Web Ink Now

Full video of my Inbound 2012 keynote featuring Cyndi Lauper

Several months ago I kicked off HubSpot's Inbound 2012 conference in Boston with a keynote titled "Inbound Now" detailing how to get found as people search for products and services on the Web and mobile devices like Androids and iPads. The video of the talk is now available.

The presentation to 2,500+ entrepreneurs and marketing professionals focused on the 4 ways to create the information that search engines rank highly and that people share on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Featuring Q&A with and a live performance by Cyndi Lauper!

Being a live music geek, I played off the conference theme Inbound Rocks to use music examples - including the Grateful Dead, Amanda Palmer, the Avett Brothers, STS9, and Cyndi Lauper - throughout the talk and was thrilled to interview Cyndi live on stage.

Direct link to David Meerman Scott keynotes Inbound 2012 featuring Cyndi Lauper on Vimeo.

At about 7:45 is a one-minute video interview I did with Amanda Palmer. Amanda talks about how she engages with her fans on social networks. Amanda crowdsourced the funding of her latest album on Kickstarter in what is the most successful music funding effort in Kickstarter history.

At about 31:50 I go into the audience to show how the Grateful Dead engaged fans. I find out how many people are Grateful Dead fans and who in the audience has attended multiple Dead shows. This is to prove the "true fans come back for more & spend lots of money" idea. In 2,500-person audience, about 100 had seen the band live. About 10 had seen more than 50 shows. Three over 100 shows and the most was 173 times.

At about 40:30 I interview Cyndi Lauper live. We talk about how she stays relevant and engages with fans through social media. First thing out of Cyndi's mouth (after she compared our shirts): "I stopped listening to the record company."

And at 45:30 Cyndi and her band did a killer live performance of "Crossroads." Her band featured blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite.

In our digital world analog communications breaks through the clutter

As more and more people use social networks to communicate and companies use online channels to market, its important to remember good old analog.

When we get hundreds of email messages a day, taking the time to hand write a thank you note and put it in an envelope with a stamp and mail it shows you care.

When everyone says "your business is important to us" and then puts you into phone tree hell when you call, a personally answered telephone is a surprising bonus.

I've been thinking about how quickly digital communications has become a dominate medium and how, sometimes, the good old analog approach works.

The best companies seem to have a combination of both excellent online and offline marketing and communications.

It's not just marketing either. With the rise of Electronic Dance Music, a combination of new EDM techniques with good old analog music makes for an great tunes.

Earlier this month I attended the terrific Gathering of the Vibes music festival and say the analog and digital music worlds collide in some fascinating ways. I wrote about it for the Huffington Post: Electronic Dance Music and Jam Bands Tap the Same Fan Vibe.

One musician who sits squarely in the middle of digital and analog music is Mickey Hart, percussionist for the Grateful Dead from 1967 until the band stopped touring upon Jerry Garcia's death in 1995. He brought his Mickey Hart Band to Gathering of the Vibes. His newest album, Mysterium Tremendum, fuses elements of the jam band scene he lived in for decades with today's electronic music.

"I live in two worlds," Mickey told me. "One, the archaic world of drums and drumming -- I'm strongly embedded in it, I love striking a membrane and hearing its report and playing real rhythm. And I have one foot firmly planted in the digital domain. This is such a wonderful time where science and art are now handshaking and becoming one. I am embedding the electronic worlds in which I feel comfortable into my music. I'm into pulsing and throbbing. What you're seeing now is a wonderful groundswell of binary and acoustic information coming together into new music."

You can see Mickey riffing on this theme for me in this video. He had just finished his set and was quite animated, speaking for four nonstop minutes on my question of digital vs. analog music. You might notice beer bottles around Mickey. He had set up 70 beer bottles for Jerry Garcia's 70th birthday and had been playing them with his drumsticks.

Direct link to Mickey Hart on fusing percussion and digital to make music on YouTube.

Like Mickey Hart and his fusing of analog and digital music, how are you fusing analog and digital marketing and communications?

Photo: STS9 at Gathering of the Vibes, July 21. 2012. Credit: Richard Gastwirt

Who do you compare yourself to?

As you create products and services as well as the strategies to generate attention for your business, who or what do you compare yourself to?

Most executives have a relentless focus on the direct competition and use that as a benchmark for comparison. They look at the competition's products, price, marketing and try to do the same but with an incremental increase.

