Putting Some Soul into Social Media
I have no shame in admitting I’m a pop culture junkie.
Yes, I do want to know if there is unrest in the Brangelina household. Of course I’m watching as Jessica Simpson’s jeans go from low rise to high rise and back again. Absolutely I’m concerned (ok – excited) that Leo and Bar are on a break. But for some reason, following celebrities’ blogs and Twitter profiles doesn’t do much for me.
I find if you follow a few celebrities on Twitter you can see them chatting among themselves. But they really don’t engage with fans and social media tools simply give them a new method of promotion. I get disenchanted pretty quickly and revert back to Perez Hilton and People magazine for the critical “breaking news.”
This weekend I was having lunch with the PR manager of the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego (who happens to be my sister). She knows I’ve always loved Collective Soul and still listen to it now and again. She mentioned they were on Twitter and that they were following their fans back, so I decided to check in and see how that was working.
I’ve started following them and yes, they tweet frequently. They are touring with Gavin Degraw this summer and have clearly employed social media to help promote it.
Do I think singer Ed Roland is manning the Tweet stream? No, in fact I can’t tell who is behind there. It would be great if the band members would chime in. But they are sharing cool pictures and engaging fans with trivia contests that bring fans closer to the experience of the music.
In addition, their social media strategy clearly leverages their fan base to virally promote themselves, which I think is quite savvy.
One tactic they use is to select their top 20 fans. They do this by encouraging fans to promote their Twitter stream to their friends. Before I even realized they were doing this I tweeted:
“Band @collective_soul is doing the anti-celeb Twitter strategy & following fans back-wonder how they handle tons of DMs? Interesting.”
Within three hours and after some research for this post, they tweeted this:
“Congrats to our new Top 20 @QueenSapphyre @Lynnster23 @DelBarrio @edwardmarcel @babyjsmom @paulikeloa @taylor_blue@rachelakay.”
Well thank you!
Clearly they are monitoring their “brand” and responding aggressively. They are also soliciting blog posts from friends, like this one, this one and many more. The band in turn thanks the fan by Tweeting the blog post to its community, which at present time is almost 20,000 followers strong.
From a PR perspective, one goal in using social media is to get your consumers to do the talking for you – marketers know there is nothing more authentic than the power of peer-to-peer endorsement. To me, this is a very interesting way of encouraging fan involvement in the promotional process.
Yes, it may be cheating just a bit – rewarding blog posts by promising recognition, but I still give credit for involving fans to promote virality. Compared to Tweeters like Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Beastie Boys and Duran Duran who don’t seem to engage with fans, it’s a step forward.
The band’s strategy is simply to engage with fans, recognize their loyalty and admiration, and encourage them to promote the band – which is not unlike the social media strategies of consumer brands on the social Web.
What do you think about Collective Soul’s tactics? Where are they doing social media right and where are some areas of opportunity?
Rachel Kay
Update – Within an hour of posting this, I received a very nice, personalized direct message through Twitter from someone representing Collective Soul. Again, someone is clearly monitoring the conversation and reacting.
I wasn’t sure who sent the message though, because they didn’t include a name. Shortly after, a person close to the band, Susan Cooper (@BuzzEdition), informed me that the person who sent me the DM was none other than guitarist Dean Roland.
Wow! Incredibly cool! I rest my case. You can also find out more about the band’s blog contest here.
It’s great to see people noticing the social media strategies that are evolving into the correct conversational direction that Web 2.0 and social media is all about.
You really hit some fine points about what Collective Soul is doing and also, very important, some other brands that are doing exactly what they shouldn’t be doing.
I think when it comes down to it, we have to all realize that most big brands cannot engage 100% of the time with their audience and may need people to engage on their behalf. What is important about that strategy is that their is a decided interest, message and strategy and most important of all that the “brand” people want to truly connect with is there in personal form as much as possible too.
I was talking with Guy Kawasaki a couple nights ago in the public Twitterstream and we were discussing how he thought Twitter could care less about Twitter Verifying him because he has “ghosts” in addition to himself. I assured him, that shouldn’t be the case because I don’t think I could put my finger on one celeb / big brand that is always there themselves and engaging on a 2-way social level without help.
My point with all that is the views of communication in social media will have to evolve with the strategies… for now, it’s just the wild wild west in Social Media. Where do you want to go today?
