Music

I continue to be impressed by what Amazonmp3 is doing. Someone over there really gets how to leverage technology. You wouldn't think this would be so surprising being that Amazon was one of the first to leverage technology, but, man oh man, I've seen some doofus moves from companies who should know better. So, as I say, it's been nice to see someone really doing it right.

Everyone talks about how bands, companies, whomever should be using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to their respective advantage, but no one really says exactly how you should do this.

Truth be told, this is about the first time I've seen anyone do anything really smart with social networking.

So, here's what they're doing: Amazonmp3 set up a Facebook page - nothing too ground breaking about that. But what is well-played is how they're leveraging it to allow customers to become a part of the building process of the Amazonmp3 store. Specifically, they started a discussion topic asking members of the Facebook group what album they'd like to see on sale for a day. Simple as that. No complicated rules, legal provisions, contest, blah. Just this:

Any particular album you'd like to see on sale for a day? optional: and why?

After they got some responses, they went with The Best of Talking Heads. Certainly a righteous choice.

They made the whole thing "viral" by telling everyone who comes to the Amazonmp3 store that the selection was made via their Facebook page.

Doing it this way has the result of getting more people to go to the Facebook page, and making those who are using the Facebook page feel like they're actually participating in building/defining the effort.

It's so important for companies or musicians to not just view their customers/fans as recipients of their products/services/records, but as participants in building and defining the effort.

To be sure, only a very small handful of customers/fans will engage in these types of things, but this small percentage (the early adopters/mavens/evangelists) are the ones who pull the more casual customers/fans along for the ride.

What an effort like the one by Amazon's does is identify the special people (early adopters/mavens/evangelists), and begins the process of building a relationship with them. Additionally, as is seen from the answers to Amazon's question, a tremendous amount of information is derived from the customer. And, guess what, by employing this types of gambit, you get the information for free (no expensive customer surveys, etc.), and you get real information (i.e. people aren't just filing out some questionnaire so that they can get a prize; they're doing it because they want to and because they believe their opinion matters).

Smart. Smart. Smart.

More bands need to leverage Facebook/MySpace in this manner rather than simply using it as a barely effective communication device.