Category: WritingCategory: Writing

Most of the creative people I talk to about starting newsletters say some variation of the following:

“I’m not that interesting.”

It’s along the lines of, “why would anyone care?” Or, “I don’t really do anything exciting.”

Then I look at their websites, and social media feeds and I have a good laugh.

Social media has us convinced that if we’re not going viral every other day, or our videos don’t get 100,000 views in the first four hours, we must be boring. Washed up. Nobody cares.

Yet these people I talk to are designers with a dreamy client list. Photographers who post breath taking photos. Musicians with amazing music and visuals. Editors, writers, builders, artists of all sorts, minds brimming with ideas, stories to keep you awake til the sun comes up…

But a throw-away social media post on a Tuesday night gets a few likes, and we let allow these platforms to feed us this idea that nobody cares.

Some songs will never see the light of day because they didn’t go viral on TikTok:

“You kind of live and die by overnight virality. That has now created a situation where qualified A&Rs with great ears, who are tenured, who are good with music and passionate about it, can’t really do their job the way they used to,” say Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic over at Rolling Stone.

See that?

TikTok has more sway over qualified A&R folks.

And social media has swayed artists everywhere into believing their work isn’t good enough.

Social media can be a full-time job – if you let it become a full-time job.

Let me explain Parkinson’s law; “work expands to fill the time allotted to it.”

So if your online marketing plan is just, “ehh, whenever I get to it,” great – you’re now a full time social media person.

After all, you’ve set no boundaries or limits. You get to always think about social media, and fret about if you’re doing enough, and if you should post something.

“Oh man, I haven’t posted on Facebook is weeks!”

Instead of that amateur-hour nonsense, set up a plan that fits your life, since you probably have better things to think about than social media.

Open up Google Calendar, we’re going to create an “editorial calendar.”

If you’ve got a new song coming out, put that in there.

Now, plan a social media post two weeks before that date.

Then seven days. Then three.

Oh, the new song is out! That’s another post.

Now, plan a post for three days after it comes out.

And seven days.

And 14 days.

Your numbers may vary, but you get the point.

Go into Twitter, write out your posts, include an image, and schedule them.

Use Facebook’s Business Manger thing and do the same to schedule posts on Facebook and Instagram.

Congrats! That’s the bare fucking minimum to have a seemingly active social media presence, and 95% of bands in your scene can’t be bothered, so you’re a star.

But what about when you don’t have a new song coming out, or a new tour?

Figure out what major holidays are coming up, then plan a post around something that matches the vibe and feel of your creative endeavor.

57 days til Halloween! Spooky things! Horror movies!
79 days til Black Friday! Special deals!
112 days til Christmas!

You get the idea.

Or search “[genre] albums released in 2013” and find albums that are 10 years old (or 15, or 25).

Write about your favorite albums on your website, link to it from you social media platforms, and in your newsletter.

For example, ‘Surgical Steel’ from Carcass came out September 13, 2013.

Instead of just writing your homage to this epic album on Instagram, put it on your website instead.

Then, on September 13th, tell your followers on socials to read you post on your website (that’s what Loudwire will be doing).

Send the link to your email list, too.

You can do that with movies, books, shows you went to, albums you’ve released, and all sorts of various other milestones you’ve had in your career.

Now, when you sit down and write out these ideas, it makes your “content creation” a lot easier, and the job takes less time.

You’re not just throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks. Instead, you’re being deliberate.

You can take an hour a week, write some stuff, schedule it, and be done. DONE.

Then, since you’re putting out solid stuff, it just makes it easier for your audience to click, comment, react, and subscribe.

And it’s also how you keep from making social media your full time job.

Found Publish Something Online via the Naive Weekly newsletter.

I remember visiting the old Asterisk Studio website and hearing the guitar loop of ‘Bullet to Binary’ from Me Without You, so this must’ve been 2002 or 2003.

Yeah, auto-playing audio on a website is typically frowned upon these days, but for Asterisk (now Invisible Creature), it worked, especially for that era, the early internet.

From ‘25 THINGS TO SAY INSTEAD OF “NEW VIDEO‘ over at my HEAVY METAL EMAIL newsletter on Substack:

Every day, a hundred bands have a new music video to promote, but these creative, gifted, genius artists only seem to know one way to announce their new creative vision to the world:

NEW VIDEO [link]

Hours of planning, hiring a director, gathering equipment, location scouting, lighting, permits, and a long ass day playing in the woods or in an abandoned warehouse, and when it’s time to announce it to the world – the creative well is empty.

Do I want free donuts? Yes.

Do I want rewards? Well wait, what are the rewards? How do I get them?

I went out for a donut and iced coffee today.

The owner and I got talking about websites, social media, and email marketing of course – yes, I’m loads of fun at parties!

The owner told me the challenge of getting people into their reward program (buy enough donuts and coffee, get free donuts).

Her pitch is basically, “do you want to join our rewards program?”

And those go (usually) three ways:

1. Yeah, sure.
2. No, thanks.
3. Wait, what’s the rewards program?

For me, if you ask someone who’s buying donuts if they want free donuts, I think that changes the response a bit, to something like:

1. Uhh, yes.
2. Wait, what?

➡️ Think of this when writing subject lines.

Your “West Coast Tour Dates Announced” subject line is great for fans on the West Coast, but a horrible subject line for everyone else.

For someone like me in Pennsylvania, I have no incentive to open that email. Go have fun, West Coast!

But a subject line that says, “Do you remember when those cowboys got us back on the road when our van broke down?” – that’s for everyone! I want my van-repairing cowboys!

Then, of course (ahem), include your West Coast tour info later in the email, for your West Coast fans.

➡️ Think of this when asking your social media followers to subscribe to your newsletter.

When you say “sign up for updates,” people who’ve been on the internet for more than five seconds can already assume what they’re signing up for; deals, discounts, sales, bargains, big BUY NOW buttons.

Boring.

Make it easy for your fans to say “yes, I want that.”

Do you want free donuts? Yes.

Do you want more of my art? Yes.

Do you want more photos of my travels? Yes.

Do you want more writing? Yes.

Don’t tell me to sign up for updates, tell me what I’m getting.

Make your ask so good I have to say yes.