Marketing Ideas!

It turns out that @AaronMSB, last night’s presenter, passed his youth away by playing a lot of jazz. While he may have missed out, by his own admission, on many other pop culture experiences, he’s now well entrenched into the social media scene. And he’s got an interesting take on it. According to Aaron, jazz is a lot like social media.

For starters, social media, just like jazz, was a way for insiders to share information with each other. You had to know people to get connected and then there’s typically a code or shorthand that only insiders know. This system of communication evolved with the addition of new instruments (in the case of jazz) or tools (in the case of social media). And, unlike many other types of music, jazz is very loosely organized, providing a low barrier to entry — virtually anyone can play jazz, just like virtually anyone can participate with social media.

Call and Response

A popular technique in jazz is call and response — Aaron demonstrated this by playing Cab Calloway’s Minnie the Moocher. In this style, an instrument or singer plays a line and it’s then echoed by another instrument or singer.  This is really very similar to how we all learn to communicate. Babies do this when learning how to talk. We also do this in our everyday conversations — when someone is talking to us, we repeat what they say, nod, make affirmative sounds, to let them know we are listening.

Participate Now, Lead Later

Another important concept that Aaron shared with the group was the concept of space. In jazz, the notes you play are just as important as the ones you don’t play. In the world of social media, this translates into choosing your places to comment, repsond, and discuss.

It Don’t Mean a Thing if You Ain’t Got that Swing

Just as Louis Armstrong sang, it isn’t the melody, it’s not the instruments … it’s the swing. Translate that to social media … it’s not the message you deliver, it’s not the tools you use, it’s all about the relationships.

Pay Your Dues

In the jazz world, you have to pay your dues. You don’t just jump up on stage with someone and start playing. The goal is to slowly improve your visibility and get invited to play with the big cats. And this is true with social media as well.

How Big is Too Big?

At the end of the presentation, there was a healthy question and answer session, most of it revolving around Twitter (as well as questions on why all the questions were about Twitter). One of my favorite insights from the evening was in regards to how many people can you follow on Twitter? Is there a magic number? How many is too many?

The answer was multi-faceted, but can be summed up like this. First of all, those you follow on Twitter are kind of like a playlist. You may not like all the songs all the time, but the list gives you good content most of the time. You don’t always hear all the songs all the time, especially if you have it on shuffle. Your Twitter stream, populated by those you follow, is a lot like this. You may not read everything that is put out on Twitter, but what you are exposed to is generally stuff that you like.

But how many people should you follow? Some argued for the Dunbar number of 150. Others said it’s a matter of how good your “chops” or skills are. @mikechapman mentioned that he learned that @chrisbrogan is just a prolific writer and at one time had at least 8 blog posts written and in the queue ready to go. Most people I know don’t write like that.

So what does all that mean? Just like a world-class musician, if you want to get the most out of your social media efforts, you need to practice, practice, practice, be open minded, listen, and learn from everyone around you.

The Austin Twestival has come and gone, but the affect it had on the world is still palpable. My overall account of the event is available at the Inc Slinger’s blog. Still, there are some questions regarding the event, how it was done, and what the tangible results were. So, for that, I contacted Michelle Greer, one of the organizers for the event, for a quick email interview:

Q:How long ago did you start organizing the Austin Twestival?

Michelle Greer: We started organizing Twestival about a month ago. I wasn’t going to do it but a bunch of people offered to help, so it was hard to say no.

Q: Besides Twitter and word of mouth, did you use any other media or methods to raise awareness for this event?

MG: I believe in an integrated approach to marketing. Our emcee Josh Shepherd was on 101x, KGSR and K EYE. It seemed that most of our traffic came from people on Twitter or friends of people on Twitter though. We promoted it on Facebook and a lot of people put it in emails or blog posts.

Q: What was the final count on registered attendees for the event?

MG: We had 391 registered attendees and at least 50 walkups.

Q: Can you share the final dollars raised from the event for Charity Water?

MG: We are still waiting for one invoice to go through, but after the raffle, the ticket sales, and sponsorships, we raised $8868. LA and London raised just over $10k. Considering we are significantly smaller than both of these cities, I’d say, Austin rocks! Thank you for stepping up!

Q: If there’s anything else you’d like to add or share, please feel free! J

MG: My intended goal for this event was to raise money and awareness for charity:water. If you haven’t already, go to charity:water’s site and take a look at their cause. If you haven’t donated already, you can still add to Austin’s tally here. I have a bunch of t-shirts still, so if anyone wants to buy one for $10 with all profits going to charity:water, email me at michelle(at)michellesblog.net.

I’ll be at the Radisson Hotel in Austin next week (specifically for the Jan 29 sessions) for the eMarketing Techniques Conference. I know many of the presenters and this conference is going to be loaded with great information. My presentation will be on using keyword research as marketing research, and you’ll walk away with a list of the 10 top keyword research tools as well as the key 6 steps to do keyword research.

And, because I do my best to take care of my peeps, I’ve been authorized to share a special price for the conference. Sign up with the link below, and your registration is $179. As far as I know, that’s the lowest price around, even lower than the early bird rate!

To qualify for this price, you must first register at the official Web site (just fill in the form, but don’t pay there — sounds weird, but it will make sense when you see it). After you register, come back here and complete your payment with the PayPal link below. If you are going to the session for business, choose the Jan. 29 date.

I hope to see you there!

Date

Jan. 28 – For Educators $179.00 Jan. 29 – For Business $179.00