Ever since Gary Vaynerchuk shook the airwaves by endorsing TikTok, calling TikTok one of the best apps for influencers and musicians, Radikal Hughes quickly headed the thought leaders’ advice and jumped onto the app to further grow his audience and reach of influence.
Radikal Hughes, also known as Dan Hughes, is the popular Christian Recording Artist that has captured the hearts of millions of listeners worldwide and is also well known to many as a faith-based influencer, humanitarian, and entrepreneur. As an independent musician, Hughes has been able to leave a remarkable impact on the Christian Music Industry and has had collaborated and written songs with some of Christian Music’s most notable and legendary artists such as DA’ T.R.U.T.H., GRITS, Dee-1, Bizzle, Sevin and Datin.
Radikal is no stranger to social media, as he contributes his massive success to being able to leverage social media platforms in a way that very few have been able to within the faith-based market. Spotting trends before they have become mainstream is one of the many secrets that Radikal contributes to his success. Where most people work harder trying to grow their influence on larger saturated social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, Hughes has worked smarter by incorporating more obscure apps into his social media strategy that have helped to widen his organic reach, thus further growing his influence faster with apps such as TikTok.
Hughes strongly encourages other musicians to “think outside the box” and to explore social media platforms that may not be as “mainstream” , but have a greater opportunity to have more organic reach such as TikTok. “The biggest problem I feel that artists don’t fully grasp is that it’s not even about their music. The quality and creativity of their music isn’t their issue. Their problem is obscurity and that nobody knows who they are, and apps like TikTok change that virtually overnight,” said Hughes.
Radikal Hughes stated that he found his rapid growth happen, the moment that he started utilizing live streaming and when he started utilizing “new features” that platforms were incentivising creators to utilize. Hughes believes that other musicians can also use TikTok as another option for connecting with their listeners and getting to know them on a deeper level. Due to Radikals impactful and transformative live streams, the artist and influencer was able to generate phenomenal engagement that blossomed into a life of its own forming a global online community of believers that is known today as “Radikal Nation.”
Hughes commented on his rapid growth on TikTok by saying, “TikTok, in my opinion, is the wild west of all social media platforms. This platform as of right now is wide open to gain a massive following, in such a short amount of time, by taking a little bit of time to capitalizing on growth hacks and strategies and utilizing that with the message of your personal brand. I’ve seen countless of some of my peers within the industry that had no following gain half a million followers within 6 months. The reality is, one can instantly go viral overnight with TikTok.”
Musicians and influencers alike should both take a lesson out of the Radikal Hughes playbook and should study what Radikal Hughes did to create his Radikal Nation Movement. To many music industry insiders, Radikal Hughes has become the perfect blueprint for what independent artists should be doing to build an online community of fans and supporters. Radikal’s authenticity and consistent engagement with his fans and followers are some of the best practices that musicians should be observing and implementing into their own careers.
Radikal Hughes agrees with Gary Vaynerchuk and believes that TikTok can indeed serve as an amazing launching pad for new musicians who are trying to build a following and a fanbase. He also subscribes to the belief that TikTok is currently the best platform where songs, videos, and personalities can collide in extraordinary, unusual ways, creating instant virality. While the popularity of TikTok is rapidly increasing every day, one has to wonder when this platform will also become saturated and harder to grow organically like the more well-known platforms of Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Learn more about Radikal Hughes on his website. Also, be sure to connect with Radikal Hughes on social media, follow him on Instagram, and subscribe to his YouTube channel. Also, stream his music on Spotify.
