5 Content creation hacks you can use for social media platforms
Mastering content creation as a music producer is something that many people within the music industry face on a constant basis. With a lot of people currently posting their new song link to the page and calling that “content”, the supply and demand of content from music producers within the industry are absolutely phenomenal. Even if your content is currently sub-par in comparison to the general market, it is often of a high standard in comparison to 90% of the music producers out there. But how can you create an effective content strategy for every single social media platform? That’s what you’re gonna learn during this article.
In order to create great content, you first need to have a piece of “pillar content” that you can use as the foundation of a week’s worth of social media updates. More often than not, this pillar content is a long-form video such as a vlog, documentary or short film about your artistic brand. It does not have to have an extremely high production value. What matters is the content within the video. For example, practical production tips for upcoming music producers wanting to progress their music career. But if you are not comfortable with putting yourself on video whilst in the recording studio or a similar environment, you could alternatively record a 1-2 hour podcast each week that could also serve as your pillar content. From this, you can create social media updates for the likes of Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin, and a tonne of other social media platforms very quickly & efficiently.
Once you have your pillar content created, it’s time to create some great micro-content that can be distributed amongst relevant social media platforms. This could include things like gifs, written articles, 1-minute videos, Instagram stories, and inspirational quotes. You have to remember that each piece of content needs to be native to the platform in which it’s featured on. For example, an Instagram story may not perform well when uploaded on Snapchat due to the slight nuances of the platform. If you are able to identify best practices for each social media platform (found in the Moon Jelly article library), you can create effective native content that will perform extremely well.
Micro-content platforms for video:
Instagram – Meme videos up to a minute long which are straight to the point. Look at videos in your explore feed to see what formats perform well.
Facebook – Videos under 3 minutes perform great. Remember to include captions in multiple languages for high engagement.
Twitter – Short form video content. Preferably under a minute long in order to retain consumer attention.
Linkedin – Caters to a business context so you will need to be smart about what videos to include.
Micro-content platforms for audio:
Spotify – Upload your podcasts in long-form. If you have a profile, pin it to your artist page.
Apple Podcasts – Upload your podcast directly to the platform.
Soundcloud – Another platform to host your podcast. Use tags and traffic ads to get it trending.
Micro-content platforms for written articles:
Medium – Write a detailed piece which is a transcription of your video that goes into more depth on the topic.
Your own website – Informal transcription talking about the topic in medium detail.
Linkedin articles – Write about the video topic in a business context. eg. 5 networking tips to get more streams.
Email subscription – 3-4 paragraphs explaining the new video. Link to the medium article or website to drive traffic.
Once you upload your videos to the social media platforms, take a look at the comments which people are writing in order to gain an insight as to how it’s being received. What parts do they like? What do they not like? What are people tagging their friends saying? Are they giving you any timestamps as to what they really enjoyed? This will give you a great opportunity to create even more content based on what you’ve already made. Essentially, you are simply listening to your audience as to what parts of content they are falling in love with. It shall also provide a great insight into what works, and what doesn’t so you’re prepared for the future.
The timing of your uploads is absolutely essential to the success of your social media content. What times are your audience most active throughout the day? Take a look by going into your platform insights and understanding when the optimal times to post are. As an example, if you post your pillar content at 3 pm, you could schedule your micro-content for 3.05pm so that it drives traffic directly to the pillar content in order to increase your overall watch time.
Example.
Now that we’ve covered the theory of how to create content, let’s do an example so you can see exactly how to execute in a real-life scenario. Every single day when in the studio, set up a camera & film yourself during production sessions. If you have random thoughtful moments that may be useful to the audience, you simply have to start speaking as the camera is already rolling. After each studio session, edit the “interesting parts” and put it into a 20-30 minute vlog which is uploaded once per week. That is your pillar piece of content.
Now it’s time to create your microcontent. For Facebook, you can create a 2-3 minute micro-vlog that has a few montages of you producing a new track, and include the mini-rants so that is full of engaging content. Create an engaging caption for the video along with a title that is contextual to the creative & your target audience. Once you see what parts of the video perform well, you can easily re-upload them as standalone videos. The standalone videos can also be uploaded to your Instagram feed.
Once the vlog is created, extract the audio and upload it as a podcast. If you don’t have a distribution service setup, sites such as Anchor.fm can do it free of charge. Use SEO practices to find high search volume titles, and remember to use loads of keywords in the description of your episode. Use Snapchat & Instagram to get users to swipe up and listen to the content.
When creating written content, simply watch the video(s) and write down 3-5 key points that stand out within the content. This will most likely be during the rant or when talking directly to the camera. Then expand on those points in written format & upload them directly to Medium, Linkedin and any other websites you use.
Creating content does not have to be difficult. By using existing pieces of video, it can be extremely quick & efficient to distribute pillar & micro-content across every single one of your social media platforms.