Lessons from the Social Media Savvy

Melanie O’ Donovan looks at three online spoken word svengalis to find out what makes a popping social media presence.

WARNING: For the self-proclaimed luddites among you, look away now. No seriously, you had your time in 2018, there were enough think-pieces about the demise of the artform as a result of social media. Turn your eyes away and go read a book or something.

For artists, spoken word video and Instagram poetry is a chance to elevate your reach, to show the world your creativity and touch people who, on a normal day, couldn’t name a single living poet. One of the goals of many spoken word artists is to spread their message and leave their miniscule stamp on the collective consciousness, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to go viral. Not small-scale Twitter viral where people give you half of their three second attention span and a like to boost their endorphins. The viral I’m referring to transcends social media; it’s featured on Morning Ireland, Joe Duffy and your grandmothers’ lips viral.

The best examples of this are the likes of Nayyirah Waheed, Suli Breaks and RyeHighProductions. Besides from immense talent, social media literacy is something all three have in common; they mould their message to fit their preferred platforms and reach millions. The spoken word community could do with a lesson in social media strategy, so I’ve picked out three lessons from three spoken word artists we could all learn from.

1) Nayyirah Waheed and Aesthetics

Less than 100 posts and over 650k followers. That’s not an easy thing to do, but the “Instapoet” (who has released two collections) can teach us a lot about the importance of themes. Her clean, minimal page (which includes images of her pieces and screengrabs of her tweets) reflects her writing style. Her stories and posts complement each other perfectly and give you a clear vision of what kind of artist she is.

For those of you, like Waheed, who have a very clear performance style, don’t try and mimic that style online; find something to compliment it. Instead of posting a video of you performing, try posting a video of something eye catching and add a voice-over of you performing a short piece. And remember, what works for one platform may not work for another. The most important thing is to be consistent with it.

2) Suli Breaks and The Spoken Word Video

Suli Breaks, most famous for his “Why I Hate School but Love Education” video, is one of the most successful poets on Youtube. With over three hundred and forty thousand subscribers and twenty-six million views, he is a master of the spoken word video.

Unlike other poetry channels who upload videos of performances, he uses his creativity to make music video-like pieces for his spoken word EPs. These videos are often full productions including actors and background music and are shot at different locations, and with that level of production he can easily create short-form videos and stills for different social media. Take notes; investing in one larger piece that can act as the feature piece for a collection can give you weeks worth of shareable content. That shareable content can be customised for every social platform which can make our first point, sticking to an aesthetic, a whole lot easier.

3) RyeHighProductions and Audio Collections

While most may be familiar with spoken word artists on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, Soundcloud is an audio mecca for Spoken Word. One of the Soundcloud greats is, without a doubt, RyeHighProductions.

Igor Oro, the man behind the tracks which have collectively accumulated millions of plays, has a very simple formula; his words, and some generic vibey background music. That’s it. It’s annoyingly simple but incredibly effective. Spoken word is a primarily audio medium, and when paired with social media it often becomes audio visual, but it doesn’t have to be. Make 2019 the year of the Spoken Word mixtape; let’s shift the focus from SoundCloud rappers to SoundCloud poets.

Social media isn’t going anywhere. Its cultural hegemony is going to continue whether you share those Epic Takedowns of Unsociable Millennials And Their Avocado Toast And Feckin’ Instabook or not, so bite the bullet and use it. Don’t see it as a daunting requirement to grudgingly engage with at a bare minimum level, look at it as a creative challenge and an opportunity to promote and embellish your art in new ways. Be clear, be targeted and be yourself.

Written by Melanie O’Donovan

Originally printed in BND Vol. 1 Issue. 1
Buy your copy HERE

**Spoken word theatre has arrived to light a fire in the Big Smoke**

Boundless & BareOctober 28, 2019