6 Key Tactics For Organic Success on Youtube From Hip-Hop Artist Rob Scott

This article was written by our intern Benjy Jean Baptiste about his own experience as an artist manager.

For independent artists, Youtube can be one of the most powerful platforms available for promotion and exposure. Of course, it is also one of the most difficult platforms to garner any significant growth and attention.

This challenge was no different for 23 year old hip-hip artist, and Brooklyn native Rob Scott.

As his manager, it was my job to figure out how to bring his dream to fruition. Without any assistance from record labels, we began to effectively use YouTube as a platform to get Rob Scott noticed.

Within the first couple of months, it was painful to notice that his long nights in the studio would only result in his songs receiving 11 views. To make matters worst, the 11 views I am speaking about came from the friends and family that was in the studio with him.

Initially, we would post his YouTube link all over people’s Facebook pages until we realized that spamming individuals was probably not the best way to gain true fans. We then decided that garnering views organically is the best possible solution. Today, he has accumulated over 235,000 channel views and has acquired more than 1, 400 YouTube subscribers.

Some may wonder how so?

Below are 6 strategies that we used to organically build Rob Scott’s Youtube channel from desolate to highly-trafficked:

Frequency

At one point, Scott would upload a video at least once a week. During one week we would upload a song with a cover art and a couple weeks later we would upload a music video for that same song.

It is important to break down your material to get the most out of it. What I mean by that is, if you have a music video that you are planning to release, put out behind the scenes footage for that video, put out the song before you put out the video, or put out a snippet before you even release the song.

Now you have three pieces of content all based around that one record.

The more things you have to release, the easier it is to follow the rule of frequency. Evidently, it is almost impossible to acquire a great amount of views if you post a video once a year.

There have been several rare cases such as the Harlem Shake video going viral without the use of “frequency”, but I would not recommend depending on pure luck.

With Rob Scott, we created a schedule and began creating on a regular basis.

Covers & Alternative Versions of Popular Songs

Another step that Rob Scott implemented to reach his amount of views was re-doing songs that were already popular.

Trey Songs released a song entitled “Can’t Be Friends” three years ago that gained a lot of commercial attention. While the song was still at its peak, Scott decided to re-do the song over with his own words and then shoot a music video for it.



Because viewers would search for the original Trey Songs version and see Scott’s rendition, it gave him a better chance of being viewed by some of the fans of that particular record. To date, Rob Scott’s rendition has over 90,000 views on YouTube and is still growing daily.

Raising Brand Awareness

Raising your brand awareness is another way to increase your views and subscribers. Initially, Rob Scott started to do local showcases where we would promote his YouTube link after every single performance.

He then had the opportunity to perform alongside major artists J. Cole and Miguel, which gave us the chance to promote our YouTube link to a much larger audience.

Because we’ve secured a licensing deal with Extreme music, Scott’s songs have been featured on MTV and VH1 premiering on shows such as Washington Heights, Love and Hip Hop, Single Ladies, and Friend Zone. Once people discover an act that they’ve enjoyed, YouTube is usually the first place they go to find more music from the artist.

Fortunately for us, that is exactly what happened.

Creating Strategic Partnerships

Another way to raise awareness is by collaborating with someone that has accumulated more views than you. When we were getting ready to shoot the visual for the Trey Songs “Can’t Be Friends” cover, we knew that we needed to collaborate with someone else, someway, somehow. We decided to use a friend of ours who had already accumulated over 50,000 views on her channel as the leading lady in Scott’s video. Once it was time to release the video, she directed all of her subscribers to our page to check out the video, which ultimately led our channel views to skyrocket.

Fan Engagement

Rob Scott never presented himself as the “unreachable artist”. When a supporter would leave a comment, he would do his best to show his gratitude by interacting with them. Clearly, he did not reply to every single fan every single time but as often as he could, Scott would make a video thanking all of his fans for the support that they have shown him.



He is currently working on new ways to engage his fans through YouTube, one of the ways being by creating a “who can do it best” contest challenging his fans to cover his material and awarding the winner with a spot on his channel. With this approach, fans will become more engaged in Scott’s music.

Great Content

The last step is to simply have great content. The better the content, the better your chances of organic success.

Great content leads the viewers to not only view the material but to also engage by leaving comments. Scott has been praised endless amount of times for his musical abilities. In fact, someone on YouTube actually re did Scott’s version of the “Can’t be friends” cover that I mentioned earlier.

Because the song resonated with someone so much, they felt the need to do it over using the same words and melody that Scott created. Great content causes supporters to spread the word about what they’ve just watched which attracts more viewers to the channel.

Remember, word of mouth is the most powerful form of promotion.

Determined to set the standard, Scott is working hard to continuously progress at his craft. Undoubtedly, Rob Scott’s journey has just begun and there is no question that in the blink of an eye, he will be at the top. He is currently recording his second project entitled “Divine Tragedy” which is set to release later this year.

To hear Rob Scott’s music, please visit Youtube or IAmRobScott.com

Comments

[Indiloop]

Great post! Youtube is such an important site for artists these days. Aside from the revenue that is possible, it is an invaluable audience builder. This is especially so when there is dialogue and seemingly transparency. There is nothing more an audience appreciates than feeling like they have access to an artist, and even some sway over what the artist does next. It's almost essential to an effect digital marketing strategy. We are in the day and age where some of our biggest artists are the product of Youtube success (without naming names ... :) haha).