But the strategy of comparisons to your close competitor means that you are likely to become a "me too" that’s just a little better, faster, or cheaper. That's no position to be in.

Microsoft tablet computer anyone?

Compare to people and companies in other industries

True leaders forget about the competition.

Many look to other industries to compare to.

For example, in highly regulated industries like pharmaceutical, healthcare, and finance, the competition is very likely to follow the pack and be fearful of engaging the market with compelling content and social media. Comparing to this market means you’d also be fearful and say "no". If all the hospitals in my area don't have a YouTube channel, why should we?

Smart marketers like Chris Boyer and companies like Inova Health System don't worry about other healthcare providers. If they did, they would say no to blogs, twitter, YouTube and the like. Instead, they look to the best of consumer products companies as their model for success.

Learning from outside your comfort zone

It's always fun when nonprofits look to for-profit businesses. Successful B2B outfits take a page out of B2C playbooks. Service business look to product companies for inspiration (and vice versa). A lawyer markets like a novelist. And a novelist communicates like a journalist.

Try to get away from the comfort of your own peer group and see what you can learn from those outside your industry.

As for me...

I'm a huge live music fan. I've seen nearly 500 bands live and am interested in how musicians and bands perform as well a how they market themselves. So that's who I compare myself to.

I've learned a great deal from people like Amanda Palmer and bands like the Grateful Dead.

When I go to a live show, I watch how the musicians interact on stage and I adopt some of the moves in my own live speeches.

As an example, at the top of this post is a photo I took (iPhone 4S tweaked with Instagram) of Tyson Ritter of the All-American Rejects at a recent Boston show (thanks to my friend Jodi who manages the band and invited me to watch from the photo pit). Tyson is way out front standing on a monitor and interacting with the audience.

The photo of me by Jay Blakesberg is at my NAMM keynote this year. I'm also way out front standing on a monitor and interacting with the audience.

I've got no musical ability but have always loved watching how rock stars move and interact. How cool that I can do the same but in a different business!!

I've never seen another speaker in the hundreds of events I've spoken at jump onto a monitor. I learned the move from someone outside my “competition”.

Another example: I looked to the Grateful Dead for inspiration about sharing content. Learning from the Dead, I give lots of content away for free (with no email address required).

I'm convinced that by learning from musicians and bands, I've developed a more personal style than had I just copied other business authors and speakers.

How about you?

Do you copy the direct competitors? Or do you look outside your industry for inspiration?

#FAIL: When copywriters don't know the product

At the beautiful JW Marriott Starr Pass resort Hashani Spa in Tucson, Arizona there is a big disconnect between marketing and reality.

The copywriters say:

"At Hashani Spa, one is not healed by the treatment they are receiving, but by the sensory bliss of the magical Sonoran Desert."

The rocks are engraved with the words: Tranquility. Harmony. Peace.

Check out the very relaxing photos on the Hashani Spa site.

They play loud music with vocals. You cannot relax. There is no tranquility. There is no harmony. There is no peace.

#FAIL.

Direct link to #FAIL: When copywriters don't know the product on YouTube.

I spoke with four different people about this disconnect. It turns out the music to the outdoor part of the spa is on the same channel as the other outdoor pool areas. You know, the ones with adults drinking and kids screaming – the place where blaring music is acceptable.

It was impossible for hotel staff to eliminate the music being piped into the spa.

Do the copywriters know this? Probably not. My guess is they're in some comfortable corporate office somewhere and have never visited the property.

How can we trust marketing if there is a disconnect with reality?

Amanda Palmer freaks out to celebrate hitting $1 million on Kickstarter

Yesterday evening, I met up with Amanda Palmer (together with my friend Steve Garfield) on Lexington Battle Green.

We filmed a video that I'll be using in an upcoming presentation and which I'll be sharing here in the future.

The timing was awesome as just a few hours before we met, Amanda's Kickstarter for her new album Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra passed the $1 million dollar mark.

Here's Amanda celebrating her milestone which is the largest amount ever raised for a music project on Kickstarter.

I wrote about her new project when she launched a month ago in my blog post We are the media: Amanda Palmer and the future of your business.

There are now over 21,000 backers, including me, Steve, and many of our social friends including Denise Wakeman. I'm looking forward to Amanda’s Boston art opening and concert. If you go to the Boston event, let me know.

Imagine that. Tens of thousands of Amanda's fans backed her new album before they even heard it. That's the power of a fan base and using social media to connect with fans.

