Music. Marketing. Social Media.

I was invited by Mack Collier to co-host #blogchat (on Twitter) last Monday night (the 8th) and was blown away by the quality of participants and discussions taking place during the chat.

Before I get into my thoughts, let’s take a step back. For those that don’t know what #blogchat is, it’s a weekly chat happening on Twitter (check out tweetchat.com for more information on how).  Essentially, you pull up a Twitter search for #blogchat at the appropriate time, and start Tweeting with the people already participating. The key is to use the hashtag (#blogchat) in every tweet so that the conversations can be seen by all. If you’re wondering how to find the “appropriate time” a simple Twitter search will tell you if you search for the hashtag.

The topic of the week was how musicians could use blogging and social media to help them achieve their goals – whether they be ticket sales, music sales, or just connecting with their fans.

The full chat transcript can be found here, and Mack’s review post can be found here. Happy clicking!

About an hour and a half into the chat, Curt Smith (co-founder of Tears for Fears) jumped into the fray and spent the next 30ish minutes answering questions.  Part of the value (as a fan) of following artists on Twitter is the perception of personal connection you feel with the artist, their work, and their lives. Take the following exchange as an example:

Some of the other valuable music-related nuggets Tweeted during the chat:

• Blogging and using other SM tools is a great way to build a passionate community
• Communications should be authentic – no PR/marketing people tweeting “as” the artist
• Don’t be afraid to have a personality
• Many artists don’t see themselves as brands – that mind shift is necessary
• Twitter can be a great “first step” tool to drive fans to other places (like a Facebook Fan Page or a website)
• Offering up special incentives/announcements via SM is a great way to make your community in SM feel special (Ed note: as well as start to get an idea of the effectiveness of these tools!)
• Artists and companies need to start viewing fans as long-term assets, not just short-term pockets stuffed with cash. The key? Building a relationship with them.
• If you’re going to use SM, always consider what the fans want to read/might find interesting. The focus isn’t you as a person, per se – it’s about your brand and your work. Don’t be afraid to let personality shine through, but avoid excessive inane chatter.
• Location-based software could be a no-no if you get big enough to worry about “crazy people”. Safety first!
• Most agree a blog should be the “home base” in your digital efforts
• Don’t forget the fan to fan connections – they’re key!
• Before you can ever start to think about selling anything – you need to build a community who wants to buy.

What advice would you add? Leave it in the comments!

That’s right, someone (Jason Keath, to be exact) has invited me to participate in a panel on Social Media in the Music Industry as part of the Social Fresh Nashville conference.

I’m really excited to be participating, and even more excited to see what my fellow panelists have to say about their perspectives of how social media has impacted the music industry.

Panelists

Tessa Horehled, Senior Strategist – Social Media at THINK Interactive

Ben Bennett, Online Promotions and Mobile Marketing Manager at the Country Music Association (CMA)

Justin McIntosh, Manager of Web Services and Marketing at Big Machine Records
In advance of flying to Nashville for the conference, I’ve been connecting with people on the Social Fresh Community and reviewing some of my favorite blogs and videos.

In case you’re curious, I’m a particular fan of (in no particular order):

• Hypebot – Ridiculously quality articles about anything and everything related to music. Sometimes it’s practical, sometimes it’s more theoretical. All of it is good.
• Bass Music – I like my beats extra crispy, and this blog has a great selection of new tracks and music on a regular (more than daily) basis.
• The Future Buzz – I’m a recent fan of Adam Singer and keep wondering why I didn’t find out about him earlier. He’s a smart cookie and his blog shows that.
• Bit Rebels – I like these guys for all the nerdy techy stuff they write about, and the fact that their blog is a great source of music-related information makes it even better.
• Artists House Music – These guys help teach me about the pure music business side of things, which I find refreshing since I (by situation) tend to be more tech-oriented.
• Buzzsonic – A great resource for music trend roundups, tech information and other such quality articles.

I’d love to hear what you want us to answer during the panel. Leave your questions in the comments, or join the Social Fresh Community and leave them for us directly there.

There’s a lot of talk about what social media is, especially lately.

“It’s a new way to communicate”

“It’s a new distribution platform for ideas and voices”

“It’s the hot new thing to do!”

“It’s the thing that is ruining everything else, including publishing!”

Some of the statements above may be true, but what isn’t ever covered is what social media is not.

Social media is not a new platform from which to shout your message to anyone listening.

Social media is not the new email.

Social media is not the be-all, end-all.

Social media is not the sole force behind the declining recording and publishing businesses.

Social media is not a tool you can pick up and discard at will.

Social media is not easy.

Social media is not free.

I’ve written before about how to not use social tools. Twitter, Facebook and the mentality behind MySpace, for example.

These posts revolve around a single principle – you can’t successfully use social media to market yourself if you think like an ad executive in the 70’s.

Social media requires a shift in thinking.  Stop thinking of your fans as big dollar signs, waiting to buy your concert tickets, latest schwag or newest CD. Start thinking of them as people, with preferences and lives – of which you are a part by their choice.

Spamming your “friends” or fans with glittery comments on the latest and greatest social networking site won’t work, just like sending them auto DM’s or spammy @ messages on Twitter won’t work.  You don’t like getting spam email, so why would you ever think of sending spam “conversation starters” across the social web?

