A funny thing has happened to me over the past few weeks. I think I’ve gone viral and I’m not exactly sure how.
There’s a lot of justified criticism of social media but I’ve been a regular ‘content creator’ since the heady days of ‘Myspace’. As an independent musician its hard to get any attention from the main stream media outlets but what social media has enabled people like me to do is build a direct connection with people who seem to be interested in what we are doing.
Some artistes have taken that interest and turned it into an income stream with special exclusive content using platforms like Patreon. With these sites a band or solo performer can post special content for their ‘fans’ and the patreons support them with regular payments. Of course this doesn’t only work for musicians as any visit to an Only Fans page will tell you!!
There is a fine line to posting content about your work that people might find interesting or boring the pants off everyone. At the moment I have a new single which is doing really well in the Mike Read Heritage Chart. The chart encourages listeners and viewers to his TV show to vote for their favourite record. Over the past month I’ve been posting weekly about the current chart position and asking people to vote for the song if they like it.
The other thing I’m promoting is my October concert at the Swansea Arena and even though it’s still months away I do try and post something about it occasionally particularly as we announce special guests.
BUT all of the social media experts suggest posting something at least once a day as it keeps a connection with your friends or followers, and it encourages the ‘almighty’ algorithm to spread your news to people who might also be interested. So what are you going to post?
I might post a photograph at an event or concert I’ve been to. Recently I was invited to 10 Downing Street and on the way in I met the actor Larry Lamb. He’s a friend of my podcast co-host Johnny Tudor so I took a selfie and posted it for Johnny to see. I also had a photo taken with Joe’s Ice Cream at the famous front door. The reaction on line was generally favourable with a few thousand likes and comments…about par for the course if I’m honest.
Things started to change earlier this month. On the 2nd April I was taking my regular ‘constitutional’ walk along the bay when I noticed a flock of oystercatchers playing along the foreshore. The way they took off all together, swooping over the bay against the morning sun really made me smile so I grabbed my phone and filmed a short video. The power in your mobile these day is remarkable and with a few minutes I had added some music and a title and posted it on Facebook and Instagram.
It wasn’t long before my apple watch started it shake. I usually have my mobile on silent and rely on my apple watch to let me know if anyone wants me. By the time I had got back to Mumbles my phone had gone mad. I hadn’t done anything different but somehow the video was getting attention and within days the video had attracted nearly 20k views and comments. That was just the start of things.
The following day I had arranged to meet Mari Morgan from Pennsylvania at Verdi’s for a coffee. Mari runs the North American Welsh Choir and recently she commissioned me to write a song for the choir to sing on their summer tour of Newfoundland. Mari was home for a few weeks seeing family in Llanelli and with the sun shining I thought she might like to see the sea.
As I was waiting for her I noticed that one of the big diggers working on the new sea defences was precariously place on a little mound surrounded by water….so…I took out my mobile and did a short video with those oft used social media words ‘wait until the end’.
If people were a bit interested in oyster catchers they were even more interested in stranded diggers. Three weeks later and the video and reel has now had 270k views and its still growing. That doesn’t include the thousands of views the video has had on YouTube and BlueSky and Threads and TikTok.
I then started getting messages from the social media companies saying that I was now a regular content provider and that they would share my posts further afield. The ‘algorithm’ was now on my side!
The trouble is you start getting hooked. I popped for breakfast at the Kardomah and thought I’d make a short video of the visit. That now stands at over 100k views. A photo with Sir Gareth Edwards taken at the Gwyn Hall show is up to 10k, a photo of me and Alan Curtis presenting Josh Key with his Man of the match bottle of AU Vodka at the Swansea dot com Stadium is on its way to 25k views.
The thing is I don’t understand why some videos take off and others don’t do quite so well.
I recently went to a concert at the Gwyn Hall by Neath born, New York based, singer songwriter Rod Thomas, better known as the band ‘Bright Light, Bright Light’. Rod has appeared on the Graham Norton Show duetting with Elton John. On the night in Neath he was joined by Donna Lewis, the Welsh Icon who now also lives in New York. Donna had had a massive worldwide hit with ‘I love You Always Forever’. When they started singing that song I grabbed my mobile. I was convinced that this video was the big one.
I mean it didn’t do badly with nearly 10k views and growing but it was no stranded digger!
The trouble with starting down this road is that the obsession also takes up a lot of time. I find myself looking for inspiration everywhere I go. Is that blackbird really singing the opening lines to ‘I’m a Barbie Girl’ or did that dog I passed smile at me. And then there’s the mad rush to get your phone out to film the illusive thing you’ve seen before it disappears.
So the truth of the matter is I have no idea what makes anything go viral and for the sake of my sanity I should probably let it go and just post what I find interesting and amusing when I can.
Although having said that last week I got an email out of the blue about my new single. The lady said she liked the song, and would I mind if she created a line dance using the song. I was delighted, said yes and thought no more about it. On Wednesday she sent me a link to a line dancing website. Here she and had posted the moves to the dance, added her own video and within hours a number of other line dancing enthusiasts based in Korea had posted their own videos of the dance. If this doesn’t go viral then in future I’ll just have to stick with high and dry heavy machinery!