Otherwise known as HOLY STATISTICS!

These summary stats were pulled from the Socialnomics site, so go there for the full statistical breakdown in written form. These are just the highlights!

1. By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….96% of them have joined a social network
2. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
3. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
4. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
5. 80% of Twitter usage is outside of Twitter…people update anywhere, anytime…imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
6. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen
7. The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube
8. 54% = Number of bloggers who post content or tweet daily
9. 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
10. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
11. Only 14% trust advertisements
12. 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video…on their phone
13. 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
14. More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Picture this…

A guy takes a girl out on a first date.  She’s dressed up, and he’s aiming to impress. They make polite conversation over a glass of wine while waiting for their food to arrive, and each feels a spark of hope for what may come. He gets up, as if to go to the bathroom, but instead bends down on one knee, revealing a ring inside a box and asking her to marry him.

Romantic, right?

She says no. She says it’s too soon, that she barely knows him, and she runs off – scared at how quickly he moved from an innocent conversation about where he was from, to asking her to spend the rest of her days by his side.

What Happened?

He moved too fast.  Yes, it’s romantic, and yes, the thought of skipping the arduous dating process and getting straight to “the point” is tempting, but she wasn’t ready.  She wanted to discover his quirks, she wanted to discover the dynamics of their relationship without the pressure of a looming wedding, and she wanted to savor the moments they had to come.  She wanted to take her time to decide, and he rushed her.

Um, So, Music, Hello?

How does this relate to music marketing, you ask? Simple.

Musicians ask for the sale before their fans have a chance to make up their mind.

Musicians rush the relationship, doing the music marketing equivalent of proposing on the first date.

So someone follows you on Twitter, great. Reach out and say “hello” or ask them how they found out about you. Start developing your relationship with them from there. Get to know them a bit, and let them get to know you. Jumping in to ask them to buy your latest single/t-shirt/concert ticket before you’ve ever shown that you care about them just defeats the purpose. They end up feeling like just another wallet and you end up seeming like just another self-centered, out to make a quick buck, musician.

So you have a Fan Page on Facebook. Great. Use it to show your fans what you’ve been up to. Don’t just post things and walk away – participate in the conversations taking place on a regular basis.

There’s a time and a place to ask for the sale. That time and place is not every day, nor is it during your first conversation with someone who has been kind enough to show interest in your work.

Give your fans and followers time. Respect the fact that building a relationships with a fan is the same in many ways as starting to date someone new.  There are surprises, there are common interests, there are laughs, and there is a bond that grows over time.

Making money from music isn’t about getting a bunch of people to buy your first album, then finding an entirely different group of people to attend your shows, then seeking an entirely new audience to buy your swag. Relationships aren’t about a bunch of first dates!

So, musicians. Don’t treat your fans like wallets with mouths and faces. Don’t propose to them on the first date.

I’ve been a fan of Alicia Keys since “Songs in A Minor” was released in 2001, and have continued to follow her career as my life, and the world, has evolved.

9 years later a hit new song with Jay-Z playing on radio stations and iPod’s everywhere, I’m now even more in love with her music.

Personal tastes aside, I have a lot of respect for the marketing going on around Alicia Key’s new album – “The Element of Freedom”.

She first debuted the album on Facebook, that’s right – Facebook.  To my knowledge – she’s the first major artist to do so (smart move!).

To do so, her marketing team got a company called Involver on board, which I admit is new to me (hey Involver, if you’re listening I’d love to pick your brain for a future post!).

You can check out her fan page here.

In addition to the Facebook album debut, Alicia and her team have also put together a “I think it’s going to be slightly insane in a great way” event happening tonight at the legendary Apollo Theatre. Actually, it’s happening now, and I’m there, and you can watch here. Full review coming tomorrow, of course!

