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!
experiences from listening to a great piece of music, listening to dubplates, listening for the meaning behind the music – the list goes on.
From the marketing side, I hear about listening to the marketplace, listening to your consumers, or listening for your brand across the web.
Listening is great, and it’s absolutely necessary. The challenge though, is to separate listening from merely hearing.
Listening is hearing with purpose.
In the examples above, “hearing” can be substituted for every instance of “listening”. The challenge, is to not get stuck in that comfort zone of “yeah, I’m listening”.
The trick is, to never be able to say “Yeah, I hear you” as a throwaway.
Do you?
Are you listening to that dubplate, or merely hearing what you think should be there?
Are you listening to the new album at that listening party, or just waiting for the tracks to finish so you can weigh in with your support and comments?
Are you really listening to what the marketplace is saying, or are you sorting out the comments by “stuff we want to hear” and “stuff we know comes through, but we’ll qualify as unimportant and ignore”?
When you hear a piece of music, are you listening to it, or letting it pass you by?
Listening is a great skill, and a skill that takes a lot of work and patience. Just like learning to pay an instrument, listening takes practice. Listening is not passive.
For you musicians wondering how to listen as marketers, here are a few ideas to get you started:
Subscribe to blogs of bands/artists similar to you via Google Reader
Set up Google Alerts for your name and the name of your band
Set up Google Alerts for acts similar to you
Search on Twitter (search.twitter.com) for your name, as well as the names of your songs or albums
Subscribe to the RSS feed of that Twitter search, and pull it into Google Reader
Search for your name, the names of acts similar to you, or other terms on socialmention.com
Subscribe to that RSS feed and pull it into Google Reader
What you end up with is a Google Reader (or any RSS reader of your choice) full of information about what’s being said. That’s step 1.
The value comes from going back through that information and absorbing it. Read the blog posts. Comment if appropriate. Go see who’s talking about you on Twitter, reply or send them a Direct Message (DM) if it makes sense.
Look for feedback, look for trends, look for opportunities to connect.
Turn the data that gets fed to you into information by listening.
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!
There’s a lot of talk these days about MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. What isn’t often discussed (or to be honest, thought about, if you’re an artist) is the data ownership aspect of each of these networks. A lot of artists have moved away from email marketing and towards social marketing – and as a result, not as much focus is placed on building and maintaining a healthy email list.
Preferences Change Over Time
As an artist, your music will evolve over time. Your fan base will hopefully grow with you, but in order to help that growth, you need a consistent way to connect with your fans. Five years ago, they were on MySpace. Today, they’re most likely on Facebook, and some are on Twitter.
What hasn’t changed is their love of your music. What has changed is the tools they use to communicate with each other online.
You’re probably on all of the networks they participate in already. You have a MySpace Music page, a Facebook Fan page, and a Twitter handle.
Great and fabulous.
What happens if MySpace, Facebook and Twitter all shut down – tomorrow?
Do you have any way to reach out to your fans left, or did your options just disappear?
For most of you out there, your options just went out the window.
It’s great to connect with your fans where they already exist online, but this shouldn’t be your only way of connecting with them. As an artist, you need to own your audience, or at least, know their email address!
Here are some easy ways to start your email list:
Put a “sign up for our email” prompt on every page you have – Many tools are free (like MailChimp, for example) and provide the ability to create a form. Look, ma, it’s automated and organized!
Have an email sign-up sheet at the door of every gig – Go old school and collect email/mailing addresses and other information by hand. They’re coming to your show, obviously they’re interested!
Create a website and (you guessed it), put a “Sign up for our email” prompt on every page – Web hosting services can be fairly cheap, and there are many free systems out there (like WordPress, which I use), to help you create and maintain a site, even if you don’t know anything about designing a website.
If you get into a conversation with someone and take it private (DM’s, Facebook Messages, etc), send them your email and invite them to continue the conversation via email.
