Social media music

2. You’re producing a promo PACKAGE
• 3 texts, all to be clearly linked and reflecting clear BRANDING
Music (promo) video for a single release
Digipak CD cover (external, internal, spine: all of it so you could actually build it)
Social media account
In a group its wise to create one different social each; you can share ideas and image (etc)
content BUT must tweak writing to reflect the platform and its predominant audience
The 4 main ones to consider are…
Facebook for mature adult
TikTok/Insta for younger
Twitter in between (this of course can quickly change)

3. Get started: research conventions
• Discuss + agree which social each will take
• Start with your artist + produce a Ppt and/or video to illustrate AND ANALYSE +
SUMMARISE their social style (denotation of egs looking for conventions/patterns)
• Consider mode of address, especially looking for direct address:
• Directly looking at the camera
• Using ‘us’, ‘we’, ‘our’ as inclusive language (U+G…)
• Any notable trends in the type/style of images shared?
• How in/formal is the language (speech, captions, text)?
• How personal does it appear?
• Is there inclusion of UGC?
• Look especially for any attempts to create viral content, maybe a competition based on fan UGC
• Can you see how this might be monetized? (promoting tour, album/single, new video, merch,
sponsored posts: product placement, other media tie-ins, other sites eg Spotify, Bandcamp)
Repeat the process, with a smaller sample size, for other artists

4. MusiVidz egs + context
• I’ve frequently posted on industry generally and social media specifically – try some tags
+ key posts like these to help inspire posts (also useful for your Industry post of course!!!)
• TAGS: social media (I haven’t included that on all posts on social, often its just the
individual social…), unboxing (good idea to include this with an ‘actual’ digipak); TikTok;
Tumblr; Facebook; Instagram; and of course, your own artist!
• INDUSTRY POSTS: these are long curated posts including many, many articles I’ve
read + linked. You can try a word search or skim, but you will get a lot from these you
can use in your Industry post + ideas for linked social posts. General summary; 2018-19
examples; 2020-2021 examples.
• AND…just browse the blog, there’s a lot on there! Use it!

5. Conventions research: aims
• Right…you’ve thoroughly investigated your artist’s output, including a starting analysis of
their popularity across multiple platforms (literally try every social you can think of and
compare numbers + frequency of posts to get a sense of which they treat as most
important) …
• You’ve looked at a range of other artists in lesser detail
• You’ve evidenced this in well-illustrated Ppt/video packed with denotation AND analysis
of the media language + strategies used, including for monetizing and using UGC to
strengthen the relationship with an audience
• You’ve found + discussed at least one specific eg of a viral campaign: an artist inviting
UGC, probably to help promote a single/album/tour
• So now…

6. Presenting research conventions
• Summarize your JOINT group findings
• This must again include thorough, relevant illustration and clear denotation
demonstrating your grasp of media language/terminology/semiotics and some theory
• Highlight within this the main ideas/examples that will now influence your social posting.
You can split this up: ideas that work across different social media + ideas for specific
platforms only
• This is how you help show the examiner you are APPLYING this research, which itself
shows your grasp of the conventions/media language involved
• Never lose sight of the need to keep a specific target audience in mind – especially
differentiating between Facebook + other (younger-appealing) social media

7. Plan your posts
• Use your research to longlist ideas for actual posts, around 20-40 overall, ideally spread
out over 2+ months AND with some (faked!) audience/fan interaction (comments)
• You must include within this one specific viral media idea (eg submit a TikTok of your
lipsynching to the single; a winner will have the artist do a one-off acoustic performance in
their bedroom, streamed through the socials)
• Consider your set-building, shoots (including costuming, make-up), any photoshoots,
sample clips as ‘teasers’, short clips of the final cut as teasers as potential posts
• The artist’s brand would extend to posts on industry (eg record store day, controversies
over streaming payment rates…); issues (eg International Women’s Day); + possibly
some trivia
• It’s a good idea to include at least 1 post with an eg of merch (its easy to create an image)
NEXT SLIDE: PAST STUDENT EXAMPLES – use these to help finding/planning ideas

8. Past student examples
• Social media used to be something I encouraged as a means of demonstrating stronger
grasp of audience concepts and industry practice; it replaced the website option in 2020-
21. So, Lemma’s are the 1st done for this purpose, but the Welshly Arms account was so
good the band’s management actually complained it was more popular than their actual
account!!!
• LEmma: the Billie Eilish Twitter; the Insta. Outstanding blogs/videos/digipak and social!
• The Welshly Arms examples pre-date the switching of website/social, so are for various
roles: Insta; Twitter; Facebook. Evie also did some great work on social (+ everything
else!)
• All 3 of these examples include excellent viral concept comps you should look at
NEXT SLIDE: PAST STUDENT EXAMPLES – Evie’s viral concept

9. Past student examples: Evie’s viral

10. Past student examples: Lemma’s Insta
• The profile icon employs direct address
+ is on brand
• The profile name references a
nickname for Eilish fans
• They had other accounts following and
posting comments they created
• They kept the promotional, monetizing
element clear with the tour slogan!
• They included video (eg digipak
unwrapping) + merch (they built a Wix
website for this purpose)

11. Past student examples: Lemma’s Twitter
• The profile icon + name + slogan + linking to
other accounts to generate scripted comments +
UGC, same as their Insta
• Banner uses video image to great effect
• FIFTY tweets…
• Integration/cross-promotion
with other social accounts
• T(w)een-friendly informal, behind-the-
scenes ‘I’m just like you’ posts w/ emojis