5 tips for musicians to plan content ahead of time

Social media is crucial for music promotion, but who really has the time to post on every platform 3 times a day? Here’s how to save time so you can spend it doing what you love.

by Sammy Hakim of Bandzoogle

For modern day musicians, planning and promoting content is the name of the game. That being said, knowing ideal posting times and creating quality content to release at high consistency can be a challenge. Especially when some TikToker’s are posting north of three times a day. 

The question becomes HOW to promote yourself as a musician without sacrificing all of your time to the little eons that make up the internet, and the general consensus is: planning ahead.

Looking to promote your music online more but not sure how to get organized? We hope these five tips help you out.

1. Dedicated filming days

Step one is a tip that a lot of people have probably thought of before, but it should still be mentioned. Plan filming/shooting days, and add those to your calendar. This could be a day a week, a day a month, or even just a couple hours that you put aside every once in a while, if you find you work quickly enough.

Now the key is to record as much as possible within those hours. It’ll work best if you’ve already got some sort of plan on what you’re filming (we’ll talk more on this later), a couple of costume and makeup changes ready, and maybe even a few spots around your apartment that you’d like to shoot to help break up the fact that everything is being filmed/shot at once.

And yes, we recommend doing both filming and photoshoots at once! You can always work on a backlog so the content doesn’t line up and get released across multiple platforms at the same time, but that way your posting will remain consistent. This not only gives you a steady stream of content to share, but also helps that content appear on brand. 

Pro tip: Film a couple of takes in each outfit and look over them to be sure you have one you like BEFORE changing.

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2. Editing all at once

While it certainly isn’t the most fun you could be having, we do recommend you mass-edit so you have finished content in your phone. Sure, you can wait until right before your post time and get it done if that works better for you. But in terms of being able to post multiple times a day, while juggling your normal schedule, getting a bunch of content fully ready to just hit ‘post’ has been more effective for us in the long run.

Don’t forget to look at trends and add your hashtags and captions if you plan on using any! 

3. Scheduling content times

Not all platforms will allow you to schedule your posting times. This is where the editing-in-advance tip comes in handy. If you already know when you want to post the videos you can easily set alarms and remind yourself to hit that button and make it public right when the alarm goes off. 

Now you might be asking, how do you figure out which times are best to post? Well, a quick google search will give you a bunch of recommended posting times for TikTok, Instagram, and the like based off of your timezone. However, we recommend trying things out and seeing when your audience tends to be the most active for you. This will take some trial and error, but remember, you can always archive or make your posts private and post them again once you find ideal times. Which brings us to our next point.

4. Reposting

While this tip is more common on TikTok than anything else, reposting your content on days where you don’t have content saved up, or you want to re-highlight something, is actually a great idea. Whether or not you choose to joke in the caption about it being a repost and deserving more attention or a throwback, it carries merit all the same. 

We do recommend scheduling reposts if you plan to use them to make sure they’re spread out with other content in case fans come to your page and want to see more of your music. That way it’s easily accessible. However, if you do just want to do a repost, it’s your page and nobody is going to stop you.

Do what feels right for you! 

5. Apps and spreadsheets

Now that we’ve gotten through creating, editing, and posting content in advance, let’s talk about how to schedule that. Firstly, there are a ton of great social media planning apps you can download and use to implement this step if that is what you choose.

However, if you want to DIY your approach we recommend creating a spreadsheet with the dates, times, and names of your videos, or even inserts of your images to help you see what your feeds will look like from outsiders perspectives.

While a spreadsheet may not show you as aesthetically as some of the planning applications that emulate your feed, you will still get a pretty good idea of how it’ll work and look based on what you’ve already created and what you will be promoting. 

When you’re doing the scheduling, keep any promotional deadlines you have in mind so you know what content you should be focusing on, and which images/videos will best represent you and your artistry during that time period.

In conclusion, there are many ways to plan and promote yourself and your music. And in a day in age where creating content seems to be, sadly, just as important as creating your art, planning ahead can be a great help. If you have any other tips and tricks that we missed, feel free to add them below! We’re always trying to help each other out.

And until then, happy promoting! 

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Sammy Hakim is an up and coming young songwriter based in Los Angeles. In May 2018 she graduated from Berklee College of Music with a Major in songwriting and a focus in music business. These days she spends most of her time in songwriting sessions with artists all over the country.