What happens when you stop thinking purely about promoting the music and give people a chance to get to know the musician behind it? For artist J, a simple change in content direction resulted in over 63,100 organic Instagram views and 2,627 likes.
Working with her LMSUK Account Specialist, Merina, the idea was to move away from J’s usual performance-led and professional content and try something more casual and personality-driven. “Her audience only knows her from her performance videos and more professional-style content. I wanted to do something more casual,” explains Merina.
Getting to know the artist
The idea became a street-style video built around random things you might not know about J. It wasn’t about jumping on a trend for the sake of it. It was about finding a format that felt natural while giving the audience something they hadn’t seen before.
“We had a call and discussed hook ideas, random facts to mention, location, etc.,” says Merina. That planning meant there was thought behind what would make somebody stop scrolling, from the location and visual hook to what J would actually say when the video started.
The video went on to achieve:
- 63.1K+ organic Instagram views
- 2,627 likes
But the important part for us isn’t simply being able to say a video performed well. We want to understand why something worked and use those lessons when planning what comes next.
Why did it work?
For Merina, there were a few clear reasons: “Visual hook, location, the hook – what I told her to say – and the random facts we mentioned.”
The location gave people something visually interesting straight away, the spoken hook gave them a reason to listen and the random facts offered something they weren’t already getting from J’s performance content.
This is something we regularly talk about with musicians. Personality-led content doesn’t mean you need to become an influencer, document your entire life or jump on every trend. Your music should still be at the centre of what you do. But if every post is another performance clip, artwork reveal or release announcement, how much does someone actually learn about you?
For J, there was already plenty of polished performance content. This more casual approach simply added another layer and gave audiences an opportunity to connect with the person behind the music.
Turning one successful post into a strategy
One successful post doesn’t mean copying exactly the same video and hoping for the same result. Instead, we look at the elements that worked and use them to strengthen future content.
“Visual hooks and talking hooks work, and I’ve included this in the future content strategy,” says Merina.
That could mean experimenting with different locations, stronger opening lines, more conversational videos or other ways of introducing J beyond her performance content. The goal isn’t to manufacture a viral post every time. It’s to learn from the results and make the next piece of content stronger.
If your own social media is mostly performances and release promotion, it’s worth asking: if somebody discovered you today, what would they actually learn about you? Are you giving people a reason to stop in those first few seconds? Could your location become part of the hook? Are you planning what you’re going to say before you start filming? And is there enough variety between your promotional, performance and personality-led content?
You don’t need to share everything. You just need to find the parts of your personality, story and music that give people another reason to stick around.
Through LMSUK Essentials and PRO, our Account Specialists work directly with musicians on content ideas, hooks and ongoing strategy, using what the results tell us to shape what comes next. If you’re looking for practical guidance while managing more of your own marketing, Backstage Pass also gives independent musicians access to LMSUK resources and support.
Sometimes the difference isn’t posting more. It’s finding a better idea.