In his article for iMedia Connection, Larry Weintraub of Fanscape starts by recounting his agency s foray into building online communities for musicians and bands. These, he recalls, were the days when GeoCities and Angelfire were the closest things to online socializing. His first indication of the power of social media came as he watched it change the traditionally disconnected relationship between musicians and fans. To see what it morphed into, do a quick check on fan adoring pages for popular artists on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Not surprisingly, as Fanscape evolved from underground music pusher to full-fledged social media agency, they learned a thing or two about the fundamentals of building an online following.
Weintraub presents two case studies of recent projects for MTV and Gamestop. In them he departs some of the most essential components to building and running a social media campaign. One sweet kernel of truth: considering that the campaign is meant to engage millions, start by putting yourself in the shoes of one of your targets and ask, Why would I care? The Gamestop campaign, which centered on a Guitar Hero contest, did an especially brilliant job of tackling that very question and tactically executing on it.
Read Weintraub s full article at iMedia Connection.
