Chaffey

Chaffey developed one of the most influential frameworks in digital marketing academia. In this structure, the channel of social media marketing incorporates communicative elements that make it essential for dialogue between an organisation and its audience. Being a musician, the nature and configuration of the music industry have always fascinated me. In this eclectic industry, devoted followings and fan bases are bred from talented artists and unique subcultures, subsequently creating a partly fragmented market.

The fundamental guise of social media is to encourage audience engagement, now with two billion users Facebook clearly stands out as the most effective platform for this type of communication. Shown below is the differing social media platforms and the level of engagement generally found on them: Source 

With this in mind, the following analysis will focus on the benefits and risks of music organisations, artists and the general public using Facebook around the music industry.

 

Facebook Functionality

Apart from the benefits mentioned above, Facebook has vast functionality most notably connecting the target audience with artists, record labels, promotion companies etc… completely live. Content can be continuously produced and distributed in the form of ‘statuses’, photos and videos, then reaching the exact intended audience.

This is hugely beneficial in comparison to other more expensive marketing channels like television and radio that may only reach a percentage of their target market, whilst getting ignored by the vast majority. As individual taste and preference are woven into what we see when we enter the Facebook platform. The news feeds content will often contain one’s favorite artist or music (if they like/follow them…), creating a relatively cheap promotion tool for the industry.

Add the ability to interact and create dialogue by simply commenting and posting, has made social media a powerful tool. In a beneficial sense, a fan can gain a feeling of friendship seeing an artist seemingly posting next to their friends. Even in some cases personally connecting with the artist increases that ever important fan engagement and retention relationship. Furthermore, the ability of Facebook to act as a platform for content to go viral can be extremely beneficial for the entire industry.

Facebook is increasingly being used as an online marketplace, the industry can sell and promote their merchandise, announce live performances and music releases. For smaller artists and companies, this cuts out the need for expensive ‘middlemen’ in monetary transactions. Often linking the website, to buy it from them directly.

Facebook really stands out as a community. The sheer number of pages that users regularly communicate on is outstanding. Niche genres flourish, one such example is the UK EMO/Grunge page that has continuously sparked debate, shared new music and acted as a promotion platform for artists. This role was generally done by magazines that were genre specific. However, social media has been hugely beneficial in reaching this hard to get fragmented markets. The ‘Sponsored’ feature allows business to pay to appear on targeted peoples timelines. Thus, marketing material can reach its intended audience far more efficiently and at a lower cost to traditional marketing channels.

Guerilla Marketing 

Guerilla marketing relates to being marketed a product without necessarily realising. Facebook acts as a brilliant platform for this marketing strategy, as there is a huge amount of viewable content that can easily incorporate music and/or involve aspects of the music industry. Recently, the music has been realising the power and benefits of allowing music to be published entirely on this platform. This will also allow artists and the companies that represent them to receive the correct royalties.

 

The Risks

If the nature of an artist or company does not use Facebook or want to use Facebook effectively, it could have an adverse effect. Slow replies or no replies at all will slowly destroy fan engagement.

The viral phenomenon also bears a risk, mentioned before viral media can hit millions of people in a very short space of time. If the content is derogatory the user who posted it will come under extensive attack from a large number of people. The type of stuff that destroys careers. So be careful! Even though it’s not in the same industry the Tesco Turkey viral story has subsequently effected Tescos current brand image.

Maintaining an active social media can be unexpectedly difficult, it could be a full-time job and for many it is. This can make it an expensive overhead to incorporate for any business, as it takes a significant amount of time to work out a strategy and post accordingly.

One Final Thought?

Will Facebooks rain of social media dominance last? Personally, Facebook seems to be so intertwined with modern life in the music industry,  it would have to take something significant to reduce its reach. However, numerous articles have been posted showing the destructive side of Facebook, will it always be the dominant social media platform?