Content & Engagement Strategy: Music vs. Charities

After volunteering for a while as a kitchen assistant for foodchain.org.uk I've become fascinated by the way in which digital media strategies can be used to help charities and not-for-profits. There are some parallels between the work I've been doing in music and the charity world. Yes, I know that sounds crazy. How can spending money on an Arctic Monkeys t-shirt be the same as trying to get someone to donate money to an earthquake fund? But hear me out..

Its all about gathering fans who may initially just want to engage and share their association with an artist or charity as a badge of approval or identity. That in itself has some uses. Evidence of the support for a cause or a band in itself is very useful. Through the sharing of content or ideas they may then become an advocate / member of your PR team and help in building those numbers. The final (and most difficut) step is about trying to find a way to convert them beyond that "badge" mentality and to actually decide to give up some hard earned cash for the purchase of an item (be that in your charity ecommerce store or artist website) or as a donation and/or become more involved in the physical world.

Both areas encounter very similar problems. People will ilike a band in a second or a good cause. And that can have a natural viral effect with fans doing very little and suddenly you can have a nice group of numbers. But what next? Can they be arsed to share that video or that pertinent piece of information about your cause? Well some of that lays in the hands of whoever generates that content and when. Of course it needs to be relevant and of course it needs to be good but if its also timely then the chances of hitting that tidal wave of viral-ability through the web is way more likely. At this stage content is king. And its king because its the backbone of the relationship you build with a fanbase. It is ALL about relationships. Its not about firing out random information. It should be synchronised as part of your entire marketing strategy to create a relationship with fans and advocates. You should never be sending out an email to a fan with just a list of dates or an annoucement of a pre-order or a request for money. Often you see bands only doing emails when they want to sell something. You would never see a charity doing that. You provide content, information, engage and then further down the line you ask for more.

I was reading this on mashable this morning whilst doing some research on digital strategies for charities and immediately I could see the parallels between conversations I had as a music digital marketeer.

“Don’t focus on asking them to give, focus on asking them to retweet any and everything you tweet, post on their wall, forward e-mails, etc.,” said Morrison. “Focus on that, because that fits in their behavior pattern. Now, every once in a while, you can make a [money] appeal [to] the ones that [send] you a signal that they may be emerging from slacktivism.  If you build a relationship with them, they will naturally graduate up the value chain. You can give them a nudge, but trying to force them will make them leave in droves."--Mashable.com