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Like / Unlike

a.k.a. “Would you like to become a fan?”

Exploring social media in b(r)and communica>on

Laura Laaksonen

Laura Laaksonen / Aalto University School of Economics / IDBM Program / BogFires Research Project / Arts in Consumer Culture

Objec>ve

Provide insights to tribal markeEng and brand communicaEon of Finnish metal bands in social media, with a parEcular focus

on facebook, today’s leading social media plaIorm


Literature

“Research interest in the concept of consumer tribes (e.g., BenneM, 1999; Cova, 1997; Cova and Cova, 2002; Cova et al., 2007, Kozinets, 1999; PaMerson, 1998), and brand communi>es (e.g., McAlexander et al., 2002; Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001) has increased significantly in recent years.” “Brand idenEty is co-‐created with consumers and other stakeholders and this element of co-‐creaEon is especially apparent in consumer groups such as brand communiEes. Typically, these groups become acEve carriers of brand meaning, rather than followers of the company's idea of the consEtuEon of their brand (e.g., Csaba and Bengtsson, 2006; McAlexander et al., 2002; Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001).” (Payne et al. 2009)


According to Cova and Cova (2002) tribe members can assume different roles: ”member'’- ”participant'’- ”practitioner'' - ”sympathiser'' “Technology allows interaction and the appropriation and combination of multiple media, vastly increased the number of people engaging in interactive popular culture activities... ...Online technologies have changed the relationship of audience members not just to popular culture producers but also to each other”. (Williams 2008).


Social media users communicate their personality to their friends and to the rest of the world. We can safely claim that Facebook profiles are carefully constructed tokens of identity. Thus these pages do not necessarily give a correct illustration of what people are, but more of how they would like to be perceived by others.

(Casteleyn et al 2009, Beer 2008)


We necessarily need to define ourselves and others in terms of what we are not (Facebook profiles are a perfect illustration of this) People try to describe themselves by referring to elements that are not exclusively theirs (e.g. interests and favourite music) Popular culture has always been the identification of audience members with celebrity as people performed identities through public appropriation of celebrity images, for example students decorated school lockers with photos of celebrities or wore rock concert t-shirts to connect the attributes of the popular culture reference to their own identities. (Burke 1945, Casteleyn et al 2009, Williams, 2008)


“The market researcher operating in this confessional society [Web.2.0] will be researching people marketing themselves.“ “Facebook data could therefore be seen as a crystal ball for future consumer intentions, as most of the actions performed on Facebook are displayed in the news feed that all your friends see when opening their Facebook account.” “Performing an action in Facebook could be compared to acting on a stage”

(Casteleyn et al 2009, Beer 2008)


Facebook in brief

More than 500 million active users

50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day Average user has 130 friends People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook


Facebook for ar>sts and bands Bio and Band Photo Songs for streaming or download Selling music Show or gig schedule Selling tickets to shows Mailing list Track how your music is spreading (who's listening? who's sharing? which songs?) to measure your popularity.


Methodology

-‐ QualitaEve in-‐depth case study

-‐  Interviews and secondary data

-‐  Netnographic study in facebook (brief)


The data

”Know the demographics and sociographics of your fan base. "We enable that" but the band needs to do the work. ArEsts need to build the fundamentals of the business. Put a system on place so that you will get en email / a friend recommendaEon etc. Those who will be able to provide value will survive.” (Paul Menes, Special Counsel, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold LLC) ”It's about building the relaEonship with the fans. "the relaEonship is the brand" (Bill Siddons, Former Manager of The Doors) ”Fanbase is the bargaining power”

“Two-‐way interacEon-‐ making it more personal”


“Kids want to discover the music themselves, it’s the jungle drums that matter.” (Steve Schnur – Worldwide Head of Music & Marketing, EA Games)

“You need social media tools, unless you know who your fan is you don’t know what your next move is.” (McCartney, CEO/Co-Founder, McCartney Multimedia, Inc)

“You can do so much ‘cos the kids can pick when to watch and what.” (Rogers, CEO, TopSpin)

“Fans want to see the artist is real” (Safta Jaffrey, Managing Director, Taste Music)


Some numbers


Band Oct 2010 April 2011 change % Oct 2011 change %

Nightwish 1163716 1693452 529736 45,5 2310436 1146720 98,5

COB 789383 1118315 328932 41,7 1475553 686170 86,9

HIM 521012 824326 303314 58,2 1092512 571500 109,7

Sonata Arctica 262106 372364 110258 42,1 542853 280747 107,1

Stratovarius 212955 320495 107540 50,5 466270 253315 119,0

Korpiklaani 133987 190972 56985 42,5 269110 135123 100,8

Lordi 132950 190618 57668 43,4 253904 120954 91,0

Ensiferum 123582 170412 46830 37,9 241811 118229 95,7

Amorphis 76731 101555 24824 32,4 144075 67344 87,8

Turisas 63376 90984 27608 43,6 133827 70451 111,2

Some numbers

Band fans posts 5-10/2010 formal informal formal ratio

Nightwish 1163716 35 9 26 26 %

COB 789383 77 42 35 55 %

HIM 521012 6 6 0 100 %

Sonata Arctica 262106 11 9 2 82 %

Stratovarius 212955 15 7 8 47 %

Korpiklaani 133987 38 9 29 24 %

Lordi 132950 (June 23-Oct 30) 60 60 0 100 %

Ensiferum 123582 19 19 0 100 %

Amorphis 76731 43 38 5 88 %

Turisas 63376 63 43 20 68 %


Iden>fied strategies

Ignorant - not using facebook page for marketing (e.g. Negative, who have several local gruops and pages) Informative - using facebook for advertising shows, merchandise, new releases, press appearances, new promo shots etc. but not creating eny other content for the fans. (e.g. HIM) Informal - majority of the posts are informal, e.g. photo- and videofootage from ”behind the scenes”, blogposts and personilized statusmessages. (Nightwish) Informal & Informative - content is half formal and half informal. (COB)


Findings and Discussion

We find consistency with Cova & Cova (2002) that within the members of the tribe, in this case facebook fans, there are different levels of commitment/involvement. Different strategies in facebook markeEng: informal & informaEve (and ignorant). We also find that more personal/emoEonal posts aMract more ”likes” and ”comments”, consistent with the interview data. Could facebook really be a crystal ball of the future, since cumulaEve sales do not correlate to the amount of virtual fans? It is risky to rely completely on an outsde service provider, but stupid not to take advantage of it. DramaEc growth in the amount of fans in 2010.


Thank you!

Laura Laaksonen / Aalto University School of Economics / IDBM Program / BogFires Research Project / Arts in Consumer Culture / Feb 26th 2010


Laura Laaksonen / Aalto University School of Economics / IDBM Program / BogFires Research Project / Arts in Consumer Culture / Feb 26th 2010


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