get more out of twitter in less time
One piece of technology and one tip to save you time on twitter so you can focus on writing, rehearsing, kitesurfing, or doing whatever it is that you’d rather be doing right now instead of trying to interact with your fan base.
Tech tip:
Use twitalyzer to find out which of your followers has the most followers. Those are the people you should thank / retweet / respond to first. The olllllld 80/20 rule here.
Quick diversion- the 80/20 rule was discovered a long, long time ago in a Germany far far away where a botanist (or other scientist guy) realized that 20% of his pea plants were delivering 80% of his peas.
This guy then goes on to discover that it’s not just peas but most things in business and in life. 80% of results come from 20% of the effort.
Not saying that you should diss or ignore everyone else- just saying that if time is limited (and you should try and limit time spent social media-ing) then be sure that you at least start off that time scratching the backs of / stoking the egos of the people that can actually drive traffic.
I also like that Twitalyzer has some extra scoring. It’s not just followers that count. I could have way more followers by now if I didn’t clear out the spam robot accounts!
Idea:
Here is an idea you can use to still respond to all the other people who @reply to you, DM you or in otherways try to start a 1:1 conversation with you.
Create a humorous auto reply.
I’m not aware of a technology that will auto post the reply, but at least you can just bang through a bunch of DM’s with the same message:
Hey- thanks for the DM/@reply/etc. I’m super neck deep in ____________ (insert album recording, rehearsing, touring). To share the love- ____ (insert bit.ly/shortened URL here). Thanks – ______ robot. (blank is you/ your band name etc).
The key is to let folks know it’s a “robot” because it is likely going to sound a little canned. I think that some reply is better than no reply as long as you are honest and hopefully a little humorous that you are using an canned response.
Take it one step further by creating a series of these and cycle through different ones for different people. Who knows, maybe you’ll get more requests for 1:1 interaction just so people can see if there are other funny messages they can get.
Add some data by using different bit.ly links- track which style of message has which link and test which style of message is getting better click through (if any).
Y’all know about Google Analytics right? If not…I’ll make that a future blog post.
What to do when free music loses value
Wait! Since when does free ever have any value?! That question/statement of disbelief is a blog topic in of itself. In fact here’s a good blog post on tech dirt.
Here are two creative ways to deliver free and get that value instead of just training your fans to expect something for nothing.
Example 1 is fully explored in an excellent article on the Tune Core blog. Here is the run down.
This band Fanfarlo solved the “get people to my music” problem with well connected management that hooked up a mention in an email blast to the fans of Sigur Ros. Here is how they solved the “free” music vs. value problem:
They did it by offering free streams, then a full album download that was *almost* free. $1 for the whole record is pretty close to free.
But the real value add was that they told everyone that it would only be free for a limited time. The value is that by being an early adopter a fan can save five bucks.
This has also has the effect of creating urgency. A fan is thinking…”do I really want to spend a few minutes to dig out my credit card for a dollar?” But then they listen to some songs and the song are good (IMO) and so they’re now thinking…”If I don’t do it now, I’ll probably end up doing it later. The record is good…so what the hell $1.”
Here is another idea that involves actual free music as in no dollars paid.
A quick diversion- there really is no “free” anything. That’s why we “spend time” and “pay attention.” Right?
So when you go and give away a “no dollar download” (see not free just not for cash) – ask your visitors to “pay” you by tweeting, posting the link to facebook and generally telling their friends.
Now you’re trading something of value (your music) with something else that has value (marketing/audience building).
The most simple version of the above is just offering a song (or songs) in exchange for the visitor’s email address. The value is your ability to market back to that fan. But why not also encourage some sharing in exchange?
Once you hit critical mass, you could even offer the option. Pay for this song/album/etc with a few dollars, or pay nothing but spread the word after you get the goods.
Some people will of course download and not share but don’t worry about those folks. Some just honestly wanted to try out your music and they decide your sound is not for them. Others are just lame but if you do it right, you still have their email. You can still work on getting those people to pay for a ticket to a show.
Here is the link to Fanfarlo. The $1 record is long gone, but you can still enjoy a free stream.
Got a problem that needs solving? Suggest a topic for a blog post by leaving a comment. Or ask me on twitter by including @jasonkadlec in your tweet.
Get fans by turning a snowball into an avalanche
Make a big snowball
Do you think the artist Metaform should spend about $4k on PR ?
Here is where Metaform is at:
“In the last 1.5 years I have sold 2700 units of my first album, using a traditional pr/radio campaign. That same album has been downloaded more than 60,000 times via P2P and torrent sites. I currently have distribution setup in the US, UK, and Japan.”
However given that strong start, there are currently few hits to the Metaform site and fewer purchases of music from Metaform’s self set up store page.
While there was traction on the last album, it hasn’t resulted in much demand to connect with Metaform’s website. Facebook fans are at 154 though the fans that are there as well as the fans on Metaform’s Last.fm artist page are supportive and positive.
The past sales and the small but positive feedback from fans on Facebook and Last.fm are all good signs indicating an above average connection of music to people.
Another PR spend could be done to try and sell this next record but will that result in more fans? Or, do you think it will likely result in a spike of a week or two of sales, and then a slump back to current levels? If the later happens, then it will be tough for Metaform to increase sales on each record.
To really get more repeat visitors and fans who will want to purchase direct from the Metaform site, he is going to need to build and sustain some momentum online to grow the fan base so that there will be record sales for this record, and the next one as well.
MOMENTUM
Here are two kinds of momentum online:
The flash in the pan type where it gets huge fast then gets forgotten about just as quickly.
The steady building momentum that just keeps spreading. The people who tell people keep telling people not just once or twice, or for just a week or two, but they keep telling people for a month or more.
PR can definitely generate momentum. It depends a lot on what the angle of the story is but by design a short PR campaign like the one Metaform is contemplating is best deployed to create a lot of “impressions” in a short period of time (one month). The gamble is that out of the quick flash in the pan momentum, a small subset can be cultivated to create that ongoing building momentum.
But what if Metaform was able to build a growing and sustained momentum, and then amplified that momentum with PR?
That would be like first packing a small snowball, then rolling it around so you’ve got a decent sized snow ball, then rolling that thing down a hill. Building your momentum first gives you something more substantial to roll.
So if PR is the hill, and if your ball o snow is big enough, it’ll roll and get big fast – it might even set off your avalanche.
Hiring on the PR first might get you a good sled ride, but to get a big snow ball out of it you’re going to have to do the same work of packing up that first snowball and getting it big enough to roll down the hill – before the snow melts and the opportunity is gone.
Better yet, you’ll be able to get your first supporters to help you build it up. If you get enough help, you may not need to pay for the hill.
Check back on Thursday for some ideas on how to get that first snowball started. If we’re all lucky I’ll stop using this snowball analogy….I just saw the picture and liked it ok?