Musicians Aren't Thinking About In-Bound Links Enough

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So today I'm going to keep it brief (for me) and break down a concept that seems to confuse people whenever I talk about it. I've decided I need to use really simple language to describe it. There's a lot of discussion about appealing to algorithms and how to trigger them, and the easiest way to do that is INBOUND LINKS. But what the hell does that mean? I'll tell a story that will make it clear.

One of the things you see in analytics is a graph that looks like this. Particularly on content based on a current event. But there's a small detail right at the front of that graph, which is that for 24 hours, this video that now has nearly half a million views, had only 145 views. The creator who posted it was unable to promote it since a tragedy had happened that made the material in the video very sensitive. So what many "gurus" will tell you is if a video has almost no views in 24 hours on YouTube, TikTok or Reels, it is dead. But there is a cure...

What caused that nearly 90-degree angle that took it from 145 views to around 200k in 24 hours and 300k in 48 hours was between 100-200 people clicking a link to watch the video (we used a SmartURL to track what stimulated the algo). Those people then watched and shared it with more people (the content was very compelling). It was my directorial debut, so I appreciate the flattery. The point being I have seen this work with YouTube long form, Shorts, Reels, TikToks, Spotify. The fact is, algorithms reward you for bringing people to their platform. They LOVE to see people coming there, and if they then recommend your video to someone else and say "you have to see this!" you get more and more recommendations on For You and Browse pages.

I have seen this happen numerous times, but this was the one where I was able to do all the measurements with my own eyes as I was both the head marketer and the director of the video. It has become irrefutable to me that the algorithm proves it, and as we recently discussed, even CEOs like Instagram's Adam Mosseri have said this is one of the most important factors.

How To Take Advantage Of This Knowledge

What are the actionable things you can do with this knowledge?

• Think of content that gets shares from users where they tell their friends "you have to see this." There's nothing more powerful than when a fan sees your content and feels compelled to share it.

• Link your content from other platforms. Share YouTube videos from Threads, Instagram stories, your link in bio, Twitter & BlueSky.

• Email and text message blasts of your content are the most effective ways to trigger this. When you put out a new music video, link it there. If you want to keep growing on Reels, TikTok or Shorts, simply make an announcement they have to watch on your preferred platform. This will help show the algo the people most engaged with you and figure out who to send you to more of. This will grow your audience in an accelerated way.