Back on track…

That’s right – the entire concert is being livestreamed (thanks Billboard!), and straight from their article on the event, here are some juicy details:

The chart-topping singer/songwriter’s new album, “The Element of Freedom,” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in December, but Keys has enjoyed a pair of long-running No. 1′s on the singles charts. Her New York centric duet with Jay-Z, “Empire State of Mind,” — which the duo performed to much acclaim at Yankee Stadium during the World Series in October — rode the top of the Hot 100 for five weeks in November and December. Meanwhile over on the Latin Pop Songs chart, Alejandro Sanz’s track featuring Keys, “Looking For Paradise,” has been No. 1 for the last nine consecutive weeks.

Click to watch the concert here.

If you’re more of the “I like to watch the interviews” type, I included Billboard’s interview below. It’s a good watch!

I’m looking forward to seeing more major labels jump on the “let’s innovate!” train.  If you’ve seen any examples then by all means, please share them 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.

Memories are powerful. Some songs play a leading role in certain memories, while others appear as a backup role.

I recently posted a question on my Twitter account (@misskatiemo) asking people what songs they associated with certain memories.  Their answers are below.

Carla Lynne Hall: “Crystal Blue Persuasion” by Tommy James and The Shondells because it reminds me of growing up in Miami, with its blue skies and sunny days. Whenever I hear it, I think of carefree days of being a kid, with all of the time in the world to just dream and play. Ahhh….

Prescott Perez-Fox:  When I hear “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles, I am wandering through a church yard in North London on my way to work.

Amy Garland:  Footloose – This was my favorite movie growing up (still is), and I always loved dancing to the end (prom scene). Whenever the song plays at a wedding, my sister and/or I try to get everyone to form two lines and take turns dancing down the middle (like the movie). This song always brings great memories from weddings, etc to mind!

Andrew Stugots:  New Years day 1999 my cousin and best friend in the world passed away after a life long battle with brain cancer. He was found laying in the parking lot of his job.  Phillip lived life as if it was his last day on earth and pushed others to do the same. A year later I met a seer, Jennifer. I never believed in this type of stuff but take it for what you will. Over dinner with others she leaned over to me and said “Phillip said to tell you “Don’t Dream It’s Over“. I sat there with my mouth agape, she continued “Yeah, he is just singing that song over and over again ‘Hey now, hey now, dont dream its over. There is freedom within, there is freedom without….” and then she said, he waved and walked away. The song still gives me goosebumps and will make me get teary eyed.

My own memory is along the line of Andrew’s.  Whenever I hear “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” or “Amazing Grace” I think of my Grandmother playing the piano as childhood versions of me and my younger sister bound up the stairs to her house.

Chris Brogan recently wrote about “Emotions At A Distance” – or, in other words, remembering that the people we connect and deal with from behind computer screens are just that – people.

It’s easy to get caught up in the nuances of your work from inside a practice room or behind a computer monitor. Not so easy when you’re performing your music in front of a crowd, or get recognized by a fan on the street.  Music connects people across age differences, language barriers, and continents.  Always remember that people have a choice to listen to your music, and that the music you create forms a very real part of the soundtrack of their lives.

What memories do you associated with music?

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.

aka: the conclusion.

To be honest, I’ve been thinking about this post for awhile.  If you haven’t read the series, you can find them linked below:

Part 1 – Introduction

Part 2 – Product

Interlude – Back to Reality

Part 3 -Price

Part 4 -Place

Part 5 – Promotion

We’ve arrived at Part 6 – The Conclusion.

Throughout the series, I posed a number of questions to (hopefully) start some thought around how you can, or want to, market yourself.

The best advice I can offer as a marketer is to actually go out there and execute – go and DO this stuff you want to do! BUT, and this is a huge but, do it with a purpose, and measure it.

The “hot topic” for most of 2009 at any social media conference was “How do I measure this?”. I can’t say that there is a “one size fits all” standard to measuring your success, but there are some things you can do to start to get a grasp on the effect “this stuff” has.

I’ve provided my own list below, and included a few more links of people far more knowledgeable than myself to give you a head start.

