Hey homie, I’m not sure if this is the answer you’re hoping to hear, but in my experience the best and most sustainable growth has come from not expecting big numbers. I’ve been running social medias for my bands and working with friends for years, I’ve had all the meltdowns and frustrations and tried like every quick fix and YouTube video there is. Only in the past year or so have I noticed actual growth, and the only reason I noticed it was because of focusing on being consistent, providing value, and listening. I’ll try explain what I’ve noticed the best I can.
1. Consistency
I know it’s tough, we’re supposed to spend our time working on music and perfecting our craft, not making commercials for ourselves. I say this because my band consistently discusses how often we have to make time to keep up with a social media presence. But it’s also something to be grateful for! I think it’s really cool that we have the resources and the ability to be able to promote ourselves on what can serve as a major platform for organic reach.
I say that while acknowledging that organic growth is hard, but this is where consistency comes in. The times I have most noticed the algorithm pick up (seeing the same people like your videos continuously, go on to follow you, migrate to other platforms) is when I am posting 3-4 times per day on TikTok and once per day on IG/FB. The best way I’ve found to be able to do this sustainably is to create content buckets.
For instance: if I have a new single, I may decide I’d like to primarily promote it with photos, lip syncing/miming performance videos, and shareable content (meme videos, skits)
These 3 formats serve as my content buckets. When I’m creating my content, I can take one day and create 5 videos for bucket 1 (lip sync through the whole song in 5 different places. Assume each video can be trimmed into 5 different sections of the song. This will give you 25 videos). I can then do the same for my other buckets and in several days can create weeks worth of content.
2. Providing Value
A huge example for this for me is A Day to Remember. When I first discovered them, I knew a song or two but didn’t really care. One day YouTube started showing me behind the scenes footage for their album. Every video was so funny and displayed a really dramatized journey through their recording process. I thought this was so funny that I started sending it to people and talking about the band. Afterwards I started looking them up more often, they kept getting recommended, and I fell in love with that album.
The key for this was personality. ADTR made me laugh and I felt connected to their sense of humor. I’ve seen a lot of artists who teach things about the music industry on TikTok or provides small news updates on big name artists, I’ve seen some who provide social commentary. All of these artists stand out to me because they’re providing value to engage my attention and make me aware of them. At which point I develop an interest in the artist as a whole, therefore leading me to their music and completing the loop, I am now a fan.
Again, I know it’s a lot. But I’ve noticed the most growth when the goal is to connect with others and build a relationship over seeking videos with 1m views. I’ve done both. Stress city either way 😂
3. Listening
This may seem obvious, but pay attention to what’s working. Which videos are you creating for tik tok that are gaining traction and bringing people in? Which IG posts are getting more attention than any others?
Once you identify some trends in what your audience enjoys, give them more of it! For example: let’s say I have a song that talks about me being an independent artist. If people really enjoy a video I make explaining how record labels work, maybe I’ll try creating more videos about the business of music. I can tie these in with cools calls to action like “My song (X) is all about being independent, check it out on Spotify!”
Not only am I sharing my passion for the business of music with others who feel the same, I’m also letting them know I have a song that provides further insight on my thoughts.
**** this is just an example, but this is something you can do for any song****
So in a word, pay attention to what people pay attention to and give your attention to that.
I know this is a bit wordy, but I’ve looked around through articles and posts for years trying to find good answers for how to market my music so I wanted to give as detailed of an insight as I could without writing a novel. Hope this helps though!! If you wanna discuss anything further feel free to DM 🙂