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How Producers Can Create Engaging Content In 2021!
Written By: Eric “Realistic” Michael
Whether you’re a producer, artist, or even an engineer creating engaging content on social media is one of the many keys that can lead to more fans, more people checking your music out, more beats sales, more gigs, & more overall awareness for your music.
There’s a lot of competition that’s out there when it comes to posting content on social media & viewers expect something that’s going to make their time worthwhile on your post. There are a lot of ways to create engaging content & once you get the flow down, it’s actually pretty fluid. These are techniques that we have used ourselves & have seen great success with them!
The Types Of Posts That Get The Most Engagement
To start off we’ll simply list the main types of posts that get the most engagement for producers or artists. They can be short videos, long videos, images, carousels, or boomerangs.
In no ranking order:
● Funny posts.
● Inspirational posts.
● Educational posts.
● Posts that offer value.
● Quotes.
● Posts with unique creativity.
The type of posts that get the least amount of engagement for producers or artists are (in no
ranking order)
Video of the DAW session playing the song or beat.
● Posting the cover art.
● A post telling people to go check out your new song.
● A video playing the screen capture playing the song from your email or messages.
● Content that looks too much like an ad.
Stick To A Schedule
Consistency is one of the biggest factors when it comes to building engagement & a following. Creating & sticking to a schedule is not only a way to have consistency, but it actually helps your content perform better with the algorithms; especially when it comes to Instagram. I’ve had personal consultations with Instagram & they informed me that posting at the same time every day drastically impacts your post’s performances. That’s because IG’s algorithm studies your habits & when it notices you post at the same time, it prepares itself before you post that a post from you is going to happen soon & the algorithm will work in your favor since IG was expecting you to post.
Posting at the same time every day may seem like a lot, but there are actually apps that you can use to schedule your post ahead of time & will post automatically for you. This not only lets you post consistently but can also make life easier for you because you can sit down for 20-30 minutes once a week & schedule all your posts & won’t have to worry about it the rest of the week.
Some of the tops ones to use are Facebook & Instagram’s free Creator Studio, Later, & Hootsuite.
Videos With Captions
Videos are one of the top things on social media that draws people in. Videos that perform the best are ones with a caption at the top & subtitles at the bottom. The caption lets people know what the video is about & the subtitles allow people to watch your video on mute. Believe it or not, most people watch videos on mute because they’re at work, in public, or scrolling while watching TV.
Tell Your Story
When an artist or producer drops a new track or is working on something new, a go-to for a lot of music creators is just recording a video of them playing their track through the speakers within their DAW. This shows off what you’re working on, but people have become very numb & disinterested in this sort of post. The types of videos that perform the best are ones that are funny, offer value, drop knowledge, or inspire people.
If you’re releasing new music you may be wondering how you can do that with your music. It’s actually something that’s pretty easy to do & something that you will probably enjoy doing because you get a chance to talk about your process & how genius you are lol.
1. Set up your camera in your studio or room.
2. Hit record & talk freely for 20-30 minutes.
3. Talk about how you created the song or beat. The emotion behind it. What inspired you to create it. Things that may have been going in life at the time. A funny story behind it, etc.
4. Chop up the video to find the most interesting parts & turn those clips into micro-content.
5. Add a catchy caption & some subtitles.
6. Play a snippet of the song at the end of the video. You can even have the song playing quietly underneath while you’re talking.
An example is you may have made a song that you created after you lost your job. Even if the song itself is not about losing your job you may mention what was going on in your life while you made it. The caption at the top of the video could be something like “I Lost My Job & Had Nowhere Else To Turn To😩”
What you just did was play your song, talk about the process of how you made it, & offered inspiration or knowledge to the people watching. Now someone is more likely to watch your video & make them aware of your song. This makes your video more engaging, which can land it on the explore page on Instagram, TikTok's, or YouTube, which will show it to new audiences & create new followers & fans for you. There’s a good chance after they’ve watched your video & got the value out of it, they’ll go check out the song & like what they hear.
