DJ CreeJay on how DJs can build their brand using social media

If there’s a group of people who have fun with technology, it’s DJs.  I got to hang out with DJ and VJ CreeJay, who is an award-winning DJ scooping the 2014 Zambian Music Awards (ZMA) Best Club DJ title, and he shared how DJs can go beyond the decks to building their brand on social media.

“There is more to DJ-ing than just being on the decks, dropping the hits and making the crowd go “CRAZY”. In as much as you can be a good DJ you also need to build your brand and that’s one of the most important things to do in this era. Your consistency, dedication, professionalism and personality carry a lot of weight with your fans and with the people who want to hire you.

Think about the most successful DJs in the world, and you’ll realize that they have several things in common besides their technical skills and talent. They all have a distinctive sound, look and personality, and they each maintain a steady social media presence.

The way you play music and also your social media presence are a reflection of your brand.

Social media presence is very important because it will help you connect with your fans and promoters, Nowadays promoters will Google you and search for you on social media to see how large your following is and/or how many fans you have.

Steps to putting your name out there on social media

• Design a Logo: Most DJs don’t have a logo, so if you can come up with a unique symbol or a customized font to promote your name, you’re already a step ahead of the competition, you even go ahead print yourself tees or come up with your own clothing.

• Create a Facebook Page, Twitter, Instagram profile: To create all these accounts its free of charge, get likes and followers so you can connect with your fans, tell them about your past/incoming gigs or events and through all those platforms also you can follow the artist pages and feeds of the DJs you admire, and take note of what they’re talking about and how they are growing their audience.

• Come up with a brief bio/profile based on what you have done or achieved: so you can post it on those social network platforms

• Start interacting and engaging with your fans: it’s not just about posting anything but it’s about creating meaningful interaction exchanges with your fans, mind you, whatever you post has to be informative, inspirational, entertaining, engaging and/or remarkable. Remember CONTENT IS KING!!!

• Open music channels that you will post your music, mixes, mashups and your DJ sets: When you open these channels link them to your social media pages. The best I have found so far are YouTube, Mixcrate, SoundCloud and Mixcloud though you can research and explore more.

Branding is very important. Remember when you brand yourself you will know your value and worth. If you don’t brand yourself you will work for cheap, and if you work for cheap you’re branding yourself to be booked for cheap in the future.”

I wanted to be a DJ once, this really helps if I come round to doing it! Thank you CreeJay 🙂

If you have more tips on building a brand, share them in the comments below!