The Socialize Strategy - Using Music on Social Media
Happy Friday. Welcome to the socialise strategy where we are going to talk about all things music today related to social media. Before we get started, just wanna mention that we are in partnership with HubSpot this week. So if you don't know what HubSpot is, it is an all inclusive platform where you can really dive into marketing, analytics, promotions. So it's a really good thing to take a peek at because if you're in the market for a platform like that, it's a really good one.
Helen:So just gonna mention it slightly and you can just click on the link in the newsletter or here in the show notes and see more about it for yourself. But now let us jump into the topic because we get this question. I can't even tell you how many times. I have people that ask me all the time, Why can't I use the music? Why am I getting copyright strike?
Helen:Why is my music being deleted? Why can't I use 2 songs in a video? Let me think what are the other questions. Tons of them. I'm constantly getting music questions.
Helen:So it was time to attack it head on and make sure I cover everything that I've been asked. So let's go. The first thing is to think about adding music to your videos as a way to potentially increase your engagement. Why? Because these apps do they start a lot of them started out as music apps, and they are trying to promote music for music artists.
Helen:So if they're doing that, they're obviously going to tend to push out the videos that have music on them to help the artists who are paying to help really get your content in front of a bunch of people because it's about the music. So I honestly would say, go for it and add music onto videos when you can. But on the flip side, you don't need to be driven by every video having to have music. I recently, after the whole thing thing that happened on TikTok, when the music got muted and I lost my content on so many videos because of it, I have hardly been adding music to videos anymore Because most of the content where I'm speaking or I'm teaching, it's I don't need to have music. And if people wanna listen to it, I'm not banking on hopping on a music, a hot music track to get my content in front of other people, because my content is not music driven.
Helen:Because I have a large enough audience where they are going to immediately see my face and say, oh, do I wanna hear what she has to say today? And I don't think it's gonna matter that much if I have trending music on it. But if you're trying to grow and your account is new and smaller, it is a good way to get in front of more people. So let's just break that down for 2 minutes, for a minute. If you have already a lot of followers, sometimes the thinking and the strategy can be different than someone who is new to a platform, just starting out and trying to build an audience.
Helen:So when you're hearing advice from people, gurus on social media, whether it's on reels, Facebook, on TikTok, wherever it is, Think about what it is when within the realm of the type of account you have, how large your audience is, and what you're doing on your form before you automatically just say, oh, I'm gonna do that because that person said so. So I'm here to tell you that if you have a large following already, you have already a little bit of an advantage to being put in front of more people right off the bat. So you may not need trending music as much, because the first wave of your video gets pushed out to are gonna be a percentage of followers who already want to watch your content. So you don't need to think I've got to get on a music track where a lot of people are playing this music. So I'm gonna be more likely to get into front of someone new.
Helen:You don't need that as desperately as a step as an established creator as you do if you are a new creator. So please keep that in mind. That is so important. And then think about, okay, now we're gonna look at it from 2 angles. You're a new creator.
Helen:You wanna get in front of more people. Maybe it's worth putting on a trending sound. Maybe you'll get in front of a new audience. So maybe that's the strategy to think about if you are smaller and growing. If you have a decent following already, whether you have a few 1,000, 10,000 in the tens, twenties, thirties, forties, thousands, you're getting in front of a good amount of people off the bat as a first wave.
Helen:There there's gonna be a high percentage of people who already know and want your content. So it's less it's less crucial to hop into a trend. Same goes for hashtags, but we'll do that on a separate topic. I'm actually gonna answer some hashtag questions at the end. So stick around if you're interested in that.
Helen:Alright. So that's the one point to think about that that you don't have to even though it's like ad music, maybe add trending music. You don't have to. And you also run the risk of if you pick a piece of music that someone uploaded, quote, illegally or not officially, and that gets muted eventually, then you run the risk of, oh my god, when it says original music by a certain creator and you see this, like, maybe 5,000 videos made with that sound, but it's not a TikTok approved set. There's no way of knowing that eventually that might get muted.
Helen:So if you really are sure that you want to make sure that your voice is heard on your content, it's it's safer to leave music off because they can't mute it. And if you're playing music in the room, then you run the risk of getting muted. So don't play music in the room. Just leave music off. If it's if you're talking, then something that you want to make sure that never gets muted.
Helen:If you have, a piece of content that music can help the mood, This is so important. Sometimes I can be talking about something. And the minute I put a sappy song on, it's like the content makes people want to cry. And then other times, if I didn't have music on it, it's just less emotional. So you really wanna think about, do I need music to make my my, my point, my story more emotional?
