One Hundred Million People a Month and Growing
Three years ago nobody cared about MySpace or Facebook.  Now here we are in 2008, and one hundred million people around the globe are using social networking technology on a monthly basis.  What’s the motivation?  Alan Moore says in his recent article titled INFLUENTIALS ARE TOAST that “Human beings have an innate need to connect, communicate and collaborate.  Digitalization has revealed the true nature of humans, and that truth changes everything.”

Digitalization Has Revealed A Truth That Changes Everything
“Human beings have an innate need to connect, communicate and collaborate.  Digitalization has revealed the true nature of humans, and that truth changes everything.”  This is powerful and profound; you can’t unwind a truth; MySpace and Facebook have birthed a truth.  Obvious it is not.  Most things in life are assumptions; proof of truth is hard to come by.  The truth is, social networking technology will forever enable people to connect, communicate and collaborate - like they innately desired to, but could not easily do - in such a manner - until 2005.

Connect, Communicate and Collaborate - So What?
Moore also says “culture is created by the interaction between human beings”.  So, people are creating micro cultures or communities at a pace and via methods that were unheard of three years ago.  Good or bad - and irreversible, these communities are changing the game when it comes to music marketing and promotion; it’s communities that are dominating brands.  It’s not intense advertising, it's not celebrity endorsements, it’s not street-team marketing, it is the formation of communities that will dominate the creation, the maintenance and even the destruction of brands.

Brands Dominate The Charts
Not only do brands dominate the charts, brands dominate ticket sales.  If you are not creating music, you are probably thinking about how to create a brand.  Prior to 2005, you could build a music brand with a pile of money and a proven formula; record labels were pretty good at it; now, communities have all of the power.  Not only can members of the community try music before they buy it, a community or a micro-culture can rapidly form to breath life into a brand, or they can suck the wind out of it before it takes a second breath.

New Truth = Unlearn Old Methods
I read a printout of INFLUENTIALS ARE TOAST when I was stuck on a runway for two hours last week.  On a normal day I could have read right through this article without giving it much consideration; after all, the implications of social networking have been analyzed more than the laws of gravity.  However, it was the notion of “truth” that struck me as significant.  You can do some things in life based upon assumptions, however when you’re stoned with the truth, you have to make real adjustments.  Perhaps I have to unlearn everything I learned about marketing prior to 2005-2006?  Seriously!

Old Marketing Out - New Marketing In
Old marketing doesn’t work.  New marketing has barely been invented.  You may want to start by reading David Jenning’s book titled Net, Blogs and Rock “n” Roll.  You could also consider the next couple of paragraphs.  Moore goes on to say “communities form around values, interests and desires, not demographics.”  You should ask yourself (self) - how do you leverage the knowledge that communities are formed around values, interests and desires - and not demographics?

Hang a VID Sign
People that share your Values, Interests and Desires (VID) want - and may even have an innate need - to find and connect to you.  Making it easy for your “VID Tribe” to find you has to be an important part of your elaborate plan.

Your songs say a lot about your values, your interests and your desires.  You should post your lyrics, but unknown lyrics don’t translate well to the way people search for information; so, lyrics won’t help much in making that first connection to your tribe.  They will however, be invaluable after you’re found.  

You will have to go beyond lyrics and really think about how you want to STRONGLY communicate your values, your interests and your desires.  You can blog about these things, and you can post images and video that paints a picture of the community or micro-culture you belong in, or that YOU innately want to connect to.  Everything you post becomes searchable, and the more you say - the bigger the sign becomes!  

The Ends of the Battery
When you are hanging your VID Sign, remember: power comes out of the ends of the battery.  My advice would be to know who you are and strongly commit to it; don’t play the middle.  People may join lots of communities, but they will have millions of communities to choose from.  I am not talking about extremism as much as avoiding the trap of trying to appeal to the widest possible audience.  A strong commitment to your values, interests and desires powers the brightest sign.  You’ve heard of a brain dump, try a heart dump…

Be True
You can’t make the shit up.  Everything you say goes under a microscope if you’re successful.  If you manufacture the gravity you’re using to attract a community you will eventually be exposed as a fraud.  Every sentence you type is archived and searchable.  If you are taking a strong position on something, you may want to reserve your right to change your mind; you may also want to ask for feedback to shape an opinion that you are attempting to form.     

Inviting or Joining
Your hanging out your VID Sign that communicates your values, your interests and your desires - are you inviting members to your micro-culture or are you joining a community that already exists?  The answer is both.  If you enjoy things technical read this page about mesh networks.  Basically, you have to join and invite at the same time.  Nobody owns the community and the community goes on with or without you.  The marketing of artists use to involve making the artist the center of the universe, now the artist has to become a valued and accepted contributor to the community.     

How Do You Invite?
You have to become a blogger.  There’s no escaping the fact that you have to hang your sign and declare your positions if you want to be a contributing member of a community.  Declaring your positions means describing with word, image, song and video - your values, interests and desires.  Moreover, I believe this is an activity you can’t be skimpy about.  The “truth” has been revealed, and to ignore it by relying on pre-2006 methods to market and promote your music is a recipe for death by obscurity.   

How Do You Join?
Scout the earth for those that share your values, interests and desires and make real friends.  This goes beyond talking about your music, and it goes way beyond the fake-friending people do on MySpace.  Find real friends, start conversations, declare your allegiance to positions and then introduce people to your music and the interesting and COMMON things you blog about.    

Tools & Technology
Creating a blog under your own URL and using it in conjunction MySpace and/or Facebook is one option.  Facebook just launched Facebook Music.  In my mind, the right tool has not hit the market yet.  If you are going to go through the effort of “hanging a VID Sign”, “inviting” and “joining” as described above, you should strongly consider promoting your own URL; while using sites like MySpace, Facebook, iLike and Last.FM to drive traffic to your own branded blog.  If you are into messaging, you may also want to give Twitter a try.

Communities Dominate Brands
For this post I stood on the shoulders of Alan Moore.  Alan’s blog is also called Communities Dominate Brands.  Alan’s article “Influentials Are Toast” was the inspiration for this post.