SUP Digital - Social Media
Best Practices 2024

TikTok is an undeniable force and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. It is currently the most used platform for discovering new music and has the largest audience between 18 and 24 years old, Gen Z, who often overlook Google and prefer to search on TikTok. Every other platform is trying to catch up. If you have an artist profile on TikTok, we ensure that your latest tracks are linked to your artist profile so that fans can listen to them.

Moreover, TikTok plans to launch a tailored streaming service this year, which will likely prioritize lean-in artists. We cannot recommend enough to start using TikTok now. Any type of artist can find a niche here, and dance trends are not the only way to connect with your audience!

To get started

• Create a TikTok Pro account (more info below).
• Subscribe to this weekly newsletter to receive the latest hashtag campaigns from the TikTok editorial team: https://mailchi.mp/tiktok/uk-artists-newsletter
• Participate in TikTok trends if you feel comfortable doing so. Check this page, which is regularly updated with new trending audios and organic trends.
• Follow the TikTok accounts of other artists to get inspiration, see examples here.
• Refer fans to your TikTok account from your other social media platforms. TikTok is growing rapidly and encourages music discovery, especially among Gen Z audience, and will soon launch a streaming service – grow your audience by posting about your TikTok profile on your other channels and keep them engaged on the most current platform leading up to your upcoming album campaign.

Creating an account

• Create a TikTok Pro account to gather analytics data and insights about your content. Other benefits of a Pro account include seeing trending videos and user statistics such as follower growth, gender, age, and top areas. To do this, go to your profile page and click on the ‘Privacy and Settings’ tab. Tap ‘Join TikTok Testers’. Confirm your registration with a mobile phone number and follow the instructions to complete. Once successfully activated, you will see an analytics button under the ‘Account’ option.
• Bios and linking: Make sure to utilize all profile features. Link your account with Instagram, select a profile picture, and fill in the bio. Best practice is to include the artist’s linktree in the bio for easy access to all accounts. See an example here.
• To add a bio, go to your profile and click on Edit Profile > Add a bio to your profile.
• You can only add links to your bio if you have a business pro account or an account with more than 1000 followers.

Become familiar with the app

• Users can search for creators, categories, and hashtags using the search bar. Another way to discover content is by using a song. Users can click on a song that is playing in a video they like and discover other videos made with the same song.
• Encourage your fans to use your music in their creations!
• Explore TikTok content and niches and “like” videos on your For You page to refine your algorithm and understand your audience.

Create and share content

• Establish a regular posting schedule to stay at the top of your audience’s feed.
• Post multiple times per week. TikTok recommends 3-4 posts per week. The most popular types of content are:
• Live/DJ performances
• Front-facing videos where the creator addresses the viewers
• Meme videos/Current trends
• Use vertical, full-screen dimensions for your videos. When filming, make sure to have good lighting and a clear story with a beginning and an end. Tip: The algorithm prefers videos that are watched in full. To help with this, it’s recommended to keep videos short and have a good structure with a conclusion or reveal, so that people stay interested and watch for longer. When editing, try to create a seamless loop with the beginning and end frame so that viewers watch multiple times.
• Always choose Official Audio in every video with music. If you upload a video that already has music or audio, it’s good to still add the Official Audio to the video to ensure that the song credits are displayed correctly. To do this, click on the Sounds icon (music note) in the editing screen after uploading the video, go to more, and search for your track. You can adjust the volume of both the original and added sound.
• Set the volume of the Official Audio to the lowest level.
• Set the volume of the Video’s audio to the highest level.
• Add effects to your videos within the app (such as overlapping text, text-to-audio, filters, etc.) as the algorithm favors videos with effects.
• Experiment with features like Replying to Comments, Green Screen, Duet, and Stitch if they feel appropriate, as it helps with engagement and positioning in the algorithm, keeping existing fans engaged and reaching new users.

