TIKTOK for MUSIC ARTISTS

1. TIKTOK FOR MUSICIANS INTRO: Welcome to tiktok for music artists. So you want to be a star. I have a Blueprint for Growth. And in this class, I can help you get your foot in the door. As a music artist on tiktok. First, let me introduce myself. My name is Corinne and I go by Karina, The Princess on tiktok. As of right now I have over 5 thousand followers. And I've been doing this for a good eight to ten months. I've had a few videos that are remixes go viral, and I've started to build a fan base and started releasing original music. I wanted to create this class, how to really get into the Tiktok algorithm and find your place on tiktok. From this class, you will walk away with first the mentality that you need to stay confident and consistent. On tiktok. You will also be creating your own blueprint, something that you can always access as a resource if you ever get stuck or stagnant. And you will also be refining your brand identity. This will allow you to have access to conversations and connections with your fan base so that they remember you. They connect with you and they're always looking forward to what you're gonna do next. If you're ready to get started on tiktok, let's begin. 2. 7 STEPS TO BRAND IDENTITY FOR SOCIAL MEDIA: The primal branding exercise. I found this book by Patrick handling called primal branding. Within this book is a blueprint to help craft your brand. It's like seven steps towards building a community around your belief systems and what your purpose is. In this section, we're going to craft our own primal branding blueprint. You will have the PDF attachment in which you can go ahead and do your exercise. Along with us. Let's go ahead and navigate through the seven primal branding steps. And then I'll also give you an example of my own worksheet filled out. Let's begin. Your creation story is number one. When and how and where did you get started in music? Pause this to answer your questions. Number two is connected to your creed. This is about your beliefs where you come from, the perspective that is a little bit more biased, a little bit more subjective. You can pause this to answer the questions. Number three is your icons. These are the symbols more likely today, your emojis that you use often with you and your people. You can pause this, the answer, the questions. Number four are your rituals or routines. This is something that you do on a regular basis that people will see you on tiktok doing. This could be actual things that you're doing, music remixes, or it could be going live every Monday, for example. You can pause this, the answer to the question. Number five, your haters. These are the people who do give negative feedback and their critical about the things that you're doing. Even if it isn't directly about your music or it's just about who you are. This is a chance to refine them and give them a label or give them some sort of meaning or definition. This is essential to your primal branding. You can pause this to answer the questions. Number six, these are your sacred words. Are there certain words that you're starting to use a lot or that you're implementing. If not, go ahead and start using them after this step, you want to think about some ideas, some things that define who you are saying, slang or descriptions that could go well. You can experiment with this. You can pause this in order to answer your questions. The last step is your leadership. This is your vision. What is it that you see in the next three years, the next five years for yourself as an artist, what is something that you're trying to accomplish, something that maybe not everyone else is trying to win. So go ahead and pause this to answer these questions. Now I'll give you an example of myself using this towards my work on tiktok as Karina The Princess. And I'll give you the short answers. And then there are parts at the bottom. The paragraphs on the bottom of the worksheet are actually gonna help you craft the blueprint. So you're gonna go ahead and enter those parts, and I'll do that here with you in this example. So let's begin. The first section is your creation story. Now, the creation story is a huge story that's connected to your biography. But what we're really trying to do is get you down to the origins story. You still answer all the questions through the creation story. But here on my worksheet, I gave you something very specific, which is who got you into music? I think through my experiences in studying this with different artists, I found that this really helps to give you a one liner. And you'll understand that this origin story is very different than the biography that you write when you're answering this question. The origins story is something that is quick. It's a one-liner that helps to get people to really understand a little bit about you really quickly. Here, my example is, who got you into music? And I often write on my Tiktok. My husband is the one who taught me how to write for myself. So this provides something that people can say. Also, they start to say it themselves in which certain posts people may ask, did your husband right this one? So you know that people are listening in the worksheet we have here. Use these answers to help you tell your story to your audience. So that's an example of how I do that and use it in parts of your artists bio as well. So if you have a biography out on the platforms like Spotify, you can go ahead and make sure that this origin story is one of the first things that you say to start off your biography till the pieces of your story as well in your captions when you're online, in your daily social media posts and maybe even in some of the things that you may say in your music or when you are creating music content, that is your origin story. Okay, next is your creed. Creed is connected to your beliefs. And you're going to use these answers to help you find the groups of people that you share the same interests with, people that you may even share some pains with trauma, with, trauma bonding with, or people that you share some pleasures with, things that you both, you guys would enjoy together and connect with people. This is what most businesses would say is your niche. But we say Creed with primal branding because the branding is more connected to the root of who you are, so it's connected to your belief sets. For my example, I said, I'm working on this, but my creed is connected to doing anything that you want at any age, not letting age