Basic Ways To Measure Social Media Impact for Musicians

• Website visits
• Number of Twitter followers
• Number of Facebook fans
• @ replies on Twitter
• DM’s on Twitter
• Downloads of music/CD’s
• Blog comments
• Tickets sold to a show
• Email newsletter sign-ups
• Email newsletter forwards
• YouTube views
• Asset trends (download trends, YouTube video trends, website trends)
• Likes
• Comments on Facebook Fan page
• ReTweets (RT’s)
• Blogger coverage
• Interviews
• Contest submissions/entries

This is is not exhaustive by any means, and David Berkowitz recently compiled a much lengthier list for MediaPost – you can find it here. Another list is here.

In addition, if you’re wondering what’s up with Social Media ROI, check out Olivier Blanchard’s stellar presentation below.

Did I miss anything off the list? Still have questions to ask? Bone to pick? Leave it in the comments!

Ian Rogers (CEO of Topspin Media, another company I have a crush on) posted a brilliant article yesterday about how a band he’s co-managing (Get Busy Committee) is marketing and releasing their newest album, Uzi Does It.

You should read the full article here.

If you’re slightly lazy, I’ve taken a few excerpts from the original post (emphasis mine).

At Topspin we generally talk about three stages of development:

1. Creating awareness
2. Making connections
3. Monetizing

We sometimes hear artists complain: “Dammit! I’m not selling anything!” Usually it’s a result of skipping straight to #3 above and not concentrating enough on #1 and #2. Consumers have an unlimited number of places to spend their time and money today. How are you getting in front of them? It is not a build-it-and-they-will-come world. How many you will sell is a small (and relatively consistent) percentage of how many people you have looking at a buy button. More impressions equals more sales, and most importantly none equals zero. If you have a very small number of fans (as we did, starting with zero emails, zero Facebook fans, zero Twitter followers, and just a handful of MySpace friends) IMHO you start by creating awareness and connecting with folks, not concentrating solely on selling.

The object was to make the site:

1. Home base. The top SEO result for “Get Busy Committee” and anything else related to the band.
2. Vibrant. It should update with the latest information about Get Busy Committee with very little effort, from a variety of sources. Furthermore, we weren’t going to spend time or money building any of these tools from scratch. We integrated WordPress and Twitter to make sure it was easy to update with long or short-form updates (respectively) easily.
3. A fan acquisition tool. The site should be sticky like fly-paper. If you visit the site you should have an incentive to leave behind your email address, follow GBC on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, a friend on MySpace, friend on Flickr, subscriber on YouTube, or subscribe via RSS. We may only get one chance to make a connection with you. We don’t want you to bounce in and bounce out without granting us permission to reach out to you later with an update.
4. A tool for fans to create other fans. Every page of the site is instrumented with simple ways to share on Facebook and Twitter, and feedback for having done so either in the form of a counter or free music for having done so. We want it to not only be easy to spread the word but for you to be recognized for having done so.
5. A place to convert at whatever level of fan you happen to be. Never heard of Get Busy Committee? No problem, you can stream the record or download a few songs for free. Super fan? How about the T-Shirt/USB Flash Drive combo for $55? Somewhere in between? No worries. We have something for you.
6. Useful. If you’re a college radio DJ who needs a clean version to play on your show or a beatmeister who wants an acapella to remix that should be easy to find. If you’re a blogger writing about the band there should be a special page for you, even if it’s not linked from the front page. Anything you email to people regularly should be on the site and easily linked to.

Once we had the site up and running, we needed to create some awareness. We did a few simple things to bootstrap those first few views:

1. Created a unique product. By creating the Uzi-shaped USB we had a hook, something people could talk about.
2. Leaked some music. We took two songs from the album and made them available for download in return for an email address from GetBusyCommittee.com, and available for streaming on MySpace, Facebook, iMeem, Last.fm, YouTube, and iLike.
3. Told the world. We worked every source we had to get the word out, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, email, blogs, friends, family, etc. We even bought a few Facebook and Google ads (more on that in a later post).

