WHO IS THIS CHARLES McENERNEY?
Hi; I'm Charles McEnerney, a marketer with more than twenty years experience in consumer promotion, editorial, sales, advertising, and film/video/audio/web production at HBO, Fast Company, WGBH
Boston, MovieMaker magazine, the Seattle International Film Festival, and in feature film, commercial, music video, and documentary production.
You can also take a look at my resume on LinkedIn and a number of recommendations from past managers and colleagues. I also have a pdf of my resume online.
Since 2002, I have hosted and produced Well-Rounded Radio, a music interview show that features musicians from every genre and music industry thought leaders. The interviews tend to be upwards of 45 minutes long.
With more than 60 interviews featured to date, the show received 75,000 visits in 2007 and currently is receiving 15-20,000 visits per month from around the world.
SOCIAL MEDIA + WEB STRATEGY
Over the past eight years, I've also been working on using the web to market company's products and services direct to consumers. In addition to my work hosting + producing Well-Rounded Radio and marketing it to users and listeners around the world, I've developed a deep well of knowledge about web marketing, including utilizing viral video, audio + video podcasts, Google + Yahoo! adwords, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Google Analytics, e-mail marketing, web site re-designs + re-launches, blogs, social networking, web banner advertising, e-commerce, wikis, microblogging, mobile promotions, and...whatever's next...to engage consumers with brands.
Even though we are still in the early days of this kind of human interactivity, we've already seen how these technologies and channels can engage current customers--and attract new ones--with a new level of "honest" marketing and community-building along with fostering relationships with your customers that goes well beyond just marketing "to" them.
Not sure how or if these interactive technologies can help grow your company? Email me or call 617.233.6613 for a consultation about how these tools can help you increase awareness and customer engagement.
Connect with Well-Rounded Radio (and me!) via
Facebook | iLike | iTunes | Last.fm |
LinkedIn | MOG | Myspace |
RSS feed | Twitter | Voice Indigo
SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENTATION
A Few Geek Definitions
Flash is an animation application (now owned by Adobe) that has become the leading standard for encoding video.
Metadata are terms or words assigned and embedded by content creators to help content be found or crawled by search engines and rank higher.
Tags are words assigned by Web visitors to pages and media that are they tracked by disparate Web applications to help others discover it.
Feeds are URLs that you can subscribe to and receive data or media and receive updates in text, video, or audio.
But first, what are you looking to do?
There are dozens of options of ways to use the Web to promote yourself or your music, but they can be time consuming.
Be strategic: think about what your goals are first and then prioritize which of these activities will be the best use of your time to achieve them...and you might also have time to make some music!
Podcasting (notes from podcasting session below)
Downloadable (and often streamable) audio and video files that users can subscribe to an RSS/XML feed and update automatically in your podcast player.
Files can be played on a computer or transfered to an mp3 player (such as an iPod) for playback.
Blogging
Text-based entries much like a diary documenting your personal or professional life and passions. Subscribed to through RSS (Real Simple Syndication) or XML (Extensible Markup Language) feeds.
Main blogging software services for citizen bloggers include Blogger (Google), Typepad, and WordPress. Blogs from companies often live on their own sites. Sites that track subjects and content on blogs include Technorati, Blogpulse, and Bloglines.
mp3 Blogs
Given the “everyone is a critic” nature of the Web, mp3 blogs (or music blogs or audio blogs) are a way for music fans to help spread the word about artists they like in short, mp3, downloadable form, usually featuring one song.
Some of these sites include Music (for Robots), Fluxblog, and Stereogum. Sites such as Hype Machine and Elbo.ws also aggregate disparate mp3 blogs.
Microblogging
Short text messages that go out to those subscribed to your microblog so they can see what you’re doing, what you’re thinking, or if you have plans. Usually sent from a mobile device, but can be sent from a Web site and limited to a small number of characters.
