YUKIO’s Tips on Using Social Media – It’s Been a While!

It’s a little after 8 a.m. on Sunday, and here I am, sitting down to write a blog post this early in the morning.

Why am I writing at such an early hour?

Well, lately I’ve been doing all sorts of things, even though none of them are really making me any money, and this blog has somehow ended up at the very bottom of my list. I haven’t written anything here for months.

This morning, I finally decided, “Okay, I really need to write something today.” So I logged in, ready to get started.

But before writing, I thought I should update all my plugins to the latest versions. So I started doing that.

Then I thought, “Wait a minute. If I keep doing this, I’m going to waste all my time again and won’t have any time left to write!”

And that’s how I finally managed to get here.

The funny thing is, though, that even though I’m finally in the mood to write, I hadn’t actually decided what to write about.

So now I’m sitting here wondering…

What should I write about?

A lot has happened in my personal life since the beginning of the year. I’ve been running around dealing with one thing after another, so I certainly have plenty of material to write about.

But there’s probably no point in going into all that here.

I guess I’m left with one thing to talk about: my music promotion.

Why I stopped writing this blog so often

I think the main reason I haven’t been writing much lately is that I’ve been putting more and more energy into social media.

I never really liked the whole world of social media where people who know each other constantly “like” each other’s posts, so I hardly used it at first.

Then one day, I started doing something very simple on YouTube.

Before eating my lunch, I would take just 15 seconds, add my original song “Shokuji wo Shiyou Serenade” (Let’s Have a Meal Serenade), and upload it every day.

And somehow, complete strangers started following me.

That was when I realized:

“Oh, I see. There’s actually a world on social media where people who don’t know you at all can discover you and follow you.”

That was a big realization for me.

I realized that if you come up with a good idea and that idea happens to fit the way things are moving in the world, even people who have never met you may become interested in what you do and decide to follow you.

That’s when I started putting more effort not only into YouTube, but also into Instagram and TikTok, trying to post as regularly as possible.

Instagram

At first, Instagram didn’t go very well.

I would use my original music as background music and post photos of the greenery in the park where I go for my morning walks.

But there was almost no reaction at all.

I thought, “Okay, this isn’t working.”

So I tried uploading videos of myself singing at Inokashira Park.

But those didn’t get much reaction either.

At that point, I decided to ask AI for advice.

It basically told me:

“If you just post a picture of some greenery in a park with your music playing in the background, people don’t even know whose song they’re listening to. Why would they react to it?”

It also told me that my Inokashira Park performance videos were too long and that I should cut them down to around 15 seconds.

And then came another suggestion:

Instead of constantly changing songs, why not focus on one song?

At first I thought, “Wouldn’t that make my world too small?”

But I also realized that doing the same thing over and over again wasn’t getting me anywhere.

So I took the plunge and decided to focus entirely on one song: “Tengoku Kiss” (Heaven Kiss).

I started posting short clips of my live performances at Inokashira Park.

The number of followers didn’t suddenly explode or anything, but little by little, it started to grow.

I actually wrote about this whole process in one of my earlier blog posts.

TikTok

TikTok was another story.

At first, I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to use it.

I experimented with putting text into my videos and tried various things, but nothing really worked.

Eventually, I got tired of thinking about it and decided to simply upload the same kind of guitar-and-vocal live performances from Inokashira Park that I was posting on YouTube.

Then something interesting happened.

After posting six guitar-and-vocal videos in a row, I decided to put in one piano-and-vocal video.

Apparently, people liked that.

My follower count suddenly started growing much faster.

Now I have more than twice as many followers on TikTok as I do on YouTube.

I certainly wasn’t expecting that.

And then there’s X…

I’ve tried all sorts of things on X as well, but so far I haven’t found anything that seems to be really working.

I’d like to make better use of X somehow, but it’s been surprisingly difficult.

Maybe I just haven’t found the right idea yet.

What I’ve learned from all this

So, I’ve been putting quite a lot of energy into social media lately.

And one thing I’ve learned is that sometimes, one small idea or one small change can completely change the result.

You can connect with people you’ve never met simply by changing the way you present something.

And there’s another thing I’ve learned:

If you don’t keep going, it doesn’t really mean much.

