360DigitalInfluence

I’ll admit it: I don’t think about the “future” of music that often. I’ve been listening to a steady rotation of musical soundtracks, country music, and late-90s soft rock ever since late-90s soft rock was current, and while I’ve made the switch from CDs to iTunes, I haven’t been more creative than that. However, the subject keeps bubbling back to the surface with the launch of new platforms like Spotify and Google Music, the rise of mobile applications, and even the changing needs of radio (as discussed at a recent client event I attended hosted by Ford Motor Company). Finally, when this infographic showing 30 years of music sales from Digital Music News was circulated last week, I took note:

There are some quick takeaways on where music sales have been and where they’re headed:

• Never again will any source of music dominate the way CD sales once did. CDs accounted for 95.5% of music sales in 2002 and we’re moving to a model with even more options, not fewer.
• The whole is likely not greater than the sum of its parts. Single sales both digitally and on CDs/vinyl are a significant piece of sales when, in the past, we looked for an entire album. This changes both the sales model AND the approach of artists who no longer need to have 12 songs ready to release new music.
• Cassettes haven’t reached the retro cool point yet. Vinyl sales as full records and singles are making a comeback, but not cassettes.

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Mashups are nothing new.  In fact on this very blog we recently provided some historical perspective related specifically to music.  OK, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way …

In the last few days I’ve come across three really rad examples of people/organizations continuing to embrace the mashup movement.

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I’ve been on Facebook since 2003.  I’ve been blogging since 2006.   I got on Twitter in 2007.  Generally speaking, I didn’t believe there was room in my life (or my attention span) for another platform.   Enter Posterous.

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This is a great visual outlining how those commenting on blogs on behalf of the Air Force should respond in various situations.  If it were all this easy… can I get one of these for my life? 

Via Global Nerdy, who reports that the Air Force has appointed a Chief Emerging Technology Officer “whose job is to develop strategy, policy and plans for the Air Force’s ‘communicators’ and whose mission is to use or build web applications as a means of engaging Airmen and the general public in conversation.
The goal is to make every single Airman a communicator.”  Nerdy also shared links to existing Air Force social media efforts including:

• Air Force Live
• A Twitter account
• A YouTube page
• Widgets and podcasts

In my travels on the Interwebs I have discovered that other defense oriented agencies, such as the Department of Defense and the Department of State, are out in front when it comes to adoption of social media and are using it as a way to connect and maybe even, umm.. market… themselves.  DOD’s site is especially impressive and gets beyond the block and tackle social media tools (like social bookmarking, embedable video, etc.) with forays into sites like BlogTalk Radio.  It will be exciting to see what comes next, especially with the new administration paving the way.

Yesterday afternoon John Bell and I delivered “Twitter Bootcamp for PR”, a one-hour training Webinar for public relations professionals hosted by the Bulldog Reporter’s PR University. During the workshop, we shared key strategies and best practices on how organizations can participate in social media through microblogging platforms such as Twitter.

A recording of the Webinar will be made available to people who registered and attended the event. However, we wanted to share a copy of our presentation deck with our readers, which includes more than 60 sides featuring the basics of Twitter, key strategies, PR best practices, and real life case studies.

You can download the full Twitter PR Strategies PPT deck, or view it on Slideshare:

Here a few things you will learn:

• New Opportunities: How you can use Twitter and the business opportunities available
• Best Practices & Case Studies: How leading companies are using Twitter right now for internal communications, community outreach, client contact and PR campaigns
• Strategic Planning: How to integrate Twitter into your PR program as soon as possible
• Mastering the Twitpitch: How journalists prefer (or don’t prefer) to be contacted and pitched on Twitter
• How to use Twitter, step by step: A breakdown of how the service works and how to get started
• Pitfalls to Avoid: common mistakes made when communicators use Twitter, and how to sidestep them

In addition, the 360 Digital Influence team has created a series of blog posts about Twitter and PR strategies here on the 360 Digital Influence blog. Here’s a list of the existing posts:

Twitter Best Practices

The Twitter Strategy Blog Series (see the infographic below)
#1 Customer Relations

#2: Crisis Communications

#3: Corporate Reputation Management

#4: Event Coverage and Promotion

#5: Sales and Promotions

#6: Non-Profit and Issues Advocacy

Check back this week, we’ll be posting some of the questions and answers that were posed during yesterday’s workshop. And, in the meantime, check out some additional Twitter resources on our del.icio.us page.