Main services include Twitter, Jaiku, Pounce, and Cromple. To see what people are “tweeting” about around the world, visit Twittervision, or just track people you’re following via desktop apps like Twhirl.
Music + Video Discovery
Audio and video sites that let users stream content (not download it) and preview or discover it in a free setting. Most services also offer premium or paid level without commercial messages or a higher level of access.
Music discovery sites include Last.fm, Pandora, Fine Tune, iLike, and Soundpedia. Increasingly these overlap into the social networking space as well.
Social Networking
Social networking sites enable individuals or companies to create profiles, make friends or contacts, and share their passions, likes, dislikes, career history, etc.
Services where you can create your own social networks (either open or closed) include Ning, KickApps, Your Membership, and OneSite.
Media Recommendation Services
Web sites/services that use widgets on your computer to track what you’re listening to, watching, reading (read: consuming) and make suggestions of other things you might like.
Video Sharing
Web sites where commercial + non-commercial broadcasters along with citizens post short video (usually in a Flash-encoded format) that can be shared with friends, commented on, tagged, and searched for based on specific topics of interest.
Video Search Engines
Given the growing volume of video on the net, the need for search engines that can specifically search and categorize the metadata associated with these files has evolved to help users find more relevant content. Video posted on the net must be properly tagged in order to be crawled by these search engines.
User/Consumer/Citizen Generated Content
Content created by citizens and posted on the web, ranging from text reviews to audio, video, and multi-media. These include blogs, podcasts, digital arts, writing (news, gossip, political analysis, diaries, fiction) etc. Most sites do not approve this content, though this is or can be an added function.
Social Bookmarking
Web sites/services where users can publicly bookmark their favorite sites and add tags (or keywords) to the sites so that others can discover new Web sites that might be of interest to them.
Dozens of sites exist in this space, but the main players are Del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Google, Newsvine, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Technorati, and Yahoo. Some of these sites also perform hybrid services, such as Technorati and Stumbleupon.
Mashups
Content where citizens take two or more different media (audio, video, data, maps, ideas) and combine them to create something new.
Examples include a myriad of Google Map variations, famous audio examples like The Grey Album (mixing The Beatles White Album with Jay Z’s Black album).
Visit Wikipedia for latest examples.
Wikis
Collaborative Web sites where contributors from around the world can edit and work with each other on projects and utilize the “wisdom of crowds.”
Made most famous by Wikipedia and services such as PB Wiki, Basecamp, JotSpot, and many others exist for individuals or companies to set up their own collaborative spaces online for either open or closed contributions.
Mobile/Handheld
With the rise of cell phones and mobile devices, citizens can also interact with each other via text messages. Increasingly used by companies to market products to consumers via text messages, mobile video, search, etc.
Growing trend towards using mobile technologies to connect in real life, including services such as Dodgeball (Google).
Web-based social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook are also experimenting with mobile social software.
Some results from social media
Greater Web site traffic
Fan acquisition and/or retention
Increased fan engagement
Increased sales/revenue
Increased posts in the blogosphere
Collect email addresses/RSS subscriptions
Get people talking/buzzing about your music
Create new ways to stay in touch with fans
PODCASTING AND WEBCASTING PRESENTATION
Where do people find podcasts?
Estimates put Apple’s iTunes application at the head of the podcatcher pack, with between 75-80% of podcast consumers using iTunes to subscribe to them.
iTunes has become a major channel for podcasting since 2004, but tends to promote mostly mainstream content.
Increasingly, corporately produced podcasts are promoted on their Web sites itself, a la NPR, CNN, HBO, Comedy Central, etc.
Where do people find podcasts?
These tend to be promote less mainstream programming and more citizen-generated programs, so the quality runs the gamut—and there are numerous podcast series for every area of interest.
Another avenue to engage fans
Bands and music artists are also experimenting with podcasting, including Radiohead, Buffalo Tom, Michael Jackson, Herbie Hancock, Jack Johnson, etc. to provide fans with an regular, ongoing dose of their work and/or promotion for music they are selling.
