Day: October 5, 2014

As we saw in one of our recent classes, automating your posts on social media can be beneficial up to a point, but needs to be used in moderation. Too many automated posts from companies can lead to consumers feeling disconnected. It’s key for companies to be aware of events taking place around the world and current trends to keep their posts relevant and appropriate (You don’t want to be that surfing company advertising your great surfing lessons when the tsunami hits Japan, #whoops).

Monitoring big events around the globe can also be beneficial for companies though. As we all are aware, the Apple iPhone 6, 6+ and Apple Watch were released last month in a massive reveal event. Companies all over the world were taking advantage of the hype around the release. Most posts on Twitter were hits…

…but there were some certain misses, too.

Papa John’s, what were you thinking? Big miss. Even when you’re just joking around, you need to provide quality content.

 
I think it’s inherently smart for companies to ride along on the buzz around big events. Whether it’s a release of a new product like the iPhone 6, or a major tragedy, companies need to be in-line with what consumers are thinking about and posting. You need to stay relevant. It can only help build those business – consumer relationships.

The other day I was taking a look at my personal profile on Facebook and I saw something that I found interesting. I was browsing through my liked pages and saw that there were two large majorities: companies and musicians. I understand that my interests, or my ‘likes,’ are completely unique to myself, but I would guess that a lot of Facebook users are fairly similar.

Upon thinking about this, I started to realize that musicians are very much identical to companies in that they, too, need to make the shift to building and maintaining their relationships over social media. New and upcoming artists aren’t necessarily discovered because of the music they’re making, but because of the fan base that they’ve built up. Music has become an internet industry. And in this industry, artists need to take a look at the modern-day marketing handbook if they want to stay relevant.

Marketing’s underlying theme is essential to the music industry – success ultimately depends on the relationship you have with the consumer. Artists are taking to multiple platforms of social media to connect and listen to their listeners. It’s no longer a one-way street where artist pump out whatever music they like. Instead, we see artists on Facebook and Twitter listening in on what their fans like and dislike, what other music they’re listening to, and what their interests are. These platforms also give them the opportunity to have conversations with their fans on a daily basis. All of this earns respect and trust from their fans. Artists can segment and target their market better by learning and producing the music that their fans want to hear.