Utilize hashtags

• Use trending hashtags as inspiration for content and participate in challenges to gain more followers.
• There are generally 2-4 trending music-related hashtags each month, such as #acousticcovers, #behindthesong.
• You can subscribe to newsletters for the US and UK, which provide an overview of planned hashtags before they go live.
• Include the artist’s hashtag in every post, e.g., #BRONSON, so those searching for the artist can find the videos.
• This page generates the most popular hashtags for your country daily, and there are also lists of popular hashtags and general TikTok hashtags, etc.
• To find the most relevant hashtags to boost your content, browse through content from similar creators to see what they use in their posts. You can also use a hashtag generator tool to find related hashtags.
• You can create your own branded hashtags or hashtag challenges to make it easy for followers to find you. The challenge can be something like a dance for one of your songs that users can copy and tag. Challenges work well because they inspire other users to create content.
• The caption limit on TikTok is 100 characters, so keep the text short and clear to leave room for more hashtags. If you run out of space, you can also put hashtags in the comments, but they are not clickable and thus less effective.

Engage with your fans

• Actively engage with your fans in the comments section of your posts and respond to videos featuring your music. This is the most direct way to interact with fans! By watching videos from fans and responding to their content, you can build a deeper connection with your followers and increase your profile’s visibility to more people.
• Use the live streaming video feature to interact directly with other users through live chat.
• To grow your account, you can also collaborate with other creators. Use the Duet feature to create videos with other artists, influencers, and fans. Duet is initiated by responding to a video, creating a split-screen effect.

The audience of Instagram consists largely of Millennials, in the age group of 25-34 years, so it’s important to ensure that your current fanbase stays engaged. These individuals may also be more open to upsells as they may have more disposable income.

Best Practices

• Post regularly in Reels. Reels are currently a priority on Instagram (similar to TikTok, YouTube Shorts), so focus on them, as well as your Stories.
  • Posting 2 times per week is recommended. Research has shown that public accounts that posted at least 5 Reels over a 60-day period gained over 2.5 times more followers than accounts that didn’t post anything.
  • Always tag the Official Audio in your Reels: set the volume of the added music to ‘1’ so that the official audio is tagged, but you can still hear the original audio of the video.
  • Share your Reels more frequently to the main feed, as it encourages views and exposure.
  • Try out new features like Remix and Interactive Stickers for increased engagement.
• Stay engaged with your audience. Speaking of engagement, we recommend regularly responding to fans, liking posts, commenting on your video uploads, etc. – whether you do it yourself or delegate it to a team.
  • This also helps make your posts more visible to others – check out Meta’s Fan Engagement 101 and their Creator Recommendations guides for more information!
• Use Instagram Story Highlights to group stories and keep them permanently on your account. Suggestions for highlight groups:
  • New album / Music posts
  • Live posts
  • Fan Engagement highlights (for AMAs, etc.)
• Tag music in Feed posts – You can now add music to your Feed photo posts, just like with Reels and Stories. Here’s how it works:
  • Select your Feed photo to upload, as you normally would
  • Choose “Add Music” before sharing
  • Search for a song or explore the “Trending” and “For You” sections
  • Select the song you want to use and determine the clip’s length (similar to Stories)
  • Click “Done” and then “Share”
  • When you share a Feed photo with added music, your followers can tap the “audio” icon to turn on the music. They can then view the artist name/song below the post’s headline, see other posts that have used the same song, and use the audio themselves!
• Use the Music Sticker in IG Stories – to increase the visibility of your songs and boost your share of revenue from Meta each month.
• If you have a D2C Store on Shopify, we can create an IG Shop for your channel, making it easy for your followers to navigate to your physical releases and upsell them with vinyl/merchandise.
• Subscriptions: For artists producing a lot of content and interested in exploring subscription platforms like Patreon, Instagram now offers the ability to charge a monthly fee for custom content for paying subscribers. Here’s how it works:
  • Your followers pay a monthly fee to access subscriber-only content.
  • Subscribers receive a special badge next to their name to stand out.
  • You can share content through your special subscriber story and engage with subscribers when going live.