Women used to throw their panties at Tom Jones because he engaged them in a meaningful way, right? But there wouldn’t have been quite as much polyester all over the stage of Tom had not connected with them.
Rock stars connect with their fans emotionally, resulting in amazing levels of devotion.
One example is Pearl Jam, who recently reissued their classic album “Ten”. Pearl Jam has done a great job of connecting with their fans in a meaningful way, and I’ve blogged about it in the past. Their innovative opinions on touring, Ticketmaster, fan bootlegs, and the environment helped change the slow-to-adapt music industry as the digital age dawned.
To help promote the reissue of their classic album “Ten”, the band created http://www.pearljamtengame.com/. The idea appears to be to engage fans and get them excited about the reissued tracks.
I give Pearl Jam full credit for attempting to engage their audience.
But I’m a Pearl Jam fan, and I am reasonably computer-savvy. My age and gender puts me pretty much dead-center on the Pearl Jam demographic target. Yet I have to admit that I had no idea what I was supposed to do when I landed on this website and even less of an idea of what the payoff was supposed to be.
Check it out, and let me know if I’m just missing something. Maybe I’m older than I think I am.
The point is that while engaging your customer is important, engaging them in a way they can easily grasp and understand is even more important.
So when you take on an innovative conversation with your customer the way Pearl Jam did with this project, think about a few
things first:
* Make the payoff easy to understand. If I don’t see any immediate benefit, I’m not going to explore the conversation any further.
* Don’t push the technology too far beyond your customer’s level. It is cool to be ahead of the curve, but the moment you get “too cool for the room” you are in danger of losing them quickly.
* Don’t be afraid to try something new! While I might think this particular Pearl Jam venture missed the mark, it is still pretty cool. It got my attention. It made me think. Most of the time, trying something new beats doing nothing at all.
One Response to “Engaging Your Fan Like A Rock Star”
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