limit for you. Because age seems to be something that has come up for me. You'll also find that some of these ideas you are creating right now, but you're also going to have the experiences and you'll be able to come back to this and rewrite some of the beliefs as they start, you start to have interactions with people. I also wrote black girl magic because for me I do write from a black girl's perspective specifically. So I wrote it that is connected to the Creed, is connected to the beliefs that I'm bringing. Okay? All right, so number two is your icons. Now this is really easy because in today, modern world we use emojis and this is typically what you're going to be using or you'll find that people are using with you. Use these answers to help you design what your logos and merch. Maybe. Once you start to talk about your icons and spend time experimenting with this, these may be the very things that become a part of your brand. Logo, a part of your banners, social media pages, and things like that. So it's a blueprint for your logos. For me, I wrote crowns, mirrors, and skeletons. And that's because these are the emojis that I've created some connections with, with the people that follow me. So when I first started, I may not really have had an idea of icons. So again, your ideas may change up as you move forward. Now the next one is your rituals. These are connected to things that you do consistently. So rituals or routines, you can use these answers to help you plan your weekly ways that you connect with people. This may be like doing alive every certain day or time of the week or maybe a few days or times at the week. There is a Tiktok artists that I know who does lives pretty much every night, around ten to 12 midnight. And she is huge and blowing up because she does that ritual with her fans consistently. So think about that. And what that might be for you. Now, what I wrote for mine is remixes, because me doing remixes has become something that has become a routine, something that I do at least two or three times a week. If I wanted to, I could really narrow it down and choose the days and times that they come out, which could really create, make it more sacred. This concept of sacred rituals, which we get from primal branding. You can play around with things that you might want to commit yourself to. But you can also take the other route from a different stance and see what you discover you really liked to do on tiktok and then make that the routine. It's about whichever one you choose to do for us. All right. Now, the last one, the last two pages. The last two is your haters, your sacred words, and your visions. I am missing the sacred words on this worksheet, but that's okay. We can still talk about it. First, your haters, they are the ones who give you that negative feedback or criticism. And they play a very important role in the primate primal branding because your haters are connected to the oppositional force, which gives the people who are supporting you something to fight for. That's the idea of primal branding. So as you are beginning, you may not know what your haters may stand for. So you might be able to think about it and start to think, what would people who wouldn't like your music be? Act like belief systems. What would their things be? But you also may discover that this is something that happens as you go along, which I have. So I wrote here people who think I don't have what it takes, but I could expand this more on things that I've actually heard now. So things that are connected to age, being too old to do something, saying that I don't have a good enough, look, a good enough voice. So taking it even more specific will really help you to craft out who your haters are. So I could flip that and say that they are perfectionists or people who are limited and thinking that you can only be of a certain age. So yeah, it's a real dig and you're really digging into what makes you, you, what makes you stand out on both positive and negative ways with this step? The next one is your sacred words. These may be phrases that you might want to just start implementing, but it also may be things that certain people start to say about you. Use these answers will help you create a culture of language amongst you and your fans. Start using your phrases and testing them out in public platforms. See which ones stick which don't keep using the ones that stick and then rinse and repeat. Certain ones that I've, I've really tried to utilizes the word trinities and the word omnipotent. These are sacred words for me. Now these really sound very sacred, but they don't. They can be slang words, they can be catchphrases. Things that you share with the people and they know, they know what you mean when you say it. That's what those sacred words can mean. There is an artist's gunna who right now is, of course huge on tiktok. And I'm pushing p is a sacred word that would be an example of somebody very popular who's utilizing a sacred word and now it's a part of a song. In fact, the song itself is what introduced the sacred words. So this is something to consider as we craft ourselves in our branding and in our music together. That sacred words. Now the last one is division. That's you, that's your vision. So you really can work with these questions. You're going to use these interests to help you create a plan for yourself as an artist. So this may be the very private thing. Maybe you share it sometimes with your, your, your fans, but it's also something that you can use as a comeback when you have haters. You have your vision to help people know what it is that you stand for, what it is that you're trying to be about. What is your future path look like? What's gonna make you burn through all of the obstacles. That's what your vision provides for you as an artist. It also is a resource for you to come back on something that you can cheer yourself on about. It becomes the thing that you're trying to chase that maybe no one else is something that you're trying to win that no one else really is trying to do. And this also helps you to stand out. In this worksheet I wrote, creating a bridge of tolerance. It's something that maybe not everyone else will get, but something that I do get. And I can work on crafting in changing how I say it, and things like that. So you develop a relationship with your primal branding blueprint. It's something that is fluid and it moves and it changes as you get to know yourself more on the journey, but it also becomes a resource of reminding you and connecting you to your process. So that is the entire exercise. And now you have the attachment in which you have, if you haven't, you can go back and redo this video with that attachment or just do it on your own. And that is the seven steps of primal branding. 