Genuine question for people managing brand accounts. Where does your music come from: trending sounds, a library like Epidemic, something custom? Have you ever had a video muted or taken down over music? And what’s the most annoying part of the whole thing?
trending sounds are a minefield, got a reel muted last month after using one that went commercial two days later
For brand work the platform libraries are tempting but they carry restrictions, so it helps to split audio into two buckets. Trending audio for posts that only live inside the app, cleared or licensed tracks for anything that might get reused in an ad or on a website. The mute or takedown rarely lands on day one, it usually shows up weeks later once a post is performing, so keeping a cleared version of your best performers ready to swap in saves the scramble. Which side is your client paying more attention to, the trending sound or the safe one?
on brand accounts we stayed away from trending sounds, because business accounts don't get the same music rights as personal ones. a commercial library is the safe default. the annoying part is checking every creator video for audio before it runs. simple fix: ask creators to deliver one version with no music so you can add licensed audio yourself
Are these only organic posts, or will some also run as paid ads? Music cleared for an organic post may still need separate permission for advertising.
I've been using original music for my own videos, mainly because it gives me more control over the mood and avoids depending on trending sounds. The tricky part is that music availability and licensing can differ between platforms, especially for business accounts.
For brand content, I'd rather use music I know I'm allowed to use commercially than risk having a video muted later.
I'd probably keep them separate for now, especially since you've already built an audience around the aesthetic lifestyle content. People followed that account for a reason, and suddenly mixing in a lot of beauty and fashion content might confuse some of them.
You can always occasionally cross-promote between the two and see how your audience responds before deciding whether combining them makes sense.
tbh i just ride trending audio when it fits the vibe and swap if it dies mid-week. for brand stuff i keep a tiny folder of licensed tracks so we dont get muted later. original music only when the hook really needs it, otherwise trending wins the first 1-2s.
TikTok trending sounds is pretty good if you want free. Some music you can't use on both TikTok / Reels if you want to crosspost since either of the two don't have it in their library.
If you're open to paying, Epidemic is good since you can use it everywhere and on older posts in perpetuity.
Lately, you choose viral or trending music to add to the content.
If this post doesn't follow the rules, please report it to the mods.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I got fed up with feeds full of suggested/random content instead of the people I actually follow. Curious if this resonates with anyone else here or if I'm overthinking a problem nobody else has.
# Is social media marketing becoming less about followers and more about distribution? A brand can have 100K followers and still get little reach, while a small account can get millions of views from one post. So what matters more today: **building a large audience or creating content that algorithms distribute widely?** **Curious what SMM people think.**
i help a guy with his content, and lately i feel weird taking any credit for the numbers. he makes beautiful short videos, properly shot, with a lot of thought behind the lighting and the edit. those usually get a few thousand views. his work needs the reach, so i suggested trying some of what's already working. copying trending concepts and formats, adapting them to his style, using trending audio. those started clearing 100k, some way past that. it kept happening, and eventually “let’s try a few” turned into most of what we make. when we first started working together, we'd spend our conversations talking about shots, where the light would be, how long to hold on something. now we're mostly talking about whether a trend is still alive and if we can get ours posted in time. he told me he feels like he's losing a little piece of his soul for views. i didnt really know what to say because i'm the one who encouraged it, and the reason i gave him still holds up: more people are seeing his work. except i'm starting to wonder what that's worth if the work they're seeing is stuff he doesn't want to make. i don't think the trend videos are beneath him or that being proud of something means it deserves 100k views. but we went into this thinking the trend stuff would bring enough attention to support the work he actually cared about. instead, every time we plan one of his original ideas, we're comparing it to what following a trend could do, and it gets harder to justify spending the time. for people who manage accounts for a living, have you actually made that balance work? i'm interested in how you decide what gets made when the stuff your client loves consistently gets a fraction of the views. we said we'd keep doing both, but that hasn't meant much in practice.
I only have time to do one properly. LinkedIn gets more reach, but half the feed reads like a motivational poster. X has better conversations but unless you already have followers it feels like posting into the void. If you have used both, which one helped you build a professional audience better and how long did it take?
I am in college and I’m thinking of creating a faceless channel on all socials to help students build social media side hustles to boost their profiles and portfolios for their future as we know that in today’s day and age, academics isn’t everything at all. If anybody has any ideas they want to share or experiences they’ve had in this field, it would be appreciated if you let me know.
My client works in the commercial construction industry and more specifically they do waterproofing and caulking on new build hotels/apartments etc. I’ve only been working with this client for 2 months but feel as though the results aren’t where they should be? The highest performing post only has 8,400 views, with the average post getting 2000-2500 views with 341 current followers. Reels seem to be the highest performing posts so far. I recently flew up to meet the whole team and spend a day on site getting content which should result in a few months worth of posts if we stick to the current cadence of 2-3 posts a week. Before this, they were filming with my direction and sending the raw footage over for me to edit and post. The main pillars I’ve been focussing on: \- satisfying caulking/waterproofing work \- team culture: showing the positives and characters who work there. Less serious, trend jump ons also pop up here. \- job overview/updates: the boss walks through the site and explains what’s going on + provides updates The goal for them has never been to get more work through posting online, rather just grow a presence and be the go-to company in their industry and location, but I can’t help but feel like they’re not getting much ROI from me unless they do in fact get inquiries from builders, developers & the like? Would love any advice/ideas going forward!