Content Creator Spotlight
Part 1 - All Hail the Ring Light
In case you haven’t picked up on this already, a goal of mine here at New Classical Design is to empower musicians to take advantage of the vast amount of ways to develop and monetize their careers online. One area where I see opportunity and not a lot of competition for classical musicians specifically is in digital content creation. So to change this I am starting a series of interviews with people both inside and outside of music who have had success building their online presence and making money by pushing out content online through various channels.
In this first interview, I look for lessons and strategies from someone who is doing something quite a bit different than creating music and found a lot of useful information that anyone can use to develop their online presence. In fact, this is some of the more entertaining research I have done in this area. I hope you enjoy part 1 of this new segment.
Content Creator - Eileen Mary O’Connell
Eileen is a comedian and writer “with over 3 billion views to her name”. While her day job is social media community manager for Pluto TV, she has a verified twitter account and regularly has her tweets featured in articles by Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Washington Post, and more.
You can read her full bio on her website: eileenmaryoconnell.com.
You can follow Eileen on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter
I caught up with Eileen after a busy holiday season and asked her questions about her digital career.
Q. Can you give us a quick overview of the type of content you create and where people can find this content?
My content is a mix of millennial nostalgia with a healthy dose of self deprecating humor. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. I do a LOT of crossposting--screenshotting a joke that I tweeted and posting it on Instagram, greenscreening the tweet and turning it into a TikTok--turning that TikTok into an Instagram Reel...it's all about casting as wide of a net as possible!
Q. How did you get started creating paid digital content? Did you specifically pursue revenue opportunities from the start or did it build off of an already existing online presence?
My background is in comedy and in digital marketing for big brands--so I use a lot of the same muscles in my professional life as I do for my personal brand (and vice versa). I always did Twitter and Instagram just for fun, but when the pandemic began, instead of baking banana bread like everyone else I decided to make TikTok my new hobby. Since I no longer could perform live comedy, TikTok became my stage. As soon as TikTok opened up their Creator Fund I saw it as an opportunity to earn a sweet passive income, and I was right!
Q. What did you do to build your audience? Did you invest in any paid promotion to help grow your follower base?
I fully believe in the power of organic growth, and TikTok is great for that because their “For You” page is unlike anything else. But I've built my overall audience through lots and lots (and lots!) of baby steps over many years. Things like participating in trending Twitter hashtags every day (which was SUPER easy when @midnight was on and they had their daily hashtag challenge), leaning in on a platform's latest updates ([Instagram] Reels was a GAME CHANGER and I still lean on that, until the next thing comes!), and putting my own spin on a meme (this was a big mental hurdle to overcome. Whenever there's a trending meme or a joke format, I used to think it was hack to use them. I wanted to be original! Now I realize that I was only making myself fall behind. It's not hack, it's speaking the platform's language!)
Q. In extension, which steps did you try that you found were less effective?
When I was younger and less educated, I was very briefly in an Instagram amplifying DM group. Basically, they're big group chats where people are supposed to go to everyone's pages and interact with their latest posts. I quickly realized that 1) It's disingenuous. 2) It's exhausting 3) Instagram LOOOOOOVES banning accounts that do this. Don't do it! Just don't, guys!
Q. How frequently do you create and publish content? Do you feel there is a tipping point where you hit diminishing returns on frequency or does more = better?
Every day! I tweet 3-7 times a day, but I write 50-100 jokes a day so that I always have content in the bank (plus at this point, it's basically a compulsion! I love it so much). I also post on Instagram once a day, and TikTok 1-3 times a day. But it took me a LONG time to build the muscle memory and stamina to do all that! I started out writing 5 jokes a day, and slowlyyyyyyyyy increased the number over time as it became easier and easier. I also did a LOT of testing (posting more, posting less, posting at different times) until I found what works for me.
Q. What tools do you use to help create and manage your work? Any specific equipment or software that you find is particularly helpful?
I use so many fancy tools in my day job, so for my personal brand I'm way looser. It's my playground!
If I want to post a tweet of mine as a meme on Instagram, I take a screenshot and use the Instagram story features to make them prettier--It's quick and easy once you know the hacks. Then for video content, I make everything on TikTok and then use the Snaptik web app to remove the TikTok watermark so it can be posted on Reels.
Oh, and like everyone on TikTok, I have a Ring light. ALL HAIL THE RING LIGHT.
Q. Can you tell us a bit about the very first time you saw some income from a piece of digital content you created? How quickly did it happen? Was there sort of an epiphany or "eureka" moment?
I wish I could say that I have an exciting story about it! I've been creating digital content for so long and I've seen things I've created go viral so many times--just never something that I owned, ya know? But I remember the first time I went “Live” on TikTok and my fans started sending tiny bits of money through the Lives--I never expected that and DEFINITELY didn't ask for it! It was such a surprise. Then they started inviting their friends into my Lives because they were having so much fun! It made me realize that if you're genuine, people are drawn to you!
Q. Which type of content and which platforms do you typically find to be the most lucrative?
It really depends on your brand, your niche, and your goals. I know a lot of influencers and bloggers who do great on Pinterest, so clearly it's a great tool! But I haven't found a way to make Pinterest benefit me yet. But one day, Ed. One. Day.
Q. In closing, any pieces of advice you would share to someone just getting started trying to monetize their online work?
Pay attention to your insights/analytics, notice patterns, and adjust from there! And ALWAYS be ready to adjust again and again. These platforms are constantly changing their algorithms and if you can't roll with the changes, the app is going to roll away without you.
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