Why gospel artistes in Ghana should rethink their use of social media

The above sums up the view of some stakeholders in the gospel music industry who feel gospel artistes are not and should never be in competition with the secular artistes.

Well, of course, as a gospel artiste, one cannot expect them to toe the line of their counterparts in the secular world. But at least, they must strive to build a consistent strategy which will help them engage with their fans more.

And how should they achieve this? Social media - their presence on social media is wobbly and it’s high time they improved on it.

Why am I talking about this? Ghana’s artiste of the year, Joe Mettle, who became the first gospel act to win the topmost award at the recent Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, organised a Praiz Reloaded Concert at the Accra International Conference Centre last Sunday.

But it appeared that so many music lovers were not even aware of the concert. Even when the programme was ongoing, it did not trend on social media as it was expected.

Critics of the music genre have since hit hard at the PR machinery of Joe Mettle, describing it as shambolic and disappointing.

Even after beating Shatta Wale, Stonebwoy, Lil Win and others to win ‘Entertainer of the Year’ at the EMY Awards this year, his team has been surprisingly silent about it.

Would his fellow nominees had done same if they had won? Certainly not. They would have by now been making so much noise about their win on traditional media and social media as well.

But Joe Mettle is not the only gospel artiste to have found himself in this situation.

Even though the likes of top-notch gospel musicians such as Herty Borngreat, Gifty Osei and a few others are making an effort in putting themselves out there on social media, their colleagues have fallen short in that regard.

Gone were the days when gospel musicians were lambasted for always standing by flowers and cars and using mundane concepts for their music videos.

Now, gospel acts are being compared to secular musicians on various levels; from their lyrical content, to music videos, dressing, management efficiency, promotional strategies, and so on.

And that is why their social media presence should not be taken lightly by their managers.

In fact, what is the use of a management team if it can’t create the right awareness to promote the brands of its client? The goal should not always be about recording songs, releasing copies of CDs and getting some airplay.

The goal is to ensure that releases and projects of these gospel acts are in the faces of people; they are on the internet, and particularly, on social media platforms - Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, and so on.

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With a platform like Facebook announcing recently that it has two billion users, I bet that gospel musicians can leverage on this and popularise themselves.

And how can they do this? By building a more consistent posting strategy on social media platforms to enable them to keep their fans more engaged with their music.

Secular musicians including Stonebwoy, Shatta Wale, and Okyeame Kwame have already taken advantage of this and it’s doing wonders for them.

And that is why I would continue to stress that colleagues in the gospel scene should do same. But, they must ensure that whatever they share is useful and valuable. And if they can’t ensure that, then they should simply hire a social media firm towards that goal.