When an artiste is prepping to drop a song, so much effort goes into the release phase. The artiste gets materials ready and tries as much as possible to gather audience for the phase.
Some don’t even bother about the preparation for the release phase, they just go ahead and release the song and that is it! If you are an artiste who prepares well for the release phase, you have done well but only on very rare occasion do you see an artiste prepare for the post-release phase.
Social media campaign is generally divided into 3 phases. The pre-release phase, the release and the post-release phase.
The pre-release phase is basically the preparation leading to the release of the work. Most artistes having spent time recording a work and when it is finally perfected; are eager to release the work to their waiting fans, but you can increase the number of the “waiting fans” by building anticipation.
It is simple. Imagine that the day you release your pre-release artwork. An average of 10 people got the wind. Out of the 10 people, 3 people got so excited they reposted or retweeted on your behalf. If 1 person out of the 3 people has 10 other followers who are privy to the information, you have gained 10 more people anticipating the release of your work. You can use your present total number of social media followers to do the maths.
The release phase is the most important. A carefully structured release phase can have you crashing the net. A good strategy for the release phase will keep your work in the mind of your fans for so long, but remember that your fans are also the fans of another artiste so once your release happens, the expiry date of the buzz created by your release starts to tick.
It is important that you make a loud thud with your release phase, (we are not going to be discussing the intricacies of creating a ‘loud thud’ in this article). The intensity of the thud will determine the expiration of the buzz generated. This brings me to the 3rd phase.
The post-release phase can be tiring because it demands twice the effort of the pre-release and the release stage. Prior to the release, you can easily create anticipation, but according to the law of diminishing marginal utility, as a person increases consumption of a product while keeping consumption of other products constant, there is a decline in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product. Therefore, if I keep posting a link online for my recent release – because the work has already been released prior to the time of my constant link posting – the appreciation will decrease and so will the potential of gaining a new fan. Note the word used is “decrease” not “terminated”.
So why and how should I keep posting a work that has already been released since constantly posting will get my fans literally sick of me?
Here is the answer. An artiste may release a work today but not everyone will be privy to the information that very day. As the work keeps spreading, you keep gaining ground, including gaining the attention of those who can help spread the work farther, e.g bloggers, OAPs and VJs. The contradiction here is that in the bid to gain ground, your effort can become noise thereby causing one to even lose the grounds already gained, if the law earlier stated takes effect. Nonetheless, by working a good strategy, you can do the same thing in different ways and maximize the result of the post-release phase. No! You cannot defy the law of diminishing marginal utility but you can maximize its elasticity with a good post-release plan.
The way forward is to have a good knowledge of your social media and their strength. While Twitter is good for starting a thread of conversation, Facebook adverts are epic, display on Instagram are catchy, Google plus advantage is its search function… and we can still talk about Linkedin, Pinterest, Snapchat, Whatsapp and more.
So imagine that after the release of my music; in the same way I have prepared artwork for the release and shared it on the day of the release, I also prepare artworks (memes), short video clips, snippets of the song for reviews, comments and feedback, lyrics, etc, I will be able to share the same link in different ways and appeal to different people’s preferences.
Social media sponsored ADs (Instagram & Facebook preferably) can also save you and your fans the stress of posting the same thing over and over again. Now, I must say here that retweeting or reposting the same artwork for the song as used by your fans with their different captions will not do damage to the outlook of the post-release phase, instead it will encourage more engagements for the song and on your social media handle.
In addition, pegging a reward to the link has proven overtime to be a great motivation and crowd-gathering scheme. An artiste may choose to run a competition/challenge to promote the newly released work. In a bid to be at the competitive edge fans will have to:
1. Explore the newly released work with a sense of appreciation thereby making it to the top of their favourite song playlist
2. By posting his clip on social media (either dancing or singing), the fan exposes more people directly to the song. They get to hear and see snippets and create opinion in their subconscious. Some will even go in search of the song after watching such clip.
3. Put in their effort and cajole people on behalf of the artiste directly or otherwise, in order to sustains the promotion of such work dynamically, thereby increasing awareness and downloads.
Social media posts, feature stories and interviews that exposes unknown details can also serve as motivation and sustain the release of the work. Experiences, testimonies and captivating stories that birthed a song can be deliberately kept wrapped till after the release of the song in order for the artiste to fall back on and serve as a boost after the buzz begins to subside.
You may wonder, what is the need for sustenance after a work has been released. The truth is an artiste is as relevant as he chooses to be and while a good song has the capacity to sustain itself, imagine what a good buzz will do to such a song in terms of sustenance. Nothing gets the attention of the media like a crazy buzz. If there is a great buzz around your song, either you send a formal request or you don’t, every platform will want you in their business. “Ga Shi Nan” by Kaestrings was released way before it got on many platforms but it took the subconscious effort of Nathaniel Bassey who included it amongst the songs for the #HallelujahChallenge to give it the good buzz it deserves… guess what? Everyone went to look for the song in order to put it on their platform! Capish?!
About Alex Amos
Alex Amos is a Creative Writer and Team Head at Lexyville Entertainment, publishers of SelahAfrik. He is a publicist for Christian personalities and companies. Alex is an assistant pastor, serving in Heaven on Earth Ministries.
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