The past few months have been busy, namely for our very first client Michael Paynter, whom we’ve been working with from before d.tail’s inception 11 months ago.

Michael has kicked some crucial goals in the past few months with the rapid uptake of his latest single ‘Love The Fall’, being the most added song to Australian radio in July above all domestic and international releases. It remains at the top of the Australian radio airplay charts and is currently climbing the ARIA charts.

The Love the Fall music video was shot in a mystical Northern Californian forest and features Michael’s mates, the lovely Origliasso sisters (The Veronicas) who also did the backing vocals on the track. The video had 12,000 views in the first 24 hours of its release to YouTube, and is now steadily climbing beyond 100,000 views.

Anticipation surrounding the video release can be attributed to Michael continually engaging with his fans on social media along with the whispers of two famous sisters featuring in the video. There was much buzz in the first days of the video being available and the coinciding single release. The video entered YouTube’s Top 100 in 15 countries, becoming the 46th most viewed music video worldwide. This led to Fox FM (Melbourne’s 2Day Network), arguably the hardest network to penetrate, adding Love The Fall across the board two days before the official radio service date.

An overwhelming response from radio stations nationwide followed, leading to Love The Fall being the most added song to Australian radio in July and the fasted moving track at radio shortly after.

Undoubtedly the reach of the video has been helped a little by the interest in The Veronicas, but much credit should go to Michael and his team for the way he’s created an online television channel that is full of live recordings, video blogs, behind the scenes footage, outtakes, tour performances and more. Loyal fans have been following and subscribing to Michael’s social media for years, being fed loads of great content, banter, and insight into the making of the artist. This base has put him in great stead for the increased traffic that has flocked online to find out more about Michael and his music as he’s exposed to a larger audience across Australia and globally.

“Through a period of my career when I was away resetting my plan of attack, playing shows and touring, social media was the only way for fans to keep updated with me. And thanks to d.tail, who have kept my social media outlets synchronized, efficient and effective, I had played sold out shows, ran great competitions and sustained high levels of ever-increasing traffic online. When it finally did come time to go to radio with the new single, I had thousands of people who were right there with me, ready to call, vote, post and spread the word. Without d.tail and their incredible efficiency and forward thinking, I would not be in the position I am today.” ~ Michael Paynter

As YouTube becomes more conducive to music discovery and recommendation, it’s increasingly important as a musical artist or band to have an engaging YouTube channel full of new and archived content.

Michael is a big fan of social media and believes in it’s ability to deeply connect with fans and stay connected with them.

“Social media allows fans not only to keep track of what is happening in your world while you’re away from the screen and the airwaves, but it also allows them insights into who you are. People are no longer just satisfied with a song, a bio and some pretty pictures – They want to know how you think and what you feel.” ~ Michael Paynter

Love The Fall is the lead track from Michael’s much anticipated Love The Fall EP, out now on iTunes and in stores.

EB

Her amazing achievement has been and will continue to be well documented around the world. Interesting that TV coverage on One TV focused heavily on Jessica’s Blogs, unfortunately the amount of supporters around Sydney Harbour made it difficult to get out Tweets.

Congratulations go to Jess and her management team, this has been a great ride and we look forward to watching word of her achievement spread via her social network.

PG

***

The ever-elusive Facebook Fan Page.

Regardless of what you think about yours, you can’t deny its power: the ‘Suggest to Friends’ link provides an unbelievable opportunity to spread your brand (especially if you persuade your contacts to do the same), the wall allows for a rich content experience unmatched by the likes of MySpace or Twitter, the lack of “friend cap” (see: Facebook personal profiles), etc.

Recently, as if musicians needed more technological changes to deal with, the marriage between Facebook Brand Pages and Fans has extinguished. Users now only have the opportunity to “Like” a page. Please don’t confuse this with the Facebook’s traditional “like” function for pictures, comments, etc. I would have “liked” to see Facebook think about what they were doing semantically before giving two separate experiences on their website the same name, but nevertheless.

Many people are complaining about the new Facebook Page changes, mainly because they don’t understand them. Musicians, I believe that it is better for people  to “Like” your page rather than “Become a Fan.”

To be a ‘fan’ of something is a big commitment; to just ‘like’ something is much more casual. In the real world, I personally like a multitude of things, but rarely consider myself a fanatic of a particular sports team or band. Over time, people will be much more likely to engage in this “Like” behavior, strictly based on language alone.