We started with a range of products, things we’d buy ourselves if we were fans:

1. A cheap digital download. $6 gets you the whole album in high-quality 320kbps MP3, CD-quality FLAC, or CD-quality Apple Lossless format.
2. An inexpensive CD with an immediate digital download. Buy the CD, download now. CDs printed on-demand by our friends at Kufala. Oh and the shrink-wrap is smokeable so every CD comes with free rolling papers.
3. An Uzi-shaped USB flash drive and an immediate digital download. This was the most difficult piece but also the linchpin. We had to get this sourced by a company that deals directly with manufacturers in China and had to spend money up-front to buy a few hundred. To be honest I was very reticent to spend the money. But since these have constituted about 40% of our sales at a good price point as well as garnered us the most attention it was certainly money well spent. We’re already about 50% sold through our order, which is completely unexpected for me.
4. High-quality t-shirts added to any of the above. We partnered with street wear company True Love & False Idols to do a high-quality shirt. They’re fashion-quality and fashion-priced and as a result we aren’t selling a ton of them on the site just yet (they’re also not merchandised particularly well at the moment, I plan to correct that later in the cycle). But also as a result we have interest with some great retail outlets such as Suru LA, who will be selling an exclusive version of the shirt along with a CD starting this week.

When people talk about what Trent Reznor did with Ghosts they always mention the 2500 $300 box sets he sold but rarely do they mention what is perhaps the most genius concept he introduced with that offer: the price point of FREE. What Trent really did was look his fans in the eye and ask them, “So, how big a fan are you?” But he also acknowledged that “not that big” or “I dunno yet” was a perfectly valid response by saying, “if you’d prefer to spend nothing, I have a package for you, it’s half the album.”

I really can’t say how much this post hits the proverbial nail on the head. Ian (and Topspin) GET IT. They GET that music isn’t just “put my shit out there for people to buy, flood the airwaves with my song over and over again, plaster banner ads and billboards anywhere my ad budget will allow and see the money roll in”.

They GET that it’s about connection with fans.

They GET that music is about that relationship.

They GET that it has to be sustainable – you have to end up selling shit (who knew!)!!

I also ran across a great interview with Ian, conducted by Wired. Check it out:

NARM 2009 Keynote Interview With Ian Rogers from NARM on Vimeo.

Photo provided under Creative Commons License by Anthony Mooney

PLUR – Peace Love Unity Respect

I started going out to parties at the tail end of the US “rave scene” in the late 1990′s. The parties were held in warehouses, in dive bars, in fields and in ritzy establishments with the snooty doormen and overpriced drinks to prove it. People from all walks of life came to enjoy the music and meet people. Bankers, artists, musicians, marketers, real estate agents – you name a profession and one of those ravers would raise their hand to claim it.

I was still a student at the time and remember feeling so welcomed and loved by the people I met off the local message boards and out at parties. I was never into the drugs – I always came to enjoy the music and hang out with people who eventually became my friends.  I can’t remember a time where someone was purposefully unfriendly, or hesitated to smile and welcome me into the fold.

As I was chatting with Jeremy Meyers a few nights ago, we started talking about how raves, and PLUR, were “the original social network”.  I take a slight spin on that and say that PLUR and social media principles are one in the same.  It may be a different decade, but things haven’t changed.

From Wikipedia:

PLUR or PLURR is an acronym that stands for “Peace Love Unity Respect”, a credo or mantra of the rave culture. Many in the rave scene have heard this term at some time or another, although its common usage is relatively recent. Early 1990s and mid-1980s ravers often followed similar principles, but did not use this coinage to describe their belief. It may be interpreted as the way that a raver believes he or she should live his or her life, and how people are expected to behave at a rave. This philosophy of the rave culture theoretically takes precedence over any chemical aspects of the rave scene.

Peace

To ravers, this means being respectful of others.  Keep the peace and respect people’s opinions, dancing space, clothing, and ideals.  We all may be different, but we have the music in common, and because of that, the rest deserves respect.

To social media marketers, this means respecting people’s opinions. You don’t have to agree with everything they say, but there’s a difference between disagreeing and being disrespectful.  Social media is gaining traction and the community has a responsibility to itself to keep the peace internally. Certain voices stand out, but we’re “all in this together” and everyone deserves respect… at least in the beginning.