One way to do an album is to have a record label fund it. As Amanda shows, there’s a better way: Have your fans fund it and then you retain control.

Direct link to Amanda Palmer Dances to Celebrate Passing $1 Million on Kickstarter on YouTube.

Amanda Palmer site (where you can get a free album preview track).
@AmandaPalmer on Twitter
Amanda's Kickstarter

Endorsements and opening acts

As a live music geek, I am always interested in the opening act.

Who has the headliner (and their manager) agreed to share the stage with? Why was the act chosen? Is it simply because they are on the same label and somebody owes somebody else a favor? Or do the headliners love the opener’s music?

I always arrive early at the music venue to check out the opener.

Back in April 2009 I caught The Faint at my favorite music venue in the world The Fillmore in San Francisco (apple anyone?). The opening act was Ladytron.

I hadn't heard Ladytron before, but was instantly transfixed by the New Wave style Electropop combined with a high-end dance-club light show. Their sound sort of reminded me of some of my favorite bands from my college days like the B52s but updated.

The next morning I went to iTunes and downloaded several Ladytron albums (yes I support artists by paying for music). I also put Ladytron into my Ticketmaster alert profile so I'd know when they next hit the Boston area.

On Friday night, I finally got to see Ladytron again, this time at The Paradise in Boston, a perfect small club for live music.

The idea of opening acts intrigues me as a marketer. If Ladytron hadn't opened for The Faint, I never would have heard the music and spent money on their art.

Opening acts are smart marketing

There are many other ways that opening acts can be used by marketers. An obvious parallel is in the conference business where an organizer chooses a headliner who will draw a crowd and sell some tickets but they also offer an opportunity for lesser-known speakers to share the stage. When done well, the opening speakers are up and coming presenters who are just as skilled as the headliner with an important message to deliver, but aren’t as well known (yet). When done poorly, the opening speakers are poor presenters but given stage time because they paid a sponsor fee or they’re buddies with the organizer.

Endorsements

Looking at it more broadly, offering someone an opening act slot is an endorsement.

There are many examples of endorsements as a marketing tool. A few that come to mind are product endorsements used in advertising, book jacket endorsements, quotes offered in press releases, references for job applications, the setting up of blind dates, and well-known people serving on high-profile advisory boards. LinkedIn built an entire company on endorsements of business peers.

As with the music world, all of these forms of endorsements work well when the person doing the endorsing truly believe in the product, company, or person they are plugging.

When it is strictly a financial exchange, the entire endorsement system falls apart. If someone simply takes money to endorse a product they do not actually believe in, they diminish their credibility. Do that too many times, and there is no credibility left.

If you are in a position to offer your endorsement, do it carefully. Don't be afraid to say "no." Be extra cautious about taking money for an endorsement.

If you are looking for an endorsement, find someone who people trust. Aim high.

PS. Ladytron's opening act on Friday night was VHS or Beta. Never heard of them before. Now I have. And since Ladytron introduced me, I take the introduction seriously.

DMScott Photo: Ladytron at the Paradise on October 7, 2011.

Summer music series: How brands engage with live music fans

I've enjoyed creating this week of blog posts centering around live music, a passion of mine.

Today we talk about how brands engage with live music fans. I've had several conversations about this with my friend Jay Blakesberg.

Jay is a well-known rock photographer who has shot rock royalty for more than 30 years. His photographs have appeared on numerous album covers, in Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He also produces video and other content for brands and bands.

Jay's photos appear in my book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History which I co-wrote with Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot.

People like me are passionate about music. We make live music an important part of our lives. Being the geek that I am, I have a database with a listing of 436 live gigs I've caught since 1976.

The challenge for companies is to tap into this passion. There's a music lifestyle for brands to engage with, if they are clever about it. Music can connect a brand through mobile, the web and social media.

In this video, I speak with Jay about his ideas for social media engagement, especially with Facebook. It's simple really – if you create some great content, fans will share it. Better yet, the bands will share it with their fans! Some artists have 100,000 or even 1,000,000 Facebook fans.

The power of the Facebook share worked for me just this week. On Tuesday, I posted as part of this summer music series: Do what you love which included my video interview with Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart. Well, Mickey shared my video on Twitter and on Facebook (where more than 60 people "liked" it in just one day). This drove a bunch of views to the video and gave people I didn’t know yet exposure to my book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. How cool is that?

Direct link to Jay Blakesberg on how brands engage with live music fans on YouTube.

