 There's always a struggle musicians are going through, and right now if my comments, Facebook, Group, or Discord are any indication of what musicians are frustrated with, it's that they feel they are making the right content, but they aren't getting the follows that should come with the level of high quality songs, content, or effort that they're bringing to the table. While this is a very layered subject, and I think some of you are delusional to be frank, and even without taking those layers into account, there's a few things that really help identify, and to use the word I don't particularly love, brand you, in the eyes of the people who find you on social media. So in this video, I'm going to show you the hidden trick that many of your favorite musicians use to get more follows that you're probably not using. Hi, I'm Jesse Cannon, a music marketing nerd who's teaching musicians how to grow their fan base from 0 to 10,000 fans, and this is Muse Formation. Sometimes I feel a little bad for doing what I'm about to do here in this video, but the fact is, I think the world's better for musicians if I talk about the things I've learned when I've been in the major label boardrooms with artists and their marketing gurus. This video is largely going to be about a technique that really blew my mind when one of those gurus dropped on an artist when I was working as a strategist. I've been feeling bad I haven't talked about it yet on this channel, so now's the time to get it out there. Sorry to that guru if you see this, but it was too good to not let out as I've seen it work time and time again to help musicians grow their social media following. So it often takes someone seeing your content a few times before they decide you are someone they want to hear from regularly and give you a follow or a subscription. Some studies I've read say it takes four times of seeing you, others say it's six, others say it's eight, and obviously it really comes down to do people recognize you and remember they had a good interaction watching your content. Especially now with TikToks for you feed, you can get shown a few times to someone before they say I want to make sure I see what this person is doing regularly, but that's dependent on that they recognize you up against all your other peers who kind of look like you. And this is the same with songs. We've all known that thing where you hear the song the first time and it's fine, but the second or third time when it's more familiar or if you're in a different mood all of a sudden it's a total banger to you and you want to smash that follow so you can hopefully hear more from that artist. So the key to making that follow happen faster is to help people recognize you and trigger the memory they have of the other time they've seen your content and had a good experience with it. So how exactly do you do that? Let's go through a three point system to make people who see you recognize you faster and realize when they've had that good experience watching your video they should get more of you. The first point in this plan is to make your look as a person identifiable with signatures. And I'm going to actually use myself as a good example. Since I think it's instructive since let's be honest here, you musicians can get away with looking real eccentric and do all sorts of cool fashionable things. But I, a totally mature adult who owns a bunch of businesses who needs to look respectable each day as I have to go into meetings and seem like I know what I'm talking about. So having that sick wick haircut and face tattoos that I really want is just not a thing I could pull off to make myself recognizable. So I only have so many options. So I've had to do some let's call them more subtle things to make myself recognizable in these videos. So if you've watched this channel before, in every video I've ever made, there's been a few things constant about my look. A black shirt with some music act on it. My glasses and a hat. And this is admittedly basic. But as a hair challenged guy who can only wear dark clothes, don't even ask. I only have so much to work with. But this combo allows you to subtly remember that it's me and not the other white YouTubers with similar white guy low voices like Finn McKinty or Anthony Fantano. And if you watch those guys videos, you'll notice they do the exact same thing with I'm describing with this three point system. And those two guys would not be the worst thing to be mistaken for since they rule. But I really have to distinguish myself from the cringy white dudes who talk about music promotion on here and try to grift you into buying an expensive course from them that just has all the information you could already find on YouTube. And to make sure I'm set apart from them, I have to make sure I have a look way different than them because I sure don't want to be mistaken for them. I'm gonna be honest with you, I actually don't wear these hats I wear in this video out on the street. I mean I wear different ones. I wear about five different pairs of glasses depending on the outfit. And I wear some of these band shirts out in the world sometimes, but it's not what I'm wearing most days. But I keep it consistent for these videos since I want people to have memory points for who I am when they see me. And you need to do the same thing. And like me it doesn't need to be flashy. It should just be a consistent look. And here's why this is important. So a funny thing here. I'm actually pretty face blind. In that when I see someone I know well, even somebody I've lived with for six months, in a place I don't expect to see them, it often doesn't register to my brain that that's that person. It's a huge disadvantage and makes my life really really bad when I don't recognize people I should. But a lot of people don't have the best facial recognition. They may not be as bad as me, but not everybody is going to recognize you because of your face. So you need to go further than this and also make people recognize other things. Since the more points of reference you give someone, the more likely they are to recognize their previous