Myspace Music Goes Offline

I read a really cool book, ironically called, Chasing Cool, a year or so ago and it changed my perception of advertising. The book centered around companies looking to replicate the success of something that was perceived as "cool" and do it themselves. Most of the time it failed miserably. Now I am starting to see websites look beyond Internet Marketing for additional exposure and the results are similiar in pattern.

Yesterday I finally checked the mail and opened up the new copy of Wired Magazine. This is one of two physical magazines I subscribe to and I genuinely look forward to it every month. After the mind blowing articles I always look at the advertising and what they are trying to do with it.

When I got a few pages in I was surprised to see Moby hanging out and talking music with me. It seems that the artist most of us forgot about is now doing some promo for the new and heavily debated Myspace Music. In the ad, pictured below, Moby lets us know what is in his New York Playlist and that we can find it at myspace.com/moby.


I like the fact that is appears as if Moby hand wrote the note and picked bands and songs that he actually listens to. But is it enough to get me to sign into Myspace and either

• go listen to Moby's Playlist,
• browse through more artists and user generated playlists than I know what to do with or
• wait for 20 pages to load to create my own abbreviated playlist?

Having something offline to promote something online has always been a hard sale. The reason is simple, there are extra steps involved. If you are reading the magazine at the beach or at the doctor's office, you need to wait until you are in front of a computer and head over to the site. Even couch potatoes have to open their MacBook and surf their way into your network.

Another aspect is that anyone that is an active user on Myspace is probable aware of the New Myspace Music. It has dominated the homepage and the user backend pages since it launched a few weeks back.

Will the print campaign convert new users?
I don't think so. Do you?

Will it bring back old users who fled to Facebook?
Again, I don't think so. iLike applications work plenty well inside of Facebook and having Pandora, iMeem or Last.FM open in a 2nd tab has never been a problem before.

Did Moby play to the demographics of Wired Magazine?
Actually, I like that move. Moby is a bit of an underground hipster, a gadgetier and, well, a geek that fits right in. Was there someone more "now" that would be a better fit? Yea, probably, but won't that always be the case?

Will the campaign work?
It depends on what the idea of a successful campaign is. I believe that Myspace has done a great job of spreading the word on the service and what you can do with it. The reason for the awareness is that the more people that use the service the more money Myspace makes, duh, no brainer there.

We need to also remember that the record labels also have a stake in Myspace Music and want it to succeed. You cannot deny the power that 100 million users have, and how that can translate into not only music sales, but also tickets, merch and streaming of these playlists.

If the idea of the campaign is to convert new users or bring back those that jump ship, I believe that this will be an ill fated attempt. The reason is simple; if you are looking for new, groundbreaking bands, then you already know to go to Myspace. If you are also looking to spend a few hours waiting for music players to load, sort through 5 million+ bands in an unsearch friendly environment and get error messages and CAPTCHA's everytime you want to tell a band they are awesome, then you already know to go to Myspace.

I love how they are branching out. AdRants states that this is the first time Myspace is advertising outside of their own walls. My opinion would be to make those walls more attractable by getting the worker bees to make the site better, faster and more user friendly. While the updates have been more frequent in recent months, the overall perception and feel is that it's still a mess and the bandwidth simply cannot be handled.

The fixing of the site seemed to work for Twitter, I even forgot the name of that whale they used as a mascot.

My question today is, can a print campaign drive "new" users online or does it just serve as additional promotion to something users already knows exists? Let's get it going in the comments.

*Addition*
My good friend from the Daily City, sent over this picture they took from the Big Apple showing Lil Wayne aka Birdman Jr. aka Lil Weezy showing off "Beats That Stick With Me." How much does that cost Myspace out of P & D?


-Greg Rollett

Myspace Records Part 2 - aka Tom the Genius

I took this screenshot yesterday in hopes of writing this post. Well, what could that be? Why its Kate Voegele and her Myspace single, "Only Fooling Myself." Tom, one of my friends, (wait, isn't he everyone's friend?) has shown up in my Friend Feed promoting the featured artist on Myspace Records.

I wrote about the possibilities of Social Networks, espicially Myspace, using their user base to their advantage in promoting artists on their label or music distribution platform. Here is another example of the power of aligning yourself in a Record Label platform that may work.

Plays of "Only Fooling Myself today (Thursday, April 10th) = 122499 as of this post (8:52 EST).

That's not a staggering number but does not take into account the plays from individual players on user profiles, plays from iPods from downloads and streams from Myspace Applications such as iLike and Last.FM. Not a bad days work for Mr. Tom Anderson.

One thing to note is the top banner on Kate's Myspace page promoting her album on Amazon and also iTunes for only $7.99. I wonder what happens when the Myspace Music Store opens?



So folks, is this an abuse of power by using your Friend Feed for promotion or is it genius? Let me know.

-Greg Rollett

p.s. add me on Pownce, my new favorite site
http://www.pownce.com/g_ro

How Myspace Records is Changing the Music Business

What if a Record label had a mailing list of over 100,000,000 individuals, who all saw the message you are trying to get across every time they opened their web browser?

What if a record label had other labels sending over truckloads of cash to advertise on their competition’s home page?

Why don’t they use their connections to land their artists tv gigs, cross promotion, oh and a tv station of their own?

Oh, did I mention that they are owned by the world’s largest media conglomerate.

What if this label already existed? It does. It is called Myspace Records. Yes, that Myspace.

From a KidzWorld interview with Myspace Records artist, Kate Voegele;

Signing with MySpace was such a cool experience for me. I basically got hooked up with them when Tom (yes, "the" Tom who is everyone's first friend) *laughs* sent me a message asking if I was signed yet.

