Can Musical.ly help your business grow?

[Lex DeVille]

Man there was a time not so long ago when I thought social media was complete bullshit. I'm not saying it's 100% effective, and some are more successful with it than others. But I wanted to consider one of the newer platforms and how it might help you grow, and also what it says about the bigger trends of social media.

So the last day or so I've been figuring out musical.ly and it's pretty straightforward once you get going. It's a lip-syncing app at its core where you can sing 15 seconds of a song, then edit that song / images etc. and post it to your fans.

When you first log on to musical.ly you look at this confusing mess of an app and you're like, wtf this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. But a few minutes later you find yourself smiling and laughing and scrolling through one dorked out singer after another. And whether you like it or not this is the future, and now is the time to figure out how to make it yours.

So I was thinking about the biggest advantages of this new wave of social media...

People are consuming content faster than ever and Musical.ly gives you a way to share content fast. Videos don't have to be lip-syncing so you can use it for other purposes like short clips or speaking. In a sense these 15 second videos are becoming the new YouTube, not just on Musical.ly, but other places like Instagram and SnapChat too.

Most service-based businesses aren't using platforms like this because they have a professional image to maintain. But what if you didn't mind looking unprofessional? What if you were okay with looking a little silly if it meant connecting with your audience? I think there's a huge opportunity here because the kids of today are the adults of tomorrow, and your competitors don't know how to target the adults of tomorrow.

The third big advantage is simply that it gives you a way to show who you really are. You can show who your business is and what you're about without it seeming like you're blasting people with more ads. Instead of just screaming at people and hoping they look (traditional advertising) you're connecting with them and showing you're a real person with a real personality and you like to have fun.

Musical.ly lets you do all of those things. Build a brand, create rapid engaging content, and prepare yourself to accept the customers of tomorrow while your competitors focus only on the customers of today until they crash and burn. Plus you get to make people laugh and have fun and in the end that's the most important part to me.

Anyway these are just some of my thoughts toward musical.ly. What do you guys think? Can you make it work for you? If so, how do you think you'll approach it? How will you use the platform to launch your business or to corner the market when others won't?

 

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[Mike Kavanagh]

For myself, I see no value gain.
I do have a cousin who wants to make it as a rapper so I do see the potential for him to get in front of an audience.
He can do short cyphers on Music.ly and do full songs on YouTube but the main goal is for him to get in front of people and let them decide.

 

[Lex DeVille]

For myself, I see no value gain.
I do have a cousin who wants to make it as a rapper so I do see the potential for him to get in front of an audience.
He can do short cyphers on Music.ly and do full songs on YouTube but the main goal is for him to get in front of people and let them decide.

When you say no value gain, are you talking about with musical.ly or with 15 sec. social media videos in general? Do you use other platforms like snapchat and instagram? I see this as something so much more than just a place for music. There's a lot to post in 15 seconds. Lip-syncing was just the entry point. As the platform shifts and grows that will probably move to the backburner in favor of what the market decides it really wants.

 

[Mike Kavanagh]

When you say no value gain, are you talking about with musical.ly or with 15 sec. social media videos in general? Do you use other platforms like snapchat and instagram? I see this as something so much more than just a place for music. There's a lot to post in 15 seconds. Lip-syncing was just the entry point. As the platform shifts and grows that will probably move to the backburner in favor of what the market decides it really wants.

For myself, I don't see value because of the audience. I'm not trying to target that market.

Snapchat, IG, Facebook, and Twitter all have relevant places for business related things. That's what I'm more into.

I think Music.ly will be a place where a bunch of people are trying to break into the industry.
I see value for others, but not for myself. There is definitely potential there for content creators.

 

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