Summer Music Series

• Monday: What YOU can learn from the music business. People are passionate about music. How can you tap into that passion?
• Tuesday: Do what you love. I interview Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart to learn what has kept him pushing his work forward for more than 50 years.
• Wednesday: How music fans support nonprofits and causes. Draws on an interview with Andy Bernstein, executive director of HeadCount.
• Thursday: Always move forward. I write about the Gathering of the Vibes music festival and how it moves music forward. Includes an article I wrote for Huffington Post and a video with quotes from Perry Farrel, Elvis Costello, Wavy Gravy, and Ken Hays.
• Friday: How brands engage with live music fans. I interview rock photographer Jay Blakesberg and we explore how to tap into music fans and the bands themselves to promote your work.

Photograph shot at Gathering of the Vibes 2011. Copyright David Meerman Scott

Summer music series: Always move forward

When Grateful Dead spiritual leader Jerry Garcia died in 1995 and the band stopped touring, many long-time fans found themselves suddenly without a reason to gather with the many friends they made on tour. It was a sad time for those people for whom the band was an important anchor in their lives. At the same time, members of the Grateful Dead wondered what to do next.

In today's installment of my Summer Music Series (which is running all of this week) I want to touch on the idea of moving forward.

In our careers, we have a choice -- We can remain stagnant, doing the same thing in the same way and within the same industry year after year.

Or we can constantly reinvent ourselves for to take advantage of the future.

In this short video, which I made at Gathering of the Vibes with my friend Tim Washer, I talk about how this festival serves as a way to move the Grateful Dead tribe forward even now, 16 years after the death of Jerry Garcia and the breakup of the band.

Direct link to Discovering the essence of Gathering of the Vibes 2011 on YouTube

In 16 years, Gathering of the Vibes has grown into a premiere northeast music festival that combines legendary artists with emerging acts to appeal to a wide cross-section of live music enthusiasts. The festival plays an important role in exposing the next generation to live music. "It's a tribute to the power, influence, and longevity of the music of the Grateful Dead that many teenagers and younger kids come to the Vibes with their parents and grandparents," says Ken Hays, founder of Gathering of the Vibes. "The cross generational influence is a tribute to how the community has sustained itself. It's particularly gratifying to me to have kids who are inspired by more than just video games."

I talk more about the festival in this piece I wrote for the Huffington Post Gathering of the Vibes Music Festival Moves the Grateful Dead Tribe Forward

Indeed, Grateful Dead music moves forward as new artists reinterpret their work. For a terrific example, consider this Scarlet Begonias Juanito Pascual interprets Grateful Dead in Flamenco Style Live

Same old song and dance

Every day I run across people who are doing things the same old way.

• Executives spend boatloads of money on traditional advertising and forbid employees to use that newfangled social media stuff.


• PR people write press releases and send broadcast spray and pray pitches and then hope for coverage rather than creating content themselves.


• Marketers let real-time opportunities pass by as they meticulously plan their future marketing & PR campaigns.

How are you reinventing and moving forward?

As I watch the careers of music artists who succeed over the long run (the Grateful Dead, Elvis Costello, and Jane’s Addiction are three that come to mind) the common thread besides good music is re-invention and moving forward.

What are you doing to move forward for success?

Summer Music Series

• Monday: What YOU can learn from the music business. People are passionate about music. How can you tap into that passion?
• Tuesday: Do what you love. I interview Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart to learn what has kept him pushing his work forward for more than 50 years.
• Wednesday: How music fans support nonprofits and causes. Draws on an interview with Andy Bernstein, executive director of HeadCount.
• Thursday: Always move forward. I write about the Gathering of the Vibes music festival and how it moves music forward. Includes an article I wrote for Huffington Post and a video with quotes from Perry Farrel, Elvis Costello, Wavy Gravy, and Ken Hays.
• Friday: How brands engage with live music fans. I interview rock photographer Jay Blakesberg and we explore how to tap into music fans and the bands themselves to promote your work.

Summer music series: How music fans support nonprofits and causes

Music fans are incredibly passionate about the bands that they love. Smart marketers tap into that passion as a way to engage audiences.

Today, in the third installment in my Summer Music Series, we'll take a look at how a nonprofit cause related organization, HeadCount, engages with music fans. Later in the week, I'll post about what companies can do within the world of live music.

In my interview with Andy Bernstein, executive director of HeadCount we talk about how HeadCount taps artists such as Dave Matthews, Phish, Death Cab for Cutie, and Bob Weir to drive interest in political action.