So how did Myspace and Myspace Records help Voegele, a new age pop princess, get to the top of the iTunes (number 4) and Billboard (number 5 on Top Digital Albums) charts in February 2008?

1. Sent a nice message to their over 100,000,000 million users stating that Kate’s new record is now available.
2. Landing a 6 episode gig as Mia on the CW hit teen drama ‘One Tree Hill’
3. Having 6 of her album’s tracks featured on the re-occuring episodes
4. Launching her album on the same day her role as Mia came to life on tv
5. Pricing it fairly in retail outlets (I got a copy at suggested retail price of $7.99 at Target)
6. Video blogging on her Myspace page and on MyspaceTV
7. I’m sure there are more, but you get my point

What can this mean to the music industry?

1. It can be run by kids who start internet communities in their dorm rooms.
2. Artists are empowering themselves through online promotional tools.
3. Internet communities can possibly start to monetize their sites. Build the community, build trust, sign an artist and promote it over your network. Genius.
4. Major record labels will attempt to build communities; they will do it wrong and possibly sue their users for copyright infringement.
5. Major record labels will use and abuse the power that the Social Networking communities have and turn more users away.
6. Indie labels will continue to prosper through viral marketing on these community based sites. They will use their bands to help promote other bands within their label. Look at all the Fueled By Ramen bands on Myspace. Help the team and everyone wins.
7. As the social networks integrate more and more of the internet into their communities there will be more opportunity and more competition with which you are competing against.
8. Labels will start partnering with application and widget builders much like how film and tv licensing is working now. I can see it now; Pirates vs. Ninjas becomes 50 Cent vs. whoever he is beefing with the moment.
9. Labels and indie artists will start making their tracks available for free on revenue sharing widgets on all of the social networks. The key is collecting enough data from the downloading party for future use (e-mail, location, etc).
   

Can you think of more ways that Social Networks will help shape the face of the music business? Let’s think outside the box and help change the game.

-Greg Rollett

Gen-Y Bloggers vs. Reality

This is almost a follow up from the post on interviewing Gen-Y candidates last week. I had 3 of my new employees in the conference room and we conducted a beginner’s training for the services Rollett Marketing offers.

After the initial welcome, greetings and introductions I jumped right into it. Problem was that I assumed my Gen-Y counterparts knew about blogging, RSS feeds, Facebook opening up its backend, even basic SEO. How wrong I was.

None had written a blog post before. Only one was on both Myspace and Facebook and they thought RSS was the acronym for “Really (that) sounds stupid.”

Being in the new Brazen Careerist Blogger community, I take for granted the things that I use everyday, from Open Social, to Google controlling my mail, calendar, search, RSS feeds and blogging platform, to opening a new Social Networking account everyday for the last 6 months (not totally true but it sure feels like it).

Then came Twitter. Am I a bad teacher or do folks in the real world just not get it? Heck, come to find out that some Gen-Y bloggers are just getting it. (Welcome to Twitter Meg Roberts)

Sometimes I think I am way ahead of the curve. At FOWA Miami I felt like I was way behind. In talking with friends, colleagues and my new co-workers I am truly finding out that Social Media has really not hit the masses despite constant attention from mainstream media.

Sure we all use Pirate’s vs. Ninja’s and get countless other requests from Facebook every morning, but we have no idea where they came from or that we can create them from our dorm room.

As people become educated or intrigued in Social Media, it is up to us, the pioneers, the daily users and kids who might just know what’s going on to help, teach and explore this medium with other users. I am confident that the 3 people that I am training will be amazed at this new world that is opening up to them. There is such a great advantage to using this technology, not only for networking and playing Scrabulous but for learning about ourselves and taking control over our careers and lifestyle. And heck, if you throw up some AdSense you can make a few bucks in the process.

So, Gen-Y bloggers, what do you think? Are you experiencing some of the same things in your career, your start-up and even from mom? I’d love to find out!

Greg Rollett - Twitter me folks, I love a good laugh

10 Things To Do Before You Release Your CD

You have put in the work in the practice rooms, tried your songs in from of fans and peers at local venues and then put your entire life savings into recording your CD. This is typical of a local band cycle. The problem that most Orlando bands face after they record their CD is what to do with it when it comes.

Most bands that I talk to are amp’d about their new CD. “It’s the best thing since sliced bread.” “We’re going to get signed off this one.” And so the responses go.

Most bands go as far as having an impressive CD release party with a good number of fans who all buy the CD and take home the memory of a good show and a good time. Problem is, after those 200 or so people leave the band still has 800 or so CD’s in the backseat of the drummer’s car (see Discmaker’s and company traditionally hit you with the 1,000 CD minimum to see any bit of a pricebreak).

Then the band goes and takes a few weeks off, plays some more shows and before you know it 3-4 months have gone by and you still have 700 or so CD’s, little to no buzz and your parents want their money back.

So with all this said, I am going to share with you 10 tips to prepare before your CD release that will hopefully keep the stream of sales going and the publicity hot even after your big CD Release push. I am going to tailor this to the Orlando area but you can use this information anywhere just input your local spots in the place of the Orlando ones.

1. Create an ongoing mailing list and actually use it. This one is from Music Promotion 101 and it overlooked by most bands on a local level. Read: Myspace is not a mailing list! Put an online mailing list on your Myspace page, website, etc with a free widget from FanBridge. Take your laptop to your show and have people sign up there as well. The fans that sign-up for your mailing list want to hear from you, and they are more likely to follow what you are doing.

2. Promote the Album, not the Show. When making posters and placing them around town, promote your album. This will make the posters timeless and keep the buzz for your band longer than your show in a week.