The same thing applies to this blog.

Even if I write a post whenever I happen to feel inspired, that probably isn’t enough.

It’s better to find a pace that doesn’t become a burden and keep doing it regularly.

Because once you start thinking, “Wow, I really worked hard on this,” that may actually be a sign that you’re already getting tired.

And sooner or later, you’ll probably stop.

So I think the trick is to keep doing something at a level that doesn’t make you feel like you’re working too hard.

Anyway, that’s my little story about how I’ve been using social media lately.

How do you use social media?

I’m sure everyone has their own way of doing it, but if you have any good ideas, I’d love to hear them.

I’m getting tired, so I think that’s enough for today.

I really should try not to leave such a long gap before writing my next blog post.

LOL.

Thank you very much for reading this blog all the way to the end!

If you’ve never listened to my music before, why not start with “Tengoku Kiss” (Heaven Kiss) on Spotify?

The Tengoku Kiss Spotify Campaign is now underway! ↓

Details of the Tengoku Kiss Campaign

YUKIO Original Music

My original music is also available for purchase as downloads.

There are plenty of samples available, so please give them a listen!

If you like what you hear, you can purchase the music securely using a credit card or PayPal.

My music is also available on streaming services.

You can listen not only on Spotify, but also on Apple Music, YouTube Music, LINE MUSIC, Amazon Music, and other services.

My biggest recommendation is to listen to an entire album from beginning to end.

CDs are also available for purchase.

Please listen to my original song “Heavenly Kiss” on Spotify.

When I started this blog, my very first post was about the piano.
And in the second post, I introduced a song called “Heaven Kiss,” which is what I want to talk about again today.

That’s how important this song is to me. It’s deeply personal, and I feel like it sits right at the core of my music.

The song itself is very simple. It doesn’t have a big chorus like modern J-pop. Actually, most of my songs don’t follow that typical Japanese style of changing keys and building into a chorus. Sometimes I even wonder how I’ve managed to keep making music like this for so long. (laugh)

It only uses about four chords—and it’s in the key of E.
What that means is: it’s built on one of the very first, most basic guitar chords that beginners learn.

Strumming that E chord and starting to sing,
“God, please help me… Buddha, please help me…”
—that’s the moment that feels best to me.

And singing that melody out to the little birds in the forest… that’s when I feel happiest.

When I was younger, I wanted to play this song with a band. But no matter how hard we tried, it never quite worked. I couldn’t get the drummer to really feel the rhythm the way I did.

Eventually, I realized something:
it feels far better to just play it alone—strumming an acoustic guitar and singing freely.

So that’s what I’ve been doing all along.

But during the COVID lockdown, I suddenly had a lot of free time. So I ended up creating a complete “band version” of the song—all by myself.

I burned it onto CDs, and a few friends have bought and listened to it, but I haven’t released it online.

So why am I talking about “Heaven Kiss” again now?

Because I recently started featuring it regularly on Instagram.

On YouTube and TikTok, I’ve been uploading clips of myself performing in Inokashira Park, cutting the song into short segments. I tried doing the same thing on Instagram—but for some reason, it didn’t gain much traction.

Then I tried something different: instead of posting the full song, I cut it down to about 30 seconds.

And surprisingly, more people started watching.

That’s when I realized—shorter videos work better on Instagram.

So I asked ChatGPT for advice, and it told me:
“Still too long. Try 15 seconds.”
It also suggested something else:
Don’t spread attention across dozens of songs. Focus on just one.
And instead of linking to multiple platforms, choose a single destination.

That’s when I made up my mind:
I would focus entirely on one song—“Heaven Kiss”—and send people only to Spotify.

Now my Instagram videos look like this:

  • The first 0.5 seconds: a bold catchphrase as a hook
  • About 13 seconds: a live clip of me singing in Inokashira Park
  • The last 3 seconds: an image of my original song banner

I’ve also started using X (Twitter), posting even shorter 6-second horizontal clips there.

So far, I haven’t seen any clear signs that traffic is flowing to Spotify yet.

But I plan to keep going for about three months.

Because without focus—without a clear, specific strategy—nothing really works.

Instagram and X are now just pathways leading to one thing:
“Heaven Kiss” on Spotify.

