The KCON LA 2017 event teemed with 85,000 attendees at the L A Convention Center on August 18 – 20 and for these three days it was all things Hallyu.
This year’s KCON LA had several panels about maintaining social networking platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, and how to manage a professional presence on your social networking sites.
The panels featured social networking luminaries such as Edward Avila, Edward Zo, Hey It’s Feiii, Ivan Lamb and Yuki Bomb. The most important piece of advice offered up is to be consistent. This is a common thread throughout K-POP fandom and making it a profession…consistency. Post at least once a week in order to keep up your rating and to grow your fan base. They all advised their audience to not go into it expecting to make it big, go into it because of your passion for K-POP. An important piece of knowledge imparted was to make sure to place your work on Pinterest as this will be sure to show up on Google searches where Twitter and Instagram might not. I did check this out and they were right. Pinterest did place while Twitter and Instagram did not. YouTube will also come up on a Google search. The panel also imparted the knowledge that your brand needs to be consistent throughout your social network.
It was interesting to see how a vast majority of these successful social networking stars began as beauty bloggers/vloggers.
A few also vlogged/ blogged about Korean food and traveling to South Korea. They then expanded their base into the music of K-POP. The panelists also stressed that you need to be proud of what you’ve done so don’t post things that do not reflect your brand in its best light.
A lot of social media consumers have blog sites, vlogging sites which use photos and videos of themselves. These visuals are important to a person’s presence on social media and they cautioned that if you shoot a bunch of professional photos and videos be sure to make wardrobe changes for each segment and don’t post them all at once. Space the posts of the photos and videos out as this will make it easier to maintain a consistent presence. Be sure to curate your photos carefully such as creating a black and white theme and use quality shots. Be mindful of what you post.
The panels also advised to have a book of ideas to draw from and to formulate a schedule/agenda to aid one in their putting together quality product for their sites. These social media vets stated that an important ingredient in posting photos and videos is to be your authentic and genuine self because it will make it easier to decide what goes up and what doesn’t make the cut. Don’t compare yourself and don’t allow numbers define who you are.
Another important tip that I was not fully aware of its value are hashtags. Use lots of hashtags so that your product will pop up more frequently during searches.
According to the panelists everyone has experienced “haters” and that one should ignore them and just let them go. One panelist laughed about it and said that she must be doing something right for them to come to her site and troll.
“Whatever you are doing there is a market for it…find it!” chimed Edward Zo.
This writer has Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, Youtube accounts, two blogging sites and found the majority of the info offered up very useful.
One of the most technical and interesting panels that I attended was presented by LDN Noise/London Noise which are a platinum selling songwriting and music production pair that have worked with such notable K-POP acts as EXO, SHINee. F(x), Taeyeon, Sistar and American artists Nick Jonas and Chris Brown.The pair work for S.M. Entertainment out of London, England and have won many K-POP music awards. For this panel the pair dissected the song “Forever” by EXO by breaking down the digital components that make up the layered track platforms of music. This whole presentation was encapsulated on their laptop and demonstrates just how digitally savvy this pair is.
Upon hearing the breakdown, it was interesting to hear a layer that gave this listener a strong sense of Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” from a few years ago. The instrument used to create the unusual sound on “Get Ur Freak On” is called a Tumbi and is a Punjabi traditional instrument. My guess is that EXO used this instrument on their cut “Forever.”
Given the fact that K-POP music is gaining fan momentum in the over age 30 demographic it was gratifying to see that “The Secret Life of K-POP Fans Over Thirty” panel was being offered again by a panel of experts in this field who turned their passion into a profession that has gained them notoriety. Among the seasoned fans turned experts are Young Ajummah, Zombie Mama, Lisa Espinosa, Mama B-K-POP Mamas and Stephanie Kurze.
The panel addressed the audience with their journey into K-POP and what was their “gateway” into it such as anime or K-Dramas. Their stories made the audience laugh and become sad when the more negative side of K-POP fandom rose such as family and friends criticizing their choice of K-POP music over the more mainstream American rock choices. This panel garnered a sense of “we are not alone” among the audience.
This panel addressed the negativity that they have found themselves in deftly and with a mature attitude. These panelists also use social media to enhance their range and exposure to their brands.
Sadly, there was no presence from the Korean Indie faction and little was offered up in the way of panels featuring directors and producers of K-Dramas on panels.
Among the K-POP acts to maintain a presence at KCON were Vixx, Seventeen, Astro, Girl’s Day, Got 7. There were new acts introduced such as Cherry Bomb and I Am Not. According to the host on the Expo Hall’s Convention Stage I Am Not are the latest thing to come out of South Korea. Time will tell.