enjoyment of your content and smash that follow. Signature point two is props. As you will see in the background, I have three different prominent props. I have a ridiculously large display that I mix and master records using. And for nerds, it's a real spectacle. Secondly, I have this moody lava lamp, which has seen better days. And of course third, I have this gold record since it's something none of the other guys on YouTube who talk about what I do have, mostly because they're frauds whose research assistants write their videos. But that's another story for another time. These props make people identify me and distinguish me from the con artists in my genre. Now for musicians, these props can be all sorts of things like a certain guitar in a certain color, a particularly cool modular synth wall, or a microphone draped and banded as, wait, why was that a thing? This looked so stupid. The point being, you need props as people identify in their mind that you're the person with that prop and you can keep in mind those props can evolve over time and be a part of an era for you. They don't need to be forever. Many musicians will stick with a particular instrument and look on it for a certain era of their music, even in videos where they're not even playing that instrument. Some people will have an identifying cane or do a lot of stuff from a car or a bike and a lot of their content. This is also why you see certain sticker patterns on the main guitar someone uses, as well as help brand the prop as their own. This is why you see so many YouTubers have that neon light in the background of their video shoots, is that light can help visually brand them and they can move with it anywhere. By the way, if this video is giving you value, please like and subscribe and get notified since this is what we talk about here and you don't want to miss more of this. Okay, on to the last signature point, number three, your background should be as consistent as often as you can. And I know some of you are going to come for me for this one, as my set has changed three times during the two years of this channel, but unfortunately, life has thrown me three moves in that time, so I had to improvise. But for over a year, I've tried to make as many videos with the same wood background. I've really tried as hard as I can to make what I have here be what stays consistent and I actually built that wall so I could take it with me when I moved in case I have to move again. I also painted this wall color that takes to the light gradient I do that I could replicate easily in the future if I have to move. Okay, but the point is your background can help identify you as a person and help ring bells in people's minds. So if they notice that in the look and your prop, it will probably ring a bell. A cool piece of art in the background is often a really good start for your background. And even if you can't have any of that, if you have the same background each time, even if it's not that flashy, that's at least a step in the right direction. But it also doesn't even need to go that far. If it feels too much for you, I think about Chloe Moriondo and her rise on YouTube. All her early videos were just her messy bedroom from the same angle with the same lighting every time. She has made a video with the same set in props, which was her ukulele or acoustic guitar, which gave her her own identity, which she did for years long before she had high production music videos and her iconic look of today. Another big part of this is also the angle you film from. So many TikTokers will always film themselves from some odd angle, but it's consistent throughout their videos and helps people see that it's them. The key is that you should make your content in a set you can regularly create from and make it as identifiable as possible along with your look, especially if you're creating for TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. As you really see that over and over again, this is what the big creators have done and this is why they more easily built an audience and had an easier time building it than you may be. But I know a lot of you are saying, But Jesse, the big artists dye their hair and change their looks all the time. That's correct. But this is often after they've abandoned this technique or they're doing so much content in the time that they have this haircut, they bank on the discussion of their look change to outweigh what the consistency would give them because they now have a big audience that will talk about their every move. And that can definitely be true these days with all the YouTube reaction videos and TikTok about someone changing their look that it can generate that discussion, but you don't yet have that asset on your side. Like I always say, the rules aren't the same for you building a fan base where you need all the help you can get versus an artist who can generate conversations around them because they already have an audience. Now, I also want to say you shouldn't be scared to do videos outside of your signature look when the moment calls for it. But whatever you can, you should employ it whenever possible. But I don't want you to think you can't do a behind the scenes video or whatever you have to do out in the wild while you're in the world. But if you're regularly doing posts with this branding and you have signatures to help clue people into that you're the person they've enjoyed before, it's going to be more sticky and you're going to get more follows than you would otherwise. Let the subtle hints of familiarity help people recognize you and realize they should follow you. Okay, if this was helpful, please like, subscribe, and get notified as this is what we discuss here. I'd love to have you in the discussion. If I missed anything or if you have thoughts, I reply to every comment. Well, at least the ones that don't insult me. On the screen now is a playlist on how to promote your music on TikTok. As well, there's another one on how to grow your fan base from 0 to 10,000 fans as that's what we discuss here. Click on those and keep learning. Thanks for watching.