Hi Joel,
Thank you for your thoughts. I am completely with you – I think it is unrealistic to hold any popular musician, brand or person accountable for developing a personal dialogue with all its fans. From the stand point of Collective Soul as my example, or any music act, these people are not sitting at computers all day waiting for an online exchange. That’s why I was so impressed with what they are doing even though it’s clear that it isn’t always them. Just like a grassroots street team there are others involved with promotion. That should be very clear to anyone. As long as that is transparent, I think it’s great.
Thanks again!
Rachel
Although I’m not a major fan of Collective Soul, I have to admit that I’ve been more than impressed with how they’re using social media, particularly Twitter.
They’re showing PR, marketers, social media consultants and more just what that strength of engaging is all about. I’m sure they have a crack team advising them of this, and kudos to whoever’s advising the band. If they’re not being advised, then double the kudos to Collective Soul.
By leaning on the people that matter – the fans – and ensuring that it’s a two-way interaction with various levels of recognition, they’re reaping the rewards now. Good luck to them, and here’s hoping more follow suit.
Agreed Danny – they clearly sought counsel from a knowledgeable team as any entity should. It shows, and I think it’s working.
It sounds like Collective Soul has nailed one important point that brands would be wise to follow: Let your fans promote your brand for you.
So often, as communicators, we get so caught up in controlling the message and thinking we need to own it, that we forget there’s a legion of fans and brand champions out there just *dying* to sing the brand’s praises for us. Collective Soul clearly realizes this and is harnessing that fan power.
What else is Collective Soul doing right? They’re treating their fans like fans. Recognizing their passion for the music. And holding up the superfans (Rachel, take a bow please) as shining examples. By calling these folks out and demonstrating that they are listening and paying attention–well, clearly that’s sending a strong message to Collective Soul fans.
Now, I’m just waiting for Better than Ezra to unleash their powerful SM strategy that will propel them back into the top 40!
@arikhanson
There’s a band that’s better than Ezra? How do we know Ezra isn’t better than everyone else? Damn musicians and their one-upmanship games…
So true Arik – that’s what instantly attracted me to what they were doing. The loyalty of the fans is so evident in all the conversation going on. Every fan wants to feel special – that’s the point of their campaign. While it’s nearly impossible to measure the direct response to this I would wager this method of connection will impact ticket sales for them (I know I’ll go!
)
Heck, Rach, they’d only have to say there’s wine on sale at the venue’s bar and you’d be there…
Hold on a minute! You twittered a question how the band handles fans direct messaging them, and they tweeted your name. That’s great, but did they answer your question?
Ari – Good question and I had a feeling this would come up. No, that specific question wasn’t answered. A couple of things:
– It was sort of a rhetorical question. When I tweeted that I wasn’t really looking for a response, it was simply something that I was wondering about considering the magnitude of following back 20,000 fans. I wasn’t testing them to see if they would answer in this case. They are there to talk music, not social media, and I get that.
– Yes, they tweeted my name as one of their newest Top 20 fans in response to my telling my followers that they were on Twitter. While I understand the social media impact of that, most music fans don’t drill down that deep. They are flattered and excited to be recognized by their favorite bands. But after they did that I wrote this post which means mentioning my name clearly resonated with me. And it did, because I’ve been a fan for a very long time.
– While my question wasn’t answered publicly, I assure you that since this post it’s been more than answered by people who are directly affiliated with the band and the strategy. I know a lot more thanks to those perceptive people than I knew going into the post. In fact, based on what I’ve learned I think they are even more in tune than I originally thought. The band is much more involved in the process than I assumed. It’s pretty incredible. Plus, getting the DM from Dean was more than satisfying – no one wrote it for him. It was completely his doing.
So the short answer is yes and no.
Rachel
I have been known to comment as such about @collective_soul:
All their tweets/
fall on me/
bring me down/
all their tweets/
fall on me/
fall on me
But have yet to receive a response from the band. Sheesh.
(Good post BTW.)
Cheers,
Dave
Ha Dave! Major miss for them!
Thank you very much for checking it out.
Rachel
Good to see a blog that discusses PR with an on-the-pulse touch and not an old perspective! I follow a few celebs on Twitter, find it amusing but I don’t really see them engaging, and very few brands do it too, or even respond to Tweets..
Talk soon. x