So, you wanna be the next viral drum god, huh? Post a clip, wake up famous, sign some sticks, maybe snag a free snare or two? Cool.
But here’s the truth: there’s no magic filter, no secret hashtag, and no one’s handing out deals to drummers who post once a month and hope for the best.
This guide cuts the fluff and breaks down exactly how to build a real audience on social media.
My YouTube channel just crossed the 8K subscribers mark, but I’m doing a public case study on my TikTok account, so follow me if you want to see how the following strategies I’m implementing work out.
From a high-level, here’s what I’m doing:
- Creating very similar content
- All my videos are shot from a POV perspective
- Covering popular rock and pop songs with a few second text overlay at the start that is intriguing or controversial
- Posting daily at 11AM on TikTok
- Responding to comments when appropriate
That’s it. I’m not using any follower growth tools or paying some shady site to viewbot my content.
Case Study Start 4/16/2025: My TikTok account was mostly inactive. I would post here and there, but I started posting drum POV videos daily on April 16, 2025. We are currently at 88 followers.
Update 4/29/2025: As of April 29 2025, I am now at 340 followers. Solid growth so far!
Update 5/9/2025: One of my last videos I posted has more than 50K views and we are over 700 followers now. Not bad for under one month of posting on TikTok.
Update 5/19/2025: We are well over 2,000 followers now and are averaging between 100 and 200 followers per day. The main issue I see moving forward with this account is going to be diversifying my videos. I’m noticing that RUSH covers in particular seem to do well, but I am going to attempt pivoting to talking content, while leaning into Neil Peart/RUSH videos.
Update 5/23/2025: I bought a metal trash can at my local hardware store and made a meme video of Lars Ulrich playing St. Anger which went massively viral, over 1 million plays. We’re up over 3,000 followers now.
Update 7/21/2025: Been a while now. I took a slight break from posting on TikTok, but I am back at it. We are sitting at almost 6,000 followers on TikTok. YouTube has grown to over 8,000.
When I look back at the videos that did well, they had a few things in common:
- Something interesting in the shot
- My video playing St. Anger, I replaced my snare drum with a large metal trash can
- The video of me playing BYOB by System of a Down, I do stick twirls and tosses, along with a text overlay asking the viewer if the song still hits in 2025
The videos you post need to have something interesting happening to keep the viewer on the video. One drummer I saw uses a calculator as a snare drum mute. People comment the same question over and over on all of their videos, why there is a calculator on the drum, leading to more push in the algorithm.
So, with my results out of the way, there’s a question you need to consider…
Why Do You Want to Grow a Following?
Before jumping into tactics, ask yourself what your goal is. Here are the most common motivations for drummers building a social media audience:
- For the dopamine – Seeing likes, comments, and shares feels good. That’s normal.
- For constructive feedback – Posting regularly can track your progress and help you improve.
- To land brand deals – Free sticks, drumheads, gear reviews, or even paid sponsorships.
- To get gigs – Whether you’re looking to join a band, become a hired gun, or tour, social media gets you seen.
- To make money — YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram allow you to monetize your videos. YouTube even has revenue splits when using copyrighted music, so you can make money off of posting covers with the drum parts removed (not sure about the other two), so this could be bonus reason to grow a social media following.
Whichever your reason, all are valid. Just be prepared for critics. The internet can be brutal. Grow a thick skin, ignore trolls, and keep going.
In my short time since starting this case study, I’ve had 3.5k comments left on my TikTok videos—99% of them are overwhelmingly positive, with a small minority of them being mean or insensitive. Don’t worry too much about comments. Just ignore the negative ones.
Understand the Algorithm (and What It Wants)
Every platform—Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Facebook—rewards one thing: attention.
Here’s what matters most:
- Hook the viewer instantly – Skip intros and get right to the action.
- Retention is everything – Keep people watching to the end.
- Skip CTAs (like “follow me!”) at the beginning and end—they interrupt the flow and cause viewers to swipe away from your content.
- Post consistently – Daily uploads perform best.
You don’t need expensive cameras or perfect sound. Most viral drumming clips are made with basic gear. Just show up and post.
So many new creators add things like “thanks for watching, subscribe for more!” These types of calls-to-action are completely unnecessary.
If someone wants to know more about you, they’ll click over to your page. CTAs in short form content cause the user to swipe away from your video (not good).
Define Your Audience
Most drummers skip this step—and it’s the most important one.
Are You Posting For Drummers or For Music Fans?
This changes everything:
- For drummers – Tutorials, groove breakdowns, notation videos, tips.
