Using Twitter for Album Art and an Ever-Evolving Playlist
My experience sharing music on social media in 2022.
I started Micro-Chop in the summer of 2016. I started the Micro-Chop Twitter account in January of 2017. Since then much has changed in the world, my writing, and the way I use social media.
There was a time when I could expect decent engagement if I shared a link to one of my articles on Twitter. That still happens sometimes, but it seems like people respond to article links less enthusiastically than they did five years ago. I also used to turn select articles into massive threads. This also doesn’t resonate the way it once did. That’s fine. I’ve written hundreds of articles. It’s a lot to expect people to care whenever I write another.
The past few years as a writer have been very humbling and that’s a good thing. I’ve given a lot of thought to what I can reasonably expect of my audience and my readers. I don’t write as many articles. I try to keep more of my Micro-Chop pieces to a reasonable length of 250-750 words. I cut down on the number of articles I send out as emails because I know how email alerts and full inboxes make me feel when I’m already stressed and overwhelmed.
I’ve also thought a lot about the way I use Twitter. I noticed many people seem to like the Micro-Chop Twitter account for music recommendations as much if not more than my writing. So I made a number of music threads and accompanying playlists. These were generally well received.
I love these threads and will continue to make them. But after making so many I decided to switch up how I share music with my audience. Was there a way to share a similarly high volume of music that wasn’t so specific in focus and featured a broader scope of artists?
I shared some album covers on my timeline with one recommended song from each given project in a subsequent tweet as an experiment. Sort of like a micro thread. As an example, you can click on the tweet below of Minnie Riperton’s 1970 debut Come to my Garden and you’ll see the beautiful “Les Fleurs” in the connected tweet.
This method seems to really resonate with people. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with big responses to several relatively obscure records. Cover art is a beautiful, powerful thing. A great cover can grab someone’s full attention even if they’ve never heard of the project before. A familiar cover can transport people to a very specific time and place when that album meant everything to them.
Sharing album art without text lets my readers engage with these projects in their own way. People can reply with interesting tidbits about the album or their personal opinion of it. They can also quote tweet the album cover and share their feelings about it with their audience. It’s a simple way to let others tell their stories about music instead of always centering my writing and my opinions.
Given how quickly things change on social media this way of interacting with people on Twitter will only remain effective for so long. But for now, sharing all sorts of different album covers and songs with people brings me great joy. My audience seems to like it too, so I’ll continue to do it for the time being.
For the most dedicated music heads out there I’ve compiled every single song (399 and counting) I’ve recommended on Twitter since July 1st into one massive YouTube playlist. I’ll start a brand new one on August 1st.
Enjoy.
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