Many artists have been complaining recently about the number of contacts on their pages dwindling. I’ve been getting emails from artists asking me, “Is there some type of Facebook virus? All of the fans on my page are disappearing.”

Here is what is going on:

1) It is important to remember that this initial decline in fans/likes will stop (it probably has already).

2) If you go onto one of your fan’s personal profiles, your name now appears under their “Favorite Music” section, as opposed to a “Pages” section that is buried on the bottom of their profile. Your name will now appear alongside the biggest names in your genre (assuming that your fans “Like” their pages as well). Never before has a band’s music page on Facebook had so much visibility and viral potential.

3) The people who “Unliked” your page because of its new found visibility are not your real fans anyway, so good riddance. You now have a better barometer of who your true fans are.

People have also complained to me lately that they can no longer send updates to their fan base. I am actually glad that Facebook decided to pull this feature, because bands were beginning to abuse it in a spammy MySpace fashion. I hope this change continues to show musicians that they cannot rely on impersonal blasts to engage their fans. One on one interactions are the key to building a cult following, one personalized keystroke at a time.

Zuckerburg and his cronies are always trying to improve their service, so whenever they tweak something, it is probably beneficial for you, whether you initially perceive it or not.

Whenever your social networking world is altered, attempt to take a few minutes to figure out why. Then, read my next blog post for clarification.

Christopher Gesualdi is currently the Marketing Director @ Ariel Publicity (http://twitter.com/cyberprmktg)

There’s not a lot of room for slightly-out-of-the-ordinary.

The only real help is self-help. Anything else is just designed to get you to the point where you can help yourself.

Irrational passion is the key change agent of our economy. Faith and beauty and a desire to change things can’t be easily quantified, and we can’t live without them.

If you spend your days avoiding failure by doing not much worth criticizing, you’ll never have a shot at success. Avoiding the thing that’s easy to survive keeps you from encountering the very thing you’re after. And yet we market and work and connect and create as if just one failure might be the end of us.

If your happiness depends on your draft pick or a single audition, that’s giving way too much power to someone else.

If it’s popular with everyone right away, it might not be art, it might just be good marketing. But if it earns attention and respect over time, if it wins over the skeptical, then you’ve really created something.

When you can’t figure out the best way to treat all your customers, the best way to price things, the best thing to offer, realize that the problem is almost always this: you’re trying to treat everyone the same. Don’t. Break them into groups with similar attributes, and suddenly the path becomes a lot more clear.

The only vibrant tribes in our communities are the ones closer the edges, or those trying to make change. The center is large, but it’s not connected. If you’re trying to build a tribe, a community or a movement, and you want it to be safe and beyond reproach at the same time, you will fail.

And finally the launch of the iPad and Apples approach to marketing.
http://bit.ly/aU9×7b

Late April can’t come quick enough for some eager Aussies who also want to get their hands on this latest Apple gadget.

At d.tail we’ve talked in some of our presentations about the younger generation growing up with new technologies such as the iPhone and the iPad and the explosion of the apps market. I came across a video that shows just how easily this generation will pick up this technology. You’ll see a 2-year-old’s first encounter with an iPad.

There are sure to be more apps created targeting the youngest of the new generation if this video is anything to go by!

EB

So South By Southwest (SXSW) kicked off last Friday in Austin, Texas. For those who aren’t aware, SXSW is a conference and festival showcasing original music, independent films, and emerging technologies and is one of the largest in the world.

“Year after year, the event is a launching pad for new creative content. New media presentations, music showcases and film screenings provide buzz-generating exposure for creators and compelling entertainment for audiences. Conference panel discussions present a forum for learning, business activity thrives at the Trade Shows and global networking opportunities abound.” – sxsw.com

There are more than 350 bands and music biz delegates from Australia and NZ networking and showcasing what they have to offer, only behind Britain and Canada as the most represented region out of the 54 countries represented at SXSW. This is great for our local music scene!

The most exciting thing for us at d.tail to see is the social media plan SXSW has implemented this year.

The SXSW website has a multitude of information including a guide for first timers, a full schedule of events, and all the latest news. SXSW has gone above and beyond for the SXSW attendee this year.

The official social network of the festival is my.SXSW, which you were automatically invited to join upon registering. This closed network, only available for SXSW attendees enables users to connect with others at the festival, customize their own schedule and join exclusive groups within the festival. This network also has it’s own iPhone app. Within this network, SXSW are using QR Codes (Quick Response Codes), a special kind of bar code that can be read by mobile phones, creating a real-life “follow me” button.