- For music lovers – Entertaining, punchy, shareable drum clips. POV-style is gold here.
Think of someone like El Estepario Siberiano. His videos are so gripping that even non-drummers are fans. That’s the power of targeting the general music audience.
Ask yourself: Who do I want to reach? Define that before filming anything.
Content Types That Work
Following Drumeo’s framework for growing a following, there are four core content categories you should use:
- Hub Content: Easy-to-make, regular content like solo jams, short fills, or collabs. This is your foundation.
- Help Content: Lessons, gear reviews, how-tos. Provide value and education.
- Hero Content: High-production videos made for maximum impact, posted occasionally.
- Native Content: Content optimized for each platform’s format and behavior (e.g., short, snappy videos on Instagram Reels).
By mixing these formats, your feed stays dynamic and valuable across a wide audience.
Top-tier “hero content” rarely breaks through alone. It’s your hub content—the bite-sized, everyday jams and clips—that grow your presence.
You don’t need the perfect lighting, the best take, or the most cinematic angle. What matters most is that you press record and post the video. Consistency will always beat perfection when it comes to building your presence online.
What I’m seeing working currently in 2025 is creators sticking to one content type per social media platform. Long-form content can go on your YouTube channel and short performance clips can go on your TikTok.
I am seeing less and less of creators using multiple content types, at least on TikTok. It seems that creators doing the best currently are sticking to ONE content type per platform.
At least according to my algorithm:
- Instagram seems to be perfect for educational drum content or meme content (Lars Ulrich plays Taylor Swift would be a good example)
- TikTok seems to be incredible for performance-based content
- YouTube shorts seem to be good for cut down talking videos
- YouTube longform is great for video essays or more in-depth drumming tutorials, educational lessons, and reviews
The worst performing short content type at the moment is hero content. Ultra highly produced content just isn’t as engaging to users anymore. They want authenticity rather than over-processed videos. Hero content works amazingly still for longform.
Plan Out Your First 30 Videos Before Posting
Before you post anything, do this:
1. Create a Google Sheet
Lay out your ideas in a spreadsheet with the video overlay text (if needed) and the post caption, along with a progress checklist to keep yourself organized. Feel free to make a copy of my drum cover spreadsheet that you can fill out yourself.
If you don’t know what to put for the post caption or video overlay text, feed ChatGPT screenshots of similar videos and have it generate similar captions based on your input. Don’t use them word-for-word, but this tool is helpful for brainstorming ideas.
2. Set up your recording rig
Pick a visually appealing angle. POV down shot is great for action-style. Another popular shot is setup to the side of the kit, so the viewer can easily see what you’re playing along with the entire kit in the shot.
3. Batch film 20–30 clips
Stick to short, simple formats with a text overlay for the first 3-4 seconds:
- POV: You’re in [Band Name]
- Drum Fill of the Day
- Groove Breakdowns
4. Edit your clips
Use DaVinci Resolve (free) or your favorite editing software. Add attention-grabbing text overlays to the start of the video. Trim out any dead space—get right to the meat of the video.
Save the project as a template and work out of this project for ALL your short form content. This way you can reuse your titles and keep the look of your videos consistent.
Now you’ve got 30 videos ready—enough to post daily for a month.
It can be tempting to now go and blast out a bunch of videos all at once, but we need to be strategic about it. The best way I’ve found is to schedule content.
I’m publishing every day at 11AM, my time. I don’t have to go manually into each app to post them, either (I don’t have time for that—working on a phone is too frustrating for me). Let me walk you through it.
Schedule Like a Pro (Use Post Planner)
Posting manually is a time-killer. Use Post Planner to automate your uploads.
I first started using PostPlanner with my band Vinyl Theatre and also a drumming meme page I created on Facebook. Since starting that page, it has grown to more than 45k followers and gets great engagement on most posts.
PostPlanner supports all major platforms including the ones drummers typically use: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube Shorts. The platform lets you categorize content into buckets (e.g., POV Covers, Groove Breakdowns).
Posts can be shuffled per platform, so each feels unique to followers. You can also recycle your top-performing content automatically (I recommend 3-6 months of content before recycling).
Once set up, all you do is upload new content to your buckets and let it run.
Smart Scheduling Strategy
Here’s a basic setup for your first month:
- Frequency: 1 post per day on each platform
- Content buckets:
- Monday: POV drum covers
- Tuesday: POV drum covers
- Wednesday: Groove or fill breakdown
- Thursday: Gear review
- Friday: Drum Fill Friday
- Saturday: POV drum covers
- Sunday: POV drum covers
- Shuffle order per platform so they look fresh
Batching and using a scheduler allows you to grow while freeing up creative energy for your next ideas.