Helen:Am I trying to pull at people's heartstrings? Or am I trying to add energy to my story? So I'm I'm definitely contradicting myself again and again. But the reason for that is you have to think about what your messaging is and what you're trying to get across, because that is how you can make the decision whether you should add music or not. That's the rant.
Helen:That's the ramble. Thanks for being here for that. But I think it's helpful just to look at the big picture. Nothing is cut and dry. Nothing is this way or the highway.
Helen:No. There's definitely different strategies for doing different ways of thinking about music and why to edit. Okay. Was that even proper grammar? I have no idea.
Helen:Alright. Now let's talk about editing outside the apps. If you're editing videos in CapCut and you want to try it out and see what it sounds like with the music on it, you can, by adding the music from another video, you can do add sound, click extract music, and then you can pick a video and the music will come over into your app. You can also just click and add music if you connect your TikTok to your cap cut or your Instagram to your cap cut or whatever. But the point is, if you edit with the music in the app and then you post that video with the music attached to Instagram and to TikTok, and you don't go into the TikTok platform or the Instagram platform or the Facebook platform and choose the music again, you could get run into having your music, your video muted.
Helen:You could run into a copyright strike depending on what platform you're on. Certainly on YouTube, you're going to get a copyright strike. So you don't want to automatically export out of cap cut with the music attached, and then just post it to Instagram, to TikTok, to Facebook with the music, it will likely get music copyright strike or muted. So make sure when you actually, a good safe bet is to take the music. Once you do your edit and you're happy with it, take the music off and export it so you don't make a mistake.
Helen:Just take the music off and export it and then add the music again when you get into the app. That's a safer bet to so you don't forget. Sometimes I do this. They do the mistake that I'm telling you not to do. I do it.
Helen:I export the music's on there. And when I put it into the platform, I forget to add the music. And then it says original music, the mothership, and that could that could get muted. So hopefully, that's clear. I listen, trying to Explain a little more detail than I do in the newsletter here so that if you don't quite understand what I mean in writing, that you maybe I'm explaining it a little better in person.
Helen:Okay. So that's something to think about. Make sure to add the music back in each app that you're in. So add the music in Instagram when you post that video to Instagram, add the music in TikTok, click add sound and pick the music. Alrighty.
Helen:The other thing is this one, if I don't get this question a 100 times a week, can I put to more than one music in a video? Not legally and not without getting a copyright violation or strike or a and a, content rules. What is it called? Guidelines violation. And it's a problem because you're gonna get flagged, and then you're not gonna get your content pushed out.
Helen:You're not really allowed to add more than one music in a video. If you do it in capcut, and then you go into TikTok, go into Instagram and put another music on top of it to hide what you did and lower the volume. I think even now they have bots figuring that out that people are doing that. And so it's problematic. So make sure you just try and live by the guidelines.
Helen:If you really need to do 2 musics and you wanna try it once, you can take the run the risk, but I don't recommend it. I don't do it myself, so I'm not gonna recommend someone else do it. All right. That's important. The thing that I will say, and that we're going off a little off the rails with this one is that there are DJs and artists and creators on TikTok in particular that combine musics, and then they post it as their own original sound.
Helen:And for some reason, they don't get muted, at least not right away. And I don't know if some of them are uploading that through a platform. So there is a platform. I think it's called Tunecore. I think that's what it's called.
Helen:I'm gonna look it up for sure, and I wanna put a link. But if you post your original music, let's see. You're a musician and you wanna have your music officially on TikTok. You can post it through this platform, Tunecore, and then you sign your agreement, your rights, whatever to TikTok or Instagram to use it. Then you are uploading your music officially so others can choose it and use it.
Helen:But if you just do it from an app and you put it together and then you post a video and it says original sound, the mothership, and I have music playing in my video and it's a couple of different songs, it's not the, quote, legal way to upload music to to a platform. So therefore, I am gonna run the risk of having my music muted. Some musicians seem to be able to do it, and I don't know. I'm not savvy enough in the world of Tik TOK. I don't work in corporate Tik TOK.
Helen:I don't work at Tik TOK at all. So I don't really know how the rules are and why some DJs are able to do this without getting muted. Maybe they have an arrangement with Tik TOK where, in the creator music arena where they're allowed to do it? Unfortunately, I don't have the answer to that. I wish I did.
Helen:At some point, maybe I'll learn. Find out. Maybe I'll meet somebody in TikTok, and I'll be able to get the answer to that. But for now, I'm not positive. So I wouldn't recommend using more than one music or trying to make your own music and then just attaching it to your video without going through an app like Tunecore or a website.
