A lot of work may have gone in to your last music project. You may have taken time to come up with concepts and constructed a well put-together song. It may have taken numerous hours in the studio to get the right sound on the track. Now when everything is done, it’s time to promote. So you take some pictures with your phone or get a friend to design you a concept for a cover. Just think how many other rappers just did the same thing.
The question is, what distinguishes your thumbnail from the next?
Maybe it all comes down to the song title at this point, because what would make you click on either of these artists besides boredom? Some artists can post a pic of themselves because of their high profile and generate clicks.
But even they use props sometimes…
You must remember the pic is usually small, like a thumbnail, so the image has to be staged correctly to attract attention. It’s best to use a close-up for the thumbnail. A lot of times people use females to illicit a response, but some sites prevent artists from using images that aren’t in the actual video. There are easy ways around that. If you want to use a certain image as a thumbnail simply insert that image into your video at the halfway mark or at the beginning or end.Then you should be able to select it. You can also upload custom thumbnails on services like YouTube.
Another trick might be to add generic thumbnail images that attract attention but don’t reveal the content of the video. This seems counter-intuitive but sometimes curiosity about your video is all you want to encourage. These photos are known as ‘click-bait’. It could be an interesting title or picture that draws the viewer in to make them click on a thumbnail. For instance which image below seems more interesting?
(A) 
(B)
(A) 
(B)
(A) 
(B)
(A) 
(B)
The point is be creative. Don’t let your thumbnails hold you back.
Kurt Nice
Kurt Nice aka Kurtiss Jackson is a behind the scenes pioneer in the Hip Hop Kulture, creating the first nationally distributed video mix tape series, Shades of Hip Hop, in the late 1990s. Since touring the country with the Stop the Violence Movement and the Temple of Hip Hop as KRS-ONE’s National Marketing Director, Kurt Nice has been a constant commentator on conscious Hip Hop and its relevance to the new rap music of today, through radio and cable appearances. contact Kurt at info@hiphoplives.net
Follow Me:
Kurt Nice aka Kurtiss Jackson is a behind the scenes pioneer in the Hip Hop Kulture, creating the first nationally distributed video mix tape series, Shades of Hip Hop, in the late 1990s. Since touring the country with the Stop the Violence Movement and the Temple of Hip Hop as KRS-ONE's National Marketing Director, Kurt Nice has been a constant commentator on conscious Hip Hop and its relevance to the new rap music of today, through radio and cable appearances. contact Kurt at info@hiphoplives.net
