This document provides guidance for students creating a promotional package across multiple social media platforms for a musical artist. It instructs students to research conventions of different social platforms and analyze the styles of their chosen artist and other examples. Students are told to summarize their findings in an illustrated presentation and identify conventions that will influence their original social media posts. They are to develop a longlist of at least 20 planned posts over 2 months including fan interaction and a proposed viral contest. Examples of past successful student projects are provided for inspiration.

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