[misguided]

I personally think Twitter is dumb and full of pandering. The idea of Social Media is huge, but is just barely been tapped. Twitter is so short-sighted and only reaches bored middle/Upper classes. I agree.

[breathesgelatin]

hello_juliana, on 09 March 2012 - 04:37 PM, said:

What I meant is that BC doesn't have a keynote, Brian does. You can accuse Billy of the same thing.

Brian Solis doesn't have a keynote either. Here is a list of the people that have keynotes:

http://sxsw.com/inte.../talks/keynotes

Just because you have a session or panel approved, doesn't make you very prestigious. The keynotes are prestigious.

Arachnea, on 09 March 2012 - 05:15 PM, said:

I realize that. The fans bit was in reference to what you posted earlier, about how Solis could help SP with fan relations. My point is that I think Billy is associating with the wrong person. Solis is not even a "thought leader" in the social media realm. He is an industry analyst (http://www.readwrite...dustry_lead.php). He is a guy that has used industry connections and generic marketing techniques (via twitter and blogging) to build up his reputation for something he is not.

Totally agree. Brian Solis is lame. I'm not even in his field, so I've hesitated to say anything judgmental about him. But honestly? He works at Altimeter which evidently is a high-dollar consulting firm. He goes around giving motivation speeches to business about social media, essentially, from what I can tell. He may also go into companies and analyze their social media/branding strategies. But I don't see what he's doing that's so innovative or cutting edge. His job is basically to go around telling old corporate white dudes that they need to get on Facebook and Twitter. Good for him. But the point is so obvious. DUH.

His blog posts are basically laughable. I could have put any of them together if I gathered the same information and in many cases probably done a better job. It is actually offensive to me that he calls himself a sociologist and researcher. I have many friends who are professional researchers in academia and some who are even in the field of sociology; he doesn't appear to have any of their research skills (quantitative or qualitative) and it certainly doesn't strike me that he's doing original research studies. His writing is poor. Extremely poor.

Furthermore, his branding expertise is not even in the area of music. What does he know about the music industry? Based on the topics he covers on his blog, he works with corporations, not artists, so I am even less interested to see what he has to say about SP + Billy. Might he have some insights? Sure. For example, I don't find the way the official SP Twitter account has been used for the past several months to be at all effective. I bet Brian might have some ideas about that. But I could probably do just as good a job.

Honestly, the whole idea behind consulting and consultants (which is what Brian Solis REALLY is) is that you bring in someone who comes with credentials (an MBA from Harvard or Penn, or what have you) to reveal to the entrenched forces of the status quo in an organization what should be obvious to anyone with a modicum of intelligence. If corporations are that averse to change that they need consultants, fine, but let's not celebrate Brian Solis as someone who really matters.

I mean just look who retweets/interacts with him on Twitter. Are they true movers and shakers?

[hello_juliana]

breathesgelatin, on 09 March 2012 - 06:09 PM, said:

His job is basically to go around telling old corporate white dudes that they need to get on Facebook and Twitter. Good for him. But the point is so obvious. DUH.

That's all I thought he did. I basically do that too. That's why I just think if he does anything for sp it will just be basics. But there is nothing wrong with that. However, most likely he is just gonna talk with bc and may not be actually part of anything.

[ShamanO]

:scatch:/> but does SP need anymore of the basics? Shouldn't there be a step forward/up from the basics now?

[Bountiful_Wasteland]

breathesgelatin, on 09 March 2012 - 06:09 PM, said:

Furthermore, his branding expertise is not even in the area of music. What does he know about the music industry? Based on the topics he covers on his blog, he works with corporations, not artists, so I am even less interested to see what he has to say about SP + Billy. Might he have some insights? Sure. For example, I don't find the way the official SP Twitter account has been used for the past several months to be at all effective. I bet Brian might have some ideas about that. But I could probably do just as good a job.

I think Rynda has been doing an excellent job running the SP twitter and FB, She really has a knack for drawing the casual fans in and getting them to talk more about the band. Hell, in the past year I've observed the number of likes the SP Facebook page go from hundred of thousands, to 2 million+, in a little over a year! Where I think they've fallen flat is with SPRC. Rynda is very good at stirring buzz and feedback on Twitter, but there was so much more she could have leveraged if they would have stayed on top of SPRC releases given how quiet the last few months have been.

ShamanO, on 09 March 2012 - 10:36 PM, said:

:scatch:/> but does SP need anymore of the basics? Shouldn't there be a step forward/up from the basics now?

The buzz Rynda has been able to generate has been a big step in the right direction, but I would say the band is still far from "covering the basics". I still feel like they have yet to establish the baseline tactics for positive fan interaction. It all comes down to the fact that many fans are still not satisfied with the SP experience. Of course, there will always be those fans who will remain unsatisfied for unrealistic reasons, but there are a lot of more or less reasonable fans who feel like their expectations aren't being met. Primarily the gripe seems to be current music quality, but beyond that the communication, and the trust have definitely eroded some with all this seemingly empty posturing and hyperbole. Bottom line: fans (in any form of media) want to come away with a positive overall experience, that's what will keep fans around, and enable them to find more fans. Tapping newer fans should also be a priority for them now, and while this grand promotion for Oceania is all well and good, there is a wealth of other healthy online communities with strong word of mouth (youtube, reddit, etc.) that have been totally overlooked in this regard. I strongly believe that these kind of popular online hangouts would be a much better target for recruiting new fans than breaking out the fanfare in the name of trying to be "revolutionary" (not to mention all this big talk with so little to back it up has put A LOT of people off). Finally, I still can't quite wrap my head around why they are doing this discussion. As I've already said, Billy has been far from a shining example of the kind of fan engagement startegies that Mr. Solis has prescribed to avoid the pitfalls of "Digital Darwinism". In fact, the only way this discussion would make any sense is if Billy offered all his examples of how not to properly engaing fans online through social media has hurt him (of which we all know there are many) in the past 5 or so years. If Billy walks out on stage and tries to play it all off like they've had more than just modest success online, I will cringe.

This post has been edited by Bountiful_Wasteland: 10 March 2012 - 03:20 AM