Offer Value
Offering value is one of the most effective ways to get engagement on social media. Whether it’s tips & tricks, how-to guides, telling your experience in a situation, or anything that can be useful information for people. Lots of people follow & share posts on social media that are educational or have valuable information. If you’re on Instagram, these types of posts will work to your advantage because part of the current IG algorithm is based more on shares & saves rather than likes & comments. Posts that contain educational or valuable information are the ones that are most likely to be saved & shared
Memes Or Funny Content
This type of content may be at the very top of the list when it comes to the best-performing content. It’s an effective strategy many companies have used for years with TV commercials (I.e. Geico, Budweiser, Old Spice, Nationwide, etc) For producer & artist memes, some of the most effective are ones that talk about & make light of the struggle or issues producers & artists may have. Lots of people have most likely experienced similar situations & find it to be very relatable or it may be a humorous joke that only a producer or artist would get. People like to feel like they’re in a special club & enjoy an inside joke that people outside of the culture “just wouldn’t understand.” These are also the types of posts that get the most shares & saves. You’ll most likely get a lot of comments too.
Show Your Process
Showing your process of how you create your music is something that a lot of people are interested in. They may enjoy watching how other people create or get inspired to try out your techniques. Earlier we mentioned that recording a video of your computer screen playing the track isn’t effective - so instead of doing that - record a video of you playing your drum machine or keyboard, or if you’re an artist, show clips of you recording the song. Behind the scenes content is captivating & lots of people enjoy seeing the process.
Twitter Quotes
This one seems weird but has proven effective. Posts with a quote on them receive good engagement, but for some reason Tweeting the quote, screenshotting that Tweet, & putting the Tweet on an image performs even better. One of the reasons may be because Tweets are something that people see a lot of, so it comes off as something that is familiar. They’re also easy to make. You can tweet your quotes & put them over pictures of you or you can find Tweets from famous producers & artists & put the tweet on an image of that star. Both are effective & can receive a lot of engagement. Especially if that quote is inspirational, relatable, motivating, or funny.
Reels
Since the explosion of Tik Tok, Instagram felt the pressure & had to do something to compete with Tik Tok & keep users on Instagram. Their response was creating Reels - which is a similar look to Tik Tok videos; however, what makes them so effective is since IG is trying to compete with Tik Tok at the moment, IG has prioritized Reels in their algorithm. So for the time being, Reels perform really well. You can use these to do a lot of the above stuff we mentioned. As long as the content is captivating, it will perform well.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content is content that someone else created & you’re reposting it on your feed. You’ll want to post the same type of content that we mentioned above that performs well. This can also save you a ton of time because you don’t have to create it yourself. Just be sure to always credit the source where you got the content from & tag them so they can gain awareness & followers from your repost too.
Don’t Make Your Content Look Like An Ad
20-30 years ago things that appeared as ads were still effective; however, in today’s world, we’re so bombarded with ads & have gotten numb to them, that if something appears as an ad it’s almost an instant turn off & people will go out of their way not to watch it or look at it.
It’s crazy to think but sometimes when a post looks less professional & not so dressed up, it can perform better. That’s because it appears to be more organic, raw, authentic, & more what people are used to seeing. Examples are using Instagram text bubbles to put captions, titles, quotes, questions, or statements on your posts, screenshotting a note you wrote, or a Tweet you Tweeted. That’s because it’s a look that people see every day & they’re familiar with it.
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SoundOracle - Owner
SoundOracle (Sound Designer for Timbaland, whose sounds have been heard in over 20 Grammy award-winning songs by artists like Drake, Jay Z, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown, and more)
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Realistic Production - Engineer
Realistic is a Producer/Engineer located in Atlanta, GA specializing in Hip-Hop, R&B & Pop music. Realistic has been involved in the music industry for over 15 years. He has worked on projects for Talib Kweli, Just Blaze, Musiq Soulchild, Pharoahe Monch, NBA 2k, Skyzoo, BJ The Chicago Kid, Madlib, Ayo-N-Keyz, Billboard Hitmakers, Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Rhymesayers, Hamburger Helper, & LoveOfPharaoh.
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