Here’s a tip for getting more content on your blog: Interview smart people.  Case in point, I was checking the profiles of some of the people I follow on Twitter, and I clicked on @REBlogGirl’s profile, which says she does “Something Something at a Major Record Label.”  I had to learn more, so I DMed Mary and she told she works with artists on reputation management as well as social media and mobile marketing.  As we all know, I am a big music marketing nerd, so I begged Mary to let me interview her, and she was gracious enough to share the following with us:

Mary: You know this is such a great question because we self identify in different ways with different brands and even with different personalities and most of that is due to the ways in which those things reach us through media channels.

For example: Justin Beiber had a huge following on YouTube long before he signed with label and produced his first album. He was his own marketing machine. He marketed himself as a human being and as a talent through mostly cover songs. It wasn’t really his music he was showcasing at the time, it was his talent and himself. We identified with Justin himself and his talent. That made it easier for us to start identifying with his original music once he was signed and had a produced album and singles. His brand is authentic, delivered in his own words through a very personal Youtube channel.

On the other hand take someone like Britney Spears that has had the full media power and protection of labels, studios and PR teams since she was a child. She reached us through the mass media and the PR machine of a major record label.  Her brand is wholly different from Justin’s we identify with her and her talent but she never really spoke to us one on one and pushed her own talent, music brand. When we think of Britney we think of her videos, her songs, her album, not her personality. We see her as a parent company to her endorsed products/merchandise (perfumes and Candies clothing lines), her albums and songs and her tours. We see her life played out through tabloids and magazines in the words of others. Her brand is very produced and managed. That’s not to say we don’t love her any less than Justin, but we see her as slightly more mysterious and question the authenticity more.

Why did I wax on about the difference between the fame machines of Justin and Britney – because they really aren’t any different from the marketing behind brands like Virgin or Pepsi. Both companies that have done great jobs at marketing themselves through personalities… When we think Virgin, we think Richard Branson. When we think Pepsi we think their long line of famous spokespeople from Michael Jackson to Britney Spears. And in those ways, we are fans of brands. We have loyalties to brands. You could never get me to switch from Coke to Pepsi or trade my Mac in for a PC. I identify those brands with personalities and ideals I cling to in the same ways I cling to the traits of artists I identify with.

We find connection and authenticity where it is presented to us. It’s the quality of marketing behind any brand that personalizes it, gives it a face and an ideal we can relate to. When you think Ford, do you think American values? When you think Disney, do you think smiling kids? When you think Jessica Simpson, do you think adorably dumb? All these brands have coupled themselves to a concept or value that resonates with people on personal levels. Good brands and good celebrities do this. There are rock stars out there that fail to differentiate themselves just like there are brands that fail at this. Consider how many pop stars you have to occasional wonder “What ever happened to?” about. Those are brands that failed to differentiate and maintain their markets.

So, in answer to the question, no, rockstars as a group are not better at authentically engaging fans. Some rockstars just know how to market better than others. Britney Spears is the Pepsi of Rockstars – she has a good product, a recognizable brand and cash in the coiffeurs to spend on the marketing necessary to launch an album or a perfume successfully.

Mack: Social Media Marketing or Mobile Marketing.  Which will be bigger for artists in 2011?

Mary: Mobile’s big year is still a few years out by all accounts, but with more smart phones in the market than ever before, it shouldn’t be long before social and mobile meet to offer artists something unique. The idea of the social entertainment checkin is what everyone is talking about. Imagine being able to checkin in at a not just a location but a concert itself, or to check in on Vevo or Hulu when you watch a video or movie.  The value that offers marketers, viewers (who can engage with other fans virtually and online) and simultaneously share is really very interesting. That day is not too far off, not with Facebook and Google both trying to leverage their place based applications on mobile devices.

However, the key for artists right now is to leverage their fan base with exclusive content they drip through channels like Facebook, Twitter, Vevo, mobile ads on Pandora and in app advertising that allow the distribution of exclusive content that drives sales through to their itunes, endorsement and tour properties. Mobile, at least for now, can be best leveraged for download and concert sales. Social on the other hand needs to be leveraged for engagement and the building of personal and brand equity.  Small to mid sized artists need to use their social channels to engage with fans in controlled ways – over engagements creates a false sense of connectivity one cannot maintain over times, but real occasional question and answer format or thanks for retweeting are really valuable. You never want to create a false expectation that you will answer all your fans – that would be impossible but by creating a standardized format for regular engagement you can manage the expectation of your fan base. Contests and Q&A sessions are the easiest and most effective engagement tools.

Example: Katy Perry Fire Work Contest

Mack: So do you get to go touring with an artists?  What are your days like?

Mary: I don’t tour with artists – I just help them manage their reputation online so fans can be engaged in positive events in their lives, their endorsed products and tour rather than on negativity. For example, should someone (not mentioning any names here) think it might be edgy to post a photo of themselves half or wholly naked on Twitter, I work to make sure those images get dispatched quickly. I also help artists and their PR teams build engaged social presences on Facebook, Myspace, YouTube and Twitter and make sure these channels work together for a common goal – to sell merchandise, tickets, downloads and albums. The real key here is to manage the expectation of the fan when it comes to engagement. Making sure an artist can communicate effectively and authentically with their fans is important and making sure the fans understand how the artist shares and how they like to engage is really critical to the success of their social profiles.

Example: Lady GaGa’s Facebook page is booming with activity. She personally shares exclusive insight into her thoughts and life and wants to truly engage with her fan base, but her page makes it clear through the content she shares she is an unbelievably busy woman. That is what manages the expectation for the fan.

Mack: What’s the next ‘big thing’ in music marketing?

Mary: While everyone has had their eye on Spotify, I think the smartest thing the music industry has done is really build out Vevo. Based on the Hulu model, Vevo has really taken off. It serves exclusive content, hosts all the artists videos in one unified label owned place and is driving in more people than Hulu! What Universal CEO, Doug Morris said last yeat at launch, still rings true today, “What we’re really doing is taking back control of everything…this is really like MTV on steroids. We’re starting with that kind of audience. But now we’re in control of it. We don’t have to go through a middleman anymore.” The premium content model is leveraging fan base against both artist brand and artist product to deliver exactly what the fan wants – the ON DEMAND ALL ACCESS PASS to their favorite artist. It’s a simple model and it is working on Vevo. I see this as the way labels and artist can survive in the face of piracy, faltering 360 Deals and crumbling recorded music sales infrastructure.

Yowza! Thanks again to @REBlogGirl (who’s secret identity is Mary McKnight) for dropping that music marketing smartitude on us.  Do me a big favor and please follow Mary on Twitter, and subscribe to her blog.

Last week I spent a few days providing social media training for a company that probably provides social media services for more clients than any other company in the country, if not the world.

Where was I?  Well I wasn’t working with a hotshot PR firm, or a branding agency.  In fact, you’ve probably never heard of the company.  But they currently provide and execute social media strategies for well over a thousand clients.  The company currently creates over 2,500 blog posts a week for over 1,200 clients, and adds 30-75 new ones every month.  And their renewal rate for those clients is right at 90%.

I was in Atlanta training with the good people at Network Communications, Inc.  NCI is the largest national publisher of local printed and online magazines for the real estate market, and my guess is they probably provide social media services for more clients than anyone else in the country, if not the world.  They offer social media services to property managers, realtors, architects, interior designers, and contractors, just to name a few of their client areas.

And they’ve gone from 0 to 1,200 social media clients in just a year’s time.  All while providing an extremely affordable social media solution for clients.  Those clients get a blog (with 2 new posts every week), a Twitter presence, and a Facebook page, for usually $350-395 a month.

Blogging is a big part of what NCI is hanging its hat on as far as driving success via social media for its clients.  And that’s why I was in Atlanta last week, to work with 60 or so of the company’s bloggers on how they can better create blog posts that help them reach their client’s objectives.

What struck me in the weeks leading up to the training sessions, and during my time with the team in Atlanta, was that the engagement level on the blogs was often non-existent.  Few, if any comments, no retweets, no ‘signs of life’.  In fact, I was thinking to myself that many ‘social media people’ would look at these blogs, see little to no engagement, and view them as failures.

But obviously they aren’t failing their clients, who keep jumping on board.  So how does NCI create value for its clients via blogging?

“Our goal is to drive leads for clients on the web.” explains Adam Japko, the Senior VP and President of the Home & Design Area for NCI.

Customer leads for clients.  This is one of the points I keep stressing to those of you that are trying to get buy-in from your boss for your social media ideas.  You have to make the business case for social media.  NCI is doing that.  They are delivering a tangible return on their client’s investment.  As a matter of fact, Adam shared a case study with me from one of their clients that I will be sharing here with you on Thursday.  Let’s just say this client saw a pretty huge cost savings from letting NCI guide its social media efforts.

Now everything is not perfect sledding for NCI.  What they’ve done in the last year is literally invent a business model.  There’s few if any other companies that are providing social media services on such a widescale level.  So NCI is having to invent the template here, and that’s created some problems for them over the last year.

One of the company’s biggest challenges was that they grew quicker than they expected. “Our volume of clients came in faster and bigger bunches than anybody would have imagined. We have hired and trained more than 70 people this year as we ramped” explains Japko.  I saw that NCI is still dealing with managing the workload for workers, as well as shuffling people around and trying to find the best fit for everyone.  There are clearly growing pains at work here, but they ARE growing.

And I don’t see that growth slowing down any time soon, in fact, as they continue to improve their existing business processes, the growth should only accelerate.  Thanks again to Adam (who is also a wine buff with a great blog), Rick, Ed, Keith, Melissa, the bloggers, OCMs and all the good people at NCI for having me last week.  I hope to make it back again soon, and thanks to my dear friend Charity Hisle, who is also one of NCI’s shining stars, for the picture to this post.

(Disclosure – NCI is a client, but did not pay me to write this post.  I wrote it cause I think their business model and how they are breaking new ground in providing a low-cost social media solution to clients is pretty interesting.  Plus, I enjoyed meeting all the managers and executives, as well as the bloggers and OCMs such as Amanda, Keenan, Craig, Justin, Natasha, Jo Anne, Deidre, Ashley, Lynda, Kali and the rest of the NCI team.)