For all the attention that social networking has gotten in the last year, it's penetration isn't nearly as high as we're lead to believe, at least in this space. I do have an explanation, however.
1) Let's face it, everyone in a small company is overworked. Each person wears a number of different hats and it's pretty much impossible to do anything particularly well with so little time to spend on each task. Social networking is time consuming, and there's just not enough hours in the day to get it done, even if you're aware of the potential benefits.
2) Most PR firms are blissfully unaware of social media. The ones I spoke with told me about attending seminars to learn about it, so they're still neophytes themselves, but even they didn't have the time to get their arms around the discipline for their clients.
If the musical instrument industry, which is relatively hip, has these problems, can you imagine what other industries are like? The bottom line is that there's a real opportunity for a social PR company to take up the considerable slack that's being left by existing PR.
By the way, Jet City Amplifiers, a brand new amp company, is one of the few exceptions, with a pretty good Facebook and Twitter presence that has stoked their sales considerably right out of the box.
4 comments:
Many of these manufacturers, unlike most bands, have fora where a lot of info is shared. Of course, i understand this isn't the same as a Facebook or Myspace link, but nevertheless quite effective in getting their message across.
It's true than many of the larger companies have forums, and they're hugely helpful for tech issues. But they could be interacting with potential customers if they were more involved in social networking, rather than interacting with only their existing customers. This is especially true for startups.
I was looking for evidence of social media on literature and on booth graphics. True. a number of companies were tweeting, butt they sure weren't making the fact known.
NAMM Show 2016 is very cool in a lot of ways. There were off-the-hook large crowds, which was good because the exhibition had a lot of energy and vitality, but also bad because traffic and parking were the worst I've ever experienced.
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