From Tracks to Traktion - Plugin Boutique X pointblank Event

Our most recent event came in the form of a collaboration with pointblank. This time around, the focus was on the overlap between music creation and content marketing. Nowadays, being a musician kind of goes hand in hand with learning to market yourself in the digital/online sphere, so we thought it was worthwhile to give this topic the due diligence it deserves at a dedicated event.

As usual, our event took place as a conference-panel-style discussion, with some interesting and successful voices from the industry leading the conversation. We also had our lively audience attending, asking quickfire questions, taking notes, and immersing themselves in the overall atmosphere.

This time, we had three guest panellists: Skilah, Ivan Marencheko, and Timur Shafiev. This interesting bunch of musical minds sat alongside our moderator, Marko DeSantis, to unpack the key topics of this event.

Setting The Stage

After a masterful introduction of the conference and panellists, Marko gracefully began to delve into the first discussion point: how digital marketing platforms have played a role in each of the guests’ career growth. Each speaker took turns to touch on the point, with Skilah going first.

She elaborated that finding her niche was initially difficult, but she stayed consistent with posts, even through tough times, that showcased her individuality as an artist. She noted that this was key to eventually building and maintaining an audience on social media.

Next up, Ivan took the mic and humbly spoke on how, at first, he was balancing his passion for music with side hustles, delivering food and such. He revealed that, after committing to posting every single day for a long period of time, he gained traction on social media and was able to reach the point where he, now, does music full-time.

Lastly, Timur took a different angle in his response, detailing his main point, “you never know who is watching your story on social media”. He explained that even when posting can feel pointless or like you’re not getting engagement, there could be a reputable A&R scout who stumbles upon your post and gets you a gig, or even a bigger opportunity.

Best Practices

Marko smoothly migrated the discussion onto the next point by asking the question, ‘What are some best practices for creating and distributing authentic content that connects and builds fans?’ The panel took the same rotation as previously, with Skilah answering first.

She explained how Trial Reels have been one of the most essential things for her progression. Trial Reels are basically what the name implies; the reel is trialled first, appearing only to non-followers to test for engagement, before you can share it with your followers. Skilah said that she has even received a 7-million-view reel through utilising this method.

Ivan moved on to say how finding your niche is the next best thing after staying consistent. He shared that content buckets are the ‘secret sauce’ here. Content buckets are predetermined categories or types of content that you can rely on to create content quickly. That way, it prevents overanalysis and getting stumped on what type of content to make for your niche. It helps with consistency and branding.

Timur went on to raise a very strong best practice point: show your face a lot. He stated that people will love you or hate you, it doesn’t matter, but familiarity is king. He explained that people will learn to know what to expect from you, and your audience will gravitate naturally to you anyhow. He also raised the point that you will become more comfortable in the hot seat by consistently showing your face.

Quality vs Quantity

After some back and forth with the audience, the conversation moved forward to the next main discussion point: quantity vs quality, and whether creators should focus on posting diverse, unique content per platform, or if it’s okay to recycle content across different platforms.

Once more, Skilah took the first turn, adding her two cents. To summarise her response, she stated that you kind of have to use common sense to distinguish between what should be posted across platforms, versus what is suitable for individual platforms. She said that if a video is of high quality and generally formatted for multiple platforms (like a <90-second, vertical shortform clip), recycling it is generally safe. Whereas, there are some instances where a video is unsuitable across platforms (like a longer YouTube 16:9 video).

Skilah also raised the point here that trying to post on all platforms once per day, especially when starting out, can be daunting. So, she advised starting with something simple like Instagram and TikTok, where you can easily recycle quick content.

Interestingly, the topic of fan accounts arose, as Ivan, Skilah, and the audience did some back and forth. Fan accounts are social media accounts made by fans, whether partnered with the respective artist’s approval or not. In the discussion, it was declared that fan accounts can be a great marketing method.

Timur was honest in his response that he hadn’t had much luck going viral on social media platforms, and so he didn’t really have much to comment here.

Preparing Posts

After some more back and forth between the panellists and audience, Marko followed up on the previous point naturally by asking the members how they plan their posts. He asked whether they prepare their posts for the week in bulk on a specific day, or if they kind of just play it by ear, day by day.

Ivan went first this time as the man with the mic, as he explained this area is kind of situational, depending on the person. He said that there are many factors each week that can influence when it’s best to post. He said having kids or other responsibilities can make a big impact, and things change weekly. It seemed he leaned more naturally to the play-it-by-ear mentality. Though he did state that when he had time, he would try to schedule up to a month’s content in advance.

Using Hashtags

The conversation glided into the topic of hashtags before the other speakers got a chance to answer properly. And, Skilah ended up with the mic back in hand. She said that when she first started using social media regularly, she never paid any mind to hashtags, however, she has used hashtags in recent times for trending searches, like #femaleDJ, which makes the video show up in specific search results. Her final verdict was ‘If the video is going to go viral, it’ll go viral with or without hashtags’

Ivan interestingly raised the point that studies have suggested that hashtags can, more often than not, reduce engagement rather than increase it. He said that the creative director of Instagram has even publicly stated that hashtags don’t hold anywhere near as much weight as they used to.

Finally, it was raised that the algorithms on all platforms are pretty darn clever these days, so they have a knack for figuring out what your content is about and who the target audience is without the use of hashtags. Keywords in the video’s transcription, plus description, are healthier signals to boost visibility online.

Wrapping up

The conversation continued with Q&A back and forth between the audience and panellists, and there was much covered that we can’t include here. However, all of the main points are outlined above. We hope that you have learned something valuable from digesting this breakdown of the From Tracks to Traktion event, and Skilah, Ivan, Timur, and Marko’s enthusiastic participation on stage.

If you’d like to read another breakdown of one of our similar events, perhaps our Inside our first India event will be of interest. Otherwise, we have a recent interview breakdown with Just Her to celebrate Pride Month.