Self Promotion Killed the Social Networking Star
Social networking has become an important task that artist, businesses, and brands have been trying to master over the course of the last few years. Many are still behind the ball when it comes to social networking and the best ways for engaging their consumer base. If brands are only using social media for self-promotion, then they are missing the entire point of social media. Nothing gets a pages, “unliked,” faster than endless rambles that clutter up feeds, and solicit fans for their money. The fact of the matter is pages are liked because fans associate themselves with the branding messages associated with the products and services of the pages they interact with. The true fans likely already know the important information.
Generally speaking, fans want to interact with the brands they associate themselves with. From an artist brand perspective, fans purchase the music they do because they identify with the messaging of the music. These same principles apply for branding in social media. Fans want to see scalable results from their brand association, in the form of likes, comments, and retweets. They want to understand what their favorite artist feels about the same topics they care most passionately about.
Our Suggestion
Similar to many things in business, the 80-20 rule should apply to any social media marketing strategy.
80% of what is broadcast through your social network site should be about things other then artist music or other branded products. By allowing fans a closer glimpse of what’s behind the talent or brand, the more personal the social experience is. Talk about opinions on world news, articles that interested you, other music, anything that gets them engaging your social networks and web communities.
20% should be about your music or brand related products. The purchases generally comes as a bi-product of keeping fans engaged and constantly interacting with your fanpage. When your self-promotion becomes less persistent and annoying, the message has greater impact and sticking power. Always remember to K.I.S. your fans during your sales pitch. Fans don’t want to feel like there being sold something, so always KEEP IT SIMPLE when coming up with the verbiage.
When marketing an event, we find that many people embrace a personal message over receiving an invite for an event. With Facebooks ever changing dashboard and an event box full of random party invited from who knows where, a personal message and tasteful reminder via comments or tweets is highly recommended.
Rewarding fans and asking them to reward their friends is a great way to engage any fanbase. Free tracks and personalized merchandise are a effective ways to reward fans, and they aren’t really free when you capture the fan’s information, or get them to Share it with their friends. Think of it as the “if you give a mouse a cookie” theory. If you give a fan a teaser, they will likely come back for more and over time become more willing to pay for it.
Check our article on Overcoming Global Communication barriers to get some easy tips for correcting lapses in communication in digital marketing, and social marketing strategies for the global brand.
