Sarkodie is boosting his music online: What it means for rising stars

For the first time, Ghanaian multiple award-winning rap artiste Sarkodie has gone the extra mile in his online business. This might not be the first time, but this is the first time people are discussing his online business.

A few days ago, a screenshot of a post on Sarkodie’s Facebook page being boosted surfaced online. His latest song “Friends to Enemies” which features Nigerian star Young L was boosted on his Facebook page.

To some, this is not important. But the truth is, the digital media landscape has changed: therefore, digital marketing must be taken seriously to be able to fit into the current trends.

Digital platforms including social media where most celebrities disseminate information and communicate with their loyal fans play a major role in the growth of their brands. They use these platforms to advertise, distribute and sell their music and brand merchandise.

But when these social media platforms don’t favour them organically, they have to go the hard way by spending extra cash on ads.

Recently, Facebook – the biggest social media platform in the world – changed its algorithm; prioritising friends’ posts in newsfeeds and restricting page reach and engagements. This made it hard for business pages to get the maximum reach and engagements; forcing them to invest more money in ads.

A popular deep web website called LittleThings shut down as a result of the Facebook algorithm change. Many publishing companies were hit by the change. And this doesn’t debar celebrity pages – of course, they are pages too.

So, going forward, should celebrities expunge their pages and create personal accounts since the reach and engagements will be easier on them than pages? The answer is definitely no. Why? Because Facebook business pages come with a lot of features that are not allowed on personal profiles.

A Facebook page, for instance, gives you access to reach a certain audience with just a penny. Instead of struggling to make new friends and using groups to distribute and promote content, the page will allow you to capture a certain audience who befit your brand.

An artiste in Ghana can decide to target 1,000,000 audience in Nigeria between the ages of 18-25 to listen to his music. When targeting the audience, the artiste can choose which state, region, city or town he would like his music to be heard.

This approach can also help local artistes to crossover. A Ghanaian artiste can be heard in China if he wants. He can even be heard in Uzbekistan is he wants. In the same vein, the artiste can promote his concert and sell his merch using the Facebook ad. The features on pages are unlimited and artistes can use them to their own advantage.

I have seen Facebook ads from South African rapper Khuli Chana, Tanzanian singer Diamond Platnumz, Beninois Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo, Nigerian singer Davido and Mavin Record artistes; Tiwa Savage, Don Jazzy, Reekado Banks, Korede Bello and Dr SID.

This doesn’t mean they have nothing to do with their money or are not getting the hype or are no more relevant – it means they know the possibilities which lie in the digital space and are making good use of it.

I fell in love with many foreign musicians’ music because of Facebook. I saw their ads, clicked on their video and song links, and fell in love for the first time.

Facebook is not the only platform with such opportunities. The likes of Instagram, Twitter and YouTube can never be exempted from the digital marketing discussion.

YouTube, for instance, can give musicians a boost for their music videos. Artistes can create YouTube ads and boost the views of their music videos. Artistes can even get over a million views for their music videos using YouTube ads. They also have the option of targeting the audience.

This is not fake. It will yield real results. I fell in love with Nigerian gospel singer Gabriel Eziashi's "Aka Jehovah" in 2014 when I saw it on YouTube ad. It will work like magic if your content is great.

I have seen videos from KiDi, Kuami Eugene, MzVee and Edem boosted on Youtube. Mr Eazi does YouTube ads for his videos a lot and even recently, he did some for his emPawa winners in Ghana.

Digital marketing can give Ghanaian musicians so many opportunities – and it lies in their power to do so.