Fake Friends

During a coaching session, a client mentioned her desire to put some clips of her singing on YouTube, Myspace, etc. as a way of drawing attention to her work.

I told her that having video online was a perfectly cool idea but that she needed to remember that just because something is online doesn't mean anyone will actually look at it.

She said she understood, but still expressed her hope that she would create a "viral video", develop a following online and that would be a key to getting her discovered.

This is a condensed version of the marketing plan for many people.  Jam a lot of stuff online, hope something sticks and then try to leverage the audience they get.

The tricky part is that whole leverage thing.

Here's the reality . . .

Having 1,000 Myspace friends, 500 Linkedin Connections, or a popular YouTube page often does more for an artists ego then it does their wallet.

My rule of thumb is that until you get that crowd you have online to actually do something other then accept your friend invite, then you don't have much of anything.

There a huge chasm between clicking a link on your page and buying a CD . . . or going to a concert.

Just because you have a lot of people doing one doesn't mean you'll have even a few people doing the other.

The key to invest the time and energy to build relationships online by sharing a lot of free content, interacting with people, etc.

Once you have their trust and have earned some credibility with them . . . then you can try and get them to buy something.

Comments

[RVCBard]

I sometimes wonder if social media has eroded the foundations of genuine friendship.

But to get back to the point, hoping to go viral is a really stupid fucking marketing plan. I mean - are these people serious? Really? Man, somebody needs to get kicked in the back of the head.

[Ed]

I think the surest way to fail at going viral is to purposefully try for that as a goal. The internet is a valuable tool, but surfers are too savvy now- they can smell a marketing campaign that's *trying* to go viral a mile away. The key with any blog, is to blog truthfully and honestly about subjects that interest you and that you're passionate about. If you're an artist, talking about the art you do will be a natural outgrowth of that. But trying to turn your blog, or Youtube account or whatever into an instant sales source is a recipe for failure. Trust must be built on the net as well as in real life (see Adam's post about the rules, below).

[Chris Casquilho]

ROI! ROI! ROI!

[Lindsay Price]

Yeah. To crowbar a video into a viral marketing plan seems like a get it quick thing. That's all we need to do right? :)

The click on a website conversation to a sale is a fascinating problem, and is our marketing goal for 2009. It'll be very interesting to see what happens.