“When you meet someone at an event, let them scan your badge with their smart phone, and they will automatically be following you on my.SXSW, where they can message you or access your contact information. Hopefully, this will cut down on the paper footprint of SXSW by reducing the need for business cards.” – sxsw.com

Another app they’ve created is the SXSW® Play – Music, Film, Interactive, a new media discovery app chock full of rich media from musicians, films and interactive panels featuring at the festival.

There’s also an event calendar on sched.org, integrated with social media, that gives you detailed coverage of each day’s action.

If SXSW attendees want to link up with their twitter friends they can use the SitBy.Us tool that lets you see what panels your twitter friends will be attending and where in the room they will be sitting!

There’s also SXSW badges for Foursquare up for grabs and also real-time maps to see who’s doing what at SXSW and where they are doing it.

The social media experts at Mashable have also put together their own network, “Mashable’s Austin Real Time” to connect people with the social media community in attendance.

And that’s just for those attending…

‘What if I’m not going?’ I hear you ask. Well there’s the Official SXSW Facebook and Twitter accounts, the SXSW video site, the SXSW blogs, or follow along with Mashable’s SXSWi channel.

Seems they have thought of it all! It’s all pretty cool I say and I hope to see more people following their lead!

To see what SXSW has to offer this year, check out their website.

EB

Social media espouses the latter – it’s happened, lets deal with it and use the opportunity provided by complaints to show how we will fix the issue in the worlds most interactive and public domain – social networks.

To this end Toyota has employed Twitter in a new forum called ‘Toyota Conversations’ where Tweets keep the customers up to date. According to Sydney ad agency bcm in their weekly insights, the aggregation site pulls in tweets from affiliated accounts such as Toyota’s own Twitter.com feed as well as established media sites.

The only downside is this doesn’t include public views and appears to be monitored. An opportunity missed and as BCM Insights says ‘ in an age of endless information, there’s no point trying to hide in difficult times’

In a recent presentation d.tail made to a Melbourne agency the question was posed as to engaging the public in solving peoples problems and answering their complaints online and in full view – perhaps this is an opportunity to be seen doing all you can to help.

Either way here are 7 of his gems on the benefits of using social media.

1. If I can sell you something without a sales call or expensive ad campaign, I can sell it cheaper. In every market, there’s an opportunity to create a more open sales channel and lower your price as a way of making sales.

2. If the only reason you don’t do something is because you never did, that’s not a good reason. If the environment has changed dramatically and you are feeling pain because of it, this is a great reason to question yourself, to ask why.

3. Here’s one way businesses can profit from a social media presence: make it easy to get hurt.
If you’re in a low trust industry (like car sales), a social media presence dramatically increases the opportunity people have to call you out, beat you up, tattle on you and flame you in public. If you have a Facebook page and people can YELL at you there, for all to see, it makes you vulnerable. Do you really think that a Chris or a Guy or Gary is going to risk ripping you off for consulting or wine? No way. Too easy for someone to post a comeback for all to see.

When your staff sees how much power you’ve given random consumers, they’ll freak. And then, magically, they’ll start treating customers differently, because maybe, just maybe, this customer is the one who’s going to use the power. Suddenly, the answer to, “do you know who I am!!” is, “yes sire, forgive me.”

It might not be comfortable, but you can bet it will build trust.

4. Free is something you get, no matter what. A bonus is something you get as an add-on when you purchase something, or trade your attention. The purpose of free is to spread the word, alert the universe and generate interest. The purpose of a bonus is to reward immediate action and to sway the undecided.

5. You’re an expert. If nothing else, you’re an expert on life, on your opinion, on being a consumer. When I ask you for your opinion I’m not asking you for the right answer. I’m asking you for your opinion.

6. Here are things that you can now avoid: The annual review The annual sales conference The big product launch The grand opening of a new branch Drop dead one-shot negotiation events

The reasons? Well, they don’t work. They don’t work because big events leave little room for iteration, for trial and error, for earning rapport. And the biggest reason: frequent cheap communication is easier than ever, and if you use it, you’ll discover that the process creates far more gains than events ever can.

7. Your most vivid fears are almost certainly not the most important ones. We pay attention to the loud and the urgent. This can lead us to ignore the important and achievable paths open to us–because we’re so busy defending against the overwhelmingly dangerous (but unlikely) outcomes instead.

Thanks Seth…

PG