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Hello! I’m Bill Boulden, Chief Technology Officer of Clearview Social. But something you might not know about me is that when I am not at my desk, slinging the “zeroes and ones”, I’m at the DJ booth on the “ones and twos”. That’s right, I’m passionate about house music and Electronic Dance Music “EDM,” and in my spare time I’m a DJ. Today I’d like to share with you three ways that being a DJ is surprisingly not unlike running an effective social media marketing campaign!
The Point Is Consistent Rhythm
There’s a reason that EDM is the genre made by drum machines at rigid tempos: what makes the music so appealing to people is the predictability of the rhythm. Unlike guitar ballads, which can speed up and slow down, EDM is easy to dance to because of the reliable way your body instinctively knows where the next beat will fall.
Similarly, in an effective social media schedule, you can’t post a bunch one day and then suddenly take off the next three days. You need a consistent rhythm to your posts, always hitting at a steady rate with slight variations. (Tools like ClearView Social’s PeakTime, which spreads out your social media posts across high-traffic times of the day, can help with this!)
Build Anticipation For The Drop
EDM is famous for its penchant for building suspense over (sometimes exaggeratedly) long spans of time, as instruments continue to build and pitch up in frenzy and drums beat faster and faster and sirens wail.
When will the bass drop? — Da Vincii
This builds listeners into a frenzy of anticipation as they can predict exactly when the excitement will peak and when their payoff will arrive. A drop cannot realistically have meaning as a drop without a corresponding “build” to make the arrival worth it.
Similarly, you should never just make a major announcement or “drop” big news without buildup and anticipation first. Things like webinar announcements, book releases, major events, or new products should be teased lightly through “coming soon!”-style tweets before the big release day hits.
Half The Entertainment Is Visual
A DJ can be tempted to imagine their value to their audience is in their sound: everybody is here to see you do the skill, so they are listening closely to your mixing and track selection, right? I have learned in years of being an entertainer that it is far more important you be fun to watch. Humans are still visual creatures, and at the biggest EDM concerts, the DJs themselves may be barely visible behind walls of lights, pyrotechnics and projections. Even in my humbler experience just at clubs, I’ve learned that the difference between being invited back and not has a lot to do with how engaged I act and how vividly I dance and pump my fists while performing.
As a blogger, you might imagine that people are there to read your words and your words alone. But nothing could be further from the truth. Engaging images peppered throughout your post are key to maintaining attention and breaking up long blocks of text. (Tools like the built-in Shutterstock integration in the new PostHaste product make this easy!)
Bill Boulden is Chief Technology Officer of Clearview Social.