3. YOUR ONLY CLASS ASSIGNMENT: Now this might, this might come as a surprise to a lot of people, but the thing that I had to really remember is to always be making music content. Believe it or not, this is your only class assignment. Whenever you are not sure what to do on tiktok, always be making music content. Because the thing is that you get on tiktok and you see all the trends and the thing that's going on. And you figure, well, maybe I should attach myself to a trend. That's kind of the first advice that people give. But as a musician, you forget that you really want people to hear your music. A lot of the times we approach tiktok and we just want to go viral right away. We want to be seen right away and we tried to get the fastest way there. Sometimes this takes you off track of actually introducing yourself as a music enthusiasts, someone who is a part of the music culture. And you're more trying to be a tiktok or which is also good. So it's really just about understanding that you want to put majority of your focus into music. And you showing yourself as a musician versus you trying to catch every single trend. I've seen countless musicians and music artists who came on tiktok and they were doing other things. And then the first post that they actually made with their music was the best posts that they ever did. Basically don't try to be a star. Show them how you shine, show them your talents right there. And then there are going to be musical trends that you might want to hop on. We'll talk about this where you can tap into a trending song and flip it, remix it, or do something different about it. But even in that concept, you want to choose the ones that are connected to who you are. This is just about slowing down, recognizing that you don't have to happen every single trend and make really strong decisions on what trends are kind of tied into you, your community, your cultural language, your brand identity. Did. It really is just like that stalling of people aren't ready to hear or my music isn't ready or it's not perfect or wherever. But maybe it's not about that perfection. Maybe for you, it's about the journey because there's various ways that artists are posting on tiktok. Some people are posting the finished product and some people are showing the process. So when you know who you are as an artist and what you want to share with the world will be easier for you to decide, well, what is going to be the type of way that I share my music? But the thing about this video, the point of this video is that so many musicians just don't share music, they do other things. And it will be good for you to make 85 to 90% of what you post your music and then 10% of all of the other things. You may be scared because you're really chasing views. So you want views for the things that you know will work. But what you really want is for people to keep getting familiar with you as a musician. You want people to be, every time they see you, they associate you with music. And the only way to do that is to post music mainly to your page. And don't be afraid of the fact that it's not perfect debt and don't be afraid of the low views. Be excited that every single view that comes to your page is because it's music centered. 4. HOW TO CREATE A GROWTH BLUEPRINT: How do you find inspiration on tiktok? Well, that's really easy. Inspiration is the key to growth on tiktok because what inspires you on tiktok is something that you are going to use in what we call your growth blueprint. The best strategy in order to get your foot in the door is to remake videos. You want to remake content. Going to look for the things that you think that you can do and try to make a twist on it in your own way. This is the number one strategy that I have in my general Tiktok growth course. And when it comes to musicians, it does not change. This requires you to actually do a lot of research. You're going to have to be on tiktok a lot, not as a consumer, but as a student learning what it is that works on tiktok, this is going to require you to follow the accounts that inspire you. You want to go searching, hunting for the people that are doing something like what you want to do. And you want to go ahead and start following those people. In fact, that is your first assignment, is to go onto tick tock and follow five to ten people that are doing something that you want to do. Now, they're gonna show up on your For You page. Every time you open up Tiktok, you're going to see more and more inspiration. But remember, inspiration is also your blueprint. You want to go ahead and look at the content that seems to be something that you might be able to do. You having to do it has to do with a couple of things. Number one, do you have the resources to do it? Do you have the similar equipment, the similar ability to do what they're doing? Number two, do you have the time to do certain things? Certain content requires you to dedicate two to three hours. Certain content might require you to just dedicate 20 to 30 minutes. So you want to look for the content that suits your capacity to do it. Number three, you want to also be creative. You want to think about how it is that you can twist these things and you want to be inspired by it, but you also want to think, okay, well how it is that, how is it that I can Is this something that I have a good perspective on, a good twist on a good way to make it my own, but still keep it in the pocket of the exact layout in which they presented this thing. Go ahead and start following those accounts and start looking at which which pieces of content seemed to fit something that you can do. Then I have a worksheet in which you can go ahead and start writing down and jotting out some brainstorm notes and concepts and ideas so that you can keep these to yourself. But what's even better once you start looking for these people that you really are inspired by and that you can create a blueprint off of. Go ahead and save them to your favorites, okay, so that's the best thing to do. If you go into tiktok, you find those videos and you add them to your favorites. That way, when you're on tiktok, you can go straight to your favorites and lookup inspiration to give you