3. Press Releases. Make and distribute. Send to every media outlet, print, tv, online, radio. You will be surprised by the amount of response you get from them, from incoming links to interviews to mentions in Orlando Weekly, the Sentinel and more. When sending online remember to submit to PRWeb and PRLeap.

4. Change your Myspace Layout and other Online Sites to reflect the theme of your album. Prepare your fans for the CD before it is released by shifting your Myspace image to that of the new album. With a new album comes a new image, embrace it and do not overlook the power of a redesign.

5. Pre-Orders. Start fundraising for the duplication of your album. Using PayPal is free and easy and allows you to create a database of the emails and addresses of fans who want your album before they have heard the songs.
6. Set a Tuesday release date and get into local stores. Setting your release date for a Tuesday will put you on the same schedule as all other music releases. When getting your CD in local stores like Park Ave CD’s and CD Warehouse, talk to the manager about getting your album put onto the New Release shelf at least for the initial day or week of the release. If you are lucky and make great music, they may even put you on the marquee of all releases coming out on that day.

7. Blog. Blog about your album. Blog about making the album. Blog about the album cover. Blog about how you and the bassist fought it out everyday for how a certain song sounds. This is not only good for search engines, but as a diary for you to remember the process.

8. Make a commercial and market it on YouTube, Myspace and Facebook. Why can’t you have the next Soulja Boy? Make a quirky video, make it funny, make it short and send it to everyone you know. If its good and catchy, look for the traffic to come and pre-order your CD.

9. Start streaming your music to create a buzz. Get your music on Last.FM, Pandora and others. These sites will not only increase your fanbase but also pay your royalties for streaming your music.

10. Online Distribution. Cool, you have a physical CD coming in a few days. Did you know iTunes, Amazon and others take weeks to import your music if you are an indie musician? Get them your music ASAP to have it ready for your release.

There are a million tricks to get your music ready and become buzz worthy. These are just 10 that can make an impact locally when you are trying to break your CD.

-Greg Rollett

Social Media For the Job Seeker

As promised (only a few hours late) I am posting the slides and notes from yesterday's presentation at the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance.

| View | Upload your own

If you are looking for help, here are my profiles on the mentioned sites:
Myspace
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter

Blogging Platforms
Blogger
WordPress
LiveJournal

Job Board Social Networks
Health Career Web
Jobster
Careers in Gear

If anyone that was at the presentation, or anyone viewing this now, has any questions please put them in the comments or email me directly at rollettmarketing [at] hotmail [dot] com.

-Greg Rollett

Universal / NBC Lost Its “Cool”

Universal has lost its “cool.” They have lost sight of the core of their business, the fans. This isn’t breaking news, but it is disturbing to me and the way that I consult my musician clients.

The facts:

Universal now enforces that everyone on their music roster, limit streaming songs to 90 seconds. These include Myspace pages.

Universal has pulled all of its content from iTunes including hit NBC TV shows and all artists.

Universal/NBC has removed all content from YouTube and replaced it with behind the time Hulu.com.

The real facts.

The next generation of music fans get their music online. Whether this be finding new bands on Myspace, Purevolume, or whatever. They also buy music digitally so they can play them with the white ear buds on an iPod. They buy their music with iTunes, like it or not.

YouTube plays and streams more videos per day than you could even imagine in your wet dreams. They find out about movies, tv shows, bands and celebs through this little time waster. Like it or not, this is the future of video.

Much like the tv, kids like to have 1 box give them loads of choices. That is why iTunes, Myspace and YouTube are the major players in the entertainment market. I can log into Myspace and get hit from every direction by any band that I want, all without leaving the site. With iTunes, a customer can browse through an infinite number of artists, tv shows and movies and put them all into 1 shopping cart and pay with 1 pre-established account. With YouTube, they can watch whatever they damn well please and be redirected to other clips from the same genre. This generates their interest to go see a movie, DVR a tv show or check out a band live.

What they did and how they could have avoided the screw-up:

All of their music is available at other online sites, most noticeably Amazon Music. So are their hit TV shows. The problem is that no one knows this outside of tech circles and bloggers. Hulu.com and NBC Direct have been ripped apart by bloggers and media industry since its launch and the fact remains that everyone on YouTube, stayed in YouTube. They are now just watching other networks shows and then turning on the tube to their advertisers on prime time.

The Myspace thing is just ridiculous. It took Colbie Caillat apologizing to her fans via a Myspace blog to discover this bizarre finding. What now? Fans will listen to someone else on Myspace and buy their songs via iTunes. How ironic.

Conclusion

Universal, you had the fans in the palms of your hands. You were greedy and looked for more money. Who is going to pay close to $10 for one episode of Heroes when I can get the whole season on DVD for $25 in a few weeks. Oh and I have DVR too, so I can watch it whenever I want on my big screen.

Sorry Universal, you are not going to survive this new media age with actions like this. Call me I got some solutions.

Speak out and let Universal know how they snubbed the most important people in their organization, their fans and customers.

-g-ro

The Future of MP3 Downloads. Food For Thought Major Labels.

Tonight I had the pleasure of being interview by Mark Jigarjian, a Media Production major at Rollins College in Winter Park. The talks ranged from the general Myspace Marketing of bands, to viral videos on YouTube to how social media and technology has changed the game and leveled the playing field to anyone with music as a passion.

The interview will air early next week after they talk to a few more people in the industry, and edit the piece down from all my ramblings.

One point that I came up with towards the end of the interview was that of merging media distribution. I brought up the point of Blip.tv distributing my videos with one click to my Myspace Blog, Myspace Bulleting, Facebook application, Twitter account and Blogger Blog.

I then motioned that MP3’s can and should be distributed in the same way. When you upload a song, why couldn’t it be virtually sent out to Myspace, Facebook pages, SnoCaP, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, CD Baby and the countless number of indie sites offering music downloads and streaming capability?

