Creator Playbook: Set Yourself Up For Success On Musical - Ly
Creator Playbook: Set Yourself Up For Success On Musical - Ly
Playbook
Set yourself up for success on musical.ly
V 1.0
 M U S IC A L.LY
INTRO
01:            Start                                   04
               Establishing Your Identity
	              Optimizing	Your	Profile
	              Checklist:	The	Basics	of	Posting
	              Defining	a	Content	Strategy
02:            Grow                                    14
               Building Your Fandom
	              Engaging	Your	Audience
	              Measuring	Success
03:            Elevate                                 21
               Taking Your Content To The Next Level
	              Boost	The	Quality	Of	Your	Content
04:            Glossary                                26
05:	 Additional	Featured	Profiles	                     28
Optimizing
Your	Profile
What to do?
1.	Profile	Name
 Pick a name that is short, memorable,
     and where possible, gives visitors an idea
     of the videos you make or who you are.
                                                                            TIP
3.	Upload	profile	picture	or	video
                                                        If you already have amazing videos
To better showcase your personality and
                                                        in your library, posting some of these
content, use an existing video from your
                                                        on musical.ly can help jumpstart
camera roll instead of a picture.
                                                        your account (dont forget, musical.
                                                        ly is a platform where vertical videos
                                                        shine brightest).
Checklist:
The Basics of Posting
        Vertical Video
        The best videos are full vertical videos (aspect ratio of 1080 x 1920)
        shot in the musical.ly app. You can convert your videos in your library
        to vertical videos using editing apps or software.
        Thumbnail
        After you have shot or uploaded your video, give the musical.ly
        community a reason to watch your video by selecting the most
        captivating and intriguing thumbnail.
        Category Selection
        After posting your video, select the most relevant category for
        your content. This helps surface your content to a wider audience.
        Sharing
        After you post your video, be sure to share it to your accounts
        on other social networks and encourage your audience to follow
        you on musical.ly.
Defining	a	
Content Strategy
Why is this important?
Your content plan will guide you in deciding what content to post and
when to post it. These are some good steps to take to build out your
content strategy and pipeline on musical.ly:
Entertain:
Give viewers a reason to follow your page and watch more of your
videos. Create content that makes people feel something and want
to share with their friends. You might incorporate one of the below
elements to your videos:
Format:
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EX AMPLES
These formats are great for engaging                  Another fun way to engage with your
with your existing fans and friends. While            fans is to add funny sounds or songs to
they do not receive as much distribution              your videos. You can find plenty of sounds
for reaching new fans (although if its re-           in our extensive sound library.
ally special sometimes it can!), it is always
important to focus on both Growth and                                      TIP
Engagement. These formats fall more in
the engagement bucket, and can be used
                                                         We do recommend, however, that
now and then to keep your fans engaged.
                                                         you post this type of content no more
Use some of the tools / formats described                frequently than creative focus point
below whenever youre inspired to do so:                 #1 above. So, for example, if you are
                                                         posting 2 videos per week based on
 live.ly: musical.lys integrated
                                                         your creative focus, then we would
     livestreaming app allows you to go
                                                         recommend no more than 2 videos
     live and talk to your fans. You can host
                                                         per week for these fan engagement
     Q&A sessions, video call some fans
                                                         formats as well. (Of course, if Danc-
     (aka guesting), and co-broadcast
                                                         ing or Live Streaming IS your creative
     with other creators.
                                                         focus and talent, then of course, you
 Duet: You can pick a lucky fan and                     would do those more often).
     duet to one of their videos. Theyll feel
     special and become a part of your fan-
     dom. More on building your fandom in
     the next section.
Engaging
Your Audience
Why is this important?
While you continue to work on
producing great content on musical.ly,
its equally important to focus on
how to grow your audience.
TIP
What to do?
There are a few easy steps to growing your audience.
