Let’s have a conversation about social media and the algorithm. What kind of content works? How come some things work and others don’t? How do we keep creating content? Welp, we’ve got an artist tip for you!
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The answers to these questions aren’t so clear-cut. Unfortunately, the content creator is bound to the algorithm BUT, there are steps you can take to ensure you create a good path to success.
Rapzilla as a media platform has experimented with many different ways to share stories. Usually, when we find something that works, we go to the well until that runs dry, then we try something else.
Most artists will be posting about songs, projects, or even performing.
Story-Driven Content
Story-driven content is going to do well because it provides a unique angle, and is interacting, and engaging. A song post isn’t necessarily going to push the needle unless it’s outside of the box.
You may get lucky and catch a trend, but at the end of the day, are those thousands of views going to turn those people into dedicated fans, or are those people just one-and-done like the video? Are they invested in following you and being a supporter because of what they just watched?
Getting the Fan
Getting the fan is more important than getting the like. Would you rather have 100 true fans or 1000 streams? On paper, the streams look great, but are those people invested in you outside of, “I listened to the song once”? If all 100 of your fans gave you a dollar, you’d have $100. To make $100 in Spotify streaming, you need roughly 23,000 streams.
The key here is to first build a fanbase and not build your stats.
Locate Your Fans
Now you might ask, “If I have 100,000 listeners, then I’m doing well.” Well yes and no. In the numbers game yes, but again, do those translate to sales? If you were to go on tour, would you be able to have people show up to see you perform?
A booker or vendor might see the shiny big numbers, pay you a premium, fly you out, and the whole nine, and 15 people show up for the show. It’s happened plenty of times.
Of all your streaming numbers, do you know where your audience is? Well, find them, and go there.
Create Multi-Use Content
Let’s get back to content creation.
What drives people and makes them stay? What can you do that’s unique?
Make sure to show them how you got to where you are. We don’t need the pretty bow, we want it to be real and relatable.
“What if I run out of things to talk about?”
Honestly, it’s not possible. You should be able to use one piece of content and flip it many times.
For example, on Rapzilla.com, we write an article. Then we create a graphic and social it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. That’s six pieces of content. If the content does well, then we create a video about it and upload that video. Now that’s 11 pieces of content made from one thing. Each platform has things that work better, so you work to tweak everything you have and make each work well.
If you film a longer video, you can cut that video down even further into multiple shorter videos.
Anytime you create content, you have to take that one thing and say, how many pieces of content can I create from this?
Reuse Content
Then a week or two later you post again because the algorithm doesn’t show your audience anything, so it will always be new for someone.
One more example. When we announced the Rapzilla Awards, we created 72 pieces of content for it, then we doubled the other awards posts. The two articles, plus the voting system, then point back to the article so we’re above 160 because now we’re referencing it again. So listen, that’s 160+ pieces of content from two articles we posted!
Artist Tip
Let’s condense down the points of this article:
- Story-driven engaging content remains king.
- Getting the fan is more important than getting the stream.
- Locate and service your core supporters.
- Create multiple-use content.
- Reuse the content in new ways.
