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Marketing music online isn't an easy job these days. There are many places to be and a gazillion tools to use. With all the learning and managing required your head can start spinning pretty quickly and your precious time can evaporate quicker than Windex on sun-drenched windshield. But I think Google Plus might just help us with that.
Brogan Knows
At first thought Google Plus looked like another take it or leave it ploy by Google to grab some attention away from the Facebooks and Twitters of the world. But after reading Chris Brogan's Google Plus 50 post, I have changed my mind, BIG time.
He goes through and points out how Google plus – along with some of the new features like Circles (more on that below) – will bring all of their stand alone tools like Picasa, Gchat, Gmail, etc together for a one stop social party. Which got even more weight a day later when Google announces is will rebrand Picasa and Blogger.
Add that to fact 400,000+ Android phones are being activate per day it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see Google might have something here that is useful for music promotion.
Here is the part of the Chris's post that really perked my interest.
“How long before we see our first Hangout live music “jam?” That’s one record button away from being supercool. And one “name your price” Google Checkout tweak away from being instant micro content for sale.”
How cool would that be? Monetized (or not) push button live shows – with all the promotion tools included – at your finger tips. Almost makes sites like Ustream and StageIt sound complicated.
Circle Jerks Works
CDBaby also recognized the potential of the Google Plus Circles feature in a post . They bring up a great point:
Basically, you can put your friends into different categories and communicate with each of them separately. For most users, circles would probably include “family,” “close friends,” “acquaintances,” “work associates,” etc. But for musicians, this function could have some added benefits if account holders are allowed to create circles for in-town fans, fellow musicians, booking contacts, studio owners, journalists and bloggers, etc
That will be pretty slick. How many times do you want to share links, vids or chit chat with other artists about music marketing on various social networks but don't because you don't want to share that conversation with your fans and vice-versa?
Being able to segment conversations means you may not have to have two Twitter accounts or multiple fanpages to log in and out of.
Only The Beginning
And really that is the tip of the iceberg. I can't get in to try out Google Plus at the moment to really poke and prod but you can bet I will be in there playing around the minute I get a chance. Stay tuned
In the meantime, go check out Google+ for yourself. And I strongly encourage you to go and read Chris Brogan's Google Plus 50 post and check out the conversation going on in the comments because he goes into way more depth than I have time or first hand knowledge to here.
Oh and as a side note, Google getting bigger and better is kind of freaky. Hell, between my email, my reader, my phone, etc, the conspiracy theorist in me knows they have a crap load of my information. But [fingers crossed] hopefully it is much ado about nothing and I can reap some time saving and fan finding benefits of pretty innovative thinking on their part.
Enough from me. What about you? Do you know something I don't? Will you use Google Plus?
Good post Corey. I can def see the benefit. My 2 cents – create a profile and check everything out. Don’t invest heavily until you start to see mass adoption from the general public. While I love Chris Brogan, he is an early adopter and just b/c he likes it doesn’t mean the 16 year old chick who listens to puck rock will.
Good stuff Corey. I’ve been playing with Google + for a little while now and haven’t seen much action just yet. But it’s very early. Seems I just got rid of my Google Buzz buttons in time for Google + 🙂 But something tells me this one might have more legs. I guess we wait and see. Your post has got me thinking about it though. Thanks.
Google+ has the potential to be THE most powerful social/biz marketing tool we (almost) have. Google is creating a cyber space that guarantees you’ll spend more time on Google than anywhere else, thus making Google ads even more important + the inevitible SEM + the integration of QR and Google+ provides ENDLESS opportunities for marketing…especially for musicians…this is a merchandiser’s dream come true! I can’t wait to start communicating with the Google+ audience 🙂
Some cool points, but every time something new comes out everyone wants to hype hype hype it to be the answer. It will only be a good tool if it’s used properly, and to be honest I don’t see the average musician doing that. They’ll just set it up and spam us like they do on Facebook and Twitter.
Hopefully we’ll have a cool story in a few months of some creative usage of it!
Thanks Eric,
I agree on the “something new… hype, hype, hype” point. This one just “feels” a little different. A little more thought out on Google’s end. You could look at the SPAM a few ways. One, just means there’s a lot of business for you out there to teach them the right way. Or two, easier to cut through the clutter for musicians doing it the right way.
Thanks Greg, you are right, set up a profile and see what happens. I started in that direction – original title was “Why Musicians Should Keep An Eye on Google+” – but tweaked it to “consider” to make it a tad more evergreen.
Mass adoption is a key point but don’t you think the fact that Google owning the Android platform (400,000 new users per day) will go a long way in helping that cause? I am sure Google will make it really easy to find and use all these tools. Right now sharing a picture on my Facebook Page – and all the places I want to share it – is a little clunky, Google+ (i’m betting) will make it easier, which will increase use across the board. Also, that 16 year old Punk rockers along with that 60 years polka nuts will eventually need to upgrade their device (phone or tablet) and there is a very good chance their device it will have Android.
Mass adoption aside, do we really need everyone to be on Google+ to reap the benefits of all of these marketing tools? If we start the party on G+ and send out invites on Twitter, Facebook, etc, etc, they’re going to come if its a party they think they need to be at. I don’t need everyone on gmail to reap the benefits of it, it is handy but not necessary.
Thanks John, I was thinking the same thing on the Buzz button but my mind started changing after reading all the great content out there (also see my comments to Greg). But you are right, we’ll have to wait and see.
Thanks Jen, you make some great points and you drove home my point about Google+ being a potential “dream come true” and at the same time freaky (all Google cyberspace).
My personal opinion is that everything in music marketing is a test.
I test new stuff out everyday and you can bet I’ll be testing out Google+ when it comes out of beta.
The reason this is so important for me is because some things just click and work like a champ a then a lot of things bomb. So I need to keep testing to filter out the winners.
To be honest I’m just monitoring the buzz and the moment and was looking for a post like Chris’s to really get my head around it.
Love your blog Corey,
– Chris
Interesting article. Our band, Hot Karate, is the first band on Google+. We’re going to be releasing content exclusively through it this weekend, but it may be too early for the service to be effective, as it’s still so private.
Yeah, we’re starting to try it out too! It’s just nice to have a new spot to check out other new bands in the area.
It would be great to have it turn into such a good organizational tool. Hopefully that’s the way to do it!
Chris,
I wonder what the platform “page” will be for each artist. And bringing fans from established social media outlets may be a pain because of the impersonal nature of Facebook fan pages. Unless in addition to mass adoption they find you on google plus. Some kinda gimmick to bring them over?
Good insight!
Corey**** : )
Does anyone here know exactly how a band/artist makes a profile on Google+? I already have a regular Google+ account, but I have not been able figure out how to make one for my music.
Abe,
Thanks for stopping. t is not possible at this time. Right now you can only do a personal page. Word is that Google is going to roll out a “business” type page eventually. For now, I personally am just using my personal page as my artist page. Since I am solo it really doesn’t matter but I can see if you are in a band or are branding yourself separately but you will have to wait and keep your eyes open on that.
I concur with the content of this publication. The video chatting will be a Boone for not only music, but just about any venture you can name.
– Glenn Davis Doctor G
good post on google plus must share…Preeths last post is http://techplugged.com/2011/07/29/link-and-post-google-plus-twitter-and-facebook-together/
I think Google+ has the potential to be very cool, and I’m enjoying playing around with it. It will be interesting to see how bands end up making use of it, and what the business profile looks like.
It’s already seeming to me that we’ll end up with multiple google+ accounts: personal, band, blog, etc.. I have to say I’m not thrilled about having another set of accounts to maintain, but we’ll see how it plays out.