Part 1 (of 4) Social Media: The Importance of Building a Loyal Following

Conversation with best-selling author, David Meerman Scott, brought to you by New Media Currents, with John Houghton, and MobileCast Media. Transcript below.

Welcome to New Media Currents. This program is a four part series where I interview the best-selling author of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR," David Meerman Scott as he visited the Supper Club in downtown San Francisco. In this first part, David talks about his new book, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead and the importance of building a loyal following. Part two provides real world examples of how companies are building loyal followings, Part Three talks about effective ways in which companies are using video, and part four talks about creating content for every step in the sales model.

JH: So tell me about this book that you have?

DM: So I've got this new book out, it came out this week actually, it's called marketing lessons from the Grateful Dead, What every business can learn from the most iconic band in history.

JH: Now what can every business learn from the most iconic band in history?

DS: Yea, so the Grateful Dead started in 1965, and they built a social network around people who were able to record their concerts and who followed the band from city to city and because every show is different, it encourages people to go to multiple shows. Because they allowed bands to record the concerts, just like we're doing in social media today, encouraged people to be attracted to what they're doing through they're free content. It's a model that I think a lot of businesses can learn from today, forty five years after they were founded.

JH: So it's a low cost model. What besides allowing them to record the content, is it just that it's put out there for free or what are the elements?

DS: In that case it's just about putting it out for free. It's about allowing fans to record concerts, but now in the case of any organization, it's about creating something interesting, like a video, like we're doing right now, or a blog post or an ebook or a white paper, whatever it might be. So any business can learn from that. But it's also about building a following, which the Grateful Dead did. Smart businesses don't just push products. They build a following. Brands like Apple. Brands like Burton Snowboards. There are a bunch of examples for companies that have done that.

JH: How would a company looking at this, and they don't have a brand like Apple, how would they begin to build a brand and build a following through social media?

DS: The first thing is don't be thinking about your product. Instead think about the people that you're trying to reach. Think of your buyers. Create things that are interesting for them to do, for them to interact with or for them to be able to be a part of what you're doing. You create an experience and bring your followers, your fans, the people who interact with your organization, on a journey, a mutual journey. It sounds kind of, you know, a little airy, but it really does work, those businesses that stop thinking about pushing products really end up developing something that people want to be a part of, and then yes, you sell something on the back of it.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Social media
• new media
• audience development