Love

Again, from Wikipedia:

Acts and feelings of goodwill towards all others are a moral imperative with their own rewards. In the raving community, it is an encouragement to form bonds of friendship between dancers.

Replace “dancers” with “comrades”, “colleagues”, or “other social media people” and the same principle applies to social media. No editing needed.

Unity

I touched on this earlier, but in both social media and the rave scene there is a sense of “we’re all in this together”. Social media people view sharing knowledge as a best practice, and the people working in social media are constantly talking to others trying to improve upon the way things are done, come up with a solution for a problem, or answer that pesky question of “How do we measure social media”?

We’re all in this together, whether that means bonding over music from all walks of life, or bonding through communication and the sharing of knowledge about your chosen path in life.

Respect

For many ravers, this means not doing drugs, being safe at raves if you use glowsticks or other equipment to dance and making sure that everoyne is having a good time – not just you.

To people in social media, this means respecting the opinions and practices of others, even if you disagree. Disagreement is often an invitation for a dialogue about different methods or practices, but these dialogues are still respectful of both parties. It’s about connection, even despite (and sometimes because of) the differences.

Moving from “the rave scene” to “the social media scene” has been a natural progression. I was posting on message boards before they were part of social networking platform offerings. I was meeting people I met online out at parties and events long before they were called “tweetups” or “meetups”. I connected with people online, I shared what I knew, I shared my opinions, I shared my personality and I received far more than I ever could have expected in return.

When I made the move into social media professionally I was already there personally. I was active on social networks, I was a blogger (my personal blog, which I now keep private) for 8 years, and I was connecting with people in person that I met online.

The locations and situations may have changed, but the sentiment has stayed the same.  Respect others, acknowledge their opinions, share what you know, learn what you can do better, and have fun. Share, learn, respect, acknowledge and enjoy.

Respect, Enjoy, Acknowledge, Learn, Share – REALS.

Social Media – Keepin’ It REALS

It kind of has a ring to it…

Social media is a lot of work. Anyone in the industry will tell you the same thing, and there are a number of posts by people far more eloquent than I about this very subject. Check here, here and here for starters. Notice the constant mentions of “time”, “time consuming” and “measuring”.

For me, there is the full-time job, the 50ish blogs I subscribe to, Twitter, my personal blog, this blog and various new media and music events around the New York City area.

For being so “easy”, keeping up with social media is really hard work.

My Activity

I’m active on Twitter daily, and I set aside a few nights a week to read (and usually draft, though more on that later) blog posts as well as catch up on everything I’ve missed throughout the week.

I also end up checking Facebook/MySpace/LinkedIn more frequently than once a week; though it is a priority to check them all once a week at the same time to make sure I haven’t missed anything.

The one thing I haven’t mentioned is my blogging activities.  I’m the type to think on the go quite frequently, which is why I enjoy living in a city like New York so much.  It’s not uncommon for me to use the WordPress application on my iPhone to jot a few quick notes while on the go, saving these thoughts for later when I have more time to flesh them out into a full post.

I’ve found it important to map out which networks and social sites I want to maintain a presence on, as well as how I plan on being active on those networks.

The same questions can be used to plan your own activities in social media.

Planning My Activity

Here’s how I started:

Presence

• Where (what networks and sites) do I currently participate?
• Where do my contemporaries or audiences participate?
• Do these sites make sense for me?

Planning

• How active do I want to be in social media?
• What sites tie into my objectives (for me, this is personal, for you it’s probably business)?
• How can I manage this activity without losing my mind?

Many social media professionals have shared their own strategies and tips and a few are linked here for your enjoyment.

How do you handle your social media activity?

For those that don’t know, I’ve been a big fan of electronic music since my teenage years.  My tastes have evolved over the years, starting with trance but quickly migrating to the “darker” side of things including drum n bass and dubstep.

Through the years I’ve been fortunate to meet some amazing people involved in the music business.

