Communities… Building Versus Finding

Ryan    Uncategorized     Branding, Communities, Social Media

For a long time now I’ve really been thinking hard about the issues revolving around social media and brands/businesses. It doesn’t matter who you talk to, everyone has an opinion, and quite frankly, they should. But as these discussions continue to evolve and change, there is one key ingredient that keeps coming up.

Communities are the catalyst to social media.

Plainly put, communities, no matter what size, shape, or form they take on, represent the actual catalysts for how social media is played out. I know you may be thinking.. “it is the conversation”, or “it is the free give-aways”, but really, those are all what are stemming from communities. The question that comes to my mind however, is where do brands build, versus when do brands join?

Let’s take a look at ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover. Any ways, the premise of the show is centered on good will towards others who may be less fortunate, have gone through a hardship, or whatever else. Basically, Ty Pennington and his team of carpenters and designers come in, tear down your old decrepit house, and build a new one centered and personalized to your specific needs. Great premise, but what does this have to do with community? I say lots.

First, it is important to realize that this team travels every week to the location of their new project. They aren’t  just building an apartment complex and waiting for people to get up and move. They’re actively seeking families or individuals whom they can help.

Secondly, they focus a whole hour on each and every project. Now because they’re on ABC, they do have a little bit of an advantage of spreading their word and distributing their success, but still, one week, one hour, one project.

Finally, the level of personalization, makes the end-all-result, all the more special for the family they are helping. Maybe a little too personalized in some cases as the show takes every detail and every concern the family has, and somehow incorporates that into their projects. When the family returns, they ultimately feel that the house is personalized just for them.. and it is!

Coming back to the main question at hand, Extreme Home Makeover seems to be finding and reaching out to these individuals in order to help. They aren’t building the community, but joining ones that already exist. Even though they are specialized in their services, they understand that as soon as they go about building their own community, the overall impact on the outside individual diminishes. Not good!

So let’s compare this to Twitter!

Back in the day, when brands were experimenting with new approaches to using Twitter, companies would have a Twitter account and broadcast news, updates, and whatever else was associated with the brand. As this theory became a foundation for how many brands used Twitter, a new approach, a more specialized approach, began to evolve. Instead of relying on @NYTimes for your New York Times news, you now have @nytimesbooks, or @nytimesstyle, or @nytimessports… and so on. (There has got to be at least 100 NYTIMES accounts out there now) Essentially, @NYTimes had the idea that by splitting up their sources (Music, Television, Business, etc. etc) they could essentially build the communities where only certain people could be ‘fans’ of certain groups. Doesn’t this seem like that ‘we build it, you come to us’ example I mentioned earlier?

So what is the solution?

Try not to make things overly complicated! Instead of creating complex networks of Twitter accounts that people just have to keep following, go out and search for where your help is needed! If I received a Tweet from someone saying “Hey I see you’re into this, why don’t you check this out” – I would definitely go and check it out. Actually, that just so happened with a new restaurant, Smashburger, in Tempe, AZ. About two weeks ago, I received an email saying I was invited to their Social Media/Blogger’s night… In the end, I had some good free food, got to speak to their VP, and now I’ve got a new place I can eat in Tempe! It was really quite a simple, and quite an enjoyable experience. (Makes me want to write more about restaurants ;) Any ways, when you are waiting for people to come and talk to you, you risk losing a big ‘ol heap of discussions later on. You aren’t the new kid at school anymore! New kids deem themselves successful these days by introducing themselves and explaining why ‘friending’ them would pay off in dividends. (I’m going to make sure my future son or daughter does exactly this).

Peace

Death of Music, Death of Words

Ryan    Uncategorized     Music Industry, Online Publishing, U2, YouTube

Image from: Yahoo! Music - new.music.yahoo.com

In a recent article I read on Yahoo, Rock ‘N’ Roll Might Be Over, Says…U2?, the popular (insert musical adjective) group, U2, explains that Rock ‘n Roll as we know is it a dying breed. Even more, the group’s bassist, Adam Clayton says:

“What is rock ‘n ‘roll in this changing world? Because, to some extent, the concept of the music fan–the concept of the person who buys music and listens to music for the pleasure of music itself–is an outdated idea,”

Alright alright, so the traditional music fan doesn’t exist. I wholeheartedly agree. But I think there are way different reasons as to why this is, and I personally think they are good.

First, to say that the traditional music fan is dead, or in essence, the music industry itself, is pure ignorance. People love music today just as much, if not more than yesterday, the day before, all the way back to the beginning of time. Although I’m biased, I don’t think people can really get tired of music. However, in regards to the music INDUSTRY..? yeah things are changing, but things always change!

In all reality, music HAS to change especially with the speed in which written publication has changed. Think maybe 8-6 years ago. If you had no clue how to create a webpage and write HTML, what would have been your best bet in publishing something that you wrote? The newspaper? Damn, I never thought I’d write something that more then 5-6 people would read. But I was in 3rd grade. Basically, publishing something you’ve written is as easy as clicking a button on a webpage. In relation to the music industry, that should seem unreal! And scary!

With the introduction of YouTube (the music player) people have been uploading remixes of crap they’ve done (heck I did one with Michael Jackson and Rhianna last year), covers, or even original compositions that sound pretty much as good as a lot of the stuff that companies are making major money with. The whole idea behind finding the next ‘American Idol’…. is it really that hard? I would hope it isn’t. That show just takes out the work. With all the people who say they hate capitalism, you’d think this would be a growing trend… but people like drama on television I guess.

Music today is more accessible. People can download T-Pain apps on their iPhone, or learn how to play guitar on YouTube! People can sample other works, and make cool mash-ups or remixes themselves, and above all, be proud of it! When professional musicians feel their music is changing, they should be happy, because only then, will they know that their fans are banding together to move music in more and more directions. And its all happening organically. :)

So to make my long story short, I think musicians today who have a hard time with people having fun with music..(ie: musicians who hate Guitar Hero… HELLO! Of course its not like playing the real thing, but is Madden anything like playing football? Is Halo anything like shooting aliens? Is NBA Live anything like playing in the NBA? I don’t think so!)… should just take a chill pill. As technology continues to evolve and shape the way we live, peoples tastes will change, but so will their involvement. Music is turning into an art form where people can continue to evolve and shape the real and beautiful artistry of it! Stand alone pieces? Elvis, the Beatles, Mozart, Chopin, Shakespeare, DaVinci, Monet, Rowling, and U2, just to name a few, all have created great works of art, but the inspiration and ideas their works instilled in others, should be an art form in and of itself. That is progression!

Peace