The future of social media and communication are curiously found deep within the design of the flux capacitor.
Just kidding. But seriously…
As much as I’d like to write a book, or even a decent essay on “understanding social media and online marketing” – I must confess that I’ve still got a lot to learn. In a nutshell, I can confidently tell you that consumers have changed and long gone are the days of forming and putting out a message to reach an audience or a target. That method is broken. Gone. Bye bye.
So if you are an artist that just keeps doing the same old thing… Making music, putting out cds, posting new songs on your MySpace page, playing shows, and hoping that at some point everything is going to work out and good music will prevail…. think again. In today’s day and age, only the naive believe that if they make good music and put it out there, eventually all of their hopes and dreams will come true. As recent as about five or six years ago that might have still worked. But not today. Not anymore.
If you are an artist and you don’t have a “Communications Plan,” you are dead in the water. There’s no chance for you. Except for maybe getting lucky…which is having odds like winning the lottery. And even luck, in my opinion and as stated by someone smarter than me, is what happens when “hard work meets opportunity.”
Formulating a means of getting your music out to the masses is probably as challenging and as complicated as it’s ever been in the history of humankind. And it’s only getting harder by the day. I’ve been trading phone calls, email and voice messages with Stuart Elliot and one of his colleagues at the New York Times this week, working a story pitch related to a project I’m working for my day job. And as I reflect and consider the role of traditional media and traditional press and what it means in getting message out to the masses, I’m increasingly bewildered, and at the same time challenged, to understand how to formulate a consistent and cohesive strategy around it.
Consider this… If given the choice to have a story or a mention in Rolling Stone Magazine about your music or…..instead, you could have a group of 100 serious music consumers/enthusiasts engage in a positive, 10-minute conversation about your music, which one would you choose? Seriously, which one do you think would make the greatest impact on getting your music out to the masses? As hard of a choice I believe that would be, I sincerely think there may be greater value in having 100 people engage eachother in conversation about your music. How crazy is that?
While I continue to ponder ideas such as these and struggle with formulating a strategy to leverage what I am learning, here are three extremely important, relevant essays that I urge you to read. Please, for a moment, take off your “artist” or “musician” hat and condition yourself to read, think about and meditate on some new and slightly abstract ideas about the business and marketing side of things. Trust me. If you only understand and retain only 10% of this stuff, you’ll be miles ahead of the rest of the indie music community. And maybe ahead of me too.
+ Social Media, Blogs and Music: Some Philosophical Thoughts by Dave Allen (PDF) | Web Version
+ The Essential Guide to Social Media by Brian Solis (PDF) | Web Version
+ The Future of Communications: A Social Media Manefesto by Brian Solis (PDF) | Web Version
Okay. Upon reading this, if (more like when) you begin to get dizzy and your head starts to hurt, send me an email or post a comment and let’s talk. Knowledge is power, right?
Strategy: Understanding social media and the future of communication
The future of social media and communication are curiously found deep within the design of the flux capacitor.
Just kidding. But seriously…
As much as I’d like to write a book, or even a decent essay on “understanding social media and online marketing” – I must confess that I’ve still got a lot to learn. In a nutshell, I can confidently tell you that consumers have changed and long gone are the days of forming and putting out a message to reach an audience or a target. That method is broken. Gone. Bye bye.
So if you are an artist that just keeps doing the same old thing… Making music, putting out cds, posting new songs on your MySpace page, playing shows, and hoping that at some point everything is going to work out and good music will prevail…. think again. In today’s day and age, only the naive believe that if they make good music and put it out there, eventually all of their hopes and dreams will come true. As recent as about five or six years ago that might have still worked. But not today. Not anymore.
If you are an artist and you don’t have a “Communications Plan,” you are dead in the water. There’s no chance for you. Except for maybe getting lucky…which is having odds like winning the lottery. And even luck, in my opinion and as stated by someone smarter than me, is what happens when “hard work meets opportunity.”
Formulating a means of getting your music out to the masses is probably as challenging and as complicated as it’s ever been in the history of humankind. And it’s only getting harder by the day. I’ve been trading phone calls, email and voice messages with Stuart Elliot and one of his colleagues at the New York Times this week, working a story pitch related to a project I’m working for my day job. And as I reflect and consider the role of traditional media and traditional press and what it means in getting message out to the masses, I’m increasingly bewildered, and at the same time challenged, to understand how to formulate a consistent and cohesive strategy around it.
Consider this… If given the choice to have a story or a mention in Rolling Stone Magazine about your music or…..instead, you could have a group of 100 serious music consumers/enthusiasts engage in a positive, 10-minute conversation about your music, which one would you choose? Seriously, which one do you think would make the greatest impact on getting your music out to the masses? As hard of a choice I believe that would be, I sincerely think there may be greater value in having 100 people engage eachother in conversation about your music. How crazy is that?
While I continue to ponder ideas such as these and struggle with formulating a strategy to leverage what I am learning, here are three extremely important, relevant essays that I urge you to read. Please, for a moment, take off your “artist” or “musician” hat and condition yourself to read, think about and meditate on some new and slightly abstract ideas about the business and marketing side of things. Trust me. If you only understand and retain only 10% of this stuff, you’ll be miles ahead of the rest of the indie music community. And maybe ahead of me too.
+ Social Media, Blogs and Music: Some Philosophical Thoughts by Dave Allen (PDF) | Web Version
+ The Essential Guide to Social Media by Brian Solis (PDF) | Web Version
+ The Future of Communications: A Social Media Manefesto by Brian Solis (PDF) | Web Version
Okay. Upon reading this, if (more like when) you begin to get dizzy and your head starts to hurt, send me an email or post a comment and let’s talk. Knowledge is power, right?
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