TikTok and other short-form video platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have become a powerhouse platform for musicians to reach new audiences and develop fans. TikTok’s short-form video algorithm is uniquely designed in a way that is far more advantageous for musician creators compared to other social media platforms. Why?
TikTok’s primary functionality is to promote creator’s content to cold audiences (people who don’t follow you) as compared to Instagram which mostly targets content towards warm audiences (people who do follow you). When musician creators use TikTok, they have the highest potential to experience significant growth in their number of fans, revenue opportunities, and organic artist discovery from fans, labels, sponsors, and more due to TikTok’s consistent and systematic exposure to new cold audiences that the artist’s content then develops into diehard fans.
However, managing an artist’s TikTok account can be a challenge. It is important to ensure that your artist is creating content that is appropriate for their brand, and that they are connecting with their audience in a genuine way.
Here are some tips for effectively supporting your artist on TikTok (5 minute Read):
- Help them to develop a content strategy and workflow
- Teach them how to use TikTok
- Monitor their activities
- Connect them with other TikTok users and fans
- Educate your artist why they should be using TikTok
1. Help them develop a content strategy and workflow
As a manager, you should help your artist develop a content strategy for TikTok. This entails determining what content they are posting, its visuals/aesthetics, and the messaging then aligning it to their brand and current trends.
Making a list of video ideas that are already viral/mainstream content, copying what big creators are already doing, or making lists of trending audios and trends is *NOT* a content strategy.
Creating content strategy means: 1) Figuring out what is unique to your artist and how to showcase that in a way that is scalable and repeatable, and 2) Finding strong and specific content role models – not just any artist whose popular on TikTok – and learning from them.
Then, like their music, help your artist create a process that allows for consistent high quality content whether its in the form of batching content, hiring an outside editor, or simply laying out the necessary steps to produce the right content on time each week.
2. Teach your artist how to use TikTok
If your artist is new to TikTok, you should teach them how to use the platform. Show them how to use the various features of the app and how to interact with fans. Teaching them how to stitch, duet, comment-reply with video, save comments to favorites, and leverage other existing viral content to piggy-back off of it would be a good start. From there, encourage your artist to practice creating content and posting it to see if its engaging. This will help you determine how to iterate on your content strategy and workflow from there.
3. Monitor their activities
Posting consistent and high quality content is what the TikTok algorithm looks for before promoting your artist’s content to more cold audiences. It’s important to monitor your artists activity in terms of posting frequency, content quality, and time spent creating content to ensure they’re consistently improving and seeing results. You may also find that the artist spends hours on miniscule details that effectively hurts their output consistency and quality. All signs to stop, analyze, and iterate on the strategy and workflow.
4. Connect them with other TikTok users and fans
Encourage your artist to connect with other TikTok users, such as fans, other musicians, celebrities, and influencers. This will help them to grow their audience, reach new fans, and could even provide accountability to keep posting and growing.
Do you have two or three artists on your roster who don’t want to post, or get post anxiety? Throw them in a group chat and have them check in with each other to make sure they posted that day!
Additionally, make sure your artist is starting the conversation in their own comments section, optimizing by adding audios (for example, if its a cover, add the actual song audio too and mute it), and putting effort into their text and captions. Ensure your artist is actually engaging with their comments and not just hitting ‘like comment’ or replying with emojis. Fan development is a two way street.
5. Educate your artist why they should be using TikTok
Make sure your artist sees TikTok as an extension of their art – not a promotional task. It should be treated with the same care that their music is treated with. Ads cannot replace art, they can only amplify art. There’s actually no point in running ads until you’ve created good and validated video art.
Paid promotion like social media ads and PR are important, but are also most effective when used in conjunction with organic exposure via TikTok’s algorithm to create a well-rounded strategy that reaches new audiences in the most efficient way possible. TikTok and short-form media lives for years as an extension of your brand and should be a reflection of the artist’s brand and personality, not selling something they are not.
Conclusion
In conclusion, by focusing on these five key points, you can ensure that you’re effectively supporting your artist management or label clients on TikTok and all short-form media platforms. Creating a content strategy, teaching your artist how to use the platform, monitoring their activity, connecting them with other users and fans, and educating them on the importance of using TikTok will all help to create a successful strategy and workflow to establish your artist clients on TikTok and beyond. So get out there and start creating content that your artist’s fans will love! Contact Short Form Studio today to learn more about how we can help you reach your short-form digital marketing goals.