Helen:I think it's Tunecore.t0tunecore.com, I believe. Okay. Now let's talk about replacing muted sounds. Boom. If you have if you have videos on your feed that have been muted, this is specific to TikTok.
Helen:What happened is UMG, which is a music management, corporation representing a ton of artists. They are in dispute with TikTok, so they have TikTok has removed all of the sounds from the app. And because of that, TikTok shut off the sounds immediately, and they get removed from everybody's video whoever used it. So devastating. A lot of people don't even know.
Helen:They're still asking me why are my sounds muted. And I'm like, it's hard to believe because it was so in the news, but that's what happened. And if it happened to you, you should be able to tap on that video and replace the music and pick pick and approve music. And it's fun to do on a couple I've done it on a couple of videos where I had a lot of views, and I thought, oh, well, I'll just pick something similar. And the video started to get pushed out again.
Helen:So it might start pushing your video out to the for you page again. So it's worth a try. Am I gonna do it for the hundreds of videos that were approved on my feed? Absolutely not. Got no time for that.
Helen:So I'm not gonna kill myself, but that's just what that's about. Now I'm gonna interrupt for one second here before I, talk about the last thing. And I'm going to say today at 1, 1 o'clock, if you're listening to this in the morning, I have a workshop with Austin Tassone who is a New York City fashion blogger, creator. And she has 90,000 followers across platforms. And she monetizes as a full time creator.
Helen:And I think we are gonna learn so much from her. So if you haven't signed up for this workshop and you do have time at 1 o'clock today to join us live, you'll be able to ask questions. It will be released as a podcast either next Friday or the Friday after, so you will be able to hear it. You're not missing anything, but if you wanna get in and ask your questions, today's the day, and it's at 1 o'clock. So make sure you sign up, and the link is provided in the newsletter.
Helen:Alright. Now the last thing I wanna talk about with regard to music is to make sure that you don't drive your entire page and think I have to use music all the time. That's the only way I'm going to be seen. I have to use lip sync sounds I have to use approved copyrighted music sounds to my content seen. I think that a big that's a big miss miss on a lot of people's part that they think the only way to go viral or to do to have success is to use trending sounds and trending music.
Helen:And we are big proponents of trends. I love it. And I love a good lip sync. Yes. Hell, yes.
Helen:But it's not the only way you're going to go viral on a video platform like this on a social media platform. If you look at some of the most recently viral threat sensations, they were people telling stories. And there, if you look at some viral videos that you see, a lot of times it's just something but they're relaying and if thing that happened to them. Look at all the not this is a good thing, but when the women in New York were a lot of women were coming on saying they got punched in the face to just telling a story of something that happened to them. They didn't put music on those videos.
Helen:So you don't have to think your content has to be so driven by the music, and you're you're stuck with that. So just I don't know. Put yourself outside of it a little bit. Use music when it works for you. Just just think about, does this work for me?
Helen:Do I feel like doing this now? It's so much fun to use music when it's when it's for your joy and enjoyment. And I love to do the dance videos for fun. So use it when it works. And if you think, oh, I'm not sure.
Helen:I don't wanna have this muted, then don't use music. Just don't and see what happens. You can you can play it both sides. You don't have to you can you don't have to commit to one thing or the other. Just make sure you're having fun.
Helen:Now I'm gonna get into questions because we did have questions. And I would love if I didn't answer a music question here. I would love for you to submit some other music questions because I would be happy to make video content about music. I just don't know what the rest of the questions are. I've gone through all the questions I've gotten so far, and this is where we landed.
Helen:So the question for today is it's a big one. I get asked this one a lot too. Do you have a strategy on what time you post on TikTok? And let's say for Instagram too, and a strategy for using hashtags? Thank you so much, Kathy.
Helen:So hi, Kathy. I hope you're listening. There is an interesting perspective I have on this. And I've had this for quite some time for years, actually, that when I pick up my phone, and I'm scrolling on Instagram, or I'm scrolling on TikTok, and then I put my phone down, and I remember, oh, there's a video I was watching. Okay.
Helen:Now I'm busy. I put my phone down. When I come back to my phone later and I pick it up and I go into the app, the same video is still there waiting for me. And it's the next one's ready, and it's scrolling. It's already been fed to me what I was gonna see next.
Helen:So using that as a benchmark for a viewer, you can then flip that around to say if you post, it's gonna go to a certain amount of people. Whenever they pick up their phone is when they may see the video. So I really don't put stake in what time I'm gonna post something. However, I do think about it when I here's what I I do think if I want to see more views sooner, I do think about it for that reason, but I don't think about it that that video is not gonna get views if I post it now and a lot of people aren't online. Because I know if it only gets 200 or 300 views now, if I post it at midnight or 2 in the morning even, by the time people wake up, when I wake up, that video is gonna have more than that because people who are sleeping are gonna pick up their phone, and it's been fed into their feed.