I then took it a step further and said that it would possibly take the power of the major labels to make such a deal or process happen. With their resources and power, the majors could make it possible for musicians to aggregate their downloadable music through a bevy of platforms with a single upload. And they could even take a cut of the sales. How about that major labels?

I call this the G-Ro Music Aggregation Theory. Put it in the books.

-g-ro

Jay-Z, Smart Move With American Gangster

Jay-Z is back, oh, but you already knew that. Man, I’m late on this breaking news thing. American Gangster came out 2 weeks ago and landed Hov with his 10^th number 1 album, tying Elvis for 2^nd all time number one albums. Not bad for a trapper turned rapper.

Jay is a marketing genius; there is no doubt about it. He has a plan before it becomes a plan and sometimes the public doesn’t even notice it. Shawn Corey Carter’s last album, Kingdom Come was released with a video paid for by Budweiser. Remember the car chase with Dale Jr? Yea, Jay didn’t cough up a penny for that. He got sponsors, big ones.

New album, American Gangster. Do you think it is any coincidence that it dropped only a week 3-4 days after the movie of the same name dropped and landed at number 1 in the box office? I think not. Yea, Jay says it is loosely based around the movie, the movie inspired him, blah, blah. Jay worked around a deadline made by himself to get the album shelved at the height of marketing paid for by the major movie studios. Everytime the film was mentioned, a tag line about the unofficial soundtrack was mentioned. Jay was everywhere the movie was. Every interview with Denzel had a question about the Jay-Z album and their thoughts on it. More free press.

This is the ultimate hustler. He not only runs the baddest label in town, Def Jam, but has refueled Roc-A-Fella with a position to succeed just in time to make the 4^th quarter king a few bucks and keep his name in that elite John Elway staple. Freeway just dropped Tuesday. Beanie Siegel is next. Kanye is still the king and making headlines through tragedy and triumph.

You want to know what is even funnier from a new media standpoint? This was all done without a Myspace or Facebook campaign. No YouTube battles. No Twittering necessary. It was done through old media and the big corporations pulling the big bucks. Late night TV shows, TRL, MTV and BET. Movie studios, XXL, Rolling Stone.

I don't surf the net
No i never been on myspace
Too busy letting my voice vibrate
Carving out my space

-Jay-Z “Beach Chair” from ‘Kingdom Come’

Lunch With Joel

Today I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with online recruiting guru, Joel Cheesman, founder of Cheezhed. I reached out to grab a quick bite while he was in town for the Recruiting 2007 Conference and Expo. Lucky for me this meant an escape from the office for a few to rack the brain of someone who gets SEO in the recruitment field. Highlights form the talk included:

Use localized video-This will be a great addition to both RollettMarketing.com and the Orlando JobSpot. Thinking of doing a weekly show for both websites.

Leverage off the power of large domains like YouTube and Myspace. I always knew this but it makes a little more sense now.

Long tail is huge. If 2 people that need jobs are searching for “customer service part time near airport” and cannot find a job that suits them, I have failed as an SEO expert that is writing job descriptions. This is data that your webmaster needs to supply, even if you have to use a stick to beat it out of them.

Rethink Podcasting. I have been opposed to podcasting ever since I heard the word. Even with my recording background, the thought of someone listening to me talk on their iPod just didn’t sound enticing. What the hell, I can record the hell outta some music, so why not give it a shot.

Facebook Apps are useless for job seekers. There is still that wall up between job seekers and their social networks. All apps have failed and show no signs of innovation, viral capability and focus. Plus, no one markets them on their own sites. Imagine if Career Builder had links on their homepage? But they don’t and their app sunk to the bottom of the barrel.

Employers need to smarten up. Sell your positions. As a job poster I can only do so much to spruce up your crappy driving position. Make it sound enticing. If when you are posting a job online and think the job sucks, what will the job seekers think?

Their needs to be some responsibility on the part of the employer. If all you want is numbers in the door, so be it. But if you really want to grow your company, have a better bottom line and maybe get that Christmas bonus, start taking some pride in how and who you hire.

I’m done for the day. Joel it was awesome finally meeting you. I hope that we gave you some insight into the localization of job boards and the power that can be obtained from not having to always get the red tape from corporate. Anywho, its time to Rock For Hunger. Hunger Banquet tonight at UCF!!

-g-ro

Jumping on the I Hate Prince Bandwagon

Who does this guy think he is? Just because he has sold a go-gillion records, made un-makable amounts on money and can change his name from Price to a symbol back to Prince again, doesn’t meant hat he has the rights to take on fans for liking his music so much that they actually not only buy the CD, but they dance to it, listen to it in their cars, get tattoos and make stickers of the famed symbol and embrace one of the planet’s most recognizable rock stars.

Where does this guy get off? He is not only taking on YouTube and Pirate Bay but now fan sites that cite his lyrics and host pictures. God, if I had one fan site where people loved my music so much they would make pretty banners, signs and quote my lyrics, I would be a happy camper.

(Just in: Price has announced plans to “reclaim the internet,” oh boy!)

According to Rueters.com, the sites have vowed to unite under the banner "Prince Fans United" and take the matter to court if necessary.

"We strongly believe that such actions are in violation of ... freedom of speech and should not be allowed," said a statement from the three sites -- www.housequake.com, www.princefams.com and www.prince.org.

As of right now he is not suing any of the sites and has not gone through with his YouTube threats. This doesn’t mean that his image is cleared by any means. Just by reaching out to destroy loyal fans, he may impact the future buying power of the Price army.