Of course, I don’t expect this alone to suddenly succeed.

So I thought—why not promote it here on the blog as well?

I honestly don’t even know if anyone is reading this…
but if you are, please listen to “Heaven Kiss” on Spotify.

This is a sincere request from me.

ChatGPT might say that overt self-promotion online can turn people off—but let’s be honest, that’s just the official line. In reality, people are doing all kinds of messy, unapologetic things behind the scenes.

That kind of talk almost sounds like the lyrics to my song “Fireball.” (laugh)
By the way, “Fireball” is also one of my original songs.

I’ve included the Spotify link below—please give it a listen.

It’s not J-pop.
The lyrics even mention “Inao-sama,” so yeah, it might feel old-fashioned.
It’s simple, acoustic, and repetitive.
I even throw in a bit of kobushi (that traditional vocal flourish)—
(why shouldn’t I? It comes out naturally. Someone once told me not to do that…)

And sure, I’ve got gray hair and a face full of spots now.

But it’s a good song.

Available for download.

Hi there—long time no post.

It’s been about half a year since I last wrote anything, sometime last summer, and that started to make me a little nervous. If I don’t post something, I feel like I might be completely forgotten, so here I am uploading this article even though I don’t really have a topic. Haha.

So… what should I write?

Oh right. Around the end of last year, I actually stopped drinking alcohol for about a week. During that time, I realized just how outdated this website of mine had become. I thought I should at least update the text a little, so I rebuilt parts of it while consulting ChatGPT.

Even though I can’t really speak foreign languages myself, I have English, French, and Spanish versions of this site. Before, I was using Google Translate to write the text for this blog and the download pages, but I always felt the translations were somehow a bit off. So this time, I asked ChatGPT to translate everything with a “native speaker’s sense” as much as possible. Thanks to that, I managed to remake the download page for my guitar-and-vocal album YUKIO in English, French, and Spanish.

I was also in the middle of fixing the download page for my piano-and-vocal album YUKIO PIANO, but then my bad habit of drinking at night crept back in… and the work has been on hold ever since. Haha.

Honestly, I was thinking about rewriting all my past blog posts using ChatGPT with that same “native-level” request, but that would take an enormous amount of time. And then I started wondering—would it really be worth it? Haha.

Besides, I don’t even know if ChatGPT is truly translating with a native feel in English, French, or Spanish. I can’t speak those languages myself, so I have no way of knowing. Haha. Well, at least I do know that ChatGPT is smarter than I am… haha.

That’s more or less how casually I run this website. But something really nice happened the other day. Someone actually downloaded my piano-and-vocal song “Espresso.” The price of a download isn’t much at all, but what made me really happy was that someone trusted me enough to download my music. I was genuinely thrilled. It was someone from Australia—thank you so much! Even though we speak different languages and live far apart, we’re friends! I’ll shout that out loud here. Haha.

I’m sure no one is really reading this blog, but I keep creating music anyway. So if you happen to like my songs, you can easily download them from the download page. I’d really appreciate it—thank you very much!

Available for download and purchase, with plenty of previews! Give it a listen! If you like it, you can purchase it through credit card or PayPal.

  • YUKIO　Fifteen songs with guitar accompaniment and vocals
  • YUKIO PIANO　Thirteen piano accompaniment with vocals songs
  • COCOLO　Thirteen band-formatted songs
  • SUN　Thirteen band-formatted songs　
  • MOON　Ten band-formatted songs
  • AOMORI　Mini album of 5 songs
  • STORY　Thirteen band-formatted songs

I’m distributing my music on various platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Line Music, and Amazon Music. I recommend listening to my work through these platforms. CDs are also available for purchase

If you’re visiting Inokashira Park, I’ll be singing on the south side of the pond, so please stop by.

