Posted by Ann Bernard

RerverbNation is far from being a new kid on the block…launched in 2006 to respond to the changing music business paradigm.  The folks at ReverbNation believe: 

Nothing is more important to Artists than the relationship with their Fans. All of an artist's financial success comes down to the strength and breadth of the relationships they have with their fans. It is from those relationships that artists can earn a living selling music, tickets and merchandise. It is our mission to provide the tools artists need to create, nurture, and strengthen fan relationships. We call the total value of these relationships an artist's Band Equity™, and it is our mission to help artists maximize this.

Active Fans are the best promoters of music on the web. Fan attention has become fragmented across the web in a way that mass marketing no longer makes financial sense (see the demise of radio, music TV). Today is the age of social networks. Artists cannot be everywhere they need to be at once, so they need to focus on activating their most rabid fans to promote them in every corner of the web.

A Music Community is more valuable if includes all of the members of the community. We believe that fans, labels, venues, and other folks all deserve a voice in the community if it is going to be representative of the entire music ecosystem. At ReverbNation, we invite all members of the community to take part.

Those are pretty powerful beliefs and sentiments. 

ReverbNation was ahead of its time when it launched and they introduced widgets to musicians and fans.  They design the site/network with the ability to spread information across the web…taking what fans are looking for to them.

ReverbNation Street Team – Join and Get Off the Sidlines
Pretty catchy guilt embedded slogan they have going on and solid methods of implementation. 

Artists who join ReverbNation have the option to enable their Street Team feature.  The feature is built around the concept of “missions” which are assigned to you – the fans.  Examples of missions are:

• Spread Music
• Promote Shows
• Recruit New Fans
• Drive Traffic
• Offline Involvement
• Custom

Once an artist/band launches a mission…the mission is tracked in real-time and progress is displayed in a “Leaderboard” that both you and the artist can see.

The real cool part is that there is a blog for each Street Team mission for the artists to interact with their fans.  The artist also sets what the reward(s) and prize(s) will be for the winner(s).

Joining and Participating in a Street Team

You need to have an account on ReverbNation to join a Street Team but once you’re a member it’s really easy to join.  Find your favorite band on ReverbNation and look for the Street Team Tab…that’s where you join.

Ideally, your favorite bands already have active missions going on that you can get involved in right away, but if they don’t – you can join their Street Team and you’ll be automatically contacted when a mission is launched.

Also be on the lookout for this widget on your favorite bands’ online profiles:

I would think the coolest part of being on a Street Team is that the artist(s) you are helping out knows you are helping them out and it opens a great line of communication between you and your favorite artist(s).

Not Interested in a Street Team – What else can you do?
ReverbNation gives you a lot of options to promote your favorite artist(s).  You can promote their music, videos, upcoming shows, and latest press information through a selection of widgets and applications.

Find out more about what ReverbNation has to offer Fans. 

Filed in promotion

Comments: 0

Posted by Ann Bernard

Friday night I went to see the Washington Capitals play at the Verizon Center.  They played against the New Jersey Devils and won 3-1. I tweeted while at the game…came home and started doing some homework on how well (but found how bad) the Washington Capitals leverage twitter. 

Don’t get me wrong, the Washington Capitals have a twitter account; they just aren’t doing anything useful with it. 

Twitter is a powerful communication, promotional and grassroot marketing platform for organizations, businesses and corporations…but it’s a KILLER communication, promotional and grassroot marketing platform for a team like the Washington Capitals.

Twitter is most powerful when used to do the three following things:

1. Delivers interesting and timely information/news
2. Connect a community of fans, loyal customers or people of similar interest together
3. Act in support other grassroot efforts – inner and outer connectivity
   

If I Were Tweeting for the Washington Capitals
The First Basic Steps

1. Tweet the Games.  There is no live tweeting happening from the @washcaps account.  I know…I mean come on!?!?  That’s a pretty basic way of delivering interesting and timely information/news. 
2. Follow Fans Back. This is seriously basic. Follows your fans back…get into the a conversation with them.  How do you suppose to turn your fans into bigger fans and supporters (hence promoters) if you’re not communicating with them. 