Whereas now most bands coming up in the scene rely on YouTube, Myspace, Absolute Punk and other community style followings to catch a break and create a fan base, larger artists are shying away and looking down on anyone that is trying to “steal” their precious copyrighted music. Now I’m not saying that it is ok for fans to steal music from artists, I am saying that without fans and their allegiance to the music and the artists, there would be no fast cars and rock stars.

So this is a cry to all you major label artists;

1) You can’t stop the internet so stop trying.

2) Major labels are losing badly and you are part of the cause. Take charge of your own career and stop relying on suites who can’t comprehend the power of the new media and what it can do

3) Embrace change –first there were records, then 8 tracks, then tapes and cd’s. It’s time to give way to the MP3 and its been here already for 7 or so years (old Napster is at least that old). Jump on the party ship, it will be boatloads of fun and

4) Embrace the fans who care so much about your music. There has never been a better time to communicate with your fans. Create a blog, respond to messages, create videologs, whatever just be a voice for your band. Look what it has done for Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes and any other Myspace Gen band.

Have fun with this one folks!

Myspace joins Google’s OpenSocial. So what?

It has been driving me crazy with the amount of words being poured into this Myspace vs. Facebook, Microsoft vs. Google and whatever other rivalries you want to throw out there. All that matters at the end of the day is the users and their experience on the site.

With Google’s new evil empire that includes Myspace, LinkedIn, Six Apart, Orkut, Salesforce, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle, all these networks are going to have the same Apps made by the same developers that are competing for the same poor kids who could care less. Where is the user uniqueness? Facebook almost has it, Myspace should have had it but would rather be a Video network than a social network. Myspace's improvements have been lame and still don’t address the major problems like bad servers, SPAM, and realistic advertising that doesn’t involve….shoot Paris Hilton in the face and win a prize.

Facebook has received all the press in the last few months and received a hefty sum based on a bogus $150 billion evaluation. Google on the other hand has had their stock hit $700 a pop and bought every social site they can get their hands on. Their announcement of the OpenSocial platform comes on the heels of a losing battle to get a stake in Facebook.

This is bringing the tech media to hype up a Don King style “Only in the Internet” match up between Facebook (the 0-8 Dolphins) and Google (Tom Brady leading the Patriots). Only problem is, no matter what season it is and the records of the teams, its going to be a battle and both teams will live to play another day.

Remember, this is only the beginning, but the user needs to be Google’s major focus or they will lose. Myspace still has the numbers and is making changes, albeit a little late. I think that they remain relevant in the entertainment market until Facebook jumps on the band bandwagon. Google is going to do what Google does and unfortunately everyone will follow. Why do we have to play be their rules? Who gives a rat’s ass about page rank?

I know I’ve made the switch like many others to GoodSearch and while the results aren’t always quite as good as Google, at least I’m playing by my own rules. (If you don’t have a charity in mind, how about Rock For Hunger?)

So go ahead app builders, make you app on 100 different platforms, I would. Get that advertising and VC money while they continue to throw it at ya like rats after a hat trick. And Social Networks go ahead and clone each other and still do numbers like fans at a Florida Marlins game. Just remember the major players and why they are the major players; community and communication. Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, etc are running things because of the community and the people that interact within the community. The best network platform in the world doesn’t do anyone any good if there are only 100 people in the social graph.

And Facebook, give Scoble some more friend requests. That way he can stop ranting about it every other post. (I’ll still keep up on Scoble even with his ranting, I get his Tweets every 20 minutes.)

That’s all for today. Maybe I’ll start writing some real posts again soon, but right now I’m going to get ready for Gym Class Heroes in Orlando, FL at UCF tonight. BTW, they are doing an amazing marketing campaign with Verizon Wireless and are hosting an in store at the Waterford Lakes location as we speak. Pretty smart marketing there! Somebody get that up on Flickr or Twitter for me.

-G-Ro

Optimizing my Social Network Participation

I was an addict. Morning, lunch, night and every 15 minutes throughout the day I was checking Myspace. Getting updates, reading bulletins, friend requesting anyone that looked cool or might like my music was my daily regimen. I loved it. I still even have a soft spot for it. But what happened?

SPAM.

I was part of the problem. At the peak of my band’s popularity on Myspace, we were using FriendAdded religiously. We had a schedule. I had Tuesdays and Fridays and was responsible for friending 500 people, with a tag along 500 emails with a bland introduction of our band that I’m sure no one read. It also contained a link to buy our CD (which people did actually buy!).

The band broke up. That Myspace page is useless. All the hard work is gone. I still have my personal page though and most of my better connections are there. The problem with that page? SPAM! No bragging rights here but 3,000 friends on a personal page is absurd. All the bulletins are promoting products or are some form of a survey that no one really cares about.

So I moved on. Still conduct my business on Myspace. My calendar, contacts, venues, studios, marketing companies, radio personalities, bands, and some close friends hang out there relatively often. I book clients through that page still. I sell my beats and studio time through Myspace. So, no, it is not a complete waste. It is just not helping me network any further. I a no longer building relationships, personal relationships, through Myspace any longer.

Enter Facebook. I never believed the hype. I still do not see the $15 billion dollars being put to amazing use but it does things better and more efficiently than Myspace or any other social network that is currently at market.

First thing is that I can actually find my friends, colleagues, and people that I want to network with. I type in their name. Wow, revolutionary. Second, is the news feeds. I no longer need to visit every person’s slow loading page to see what they are up to. I have it all on my home page. Wow, revolutionary.

I can go on and on, but you have Facebook so you know its boring features. Next is Twitter. You ca read all my thoughts on it at my Twitter love tale. For this I will say that as soon as my peeps jump on the Twitter trail the world will be a better place. Pick and choose who you want to follow (stalk) and get their info, instantly. Better yet, a business can send me updates before the paper comes out or the emails get read. A conference can send tweets on room changes, panel speakers, and parking arrangements as they happen. Restaurants can throw out their daily specials. Job boards can post their new positions before they go live on their site. Shipping companies can notify of your package information. News is breaking on Twitter before RSS feeds.