Hello, it’s been a while. How are you? It’s hot in Japan today. It looks like it’s nearly 40 degrees! I can’t survive without the air conditioner. It’s so hot I don’t want to work. That’s why I felt like writing this blog for the first time in a while. Lol

So, what should I write? Well, recently, a lot of foreign tourists have flocked to Japan, and it’s bustling. There were a lot of them before the COVID-19 pandemic, but now it’s even more so. It feels like half the people wandering around my house are foreigners. Even though I live in Japan, I don’t hear any Japanese. Lol

Even at my live shows in Inokashira Park, which resumed after the COVID-19 pandemic, quite a few foreigners pass by in front of me. They look through my original CDs that are for sale along the street, but they’re not written in English, so everyone just walks over. I feel like telling them, “If you’re coming to Japan, at least study a little Japanese!” But I’m holding back. I’m thinking about including English explanations the next time I do a live show. LOL

However, I’m not trying to pander to foreigners; all my songs are in Japanese. I only intend to sing in Japanese, after all. I don’t speak English. LOL

Foreigners coming to Japan! Why not come and listen to some original, hand-crafted Japanese songs that aren’t Japanese pop songs? If you’re visiting Inokashira Park, I’ll be singing on the south side of the pond, so please stop by.

Available for download and purchase, with plenty of previews! Give it a listen! If you like it, you can purchase it through credit card or PayPal.

  • YUKIO　Fifteen songs with guitar accompaniment and vocals
  • YUKIO PIANO　Thirteen piano accompaniment with vocals songs
  • COCOLO　Thirteen band-formatted songs
  • SUN　Thirteen band-formatted songs　
  • MOON　Ten band-formatted songs
  • AOMORI　Mini album of 5 songs
  • STORY　Thirteen band-formatted songs

I’m distributing my music on various platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Line Music, and Amazon Music. I recommend listening to my work through these platforms. CDs are also available for purchase

I made three more playlists. Have a listen!

Hello! It’s been a while since my last post. How have you all been? Well, I don’t think anyone is actually reading this blog, so I’m just writing freely.

Now, the reason I decided to post an update after so many months is that I’ve created new playlists on Spotify for my music—three of them, in fact!

So, what kind of playlists are they? I made one for English-speaking listeners, one for French-speaking listeners, and one for Spanish-speaking listeners. You might think, “Isn’t that just three playlists matching the three versions of the YUKIO MUSIC blog?” And you’d be absolutely right! I simply created these playlists to align with my blog.

Honestly, it was probably a mistake to create English, French, and Spanish versions of my blog to match my homepage. I’ve already been struggling to update my blog in my native language, Japanese, and trying to maintain three additional blogs in foreign languages is just exhausting. I can’t even speak these languages, yet here I am, stuck with them. There’s no turning back now—what’s done is done. Lately, I’ve been feeling worn out because of this, but I made up my mind and pushed through! I worked hard and created these English, French, and Spanish playlists.

Why did I even start these blogs in languages I can’t speak? Well, I’ve mentioned this before, but when I first created my homepage, I wanted to share my music with the world, not just Japan. So, I asked a friend who was good at languages to translate for me. I could have gone with Chinese or Korean as well, but that friend happened to be studying English, French, and Spanish, so that’s how it happened.

At first, things were going well, but then I lost contact with that friend. So now, when I update the blogs, I have no choice but to rely on Google Translate. Maybe this time, I’ll try ChatGPT instead.

As for the playlists, I’ve chosen different songs for each language group. For the English-speaking audience, I selected my more hard rock-style songs. For the French-speaking audience, I focused on tracks that use “cliché” (a musical term). And for the Spanish-speaking audience, I picked songs with a Latin-inspired rhythm—more or less. Honestly, I just chose them randomly.

Would you like to give these playlists a listen? They’re fun! And if you send me your thoughts after listening, I’d be really happy. Though, I doubt anyone will.

Please enjoy my original Japanese songs—music like this doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world!

I am a mole

Available for download and purchase, with plenty of previews! Give it a listen! If you like it, you can purchase it through credit card or PayPal.

  • YUKIO　Fifteen songs with guitar accompaniment and vocals
  • YUKIO PIANO　Thirteen piano accompaniment with vocals songs
  • COCOLO　Thirteen band-formatted songs
  • SUN　Thirteen band-formatted songs　
  • MOON　Ten band-formatted songs
  • AOMORI　Mini album of 5 songs
  • STORY　Thirteen band-formatted songs

I’m distributing my music on various platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Line Music, and Amazon Music. I recommend listening to my work through these platforms. CDs are also available for purchase