Tiffany Hardin tells us that in the past, musicians and actors were the only people who had this massive audience network, and it wasn’t necessarily available to them on their phones. Interestingly, when we talk about how artists and creatives become these influencers, we’re saying they have an opportunity to leverage these social platforms.
“[These musicians and actors] were influencers regardless of a social platform, but they have an opportunity to leverage this social platform to do more with their message,” she explains. As a talent, you do not have to rely solely on a label or some external gatekeeper to help you spread your message around. “If you are an influencer and have social currency through your work, it’s a lot easier for you to talk directly to your audience.”
“Now that I have your attention let’s get to it,” Cardi B responds. “If you [were] to have a chance to ask one of these Democratic candidates a question, what would your question be? What would you like to see changed in your community? What would you like to see changed in the United States? Me, if I [were] to ask my next president a question, I would like to ask what are we going to do about police brutality?”
Tiffany Hardin says that she found working with talent to be another communication channel, and she adds, “All communication channels are open to being interpreted.” They’re interpreted by whomever handles them. “Let’s say you’re an artist, and let’s say you have an album that you’re working on. You don’t want anybody to know about that album, so you don’t put it on social. No one knows about it.
“When you are ready to promote your album and let people know, you can do some really interesting things with that communication channel. You can do some takeovers. You can work with a partner, a brand partner, and do some interesting content activities on your channel. You can just leverage that however you want to so that your audience knows that you’re working on something that is exciting to you, that you want to see come out into the world and that you want their support in.
“Ultimately, I think any type of communication channel is simply for you to be able to let people know what you want them to know and to help create this narrative that you want to share. That narrative can change as many times as you want it to. I think what’s been interesting to see with a lot of artists is how they leverage their social currency as it relates to their identity. When we’re talking about talent, sometimes that can change album to album.
“It’s your responsibility to take the communication channels that you have at your disposal and allow yourself to iterate, to tell the story that you want,” Tiffany goes on. If you’re an artist, you should push a call to action. Especially if you’re an independent artist, your goal is to convert every follower on your channel to sales, meaning convincing them to buy your album. Get them to go purchase your merchandise, go to your show, go to your website. In essence, get them to go do something for you so that you know they’re not just a follower, but they’re also interested in your path as an artist. They’re also a fan, and they want to invest in your music and your career.
Music education needs to emphasize to future musicians that they should push for positive change using their social platforms. The same ought to be taught in online music education as well.
Use social media to help you drive more interest toward yourself and toward your work. You can do that if you have a sizeable social currency. If you’re highly respected and you have a large audience, you have an opportunity to use that platform to say anything. That’s exciting.