A not-so-recent conversation with Headhunter, a dubstep producer and DJ visiting from the UK, has remained in my mind for over a year. The conversation happened in the parking garage of a Charlotte Uptown establishment, en route to a gig after leaving a social media meetup.

The group at the meetup had been talking about the usual suspects – Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, WordPress and how “MySpace is dying”.  Throughout the conversation, Headhunter remained fairly silent, seemingly content with watching the game on TV and chatting with those around him as most were doing.

When we left to go to the car, we got into a conversation about “What is social media?”.

BINGO. A lightbulb went off.

To many electronic artists, the things they do to market themselves are just that, “just what I do”. It’s not about a new hot term, or this new thing. It’s how things have been done for years – way before big business started getting the picture.

If you’re into electronic music, check out your favorite artist and see how active they are.

I’ll use Headhunter as my example, not only because I’ve already mentioned him, but also because he’s a very talented producer and DJ and I’m always happy to point people in the direction of his music. Really, I am.

He blogs

He has a page on MySpace

He’s on Facebook

He’s on YouTube

He shares his music

He posts on message boards

He gets social media. He knows the norms, he interacts with his fans, and he maintains his presence in the social web throughout his travels.

To people in the social media world, this is a case study. It’s something to be explored, dissected, and asked “So, what’s the ROI?”.

To DJ’s, producers, and others involved in the electronic music scene, it’s the way they market themselves. It’s how they get their gigs, and it’s how they make their living. What’s the ROI? Their life is the ROI.

“It’s just what I do.”

Earlier this summer, my ears perked up when I heard about a presentation slotted for Alabama’s Social South Conference.  The presentation, delivered by Mack Collier, was entitled “What Rockstars Can Teach You About Social Media”, and naturally, the topic grabbed my attention.

Straight from the man himself:

The presentation centers around one key question; Why do rockstars have ‘fans’, and companies have ‘customers’?  In the end, it all goes back to how rockstars approach the people that buy their products.  They WANT to interact with them, they WANT to embrace them, they WANT to be like them.

Well now. That’s an interesting take on things.

Here’s the slide deck from his presentation:

What Rockstars Can Teach You About Kicking Ass With Social Media

His commentary revolves around 4 principles:

1. Rockstars are fans themselves
2. Rockstars look for ways to shift control to their fans
3. Rockstars find ‘The Bigger Idea”
4. Rockstars embrace their fans

You know what I think is the most interesting thing about his presentation? It’s all true.

Whether “big business” realizes it or not, Rockstars (of all shapes and sizes) have been using social tools to connect, empower and motivate their audiences for years. To many “it’s just what’s done” – to others “I have to because everyone else is doing it, too”.

Even though social media has gone mainstream for big business, I urge musicians to avoid getting caught up in the “tools of the trade” back and forth.

Who cares that you’re on MySpace if you’re not using it as a platform to connect with fans, spread the (viral) word about your music and increase your audience?

Why should I read your tweets on Twitter if all you do is talk about yourself? Is that really an effective use of the platform?

Am I supposed to be impressed by how many fans you have on Facebook?

What matters to me, and what should matter to you, is how connected I feel to you. What should matter to you is how empowered I feel to talk about you, to suggest others listen to your music, buy your schwag or attend your concert. What absolutely should matter to you is how motivated I am to do those same things myself.

What I want is you. I don’t want your Facebook fan page. I don’t want your MySpace profile. I don’t want your tweets.

I want you. I want your music. I want to feel like I’m a unique snowflake in your blizzard of fandom.

Focus on making me feel like I’m that unique snowflake and I’ll go to your Facebook page. I’ll visit your MySpace profile and pore over your photos and music. I’ll follow your Tweets (and if I’m especially motivated, I’ll even ReTweet them).

It’s never been about the tools. It’s about the goals and the results. The tools are just a path to get me there.

So Rockstars – continue thinking like Rockstars. Continue wanting to connect with me, engage me in conversation, and motivate me to action. Know that business has a thing or two to learn from you, and they’re beginning to realize it.