    Once youve had a chance to connect                 There are many different ways you
    with other creators, get talking about              can reach out to other creators in
    what you want to create! Many creators              the community:
    use the following tools or tricks on our
                                                            Following & BFFing each other
    platform already:
                                                            Commenting and engaging on
           Duet functionality                               their content
           Appearances or cameos in                         In-person at conferences or
           each others content                             other creator-focused events
           Tagging each other in the caption
                                                            Though agencies or creator networks
           Guesting in through live.ly
                                                            Direct messaging within musical.ly
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If you need some inspiration, trending                Many of the top creators encourage
hashtags are a creative way to find new               viewership through a variety of ways,
topics that will get your content exposed             including:
to a new viewer base. Participating in
                                                         Asking fans directly to follow,
challenges helps you as a creator join
                                                          engage, etc.
and lead the community.
                                                         Posting on other social media
                                                          accounts mentioning that youre
                                 TIP                      on musical.ly
                                                         Linking out your musical.ly videos
    Do not abuse hashtags (for example,                   to your other social media
    dont place captions on videos with                  Reacting to comments from fans
    specific hashtags that arent relevant to
    the content). The most relevant tagged
                                                      5. Build a Sense of Community
    videos will be favored for discovery.
                                                         Call your fanclub a specific name (for
                                                          example, @fifthharmony	fanclubs
                                                          name is Harmonizers and
                                 TIP                      @YoJessicaFlores fanclubs name is
                                                          Flower Fam)
    Use many different engagement                        Listen to your fanbase (BFF and
    features such as live streaming and                   shoutout to them)
    Q&A in order to reach your fanbase.                  Encourage mutual following
                                                         Guest star fans on live.ly
                                                         Duet with fans on musical.ly
Measuring
Success
Why is this important?
It is important to look at your key
metrics in order to see what is per-
forming best. Engagement metrics
like hearts and comments can be
tracked across individual videos
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What to do?
1. Metrics to Monitor                                 2. Being Patient
                                                      Do not get discouraged if your likes or
 musical.ly:                                         followers are not as high as others.
         Hearts                                       Some users may have been on the platform
         Comments                                     for much longer, or may be connected to
         Follows                                      other users they are using for cross-promo-
                                                      tion. There are many factors at play here.
                                 TIP
                                                      It can take some users a while to get distri-
    Follows across musical.ly and other               bution beyond their initial friends and fans,
    platforms, especially when you link               as much as a year or more. They key is to
    your Instagram or YouTube handles                 keep producing high quality content you
    to your profile                                   love and that you would love to watch your-
                                                      self. Over time, new users start to get more
                                                      distribution in our recommendation algo-
                                                      rithm the more high quality content they
 live.ly:                                            create - which includes many data points
         Concurrent Viewers                           beyond just Hearts and Comments that we
         Total Viewers                                collect behind the scenes. So be patient,
         Emoji-love (hearts on the live stream)       keep at it, and keep checking this Playbook
         Coins                                        as we will always update it with new ver-
                                                      sions as the platform updates too.
                                 TIP
         Storyline:
         Is your content scripted (e.g. comedy
         sketch) or do you just need an outline of
         the type of shots you want to capture
         (e.g. travel vlog, Q&A, visual arts etc)?
         Characters:
         How many people will be in the video?
         The quality of comedy sketches often
         increases as you add in different
         characters.
 Advanced:                                                                       TIP
    Invest in a lighting course - e.g. 3 point
    lighting. Vloggers, beauty gurus, prank-                   How to use story feature:
    sters etc. can really elevate their content
                                                               1. Shoot video in-app, save
    with a more intricate lighting setup.
                                                                    to private.
                                                               2. Go to private videos.
Sound: Your viewers want to hear
                                                               3. Select Compile Story.
you so make sure the sound is clear.
                                                               4. Select the 4 clips you want
Some ideas:
                                                                    to compile.
 Use your devices headphone for
                                                               5. Reorder clips as desired.
    up close shots.
                                                               6. Preview story.
 Invest in a plug-in condenser mic
    for your iOS or Android device.                            7.   Publish.
 If shooting on another camera
    (e.g. DSLR), use a condenser mic.