It's an active online community where more than half of music fans tweet or like something political every week, and a large number engage every single day.

What's most interesting is that HeadCount is using the tools of the real-time Web to engage. They use Facebook and Twitter extensively and encourage sharing.

You don't have to be a nonprofit to take away ideas from Andy!

Direct link to How music fans support nonprofits and causes on YouTube

Summer Music Series

• Monday: What YOU can learn from the music business. People are passionate about music. How can you tap into that passion?
• Tuesday: Do what you love. I interview Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart to learn what has kept him pushing his work forward for more than 50 years.
• Wednesday: How music fans support nonprofits and causes. Draws on an interview with Andy Bernstein, executive director of HeadCount.
• Thursday: Always move forward. I write about the Gathering of the Vibes music festival and how it moves music forward. Includes an article I wrote for Huffington Post and a video with quotes from Perry Farrel, Elvis Costello, Wavy Gravy, and Ken Hays.
• Friday: How brands engage with live music fans. I interview rock photographer Jay Blakesberg and we explore how to tap into music fans and the bands themselves to promote your work.

Disclosure: I'm on the (all volunteer) Digital Advisory Board of HeadCount.

Summer music series: Do what you love

In the second installment of my Summer Music Series, (which will run each day this week), I'd like to explore the concept of work.

I'm fortunate that for the past nine years I have run my own business – helping people by speaking around the world and writing about new marketing strategies. I feel so fortunate that I’ve fell into this bed of roses! It's so amazing to me that I can earn my income by doing what I love.

I learned about this by watching musicians on stage as they "work." I’m often struck by how many are so darned happy! The pure joy on their faces is infectious, making its way into the crowd so that the entire audience is smiling with them.

For a long time, I assumed I couldn't have that joy in my work life because for 10 years I was stuck in large corporations and for me it was not fulfilling. So as a direct result of being sacked, I made a change.

For an example from the music world, consider Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead. I had an opportunity to sit down with Mickey at the Gathering of the Vibes music festival last week to talk about his love for making music, his upcoming solo tour, and passing his music on to the younger generation.

Direct link to Interview with Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead at Gathering of the Vibes

You can love what you do too!

We are taught as children that work and play are opposing forces in nature. This teaching is incorrect - it is possible that your work can be like play! In fact, if you do what you love, you’ll never "work" a day in your life.

You don't have to play in a famous band like the Grateful Dead. Consider Heth and Jed. For the past six years, the brothers have been on a worldwide, never-ending tour as a rock-duo. They’ve met millions of people, played well over 1,000 shows, and sold over 45,000 CDs. And they’ve done it all without ever leaving New York City.

After many years of fruitlessly chasing a record deal with the established music industry gatekeepers, Heth and Jed cast off the safety of their sound proof, forty dollar an hour rehearsal room to take a chance on playing the concrete canyons of Manhattan. The music was embraced by millions of stressed out commuters and the duo inadvertently found the career we had been searching for all along.

Heth and Jed do what they love. Watch one of their videos and you'll see for yourself. They even recently released a memoir called: Buskers, The-On-the-Trains, In-the-Streets, Off-the-Grid-Memoir of Two New York City Street Musicians

What are you waiting for?

People often end up in "jobs" they're not passionate about because they’re living someone else’s dream — their mother-in-law's, their competitive sister's, their classmate's. It is much easier to succeed at your passion than it is to fulfill others' dreams. You're much more likely to do great work if you're doing what you love.

Not only does doing what you love increase your odds of success, it dramatically increases your happiness too. You spend more than 50 percent of your waking adult life working, so you might as well do what you love!

How about you?

Summer Music Series

• Monday: What YOU can learn from the music business. People are passionate about music. How can you tap into that passion?
• Tuesday: Do what you love. I interview Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart to learn what has kept him pushing his work forward for more than 50 years.
• Wednesday: How music fans support nonprofits and causes. Draws on an interview with Andy Bernstein, executive director of HeadCount.
• Thursday: Always move forward. I write about the Gathering of the Vibes music festival and how it moves music forward. Includes an article I wrote for Huffington Post and a video with quotes from Perry Farrel, Elvis Costello, Wavy Gravy, and Ken Hays.
• Friday: How brands engage with live music fans. I interview rock photographer Jay Blakesberg and we explore how to tap into music fans and the bands themselves to promote your work.

Photo shot July 24, 2011 during Toots & the Maytals set at Gathering of the Vibes. Copyright David Meerman Scott