Great post from Jeremy Welt at jblogg.com entitled 7 Takeaways From The “Reaching Fans” Panel at SF Music Tech.
Some great principles that you can apply to any community.
My favorite: “Many artists think they’re connecting to their Fans but are just pushing info out. There is a difference.”
Jeremy also happens to be my long time mentor and I have learned a lot from him, so take a read.
My social media buddy and all around wonderful person, Charles Porch (you can follow him here: @charlesporch) sent me this great blog post, that wraps up nicely my Twitter engagement post: Joel Mackey of OpenPressWire.com writes “A Celebrity That Gets Social Media, I know shocking”
Joel is talking about celebrities starting to catch on to the trend to return the favor of “following” and following their subscribers back. But he goes on to write, there is still one problem after that… Engagement.
Most of these celebrity accounts still don’t get it. They don’t engage, they don’t talk to their fans, they don’t ask them questions, they don’t take polls, they don’t have contests or even acknowledge the existence of a fan. So one problem remains, while they may follow people, they still don’t communicate with them.
Joel goes on to write about the band Collective Soul who he says is doing it the right way.
What I find so simply amazing about these guys is that they actually respond to fans. They retweet fans tweets. They read blogs by users on Twitter. They make exclusive videos just for their Twitter fans.
Excellent points. Now, what I want to point out though, is that this thinking shouldn’t be exclusive to Twitter. This is a great example though of some community marketing principles.
I often run an exercise with my staff before we start a marketing campaign. I ask them, why does anyone want to be part of an artist community in the first place? Here are a few core reasons:
There a lot more, but these are the main things. We’ll run through them in depth later. Now, go back and look at the things above that Collective Soul is doing. Do they feed into any of those core reasons above? Yep! And that’s exactly what Joel Mackey is picking up on.
But when you see articles like Joel’s at OpenPressWire.com, definitely pay attention to the principles behind the details because it will help you apply it to other mediums. The exercise above is great to run through if you aren’t sure where to start engaging your community and to help you stay on track.
Read the rest of Joel Mackey’s article at OpenPressWire.com
I’m loving the latest humor blogs to pop up mostly with user contributed content and people sharing their stories under a hilarious theme. These will definitely keep you busy.
YouTube Pick of the Week
Red headed Henry has some new dance moves for you, this time to Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow”. This kid will make you laugh, smile and also want to take some dance lessons!
Hulu Pick of the Week
Zac Efron guest stars on SNL, but this clip is still making the rounds. New term of the year “gerbil”. Watch the video, it’ll be your new phrase too. ha!
Firefox Add On of the Week
ScreenGrab – I can’t live without this add-on any more. It’s perfect for taking full length screen shots of a long web page. Also, the selection functionality allows you to copy or save one piece of the screen quickly. No more ctrl-alt-prt screen.
Facebook App
Beat the Streak – Baseball season is here, and this Facebook App brought to you by Citizen Sports is a great way to get in on the action. Pick ANY player everyday that you think will get a hit, see how long your winning streak can last. Challenge your friends and the rest of the Facebook community. It’s harder than you think! My current streak: 1.
Video Game of the Week
Street Fighter 4 – SF4 has been out for a little over a month and the reviews are in. SF4 has everything the classic promised plus tons of cool features, moves and characters. Check it out! It’s about time this classic made a comeback.
Movie of the Week
17 Again topped the box office in its opening week this week. It’s a fun movie for the family and a great sign of what to expect from Zac Efron. He is excellent in the movie and starting to take steps away from his sugar coated tween roles in a great way!
Music Pick of the Week
Ciara “Fantasy Ride” – The Fantasy Ride album doesn’t drop for another 2 weeks or so, but Rhapsody has a sneek peak into the album. Also, if you haven’t seen the video for the first single “Love, Sex, Magic” featuring Justin Timberlake. Watch it now here.
YouTube Pick of the Week
Girls Aloud “Untouchable” - Latest single from the British reality-show-put-together girl band and it’s finally available digitally on iTunes.
Hulu Pick of the Week
“Parks and Recreation” - Amy Poehler’s latest comedy premieres and the pilot is on Hulu. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but the ads crack me up and I love Amy Poehler, so I’m looking forward to it.
Firefox Add-On of the Week
RUWT? Sports Toolbar so I can keep track of those baseball scores all day. It also supports scores for the NFL, Soccer, NBA, WNBA, College Football and about 10 more. Great add-on.
Link of the Week
Bootup Labs’ VC Glossary for anyone who has ever had to raise money or deal with venture capitalists or are at a venture backed start-up, you are going to need this glossary for your next investor meeting! Highlights: “Entrepreneurial CEO” = “totally uncontrollable, bordering on maniacal” and “Somewhat below the plan” = “Revenue shortfall of 75 percent”
Facebook App of the Week
Tetris Friends – It’s about time Tetris came to Facebook. Mini Games and built in challenges are included and of course challenge your friends and then gloat your ass off.
Video Game of the Week
The Sims 3 is driving me crazy (in a good way) with their marketing as they count down the days through their Facebook fan page and widgets to the release of this sequel on June 2nd. Look out for this one which will most likely end up being the biggest game of 2009 just like its predecessors.
Movie of the Week
Fast and the Furious 4 had a huge, bigger than expected opening weekend and did not dissapoint in action sequences.
Music for the Week
Flo Rida feat. Wynter “Sugar” – Take it from Flo Rida to appeal to the masses and to the times with his sweet new single sampling Eiffel’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”. Looks like NAS was right. Hip Hop is dead. Gangster rap is out. Great single.