Social media isn’t easy, and it’s certainly not free. It requires time, effort and a lot of thought. But first, it requires an understanding that your fans are your fans because they want to be, and not simply open wallets.

They want to be treated like a human being, and you must understand that before you can be successful.

Do you disagree? Perhaps you want to share an example of someone you like using social media well? Leave it in the comments!

Do you remember being a kid, and thinking about how cool it would be to carry your favorite music around with you and create the soundtrack to your life, just like a movie, while it was happening?

Congratulations, that became possible about five years ago.

Access is something that has fundamentally changed the music business as we know it, and the music business has spent the past decade or so dealing with this ever-increasing “problem.” Everyone involved is trying to make this shift work for them, and everyone still wants a piece of the pie.

Marketing has recently undergone the same shift, and the industry is starting to see the results.  This new “thing” called social media has finally reached a point where businesses have started to pay attention, and among the plethora of “social media experts” emerging, we’ve seen a lot of companies both large and small, start to use these tools and integrate them into how they do business.

I’m not saying anything new here, but it’s worth repeating.

What has changed is how businesspeople – marketers specifically – view the consumer.

Gone are the days of nameless and faceless consumers with voices even more limited than their buying power.  Now, everyone is an individual in a very public way.

We have more access to music – so we choose not to buy it and download instead.

We’ve started creating the soundtracks to our lives in real-time, and seek to fill the holes we see as we go through this process.

We have better access to discovering new bands, and through the magic of the Internet we can go from “wait, who?” to superfan in a short amount of time.

From a business standpoint, businesses can now see who buys their products better than ever before.  Am I a mom? If so, what’s my favorite food? Do I blog? How about Tweet? Do I have a MySpace profile or am I on Facebook? How public do I allow my Internet life to be, and how vocal am I about my preferences?

Consumers are no longer anonymous and faceless beings, and while the music industry always had a much closer tie to their consumers than some other industries, this change is still felt there.

The point a lot of people miss when talking about the increasing visibility and power of the consumer point is this: Consumers want to include you (sometimes) in the soundtrack of their life.  Your job as a band, as a label, as a manager, as an agent, or as a solo artist, is to make that choice easy for them.

They want to learn about your products if they’re so inclined, but they don’t want to be “sold”. They see through “selling”.

So be present. Be in multiple places. Be easily accessible, and give consumers the choice to include you in the soundtrack of their life if they want.

Photo credit: Alejandro Groenewold

You know that crazy guy on the street corner, shouting at you to buy his wares? They may be designer handbags (fake), pashminas, fruit, or biblical reckonings. Whatever he’s selling, he passionately wants you to buy. Obviously he conveys this by yelling at you. Obviously.

How often does that work?

… how about “It never works, unless I have a genuine need to buy his stuff – and then I buy despite the yelling.” That seems about right for me, and I know many others in this great city will also agree.

Marketing has gone from a “tell anyone who will listen our message, over and over again, and hope that they’ll eventually buy from us”, to a much more relationship-based approach.  Without being all buzzwordy – people want to talk to people and companies they’re interested in. They’re not as interested in listening to said people and companies shout in their general direction, and some are just plain turned off by the shouting.

The point is this: Social media tools aren’t just about taking the same practices from “old” marketing ways and adopting them to “new”. You can’t expect to shout at people on Twitter or Facebook like you used to do (even on MySpace, the horrors!) and have them pay attention to you. They just won’t.

If you don’t “get” it you’re probably wondering “Wait, why won’t they pay attention?”. If you do “get” it, you’re probably thinking “Yup, I agree!”.

For the ones that don’t “get” it – it boils down to the way you think about your fans/consumers. They’re not nameless and faceless people who happen to buy your stuff. They have personalities, they have passions, they have interests, they have likes and dislikes. You fit in there somewhere, which is why they buy your stuff. You have to quit thinking about your fans/consumers as anonymous pockets of money and start thinking about them for what they are – people. Fans. Consumers. Actual living breathing females and males with actual lives.

That’s where you start from!

Suddenly, shouting at people with lives and interests doesn’t make so much sense.  You wouldn’t do this in a normal social setting, so why would you online?

For years the recording industry, and even the music industry as a whole, viewed their customers as anonymous open wallets. Clearly this hasn’t worked for the recording industry in recent years, and the public is finally seeing a shift towards viewing people as actual people.

Consumers across all markets now have a true voice, and fans/consumers expect you to at the very least, listen to them.

So – on behalf of all fans and consumers out there, I beg you.  Bands? Solo artists? Please stop shouting at me. Please stop “connecting” with me on social sites and then turning the conversation around so it’s 100% about you.  I’ll stop listening, and I’ll show you that by unsubscribing, or unfollowing, or unfriending.

Chris Brogan touches on this in a recent post – check it out here (excerpt below).

The Mindset: Don’t Be That Guy

First, learn to promote, but don’t be that guy. It’s really important that you are participatory in the social space. If you’re here just to talk about you, your work just won’t get as much spread. People won’t take the actions that they might if they feel you’re “one of us.” By starting with this point, I’m saying this: your mileage WILL vary if you approach social media tools as just another channel exactly like what you were doing with marketing.

Have you had this happen to you before? Do you have more to add? Say so in the comments!