The thing people don’t understand about social media is that it’s a distribution game. It’s not a question of optimizing or min maxing or post times, though those things all help. It’s not a question of engagement groups or getting just the right number of stories. It’s about who sees your content and when. It’s about who thinks your content is cool and moreover why they think your content is cool. If you can hack that aspect of the distribution game then you are in a position to have long term success. So many people can’t seem to grasp this basic reality of the social media industry and I think that it leaves them at a huge disadvantage. So I’m going to take a minute to help you to understand how to win at social media distribution and how you can ensure that your content is the content that gets the clicks, because getting clicks is really what we all need to aim for, for better or for worse, this is the new reality.
The first key, of course, is good content. So many people don’t get this, but it’s the number one reason Instagram pages fail. It’s really hard to view your content with an objective eye. That’s why it pays to have that friend who is kind of an asshole but who will call you out on shit. That’s why it makes sense to be the guy who is going to work your face off and optimize your content. The secret to creating good content is very simple, figure out what your target audience wants and then give it to them. If you don’t know what they want then ask! It’s really not that complicated, and yet people constantly overthink, outdo and try to push themselves to try and understand, when in fact, this is one of the easiest things to figure out. People will tell you what they want, it’s just a matter of being willing to listen to them and then act on it.
On top of this, it’s very important to remember that social media content is very much a quantity game. Now be very aware of this, because I think that a lot of people use this as an excuse to post a lot of bad content. That’s not what you want to do. What you want is to put out a lot of good content. As much good content as you can. More than you reasonably can. A lot of bands get twisted on this. They post twenty-five live shots from their show the night before and then don’t post for a month. That’s not what you want to be doing because though that may bomb socials for a day it doesn’t really have any staying power. If you aren’t already posting daily and don’t have that habit then take any content you can find and make a point of trickling it out. If you don’t post though you won’t get anywhere. Social media is so ephemeral too that it is much better to run five 80% pieces of content than 1 100% piece. Just grind it out and see what happens!
In terms of mastering distribution, the single best way to get more done for you is to do more for others. This generally takes a few basic forms. The first is the shoutout. This can be done via your feed with apps like Regram or Downloadgram allowing you to take others content. It also can be done via your stories, simply by sharing posts directly. These are two great ways to show the love to others. It’s a great way to make them pay attention and also to show you are paying attention. You want people to have a reason to interact with you and engage. Shoutouts are an amazing way to start off any relationship on a positive note. Of course, that’s not the only way to give back. You can give back by doing something as simple as leaving meaningful comments. People want to see meaningful comments, it gives them traction and a reason to keep creating. Best of all leave enough and people will start checking you’re your stuff!
This leads to my macro thesis, the single best way to get followers for minimal effort. That is getting other people to post your shit. It’s not complicated. If you are creating quality content, at scale then people will notice. If you are being a great person while doing it then they are going to want to work with you. People want to work with people who they think are fundamentally good. You need to broadcast this. Once you have established that then you can start reaching out to people and offering them custom content (With the copy provided) for them to post. For example, as a band, you should be reaching out with exclusive unreleased snippets of your video to your Instagram followers who have the most followers and seeing who is willing to post your stuff. If they do and if they are real fans it will lead to growth. Social media is social. What big players share gets attention if it’s authentic. It’s a great way to get more views, push visibility and generally build up traction in a way that is real, tangible and easily scalable.
So yeah, once you master distribution, you master social media. It’s really as simple as that. A lot of people tend to overthink social content, but what they need to be doing is reaching out to the influential people in their circles and seeing what happens. Hell, they don’t even need to be that big, as long as there is some audience behind them you might as well give it a shot. See what they have to say and hope that you can find a way to succeed together. It’s all about working with your community and creating value within it. Once you have that you’re going to find some long term successes that will pay off in a big, bad way.
MATT BACON
Read Matt’s other Bacon Bloody Bacon blogs here:
Matt Bacon is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. Having worked with everyone from Glam Rock icon Phil Collen of Def Leppard, to post Black Metal titans Alcest, by way of legendary thrashers Exhorder as well as labels including Prophecy Productions and Ripple Music, he has dedicated his life to helping young bands develop. Having started his own blog at the age of 14 he views his career in artist development as ‘a hobby that got out of hand’. In 2015 he formed Dropout Media in order to better support the artists he loves. We sit here now, years later with countless tours booked, records released and deals signed, and loving every minute of it.
For more information: