Generation Like

Here’s a crash course in social media.

Most artists aren’t business minded, but understanding social media is being business savvy.

Watch Frontline’s Generation Like that aired 18 February 2014, and you will begin to understand the commerce of Likes.

For all generations this may be hard to understand, but it’s about turning those Likes into money.

Social media is a form of communication to people you don’t know and who don’t know you. From that communication you gain an audience. That audience sells the product for you and they’re happy to do it for free.

How do you do that?

Create a product, share that information on social media, and the consumer becomes your marketer.

To further gain leverage, you attach yourself to others who have a higher following than you through the social media channels, so your audience base increases. This is the critical part of the marketing plan. When you merge your fan base with another person’s, it can possibly create corporate sponsorship. Brands then come to you and could possibly fund you as an artist. You just need the large fan base, those Likes, to prove it.

There are rules of course. Be transparent and honest. Your audience can smell a phony.

Sound easy?

Possibly, if there is something you want to sell, and you have the time and energy to do it.

“It’s a perfect mashup of culture and commerce,” says correspondent Douglas Rushkoff.

When you have a large enough audience, you can become your own social media company, which you can then sell. Think of Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook.

Okay, maybe you don’t want to own a social media company to eventually sell, but do you want to sell your work as an artist?

Oliver Luckett, CEO of The Audience, helps artists build a network of fans across the social media platforms.

It’s a completely different way of looking at the marketing machine, or is it?

Want to know more about social media and Generation Like, listen to Frontline’s coverage. It may change the way you think about branding, marketing and the power of doing business.