This now brings me to Flock. Read about it on Mashable last week. Now it’s on. A little bar that runs on the sidebar that updates my Twitter feeds, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Wow, revolutionary. Move over Firefox. Has a built in RSS Reader. Siyanara Google. A media bar to see any of my pics and insert them into my blog postings in less time than it takes to Tivo the new iTouch commercial.

What this means is less time for wasting around the social network sphere and more time working, getting the information you need right now, before it breaks and faster than you could at any point in human history(or maybe actually and physically networking and building with the people you have stalked during your social networking).

Who cares about Google? Who cares about Viacom and Newscorp? I can receive any information that I want, on my own time from the people that I want to hear it from. And in turn, I can tell the world what I know, how I feel about it and join the conversation about it online on my own time.

But what do I know. I’m just a punk musician that stumbled into this world and ran with it. Oh and be sure to add me as a friend on Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/grobreakn). I will appreciate the company and will gladly ignore all of your survey bulletins and vote for me crap.

-G-Ro

Facebook Profiles to be Found on Goodle, Yahoo, MSN, and the others…..

Straight from the Facebook Blog:

“Starting today, we are making limited public search listings available to people who are not logged in to Facebook. We're expanding search so that people can see which of their friends are on Facebook more easily. The public search listing contains less information than someone could find right after signing up anyway, so we're not exposing any new information, and you have complete control over your public search listing.

Above is an example of how a public search listing appears. It contains your name and current profile picture thumbnail. If you do not want this listing to appear, you can change your Search Privacy settings.

In a few weeks, we will allow these Public Search listings (depending on users' individual privacy settings) to be found by search engines like Google, MSN Live, Yahoo, etc. We think this will help more people connect and find value from Facebook without exposing any actual profile information or data.”

Here at Rollett Marketing, we are very excited for this to roll out. Facebook is now embarking on a great strategy that Myspace currently held hostage. When all is said and done these profiles will start popping up at the top of search engines for namesake of the profile. This puts you out in the open to be found, which if using Facebook for Marketing, can be a great added bonus.

I am seeing some fuss from Facebook members, but you can already do a search by name on Facebook if you are not a member, this just lets Google or whatever search engine do the searching for you. Facebook is taking the right step in making only the name and picture available to the public and also allowing you to block this all together.

In the long run this could increase Facebook memberships, with the increase in the visibility of who is on Facebook available to the searching public. If you search on Google for a long lost relative and their Facebook profile shows up, you may be inclined to join the network as well. Great strategy all around for Mark and the boys in the Valley.

I’m sure this will be covered by everyone and their mom, so I’ll let some time settle and come back to this subject when the search goes live to the search engines in about a month. Myspace get on your game, or this could be more of the beginning of the end for the former king of Social Networking land (Even though I’m still not sure whether companies will get great market ability with just a Facebook profile vs. a Myspace profile. More on this to come later).

Check these related articles:
Riveting Rosie
Mashable.com
Search Engine Journal

-G-Ro

It Just Doesn’t Stop: Social Networks Are Everywhere and Growing

It’s like that old commercial for a kid’s product I believe that said “10 million strong, and growing.” Only this time it’s '100 million strong and growing'! With Social Network sites taking top rank in Newsweek last week (Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg on the cover) to Myspace’s ever growing numbers to more sites with crazy names that are popping up everyday (just look at how many blog entries Mashable.com makes in a single day), the general public is finally realizing that these sites are not just for kids.

It’s not that I like to rehash these points everyday in this blog, but in the early stages of Rollett Marketing, I have had a hard time explaining social networking sites to a generation that didn’t even have the internet in their youth.

Us Millennials are spoiled! Just look at my survival pack for a meet and greet with a recent client:
-Sidekick with accompanying Bluetooth
-iBook
-iPod
-Oh, and some papers in a binder in case someone actually wants to see that!
-I'm just missing my iPhone (which won't happen until Apple gets out of its AT&T contact

What most people beyond their college years are starting to understand is that major players like Google, Yahoo, MTV, Viacom (parent company of MTV), Microsoft, Apple and more are starting to back these sites (and these sites aren’t cheap either!).

What is starting to happen is the capitalization and monetization for small businesses and large corporations on sites like Myspace, YouTube and Facebook. The great thing about these sites is their price to get in the game. Nothing! Yea that’s right, these sites are free to use. No more monthly hosting fees, no need for expensive merchant accounts, no flash design!

From a recent Fortune online article:

“The reason social networking matters is simple: people do things together, and this new software promises us the means to engage the social aspect of our lives in everything we do online. Among other things, shopping, consuming media, researching, planning our time, and of course communicating can all be done more efficiently if we have manageable information about what our friends are doing. It goes way beyond high school and college kids sharing photos and exchanging gossip.”

As you look to get your marketing plan going this fall, don’t overlook the social networks and their potential. A great feature to their pricing is that you can experiment with more than one site to see which fits your business model best. Bands are just now embarking onto Facebook and utilizing the new open platform applications to sell their tracks virtually royalty free to anyone but PayPal. Real Estate offices are opening their doors to the prospect of 100 million 17-24 year-olds who need a place to live when mommy and daddy throw them out on their own (and they get that ‘real job’ making Facebook applications!). Restaurants are sending out daily specials through Twitter and posting videos of what’s happening at their establishment. The possibilities are endless and it starts with your imagination.

Social networks are here to stay folks. The Millennial Generation is growing up fast and you might have to adjust. I write a great blog over at www.orlandojobspot.blogspot.com where I touch on the growing trends that social networks are having on hiring, training and development. Employee Evolution is a voice to that very group as well.