TIP
   Badge: creators who make content for a                  Follow: subscription to another musers
    specific category within musical.ly (for                 content; videos from creators youve followed
    example, comedian or athlete); badges                will show up on your Follow feed
    sit on a creators profile                              For You: tailored feed of musical.lys that
   BFF: known as best fan forever, this can only            incorporate a musers interests; these videos
    be given out from you to a user who follows you;         appear on the Discover Page
    a good way to encourage your closest fans to            Hashtags: trends that happen on musical.ly;
    follow you                                               hashtags are searchable and display on the
   Categories: types of content genres (for                 Discover Page, and are a great way to find
    example, comedy or sports); creators have            inspiration for new content (to participate in
    the ability to self-tag the category for each            hashtags, write them in your video caption)
    video they upload                                       Hearts: fan-love for a musical.ly video
   Coins: monetary rewards for viewers to share            Leaderboard: top creators on musical.ly;
    with live.ly broadcasters during their livestream;       most likely displayed globally, by country,
    users purchase coins to give to creators during          or by category
    livestream sessions                                     Lenses: entertaining feature that overlays or
   Collab: collaborating with another creator               alters your face; sits within the creation suite
    to make musical.lys                                      in musical.ly (lenses are added and changed
   Direct.ly: in-app message functionality                  every few days)
    between musers                                          Live Moment: format of video content
   Duet: a stitching together of two videos into            that is short (about 1 second), reserved,
    one video; the format of a duet can be either            and repeated
    montage (flips back and forth between videos            Live.ly: live-streaming app within musical.ly;
    every 2 seconds) or split-screen (videos play            fans who follow you on musical.ly are
    simultaneously side by side)                             automatically following you on live.ly
   Emoji-Love: metric measuring hearts given               Muser: a musical.ly user
    within a livestream on live.ly
   Face.ly: entertaining feature that alters
    features on your face; sits within the creation
    suite in musical.ly
   Feature/Featured Feed: videos that get pushed
    to more than just a creators followers; featured
    videos appear on the Featured tab of the
    homepage and are distributed to users across
    the globe
Brent
Rivera
@brentrivera
Naming:                                                                     TIP
His username (@brentrivera) is drawn from
his actual name (Brent Rivera) and consistent            if your account featured interesting
across other platforms, which allows musers              cats from around the world, you should
to find him easily in search.                            showcase cats rather than yourself.
Social media accounts:
Brent links his other accounts so that
his followers know its really him when
                                                      Content topic & format:
they want to follow him on musical.ly.
                                                      After selecting a few videos, it is very
Profile	picture:                                      clear to anyone who visits Brents
A clear profile picture that showcases                profile that he makes comedy sketch
the main subject of Brents content;                  videos using a specific format (stop &
In this case Brents comedy sketches                  go character-based sketches).
feature mostly himself.
DeVore
Ledridge
@devorelol
Lauren
Godwin
@laurengodwin
Planning:                                             Editing:
Lauren creates comedy sketches using                  Lauren creates an audio script and uses that
original audio and characters. Her story is           separately before stitching together the
thoroughly planned out well in advance.               video and audio. She carefully reviews her
She invests in quality lighting and costumes          content before publishing it publically. This
for her characters.                                   helps her create simplified, yet
                                                      complete, short stories for fans.
Danny
O Foto
@realdannyo
Thumbnails:
Danny chooses his thumbnails very strategi-
cally. Instead of instantly posting his videos,
he takes the time to choose a thumbnail that
will be intriguing enough to draw a viewer
into his video.
Vincent
Marcus
@vincentmarcus
Next
Town Down
@nexttowndown
Next Town Down is a 5-piece boy band that uses musical.ly to share
their singing talent, engage with their fanbase and communicate info
around music releases.
Brodie
Smith
@brodiesmith
Luka
Kutsia
@lukakutsia
Lucy
Maguire
@lucymaguire
Paranormal.Live
(Spencer & George)
@paranormal.live
Tom Weasley
(Out The Box)
@outthebox