites will allow you to share widgets or hyperlinks to your other sites. You can also create tabs or “apps” to these pages on your Facebook page, so that your Facebook fans can view and interact with your other social profiles without actually leaving Facebook. You can also create a call to action on your Facebook page to drive traffic to any special promotion you’re running.

5. Promote your artist brand

While you don’t want to post the same exact thing on each of your social networking profiles, you do want to maintain consistency. For starters, think about how you’ll want to speak to your fans. This is a business page, but it is important that you sound like YOU. It’s also a good idea to use similar themes or images across the board. For example, if you have a new album coming out next month, it’s wise to include a graphic announcing the album drop date in your Facebook cover photo. But you can also use a similar image as your Twitter header photo. Being consistent in your voice and image makes your act seem more credible as a business and, at the end of the day, is just a good marketing practice.

6. Set a high bar for quality in your audio and video

You’re a professional and social media is an integral part of your business. It’s important that you treat it as such. High-quality photos, songs, and videos will give your profile the professional touch it needs. Think about it this way: no matter how much you love a band, would you want to watch a video of their performance where the camera was moving all over the place and the sound quality was fuzzy, interrupted by wind or surrounding voices, or not properly synced? Your fans want to see you and they want to hear you, so give them what they want by sharing top-notch media.

Take some time to implement these social media marketing tips, spruce up your profiles, and optimize your online presence to attract and engage your fans. If you build a strong artist brand and pay attention to analytics, you’ll be on your way to having a booming fan base on social media in no time.