Helen:So it's gonna be coming to them whenever they wake up. I don't know if I rambled too much on that answer, But my point is it's up to you if it matters to you to see views quicker to think about, okay. When do I think most of my audience is actually paying attention to their phone? And this is some wild guess that you might think, oh, evening, after dinner, after work. But, also, people are in different time zones.
Helen:So who knows? That's the truth. So if you think about it in a on a way of it's gonna get to the person it's supposed to get to at whatever time they pick up their phone, it will be less stressful for you to worry about what time you're posting. So I do a test I post. Sometimes I post 1 really late at night, and I just see, oh, and I wake up in the morning.
Helen:How does it do? So I just literally post and go to sleep and see what happens. So that's one thing you could do is just do a test over a couple of weeks. See what happens. Post 1 at night.
Helen:Post 1 in the morning. Post 1 midday and see what happens. Compare. But make a note because you might wanna be able to go back and say, oh, I posted that one in the afternoon, and it overall did better. I posted that one in the evening, and it just never never took off.
Helen:So it's a good idea to do your own self testing, but also to not be overly concerned about it because I truly believe that we get fed these videos when we're supposed to see them, when we pick up our phones. So I never really get stressed about it. So that's that one. And it's the same thing on any platform, Instagram, Facebook, wherever. Same thing on YouTube.
Helen:I post sometimes at midnight. I don't know if people are even awake. I just let it go launch at midnight and then see what happens. It doesn't really seem to make a difference in views. That's my opinion.
Helen:In terms of strategy for hashtags, this one is it's a very elusive, I think, hashtags because I do think we were using them a lot for a period of time on Instagram and even on TikTok. I don't know how much stock to put in hashtags, but I always use them. My thoughts on hashtags are think about 3 different topics of hashtags. What hashtags would your viewers maybe be using? What hashtags talk about your content overall?
Helen:And what hashtag talks about that specific video. And then put maybe 2 of each, one of each, each category, and do it that way. And a lot of people, I will say, they wanna get into a certain part of the country or if they wanna be somebody, messaged me that they moved from one country to another, and they were still getting feeds from their prop where they formerly lived. So I said, well, try doing some local hashtag specific that are very local, not just the country you're in, but maybe hashtag a store or a little town that's nearby so that you start to tell the algorithm where you are in a subtle way. So I do use hashtags for finding my audience.
Helen:That's how I think about it. So I tend to go like this for my own content. Hashtag about my content. So hashtag TikTok tutorials. This is we're talking TikTok benefits Instagram.
Helen:I would do hashtag reels tutorials, hashtag Instagram content creation tips. So I do about I do 2 or 3 about my overall. Then I do 2 or 3 about specific video. So if it's a green screen tutorial, I put hashtag green screen tutorial. If it's podcasttips if I'm talking about podcasts so I'll do a couple about that are specific about that video.
Helen:And then the third thing, I try and think about who's who's want who I want to watch the video. So I will do hashtag beginner creator or hashtag Instagram for beginners or so I do think about my audience people and what they might be using as a hashtag like newbie. I'll do that one sometimes. So it's a little strategy. It seems to work for me.
Helen:I think that I've I think a lot of people do something similar where they have, like, 3 different groupings of hashtags. So that's what I suggest in terms of hashtags. And also I could would run a test and just let something fly without hashtags altogether. I used to make sure and I still do this, that I have a personal hashtag that I put on every single one of my videos and mine is the mothership. So whether I post on TikTok or Instagram, I tend to always put hashtag the mothership because if somewhere along the way the platform and searches and go puts in hashtag mothership, at least hashtag the mothership.
Helen:At least some of my videos might show up towards the top there. So here's hoping. So if you have a dedicated hashtag that you can grab for yourself, that's a good idea to put on your videos because then it'll put your all your videos in a little grouping somewhere in the universe of of social media. And that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed the ramble.
Helen:Hope you have a great weekend. Thank you for being here. As always, I love to chitchat with you and give you my insights for the week. And again, if you landed here by a podcast search, please do subscribe to the newsletter because that's where we give all the the links and the juicy details and stuff that you might need, twice a week. It comes out on Tuesdays with trends and content ideas, and it comes out on Fridays with a deep dive into strategy.
Helen:So thank you for being here. Have a great weekend, and we will see you next week. Enjoy. Bye.
