Fans are always excited to know which song is being selected to be promoted properly as a single. This applies for every artist they love, whether it’s a superstar who could snatch another No. 1 or even just their favorite local act. If you have a new album out, they’ll be wondering which songs to which they already listening will be turned into music videos.

There are a lot of ways they can be involved in the choosing process. Ask them which tracks are their favorites, if they have any ideas about potential visuals, or look at what songs are selling best on iTunes or which ones have racked up the most streams on platforms like Spotify.

There is more data available to artists these days than ever before, so knowing what your fans would like to see in the way of music videos (or at least which songs they feel deserve to be videos) shouldn’t be too difficult. Letting them know you’re planning on giving them what they want is a fun way to kick off a campaign around that project.

If an album hasn’t been released yet, this might be even more exciting. Telling fans a video is coming means new music and might also mean a full album is in the not-too-distant future. This is what most fans wait years for, so relish the moment and have fun alerting them to tunes, and visuals, on the way.

After you’ve announced what song will be the next to get the video treatment, start alluding to, hinting at, or straight up telling your fan base when it could arrive. It doesn’t really matter if you stretch this announcement out over a few posts in a fun way or if you simply reveal the date in one go. (It could even be at the same time you tell everybody which song you’re set to focus on, though that would deprive you of another opportunity to create some content.)

Be careful before you set any date in stone though, because fans would rather you tell them it’s coming in a month and for the date to remain the same than to have to push something back even by a day.

I’m not necessarily saying it’s fair or reasonable, but people hate to wait for a day and time when they were promised something, only to find out it isn’t coming. Disappointing your fans is one of the worst things you can do, and while it may not seem like a big deal to you, it will to them.

If you want to promote your music on social media right, you’re going to need to take some time to come up with a plan in regards to how you break the news, start creating hype, and then how to finally reveal what you’ve been working on and get the most out of your efforts.

I have seen many artists do this, and it’s a great way to really get people excited (if they weren’t already) for your upcoming music video. Knowing one is coming is fun enough, but there is nothing like catching the first glimpse. It’s sort of like hearing the first snippet of a new single you’ve been waiting for, which is the sort of thing superfans freak out over.

The image you share can be an actual screenshot from the video, or you can take a picture of your screen as you watch, edit, or even as the filming is taking place.

Behind-the-scenes shots of the band conferring with your video’s Director, Camera Operator, Cinematographer, or anyone else on your crew — no matter how professional or how low budget your shoot was — are fun and visually dynamic. Have fun with this step, and if you feel so inclined, post more than one image.

The more you upload, the more people will be ready and waiting for your new art.

Everybody loves seeing a clip of what’s coming, but the timing on this should be carefully thought out before posting. It’s not as big of a deal to upload an image while filming and then make people wait another week or two before actually giving them the video, but once a proper clip is uploaded to your Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, those who love your music will really begin asking when it will arrive.

Keep in mind by this point (if you’ve been indulging in all of the options I’ve posted above), you’ve been talking about this music video for some time, in a number of ways, and likely on a few different platforms. That’s what I would suggest you should do, but the more you discuss this anticipated item, the more people will want it, and the less patient they will become.

You can manage this patience by giving them more and more until the final product is delivered, but only if you drop the most important pieces closer to the date. A clip (or, the clips, as you can definitely post more than one) should arrive shortly before the full video, otherwise people might not be too happy when what they have been waiting for isn’t given to them in a timely manner.

As you move forward in your career and plot your next video or campaign, keep the freshly-formed opinions of your biggest fans in mind. They might just have some suggestions that find their way into your next project.

This should be the biggest step in your promotional process for obvious reasons. Make as much of a splash with the release of a proper music video as you can, because it’s an important and valuable piece of content.

It likely took you a long time to come up with an idea, find a team to make it happen, and then to actually shoot and edit the final product, and that’s to say nothing of the expense going into the project. Of course you should be promoting every bit of this content-heavy process, but none more powerfully or forcefully than the finished treatment.

This is the time to really dig deep when it comes to both money and effort. If you think it’ll be worth it, hire a PR team to help you secure publicity around the new video,. This might mean a premiere partner, which would likely be a blog or other digital outlet that could be the first to share your new work with their readers. They typically love this sort of opportunity, and it’s a great way to start what could be a great relationship with a publication.

You may also want to consider allocating some cash for social media promotion, which isn’t typically very expensive, but can be very helpful. Since you’re already going to be pushing the video onto your fans (and hopefully their social media networks via resharing and retweets), why not work with Facebook and Twitter to spread the word even more?

There are only a few times where it might be worth it to invest in this sort of campaign, especially for a band just starting out, so grab ahold of the opportunities when they come.

Okay, so your latest visual masterpiece is out in the world. Are you done? Of course not!

Talk to your fans about what you’ve just shown them. Did they like it? If so, what specifically? Do they prefer it to past clips, or is this not a favorite? You can post these questions and wait for answers to pour in, you can set up polls via Twitter or on separate websites, or you can ask fans straight out one-by-one if they’ve shown themselves to be the kind of people who would likely be willing to answer.

Not many artists do this kind of market research, but it never hurts to see what people think of what you’re doing, and you can’t always get it from only looking at the comments section on a YouTube clip or browsing your Twitter mentions. This isn’t to suggest if people didn’t love something you need to completely change your aesthetic, because that is who you are as an artist, but this information is worthy of gathering and considering.

Perhaps people have grown tired of the same kind of video, or maybe they didn’t appreciate how you rolled this new visual out. As you move forward in your career and plot your next video or campaign, keep the freshly-formed opinions of your biggest fans in mind. They might just have some suggestions that find their way into your next project.

After the initial release, you’re going to need to share your new video over and over, and to make this work, you’ll need to find creative ways to make it seem like you’re not, well, doing exactly what I just said. Don’t just share a link or the video itself once, because many of your fans will miss the first announcement, and then who knows when they’ll catch up and actually watch the video…if they do at all. At the same time, don’t just repost constantly, which can get annoying.

Throughout the first days, weeks, and month the video is out, people won’t mind if you’re somewhat liberal with the resharing. Post it at different times, with new phrasing, and make sure fans know this isn’t something brand new, but rather a piece you’re really proud of, so you want to ensure everybody gets a chance to witness what you’ve created. As time goes on, you’ll need to get much more creative when it comes to sharing a video months or perhaps even years old.

Once the content is created (the content being the music video), you’re going to want to do everything you can to get the most out of it, which means valuing it above almost everything else, and getting as many clicks, views, and plays as possible from the moment it’s released onwards.