In my early years working with social media, I was a member of a fairly successful pop punk band. I became somewhat of the social-media governor for the group. Our manager prided himself on being in tune with new and upcoming marketing trends. He loved viral marketing in particular. I remember the phone call almost strangely well, he called while we were somewhere in the southwest of America and said that there was this new platform called Twitter.
He gave me a description of the platform as best he could. It was brand-new at this point, with very few users and even fewer 'celebrities' and bands. He was adamant that we had to embrace this new technology quickly. He set up a band account and handed the reins over to me.
I will be honest, initially I had my reservations; I couldn't really comprehend why anyone would want to limit their text to 140 characters. Eventually I would come around to it, and maintain a weird sort of pride that my band was one of the first on Twitter and I personally grew the following to an eventually large number.
I loved the @reply system and truly, I still do. It is almost poetically simple and elegant, or at least, as elegant as a 'fail-whale' fronted social media platform can be. The entire process was so undeniably straightforward that it didn't take long for me to truly respect Twitter. I handled the bulk of the Myspace networking in those days as well, and it was strange being so invested as the giant fell to its knees. There was a part of me that had a bit of mental nostalgia rattled loose. However, long after Myspace had sang its last note, I remained, eagerly responding to all of the messages in our inbox, understanding that interaction is a huge part of being in a band.
Now, later on down the road, I can look back on those days with an interesting perspective. I literally watched these fledgling networks grow vast, and in the case of MySpace, die off. I saw first hand our band grow, due in large part, to our online interactions.
Which got me thinking, what is it about musicians and bands that lend themselves so well to social media?
I came to a couple of conclusions while pondering this thought. Pondering is something I like to do and when combined with education and reminiscence, can be quite powerful.
First of all, a band lends itself to interesting content. At all times. There is always something going on so there is no shortage of information to give. New tours, songs, albums, events. All of that. Where some industries struggle for content, the music industry is a burbling witches cauldron of new stuff to push out to the world.
Secondly, where many have to watch what they put out on the Internet lest they be embroiled in controversy, bands (for the most part) don't have these content handcuffs. We would say some really; really foul stuff and the @replies would flood in. When you can say whatever you want, interesting content is going to shoot straight from the hip.
Probably the most important component of all of this is very basic, and most likely why celebrities do so well in social media as well. People WANT to hear what "celebrities" and bands are up to. They WANT to be a part of that. Social media is the perfect platform for this connection. Think about the nonsense I was spewing earlier about the 'elegance' and simplicity of Twitter's @replies. It applies directly to this. Making a connection with a fan is one of the most important things a musician can do. What better way to connect than with a well placed @reply to a young fan of the band?
Not to mention, you are keeping up with the band, musician, or celebrities' day-to-day activities. It seems similar to the widespread interest in reality TV shows. It seems insane that people are as interested in the day-to-day mundane activities of celebrities, but when it's in front of you, you almost can't look away.
So there you have it, of course musicians, bands and celebrities are going to find some level of success through social media and Twitter in particular. Perhaps you can use some of these points to apply to your personal social media strategy.