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.
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
- Please listen to my original song “Tengoku Kiss” on Spotify.
- From 0 to 1
- “Tengoku Kiss” — What I’m aiming for beyond this song
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.
- “YUKIO” — 15 acoustic guitar & vocal songs
- “YUKIO PIANO” — 13 piano & vocal songs
- “COCOLO” — 13 songs in a full-band format
- “Taiyo” (Sun) — 13 songs in a full-band format
- “Tsuki” (Moon) — 10 songs in a full-band format
- “Aomori” — 5-song mini album
- “Monogatari” (Story) — 13 songs in a full-band format
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.