Here’s What Video Entrepreneurs Can Be taught From Lil Nas X

Social media marketing is a tricky business. It takes creating the right content, distributing it properly, building a community, and staying up to date with the latest trends. Much depends on trial and error, but if you are a keen observer you will get the hang of it.

To learn more about the online social landscape, I check out success stories outside of the video production industry. And this is where Lil Nas X, real name Montero, comes in.

The artist’s meteoric rise to fame may seem like a coincidence to some, but if you take a closer look you will find that there is more than meets the eye. So here are six video marketing lessons I learned from Nas’ career.

1. A few mistakes can set you right

Prior to “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X released several songs on SoundCloud and experimented with different sounds to see what stuck.

This trial and error approach is key to video marketing. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) like impressions, views, watch time, and more to find out what works best. You can then move on to building more of what works and refining it.

2. Social media and community building

Montero’s understanding of the internet’s attention economy is impressive. He found out about Twitter while allegedly managing a Nicki Minaj fan account. That experience helped him learn how to jump on trends and make things go viral.

When Nas started singing and writing songs, his fans didn’t follow him on the platform for his music. You were there for the memes and the engaging threads. To get around this, he composed a loopable song in a trendy genre. The plan was to attach it to fun, shareable clips.

How did this strategy go? Well, on December 3, 2018, Nas paired a soundbite from “Old Town Road” with a video from a dancing cowboy and a link to the full song below. Well, when you consider that 68% of people spend more than a quarter of their social media time watching videos, so it’s not surprising that the clip (and its variations) received millions of views.

The track then spread to TikTok and eventually made it onto the Billboard charts. Nas later released a remix of the song with Billy Ray Cyrus; Shortly thereafter, “Old Town Road” reached # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for a record breaking 19 weeks.

Social media continues to play a key role in Nas’ music promotion strategy to this day. It captivates fans with entertaining content, and that is the most important lesson for video marketers: don’t take yourself too seriously.

Keep experimenting, be sincere, and connect with your audience. Focus on what people are interested in and find ways to get involved. This is how you get the audience to care.

Related: How to Build a Social Media Community: Content and Collaboration

3. Increase content visibility

Creating great content is half the battle. The other half makes sure people see it.

When clips from “Old Town Road” surfaced on Twitter and TikTok, Nas changed the title of his song on YouTube and SoundCloud to include the lyrics from his viral video: “I got the horse in the back”. So if you looked, you were sure to find it.

Likewise, as a marketer, you should have a strategy to increase the visibility of your video. This is where SEO comes in, which includes doing keyword research, writing compelling titles, and creating eye-catching thumbnails.

You can also A / B test a video with different titles or thumbnails to see which gives better results.

4. Post consistently

To promote his album Montero, Nas posted over 200 TikToks in a month. He usually shares a combination of short videos and memes to create hype about his music. But most importantly, he doesn’t annoy his followers with the sheer volume of his posts, because each post is unique enough to add value for the viewer.

That kind of consistency is what keeps you in mind. So once you start posting video content, stick with it for a while and see where it takes you.

5. Live streams

In 2020, when the US lockdown began, people were spending more time online. Livestreams went mainstream and Twitch broke a record three billion Total hours seen.

Lil Nas X has adapted too. To promote his single “Holiday”, he announced a virtual tour on Roblox. The livestream boom continues. In fact, our survey showed that 36% the marketer plan to experiment with it in the future. So for starters, you can use the live feature on social platforms to wow the audience. Host webinars or hold live Q&A and see what works.

Related: 12 Live Streaming Video Tips to Build Your Brand and Business

6. Embrace pathos

If you want people to stand up for you or take action, you need to make them feel. This can be achieved with pathos (an appeal to emotion – one from Aristotle Types of belief).

An emotional appeal will help you create compelling messages. So first consider what emotions you want your audience to feel and pick them up from there. Lil Nas X often uses humor (to bring joy) on social media, and he also enjoys trolling his critics. But it’s not just laughs and gags, he also knows when to be vulnerable, which strengthens the creator-consumer relationship.

The use of pathos in marketing is not new, but it should be kept in the back of your mind because a message that evokes emotions will not be easily forgotten.

The New Yorker referred to Lil Nas X as “a pop star with a Warholian visual sensibility,” and I agree. But without his online skills, he wouldn’t be the star he is today. The same goes for businesses: if you can’t market yourself online, life gets tough. So get into video marketing, learn from your colleagues and be inspired.

Related: What Aristotle Can Teach You About Marketing