Check iTunes > Podcasting > Music for latest additions.
How do you create a podcast?
Podcasts can be recorded in recording studios, but most independent shows are recorded by citizens or pro-sumers (professional consumers) on their computers using applications like Garageband (Mac), Audacity (PC) or Quicktime Pro (either platform).
Once a show is complete, it is converted into an mp3 (or mp4 of Quicktime) file. To do this in iTunes, go to Preferences > Advanced > Importing where you can alter how you convert audio files: mp3 is the safest way to go.
Where are these files served from?
Since podcasting arrived about five years ago, there are a number of services that make hosting and serving these files easy to do, including Liberated Syndication, Go Daddy, Steamguys, Podbean, etc. Most cost between $5-10 per month for hosting and bandwidth.
Start off on the lowest available amount of storage and bandwidth possible; you can always increase it if/when necessary. Your files will then live on their servers and, when you update them each week, this will trigger the RSS or XML subscription feed that there is a new episode to pick up in your podcatcher.
Create cover art
Each podcast series will need a small piece of art (a 300x300 dpi jpg) that will be in your RSS feed that includes:
title or artist name
signature series artwork
Web site address
sponsor logo (if applicable)
Creating your feed
The podcast creator then needs to create an RSS feed for the show using a service such as Feedburner, which gives the creator its feed.
Preparing for iTunes
Apple has done a great job of detailing how to submit your podcasts feed to them. Read thoroughly and you’ll be glad you did!
Spreading the word
Then, submit your RSS feed to iTunes, Podcast Alley, Podcast Pickle, Odeo, etc. who will then aprove the feed and add them to their offerings on their sites.
Be patient: it can sometimes take a few days to appear.
Promoting your podcast
Given power iTunes’ Podcast space currently has, it makes sense to drive people to your podcast through iTunes, but also make sure your audience (existing and new) have your RSS feed so they can subscribe no matter which podcatcher they use.
The more traffic you generate through iTunes, the more likely they are to promote you in their banners, which then attracts more subscribers!
RSS feeds are also being incorporated into email applications, which *should* increase their use.
Where can I find podcast producers?
Use iTunes, Podcast Alley, Podcast Pickle, Podcast.com, Odeo, Mediafly, and your favorite search engine to find podcasts that focus on your area of interest.
In most cases, a handful of podcasters (or podcaster-blogger hybrid types) will rise to the top of the list to promote to; be strategic and pitch them just like you would any major media outlet.
Promoting yourself through podcasts
There are literally thousands of podcasts promoting music and every niche and style around the world.
These also range from professional outlets (NPR, KEXP, KCRW, etc.) as well as a rising number of companies and individuals producing for the Web (Indiefeed, Coverville, etc.) and thousands of independent prosumers.
What’s the best way to pitch them?
This is obviously very subjective and runs the gamut, but most podcasters I know like to get an email asking if I want to receive music as a starting point.
Many podcasters will listen to mp3 files or samples via myspace, but others might also want to receive a full CD, so they can listen to your whole work.
Try to personalize your message when you can (or use a bulk mail application to make it seem like you have); as with major media, prosumers like to feel you have decided to focus on them!
Promoting yourself through internet radio stations
There are also thousands of internet radio stations promoting music around the world.
Some key outlets for webcasting include Live365, Pandora, Last.fm, SomaFM, SHOUTcast, AOL Radio, etc. Each of these services have different methods to submit your music to them, but most require either uploading mp3 files or mailing a CD to them for encoding.
Questions?
Some results from podcasting
Greater Web site traffic
Customer acquisition and/or retention
Increased consumer engagement
Increased revenue
Increased posts and links in the blogosphere
Collect email addresses or RSS subscriptions
Get people talking/buzzing about your music + live shows.
Create new ways to touch fans
And speaking
of viral marketing...
If you know anyone who might need help with social media and web marketing strategy and execution, please ask them to contact me at:
Thank you!