Quick Guide: To Social Media

I’d like to share some thoughts with you all on the role of social media in our film and media music careers.

For the last year or so, I have been experimenting with a wide variety of social media ideas and campaigns. Trying to figure out some sort of daily/weekly routine to follow in the pursuit of becoming a better self-promoter. I went from having only Facebook and SoundCloud for years to those plus Twitter, Instagram (My Favorite), Snapchat (Still figuring this one out), as well as a company website with an active blog in just over a year.

So what have I have learned since making this foray into the seemingly endless abyss of the interwebs?

A lot about the absolute necessities of having an active presence online. Whether we like it or not, we all need to make sure we are being heard by the world both inside and outside of the “composer-tribe” through a majority of the social media platforms available to us.

Not sure how much attention I am getting as a result of my own scheduled social media posts, but I’d like to think that it helps.

The saying “you never know who’s listening” has never been more true than now as the complexity of our interconnectedness through the internet becomes more and more normalized day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute and second by second.

I am close to having everyday of the week categorized/compartmentalized for some specific aspect of film and media music. This is still a work in progress on my end, but that is why I am sharing it with you all. Attached below is simple Google Doc filled with a weekly social media planner and a pool of accompanying hashtags categorized by the days of the week. For you all to draw from should you need any help or inspiration in ramping up your daily social media output.

Yes, you read that right my contribution for “Help A Composer Week” is a bunch of hashtags! The tags come from a variety of sources and like some things on the internet the original source is no longer known. In trying to give credit where due, the known sources are listed at the bottom of the doc.

I know this may seem sorta lame at first, but trust me the right hashtag can steer your content and brand towards an appropriate and interested audience over time. Take a second and think about all of the cool composer content you follow online now; Perspective Forum, Studio Time With Junkie XL, Bear McCreary’s awesome blog and best of all John Powell’s Instagram stories! This content is exciting and so is yours! So share it with the world!

That is when appropriate of course, if you have signed a strict NDA honor that, but perhaps allude to the project with some mysterious hype inducing social media posts. By and large people think what we do is cool! I think you all are cool. We’re living the dream pursuing this line of work, so honor that and share it. You never know who you might inspire.

These are just a collection of quick thoughts on ways we can all do more to get our music heard. We work really hard at this stuff guys so embrace it and share it!

Perhaps if we can work together to make some of these hashtags a bit more commonplace among us we’d be able to normalize their use across various social media platforms over time.

Just a quirky set of thoughts on social media I wanted to share. Please feel free to add on to, augment and mutate these core concepts for your own artistic needs.

Thank you all for your time and cheers to all of this great dialogue. This past week has been one of the most inspiring and motivating weeks I’ve had in months. So thank you all for that.

Lastly, backtracking for a second, for those of you who have made it this far my favorite of the shared hashtags is #TrackTuesday where I share a peer’s work on all of my social media accounts.

It is ideal if all post are cross pollinated via the major Social Media networks i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and personal website blogs etc.

Audio examples should always be available through third party interfaces such as SoundCloud rather than solely HMTL5 players built into websites. You want to be accessible to everyone and I mean everyone not just composers, my 80 year old grandmother should be able to find examples of your work solely using your name.

There are hundreds of hashtag possibilities. Listed below is just an example template to follow, as you go about planning your week.

Please share if you find ways to improve the ideas listed below.

I’m excited to hear what you guys come up with.

SUNDAY

1. #SundayScoreDay
   1. Post images of a cue/session you are currently working on.

MONDAY

1. #MusicMonday/#NewMusicMonday
   1. Share a relevant track from your catalogue
      1. Library Track
      2. Recent OST Release
      3. Cue that embodies your stylistic offerings at their best.

TUESDAY

1. #TrackTuesday
   1. Share a track of composed by a peer you admire.

WEDNESDAY

1. #WednesdaySynthDay
   1. Post video clip riffing out with a new synth preset you made.
   2. Post a synth heavy track to share.
   3. Post about a synth you use regularly and shout out the manufacturer.

THURSDAY

1. #ThrowbackThursday
   1. Post a reflection on an old project.
   2. Share Pictures from an old session.
   3. Share something that was important in helping you develop into the artist you are today.
   4. Post a shout out thanking a mentor.

FRIDAY

1. #ForceFriday
   1. Post a list of your top five favorite cues from JW’s awesome cannon of Star Wars material.
2. #FilmScoreFriday
   1. Post a note about a favorite score of yours.
3. #FridayFilmDay
   1. List one major filmic influence and attempt to foster discussion with others about theirs.

SATURDAY

1. #ShoutoutSaturday
   1. Let the world now about a soloist who played a big role a score of yours.
   2. Product that you use
2. #SaturdaySounds
   1. Share some cools sounds you have been using on a project.

HASHTAG POOL

SUNDAY

#SundayScoreDay

#SundayScore

#SundayScoring

#SundayFunday

#SpotlightSunday

#SundayRead

#StartupSunday

#WeekendVibes

#SundaySale

#SundaySounds

#SoundsofSunday

MONDAY

#musicmonday

#MusicMonday

#metallicamonday

#MetallicaMonday

#musicianmonday

#MusicianMonday

#mondayworkday

#MondayWorkday

#ManCrushMonday

#MarketingMonday

#MotivationalMonday

#MondayMemories

TUESDAY

#teletuesday

#TeleTuesday

#tuesdayworkday

#TuesdayWorkday

#triviumtuesday

#TriviumTuesday

#TuesdayTrackDay

#TrackTuesday

#TransformationTuesday

#TipTuesday

#TechTuesday

#TopicTuesday

#TuesdayTrivia

#TuesdayTunes

WEDNESDAY

#WayBackWednesday

#WisdomWednesday

#WomenCrushWednesday

#WCW

#wcw

#wonderwomenwednesday

#WednesdayRiffDay

#WednesdaySynthDay

THURSDAY

#throwbackthursday

#tbt

#thursdaythrowback

#thursdayblogday

#ThankfulThursday

#ThursdayThoughts

FRIDAY

#flashbackfriday

#fbf

#facebookfriday

#fridayvlogday

#fridayscoreday

#schecterfriday

#fenderfriday

#ForceFriday

#forcefriday

#FeelGoodFriday

#FeatureFriday

#FollowFriday

#FridayFun

#FridaySynthFunDay

#FridaySynthFun

#FanArtFriday

#FunFactFriday

SATURDAY

#SaturdayScoreDay

#StrangerSaturdays

#SaturdaySynthDay

#SaturdaySoundtrackDay

#SoundtrackSaturday

#SocialSaturday

#ShoutoutSaturday

#SmallBusinessSaturday

#SaturdaySounds

BRANDS

#schectersaturday

#straturday

#fenderfriday

#martinmonday

#martinmondays

GENERAL

#addbeauty

#strangebeauty

#makeamericasmartagain

#upyourempathy

#readabook

SOURCES

Ian LeCheminant, Kate Kohler, Alex Park, Michael John Mollo