If you discover that one platform is doing far better than the others, take note of it. You may want to adjust your strategy.
For example, if POV videos do well on TikTok, but not on Instagram, it might be a good idea to stop posting those to Instagram and create a new content bucket solely for Instagram.
Should You Reuse Content? Yes.
Recycling content isn’t lazy—it’s smart.
Most followers won’t remember or even see the original version. In fact, recycled content often performs better the second time.
Just make sure:
- You have at least 100 videos before recycling
- You set rules in Post Planner to space them out
Top creators do this all the time.
Engagement: Do It Naturally
Forget spammy engagement “hacks.” You don’t need to comment “fire!” on 200 posts a day.
Respond to real comments on your videos, answer questions when asked, and just overall, be a human.
Automation tools for engagement? Skip them. Focus on automating publishing, not interactions.
Starter Gear for Drum Content Creators
You don’t need a massive budget to start creating solid drum content. Here’s a simple starter kit that can get you off the ground quickly:
- iPhone – The camera is more than good enough.
- iPhone Tripod – Keeps your shot steady and consistent.
- Yamaha EAD10 – Acts as both a mic and audio interface. Pair it with the Rec’n’Share app to record audio and sync video.
- DaVinci Resolve – A professional-level video editor that’s totally free.
If you can’t afford the EAD10, you can use your iPhone’s microphone. It still sounds quite good. If you’re going to do cover videos, it will be a little trickier, since you can’t listen to music while recording video on the iPhone.
To spice up your content, consider experimenting with different camera angles. One option is a neck-mounted iPhone holder for point-of-view (POV) shots. That said, in my experience, they can be a bit awkward and wobbly.
Instead, I ended up using a military-style NVG helmet that has a front GoPro mount. It’s a bit overkill, but surprisingly affordable. The helmet (not including the GoPro) cost about $100 and provides rock-solid footage.
Admittedly, it looks goofy. But here’s the type of shots you can expect with this setup. If you get this helmet, be sure to grab the set of counterweights and the extension pole.
I still use the EAD10 and DaVinci Resolve with this setup. However, if I don’t use my iPhone for the main shot, I do have to sync the audio footage from the iPhone with the GoPro footage from the helmet cam.
I’m still working on getting the angle right, and learning how best to position my head while filming, but the result is awesome for a POV top-down shot that makes the viewer feel like they are you.
Professionalism on a Budget
Viewers don’t really care that much about watching videos of fancy gear. They just need to see and hear you clearly. That means keeping your background clean and free of clutter.
If you’re filming in a basement or cluttered room, consider using some cheap black curtains to hide distractions and clean up the shot.
You should also frame your shot so your hands and kit are clearly visible. Use wide shots when you’re playing full solos or moving around the kit.
If you’re focusing on rudiments or specific patterns, a tighter shot of the snare or a single part of the kit will do the trick.
Think like your audience. What angle would you want to see?
Rinse and Repeat
When you find a post format that’s working, repeat it.
For example, if you post a drum cover video of a Tool song, double down. Post more clips of you playing Danny Carey parts.
The audience that found your content clearly likes the content. It wouldn’t make sense for you to then post clips of you playing Taylor Swift songs.
While your content is rolling out automatically, you’ll have time to batch up more content and upload it to your scheduling tool.
What About AI Video Clipping Tools Like Opus?
If you run a drumming YouTube channel with lots of longform content and you’re considering a shortform strategy—like we’ve discussed—it might be tempting to use an AI clipping tool like Opus to speed things up.
But here’s the problem: the intent behind longform and shortform content is completely different.
When I feed a longform gear review into Opus, it spits out a 30-second vertical clip. The hook usually falls flat, and the clip tends to focus on a narrow detail—something that doesn’t stand on its own or capture attention on social media.
These tools can occasionally produce decent captions and okay edits for talking head videos, but in most cases, they struggle to turn longform content into effective shorts.
Instead, I recommend creating dedicated shortform content. It not only performs better, but it also feels more intentional and authentic to your audience.
Final Thoughts
That’s my current strategy and am hopeful we’ll see some big TikTok numbers in the coming months.
In my view, the combo of batch filming, daily posting, and smart scheduling (especially with a tool like Post Planner) is the real “secret” to growth.
Every drummer has a voice. Don’t be intimidated by the pros. Be true to yourself, stay consistent, and your audience will grow.