Include your email/website address on everything – videos, flyers, your website, business cards, etc.
Most importantly – make it WORTH your fans time to sign up for your emails. I’ll cover how to effectively email them in a further post, but start thinking about the emails you like reading, keeping in mind the marketing emails you always look out for.
Do you have any more ideas about how to build your email list? Any success stories to share? The comments are yours – so leave ‘em!
I know I seem like a bit of a Twitter junkie am a huge Twitter junkie, but at the risk of repeating myself, this post started with a tweet:
True to my “What the hell, why not?” personality, I sent an email with a few quick questions. They’re included below.
I see you’re still using MySpace as a homepage, or as an “online hub”. Why? Is MySpace your “now and forever” home?
WHAT’S UP WITH ALL THE CAPS ON TWITTER? Really, I’m wondering.
If we want to find you online, where should we go? We know you’re on Twitter, MySpace and YouTube, but where else do you exist?
Out of those places, why are you there? Which one do you enjoy using most?
How has social media marketing impacted your business? Have you gotten shows out of connections made online? Find that fans that follow you on Twitter buy more stuff? What is the impact of it all?
They sent me a video response, as promised, just a few short hours later (!!). It’s pretty short at 2:05, so take a look. If you don’t have 2:05 to spare, you can cheat and look at their answers and my commentary below. Also, if you don’t have 2:05 to spare, bookmark this and revisit it when you do (or just lighten up and take a break).
Q: I see you’re still using MySpace as a homepage, or as an “online hub”. Why? Is MySpace your “now and forever” home?
A: We use MySpace becuase it’s the place where we first came up, but we are working on launching our own site and we’re active in other places. MySpace is nice for putting our pictures and videos up, as well as saying “what up” to our fans. It’s not the end all, be all for us.
Q: WHAT’S UP WITH ALL THE CAPS ON TWITTER? Really, I’m wondering.
A: We’re a loud group of individuals and we rock really hard (interrupting “blap!” and “blow!”). They’re also colorful personalities and “like to tell people what we think – loudly”.
Commentary from the blog peanut gallery (aka: me): I will say that you guys are loud on the video as well as on Twitter, so while it’s a pet peeve of mine TO BE SCREAMED AT, it’s genuine to their brand. I support being genuine.
Q: If we want to find you online, where should we go? We know you’re on Twitter, MySpace and YouTube, but where else do you exist?
Q: Out of those places, why are you there? Which one do you enjoy using most?
A: We enjoy using all of our social networking. We always have tabs up and are always takling to a lot of people. No one helps us more than the other.
Commentary from video-based peanut gallery: Johnny likes hi5.
Follow-up from the blog peanut gallery: Wiseass.
Q: How has social media marketing impacted your business? Have you gotten shows out of connections made online? Find that fans that follow you on Twitter buy more stuff? What is the impact of it all?
A: Social networking helps us get gigs sometimes, and it’s nice to talk to people off all over the US, especially in our hometown, without having to meet them. We can help make our shows better by connecting with more people.
Summary
The question most businesspeople people as is “does it all work?” This is second to the “Why would anyone care what I’m having for lunch?” Twitter question.
I don’t remember how I started following @SHINOBININJA on Twitter, but I’ve now checked out their Tumblr, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube pages, emailed them with a few questions and have written a blog post about them.
Is social media working to get more eyeballs (and potential fans) for them? I’d say so.
Has social media caused me to pay more attention to them? Absolutely.
Would I now go see one of their shows? You betcha.
Would I have found out about them if it wasn’t for Twitter? Perhaps.
Thanks to SHINOBININJA for the offer, the quick response (within a few HOURS people!) and your time. Not to mention the laughs. I’ll be seeing you soon…
@db I know I'm bias, but #CLT is still my favorite airpot. Bojangles + rocking chairs + bean bags = airport WIN (cc: @jakrose @93octane) in reply to db4 mins ago
