I never liked MySpace even when everyone said you HAD to have a MySpace page. It was ugly. After they let users personalize their page, it got worse. Half the time the music player worked. It was a good way to hear a musician's offering, when it did work. For awhile it was the big game in town. How quickly things change.
I was a consultant on a project that was geared towards high school kids. I worked with Scott Gerber, who was a student at NYU at that time. He showed me his Facebook acccount. It was only open to college students then. He told me this was the future. Lately people are writing Facebook's obituary. The latest cry is that Tumblr is taking over Facebook.
MySpace was sold to ad network Specific Media for $35 million. Newscorp paid $580 million for it in 2005. Now there's a write off.
Facebook will be launching their music offering. Not quite sure what that will mean. About 85% of the people in my circle are on Facebook and are active users. I've seen people post some really dumb things and I've seen it as a great way to keep up with my relatives in other parts of the county. I'm not an active user. I haven't used it to listen to music or keep up with my favorite artists. It will be interesting to see where music and the social network go.
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Fred Wilson Says Don't Market Your Startup
He does and he doesn't say that. In his blog this morning he got things stirring. My interpretation: don't set aside a big budget for marketing your start up. You are the best marketer for your company/product and be the evangelist. He goes on to say that most of the companies he's invested in have not had an initial marketing budget.
When applying this to a new band/music artist, I must agree. In my experience, most acts that hire marketing companies come away with mediocre results and a lot less money in their pockets. The act's manager (and the band) is still struggling to pay the bills (she/he gets paid a commission on money earned) but the marketers have made their monthly fee and usually get it for a minimum of three months, which they say is necessary to launch a project.
Times have changed so drastically over the past 10 years, that an artist can build their own marketing machine using existing free tools, which is what Fred recommends. If you're engaging in your Twitter, blog and Facebook posts, you can begin to gain an audience. Obviously your music has to be good. It's been proven that word of mouth endorsements will trump any promotional scheme a marketing company can come up with (see the Grateful Dead). I've seen the results of hiring marketing companies. I've never come away from an experience where I've just wanted to tell everyone to hire that company. I've seen some nice awareness building campaigns and I've seen marketers do exactly the opposite of how you'd like to see your artist promoted. I've never had a home run or even a triple.
Kudos Fred. You got it. If you're a musician, take control of your marketing. If down the road it gets to be too much for you to handle, then hire someone who clearly knows your vision and will stick to it. At that point, you're probably making money and things are rolling along.
When applying this to a new band/music artist, I must agree. In my experience, most acts that hire marketing companies come away with mediocre results and a lot less money in their pockets. The act's manager (and the band) is still struggling to pay the bills (she/he gets paid a commission on money earned) but the marketers have made their monthly fee and usually get it for a minimum of three months, which they say is necessary to launch a project.
Times have changed so drastically over the past 10 years, that an artist can build their own marketing machine using existing free tools, which is what Fred recommends. If you're engaging in your Twitter, blog and Facebook posts, you can begin to gain an audience. Obviously your music has to be good. It's been proven that word of mouth endorsements will trump any promotional scheme a marketing company can come up with (see the Grateful Dead). I've seen the results of hiring marketing companies. I've never come away from an experience where I've just wanted to tell everyone to hire that company. I've seen some nice awareness building campaigns and I've seen marketers do exactly the opposite of how you'd like to see your artist promoted. I've never had a home run or even a triple.
Kudos Fred. You got it. If you're a musician, take control of your marketing. If down the road it gets to be too much for you to handle, then hire someone who clearly knows your vision and will stick to it. At that point, you're probably making money and things are rolling along.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Oh Crap! My Parents Joined Facebook
myparentsjoinedfacebook.com was started by my friend Jack Leitenberg's entrepreneurial daughter Jeanne Leitenberg and her friend Erika Brooks Adickman. The site's byline fills you in on it's content: CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR PARENTS JUST JOINED FACEBOOK. YOUR LIFE IS OFFICIALLY OVER. It also states in a smaller font that they love their parents.
Jack is a longtime artist manager who works with the wonderfully witty and talented musician Jim Boggia. Jim does use Facebook to stay in touch with his fans. Jack's wife/Jeanne's Mom is Marion Orr. She is the longtime manager of the jazz great Bob James. They also work with jazzmen Richard Bona (he's got a new record coming out this fall) and Lionel Loueke (he's performing at the Litchfield Jazz Festival on 8/2). They do not use Facebook.
Jack was curious about Facebook and his kids jumped in and hooked him up. Jack rarely posts, he's "more of a voyeur". Facebook has it's family benefits as Jack says "I can see and read about all that she does as she posts, pix, etc." The impetus for the site came about when Jack merely altered one thing on his profile which unleashed a flurry of comments. "I changed my status to married and received so many mazel tovs and congratulations for getting married (Jack's been married to Marion for years-that hasn't changed). I did not realize that when I changed the status it went out to all my friends." Thus the website was born and kids and parents are both figuring out the meeting of the generations on Facebook.
Jack is a longtime artist manager who works with the wonderfully witty and talented musician Jim Boggia. Jim does use Facebook to stay in touch with his fans. Jack's wife/Jeanne's Mom is Marion Orr. She is the longtime manager of the jazz great Bob James. They also work with jazzmen Richard Bona (he's got a new record coming out this fall) and Lionel Loueke (he's performing at the Litchfield Jazz Festival on 8/2). They do not use Facebook.
Jack was curious about Facebook and his kids jumped in and hooked him up. Jack rarely posts, he's "more of a voyeur". Facebook has it's family benefits as Jack says "I can see and read about all that she does as she posts, pix, etc." The impetus for the site came about when Jack merely altered one thing on his profile which unleashed a flurry of comments. "I changed my status to married and received so many mazel tovs and congratulations for getting married (Jack's been married to Marion for years-that hasn't changed). I did not realize that when I changed the status it went out to all my friends." Thus the website was born and kids and parents are both figuring out the meeting of the generations on Facebook.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Saved By Zero Kills
Apparently I'm not the only one who couldn't get to the remote fast enough every time the car commercial using The Fixx song Saved By Zero came on. Here is a parody of the commercial and the movie The Ring.
It doesn't get much more annoying than that commercial. The Marketing With Meaning Blog has a great piece about the protests annoying commercials have created. There is a Facebook group called Stop Playing Toyota’s “Saved By Zero” Commercial. It has 9300 friends. Music when used well can be one of the greatest ways to market a product. Apple usually hits the mark. As much as people hate this commercial, I have seen more written about it than any other ad in recent memory. The questions remains to be answered: Does this turn the consumer sour on your brand for life?
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