Here’s how I would do it – let the fans know that during each games (at home or away – watching on tv or at the game) that anyone who tweets @washcaps during at game will be followed back.  That way you find your active game twitterer.

 The Next Steps

1. Tweeting in-Between Games: Break the news (at least some) of what’s happening over twitter. Run facts about the players, information about practice and other happenings within the organization.
2. TwitPic: Send out some twitpics during the games and in-between the games.
3. Post Fan Blog Posts: Find who is writing up the games, NOT mainstream media wirte-ups…but your loyal fans who blog their heart outs about the Washington Capitals. Send traffic and fans their way. 
4. Engage with Fans: Send out questions, ask for feedback and communicate with the twitter followers.

Going the Distance 

1. Washington Capital Fan Tweetup:  Once the Washington Capital Fan start coming together over twitter…arrange a Washington Capital Fan Tweetup – be it before the game or going the real distance and brining them all together in one of the suits at a game.
2. Show the Live Tweeting on Screen: How cool and encouraging would it be to have some live streaming of people tweeting the game at some point on one of the screens?
3. Find Who is Tweeting Sponsorship:  During the games, prizes are given out that are sponsored by different companies…so run a contest where the answer is delivered over Twitter with a HashTag and make someone a winner that way.

The Benefits of Good Twitter Usage

Do I really need to spell this out? Really!?!?

1. Awesome crowd engagement
2. Bringing together of your fans/community
3. Engaging in communication with your fans/community
4. Discover your major influencers
5. Excellent and extremely inexpensive marketing
6. Bringing the hockey and Washington Capitals experience to a much wider audience which will generate greater ticket sale.

Filed in promotion

Comments: 2

Posted by Ann Bernard

What better way is there to show your favorite bands and musicians support than by signing them on to your own label?

That’s exactly what Stereo Fame allows you to do.  Once you’re a Stereo Fame member, you create your own labels, go around listening to music and select which artist you want to sign-on to your label. 

The other aspect of Stereo Fame is that it’s like fantasy football except for music.  They call it “ The Social Music Game” because you can earn points and win cool stuff. You can also download music for free!!

According the Stereo Fame site:

“Each Label earns points based on the popularity of each artist they've signed. When an artist or song gets a thumbs up it benefits the label. Also, Labels earn more points for being the first to sign a band, and extra points if an artist gets a lot of attention during a small period of time.

All Stereofame members earn bonus points just for playing the game. Actions like voting for a song, referring a friend, leaving a comment, etc. add more points your score.”

Promoting Your Label and The Artists
How does this help you promote your favorite bans?  Once you’ve signed on your favorite bands and/or discovered new bands…you go around promoting your label which brings people around to listening to the artists you’ve signed on. 

The more people that listen, the more points you make…and the more exposure you bring to the music you love. (You can redeem your points to win cool stuff)

Great Communication Tool
From what I’ve gathered of Stereo Fame it is rather new….can’t find a definite date it launched but my guess is it was in the last few months.  What does that mean??

It means a lot.  It means that many bands and musicians don’t know yet about Stereo Fame.  It means you can introduce Stereo Fame to your favorite artists and be the first to sign them (hence getting more points).

Here’s what I would do:

1. Sign up on Stereo Fame
2. Do a search for my (meaing your) favorite bands/musicians
3. Find them – Sign them onto your label
4. Can’t find them…send them a note on MySpace, their website and wherever you know they’ll see your message or use Stereo Fame and invite them to join
5. Once they’ve joined, signed them unto your label
6. Work hard and take them to the top – make them the artist of the week

I guarantee you that all the bands and musicians you do this for will love you for it.

Musicians…look  for the blog post on Stereo Fame for you next week.

Filed in promotion

Comments: 1