some ideas on what to create next. 5. THREE HASHTAG STRATEGIES: Hashtag strategies on tiktok, hashtag strategies are different on each platform. On Tik Tok. You can actually use three different ways to apply hashtags. An experiment to see which ones work the best for you. Starting with the first way. Now the first way we might actually seem kind of silly, but it seems no hashtags to let the algorithm figure you out. Try out your content with different people and not necessarily direct the algorithm in any direction. No hashtag strategy is definitely want to consider. Now, number two would be to consider your music genre strategy. So let's say that you have a very specific genre, maybe even a niche of that genre. So you can experiment with utilizing those broader terms. For example, if you are in R&B music, you can try contemporary R&B as a hashtag. You can try Indi R&B as a hashtag and allow yourself to explore the different hashtags available for you. On tiktok, you'll see that the ones that have the most like, the ones that have big numbers are ones that you really want to direct yourself towards because it means that there's a big audience for those hashtags. So you can definitely experiment with ones that have smaller numbers, but definitely include the big ones on your hashtag strategy. Now, number two was a branding genre concept. The third one is a song concept. You want to use hashtags that are Song unrelated. So you may have songs from different various topics. Well, the song that you're currently doing, maybe it's about relationships. So you can use a topic specific hashtag that works towards the topic that is in your song, like relationships. Another example might be depression. So let's say your song is speaking about mental health or something like that. So you can use hashtags that are depression hashtag, mental health, or something like that. So utilizing hashtags, those three versions of hashtags on tiktok are the ones that I that seemed to be working the best at the moment. And if anything changes, we'll definitely look at that. Now. Just golden rule hashtag uses the first one, which I already mentioned is to use the ones that have the most numbers on them. This works well for tiktok because it tells you that Tik Tok has an audience for it. Now the other thing is to consider the trending hashtags. So Tiktok always has something that's trending, whether to hashtag or a song which you can find on the Explore page. So you can actually find hashtags that might be even just slightly related to your song or related to your audience. So let's say that you know, your audience is going to be watching this great Netflix show. And right now this Netflix show, the name, the name of the show is a hashtag that is trending. Well, you might want to go ahead and use that hashtag in your next video because you know that it will pull people that are similar for the audience you're looking to target. An also remember again the very first rule, which is you can also simply not use any hashtags and just see where the algorithm takes it. You'll be surprised at how well that option works as well. So that's hashtag for musicians on tiktok. 6. WHAT DOES YOUR SONG SOLVE?: Music promotion seems to be very complex thing, but it's actually really simple if we keep it in this very one simple mindset. That is, how does your music serve other people? Even if you're a music is something that you created for yourself, something that you are self expressing. There's something about what you have to offer the others can really use and utilize. And when you're looking at your songs to promote on tiktok. And you want to put them out there for people to enjoy you, for fans to follow you. The best mentality to have is to think about, well, what is it that this song solves for my fans? This gives them, gives you a, this actually gives you more information. It's not just about the fact that it does help people, but it gives you a way to describe your music in a way that people will understand and they'll want to utilize and used for themselves. So let's look at some examples. Some people might actually save, like add this song too, your playlist. Now there's a blank right here because between your playlist is a very specific idea and you want to think about your songs. And what kind of playlist would your song Beyond? Would it be on a chill playlist? Would it be on a driving down the highway playlist? You might even want to go ahead and research playlists on different apps and avenues and see which playlist would your songs fit on that way. When you come to tiktok and you start to tell people what your song is about. You can use this concept, add the song to this type of playlist. Or you can also use play the song when you're in the shower, right? So that's another idea because your song as a solution for people, you want to think about where it is that people would be using your song. Is a song something that people use to dance to? Is it's something that they would use to feel empowered? Is it something that they would use to get ready to go out to a dance party. Music is used in various ways in our lifestyle. And you want to figure out what is the pocket of lifestyle that your song fits in. Your song is a solution to your fans. Figure out how to describe that solution. And you're already ahead of the game. 7. WHAT IS THE RIGHT MENTALITY FOR TIKTOK?: So what I want to talk to you is about discovering your artistic space on tiktok. And this has a lot to do with merging what you do as an artist and what Tiktok needs from you in order to match an audience for you. And this is an experimental phase as much as people might have, you know, a one trackway to going viral. I think that if you have the mentality that you are in an experimental phase when you're first starting out, it will help you so that you have certain videos that work and you have certain videos that don't work. So it will just help you to be able to manage the mentality that you are experimenting and you're discovering what were the ways in which you capture people? What were the ways in which you got a lot of views? Like, did you attach yourself to certain trend that just was perfectly fit for you? And discovering that through this experimental phase is going to be important. So as much as you may want to go straight for the big numbers, and some of you may actually be able to do that. For the most of us. It's going to take a phase of time and discovering what is that very thing that works for you?