Explore your social graph. Explore some creativity in your marketing. There are 1 million bands that sound like you and have a Myspace page. There are millions of people making t-shirts. There are more houses for sale than being sold. Make a move, be bold and be a part of the next great movement in Marketing! Yea I think I like my job!

-Greg “G-Ro” Rollett

Why is your business not Facebooking or Myspacing again? Just Wondering!

Today is a busy day at the Rollett Marketing offices. First off, I do have to confess that I finally gave into the Holy Grail and bought an iBook. And let me tell you I couldn’t be happier! Way overdo if I say so myself.

Getting into the Marketing world today I really wanted to point out some information about the Myspace generation. First of all when I say Myspace generation, I mean the Millennial Generation (i.e. Generation-Y) and it is not solely confined to Myspace. This encompasses the whole social networking, Web 2.0, widget and application world. I think that 'Myspace Generation' is a fitting categorization for the largest class to enter colleges this fall. With university education getting back in motion yesterday here in Orlando (Go Knights!) I needed to share some valuable information with you.

First, if you are not marketing to this generation, you are clueless in your business approach (unless you are selling prune juice or V8). Secondly, if you are not focusing at least 25% of your efforts where we hang out, then you are even more lost. Where do we hang out, what do we do? You don’t need to move far from where you are right now! The computer encompasses more of our time than anything else and needs to be your key focus to hit this demographic.

Look at this:
- 93 percent of students report that they own a cell phone
- 58 percent of students own an MP3 player
- 27 percent of co-eds cite choosing to stay in touch with friends via social networking site over face-to-face communication or over phone
- 54 percent of college students (ages 18-30) visit a social network in a typical day
- 66 percent of students are learning about brands, products and services from their friends

You want numbers for Facebook and Myspace! Well here you go!
-Myspace bought by Rupert Murdoch for some $580 million
-YouTube bought by Google for just under $1 billion
-Facebook just turned down Yahoo $1 billion offer

Myspace boasts 60 million active users
Facebook boasts 27 million active users

Even more disturbing is that over 3.5% of every American (or 7.5 million people) with a mobile phone has visited Myspace, Facebook or another social networking site on that mobile device.

If this post hasn’t convinced you to get off your ass and get moving on social networks, then I don’t know what will. Everyone knows that us Millennial kids have the attention span of a 2-year old, so if you wait too long you are going to miss out on the biggest marketing opportunity of your lifetime!

This isn’t to say that you need to spend the big bucks to get on the home page of Myspace, they won’t even write you a reply if your budget is less than $50,000, but it is to say that you need to effectively market your product on a profile and spread the word. Don’t chase cool, blend in and let cool find you, even if you are prune juice or V8! 

For more information on how Rollett Marketing can help get your feet wet in Social Networks please email greg@rollettmarketing.com or grollett@tmail.com for instant access.

Greg’s new book “Myspace Band Fund” will be available worldwide in October. Check back for more information and to get special bonuses from our pre-sales!

If you are feeling generous, please make a donation to Rock For Hunger.

Myspace Names New Head of MyspaceTV

MySpace (Rupert Murdoch's virtual playland) named Internet video veteran Tom Bosco VP and head of sales for MySpaceTV. In this newly-created position, he will oversee sales of video advertising across all of MySpace.

Bosco was a key player in the high-profile launches of both MSN Video and AOL Video.

"Tom has been on the frontlines of online video advertising for two of the major players in the space," said a spokesperson from Fox Interactive Media, MySpace's corporate parent. Video is a top priority for the company and monetization is key to maturing the business online."

MySpaceTV launched earlier this summer and quickly became the second most visited video site on the Web. The vids.myspace.com domain attracted 17.9 million visits in July, according to data from Nielsen//NetRatings, compared with YouTube's 55.1 million.

Current monetization on the Fox-owned property includes custom advertising, standard media buys and sponsorships. "Custom profiles have provided brands with a great way to reach consumers in a two-way conversation that they've never had before," said the FIM spokesperson.

The nature of MySpace's social networking profiles, and user-generated videos has been a challenge to monetize. The sheer volume of random videos has been difficult to sell to advertisers, said Emily Riley, analyst at JupiterResearch. "Before they start offering premium placements, they'll need to determine how to categorize video, increasing the importance of different video channels."

Videos on MySpace TV include both produced content and user-generated videos. MySpace recently made deals with content partners including the Onion, LonelyGirl15, Sony Minisode Network, NBA, NHL, The Producers Guild, National Geographic, the New York Times and Reuters.

It will be interesting to see the direction Bosco takes as he takes over at MyspaceTV. I only hope that this media giant doesn't take drastic measures to capitalize financially on the over-popularity of the site. As a Myspacer 4 Life here at Rollett Marketing, we are seeing more and more defectors, (including a page by myself) to Facebook. I love the fact that people are making money on Myspace (that is my business by the way) but I am hoping that the corporations find a way to advertise in a non evasive and in your face way!

Myspace keeps making the big moves, so we'll see what happens in the next few months as the Myspace/Facebook war wages on!

5 Myspace Tips for Real Estate Agents, Brokers, Offices and Branches

In getting off the ground in our new expansion, we have had great success with in the real estate field. We have built and marketed blogs and myspace profiles for a handful of companies, investors and local agents. Myspace is an amazing tool to reach a good number of individuals in your demographic. For those of you just getting your feet wet with myspace or have a page but have had limited success, here’s some quick tips to get you back on the ball.

1. Make sure your URL resembles your business title, name or organization. If your professional site is www.myname.com/, your myspace profile should be www.myspace.com/myname. If you are a company, examples would be www.myspace.com/orlandometrocenturty21 or something of the like. This makes your page name easy to remember. You only have one shot at naming your URL on myspace so make it count. A myspace account of myspace.com/jenlikesflowers will get you nowhere fast.

2. If you use your page for real estate, keep the page relative to real estate! This should be pretty obvious, but the first site I helped out had pictures of the agent sipping coronas on the beach. Keep this private to your clients, unless of course you’re selling beach front property on an exotic island. There is nothing wrong with looking human, maybe a family picture in your picture section, but this is your profession, make yourself look as professional as possible and people will treat you that way.

3. Blog! Blogs on myspace are spidered and crawled more than any other aspect on Myspace except for maybe the pictures. Provide relative content on a regular basis. For more advanced internet real estate agents/brokers, post blurbs on your Myspace blog linking to your official blog that has been monetized. (Remember that content is KING!)

4. Make your Myspace page user-friendly. It is no longer acceptable just to have links to your professional site or your MLS listings. You need to provide access right on myspace to search your catalog, view properties (there are millions of picture sharing and slide show sites that can be used for FREE), request information, sign-up for your mailing list, etc. No one likes to click 100 links before they find your email address. The less step the better.

5. Monitor comments. If you are worried about spam, porn, bands promoting their shows, etc then monitor your comments. There is a setting which allows you to approve which comments go live and which comments go bye-bye. This is common practice now on Myspace and will cut down on the clutter on your page. For every large club flyer that is posted on your comments, the slower your page load time will be.

For hundreds of more tips or to get Rollett Marketing services for Real Estate Myspace pages and blogs, email us at greg@rollettmarketing.com or rollettmarketing@hotmail.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible to discuss the possibilities that Web 2.0 can do for your business. Have a great weekend and best of luck prospecting!

-Greg “G-Ro” Rollett

Professionalism on Myspace

Myspace is awesome, right? Don't get me wrong, I'm the biggest Myspace fan there is, and spend way too much time logged in looking for new business and new fans. I have a pretty big friend base and am known as a booker, artist, manager, marketer, friend and more. I receive my fair share of emails asking for my help, whether it be for booking, to get a free beat, or for some help promoting their band or business.

Most of these are done in mass email formats and that's okay with me. I use mass emails for some of my promotions as well. What bothers me is an email that I received last night. It went something like this:

"Hey G-Ro, this is "manager x" an i represent superstar "artist y" I need you to book my artist a show for $"x", with paid hotel and travel. My artist is going to be big and I'll get you a cut. Hook me up man, I got you, ya feel me!"

So.........getting 3-5 of these a day is awesome. I usually get a little nosy and check out their artist's page and see what they have going on. Usually it's the worst 3-4 songs I have ever heard, have pictures that were taken with a sidekick camera phone, the titles of the songs are "holler at a gangster, biaaatch!" and they have absolutely no show experience. Then i check out so called "manager x's" page. In not one sentence on this page does it even mention that he is in the music business, has no contact information listed and has pictures of himself in his boxers drunk at a frat party!

Needless to say, they will not be getting a show from myself. Sometimes I forward the message on to other booking agents, but most of the time they get a nice and respectful 'no' response.

The point that I'm trying to make is that even though Myspace is geared towards our generation, the generation of smiley faces, camera phones, Meebo, text messaging and slang like lol and rofl, when sending a business email, send it professionally, especially if you do not personally know the person whom you are contacting. You want to grab the attention in a positive light so they eventually do put you in their blackberry or sidekick!

Do your research as well. It's common sense but if you read my page and knew about my events, you would know that I book rock bands at bars and indie hip-hop groups for charity shows. Country singers and Crunk music need not apply. Not to say that I dislike the music, but it's not my business. By reading someone's page you can get a lot of info, usually enough to start up a conversation that leads to a great networking connection and ultimately getting you one step closer to making your music a business reality.

So keep sending your emails, but treat it as a business and we'll be here to help you out in any way that we can.

A little side note is that this blog will no longer be solely on Music Marketing, but marketing in general. I have had amazing offers to market business opportunities, real estate agencies, clothing companies, small offices and the such, and thought that the same guerrilla and internet marketing tactics that work for bands can work in the real world. Starting now, Rollett Marketing is now "Outside the Box Marketing for the Millennial Generation."

All of our packages will be up and running by weeks end and expect a sneak peak at my new e-book, 'Myspace Band Fund' this weekend! Free chapters will be given away in a first come, first serve basis!

Qoute of the day from Akon and DJ Khalid, "We taking over, one city at a time!"

-G-Ro

Social Networks Impact Music Downloads; Piracy Growing

While music piracy rises and legal downloads of music allegedly slow (that is, unless you're iTunes), social networks boast a growing impact on the way users consume music.

This news comes per a survey by Entertainment Media Research (EMR) and law firm Olswang, MarketingCharts reports.

The survey interviewed 1,700 music consumers age 13-60 and found that music is important to social networkers: 39 percent have embedded music in their personal profiles.

70 percent said they embed music to show off their taste; half said music is a good way to reflect personality.

Some other survey findings:

• Some 53 percent of people actively surf social networking sites to find music.
• 30 percent said they went on to buy or download music that they had discovered on a social network site (for MySpace, the proportion is 36 percent).
• On popular sites the numbers of people who use sites to find music increase - for MySpace and Bebo, 75 percent and 72 percent, respectively, and 66 percent for YouTube.
• 46 percent say they wish it were easier to purchase music they had discovered on social networking sites - for example via a "buy now" button on the site.
• The number of those saying they illegally download music tracks has increased, from 40 percent in 2005 and 36 percent in 2006 to 43 percent in 2007.

MarketingCharts provides more charts and data.