Many who work in the Social Media industry (myself probably included) are quick to jump on a company when they get something wrong. The same people are just as quick to praise an amazingly creative campaign that generates a huge amount of buzz and is pretty to look at and cool to talk about. Very few however are as keen on praising the people that get the simple things right, consistently without a song and dance.

Crooked Tongues are a niche online  retailer who specialise in selling trainers (a subject very close to my heart). While they may not throw a huge amount of budget behind Social Media and have no “killer campaigns” so to speak, what they do do, they get right.

Firstly, it is important to note that they are no strangers to the concept of community, they have been running an active forum and blog for trainer geeks since around 2005. With a few years experience, it is no wonder that their Social Media offerings really hit the spot.

Their Facebook page has 4,000 members which may not sound like many, but it is important to remember that it isn’t a numbers game. 4,000 customers who buy regularly throughout the year is better than 20,000 customers making one off purchases. They understand this, and make sure that they offer the community value, in order to keep them returning.

Unlike too many Facebook pages, Crooked Tongues seem consistently present in theirs. Posting links to the shoes they are selling, but also offering advice and adding value. You can see here they community manager offering a discount shipping code that wins back a potential customer:

As well as offering updates on products they sell, they also give the community news about upcoming releases, links to other useful content and comment on customer feedback to keep their community in the know.

On top of the Facebook page, there is a Twitter account with around 2,000 followers. The Twitter follows a similar pattern to the Facebook account, and while they may not be following everyone who is following them, they do get involved in conversations with those who they are following and respond to those who ask them questions.

Social Media is often hard for retailers to get right, especially for the little guys who might not have the budget or resource to put behind it, but this shows how a small online business can really hit the nail on the head. Sure they are after a sale, but as well as the voucher codes and promotions, there is something of genuine value beyond that – and that creates an engaged community of loyal fans.

The reason that mainstream music is losing money is that the labels became complacent, un-reactive and uncompetitive and this never works in the consumer’s best interest. Illegal downloads are not killing the music industry, they are shaking it up, and this is only a good thing.

The music industry has maintained a fairly static business model for the last 50 years, and it is only within the last 10 that it has been required to change. Record labels, if they want to keep up with the file sharers and pirates, need to come up with a strategy.

This does not mean cutting off the internet connections of file sharers (Digital Economy Bill) or taking file sharing websites to court (Pirate Bay.) It means upping your game and an A-Grade example of this happening in action is Stones Throw records.

Stones Throw is an indie hip hop record label that is, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant and forward thinking in the world.

Stones Throw have an incredibly active message board community of around 4,000 fans, with an average post count of 60 posts per user.

They have a facebook page with 21,000 fans, and each receives around 100 likes and 15 comments (around 1/5^th the activity that adidas originals receives from 2.5m fans.)

Their twitter account has 23,00 followers and a Tweetlevel rating of 63 (compared to Universal_Music with a measly 52)

Search for any Stones Throw album torrent or rapidshare file and you will struggle greatly to find high quality versions. This is because they scour message boards, blogs and music communities and get the links removed.

How is this different to what the major labels are trying to do? Well the main difference is that they give something back. Stones Throw have created an incredibly strong presence across Social media and they use this to distribute content to their fans.

You can’t download an album for free but they will often give out free tracks as teasers of upcoming albums, or post the album on youtube so you can stream it there or from their website often before it is released. They also produce a regular podcast and offer exclusive mixtapes to their audience.

The audience reaction? They love the label. Stones Throw explain their actions, and the audience are happy because they have a level of transparency that all the big record labels lack. They are engaged with the brand and happy to pay for the music they love.

This is how I see the future of the music industry, and I think that major labels can learn a lot from Stones Throw’s strategy. Of course it is going to be tricky to scale this method, but if successful, the ones who benefit are the consumers and that in the end will help you sell more music (3 of the last 5 CDs I bought were on Stones Throw.)

We recently conducted a survey of how the games industry was using social media. Something that really caught my attention was that;

“Around 80% of respondents asked used social media to amplify the word of mouth on their products, but interestingly only around 40% of the respondents used social media to improve or manage their online reputation and even less (around 35%) used it as a tool to increase influence. “

It seems that using social media to push campaigns and promotions is quite common place across all industries, but I only have these games industry statistics to hand. Social media has so much more to offer than just being a push marketing tool and the businesses that find the best ways to utilise it as more than a marketing channel are the ones that will flourish.

Video games developer and publisher Capcom are doing exactly this. They are using social media to create a community, rather than as “just another marketing channel.” Their website Capcom-unity is designed as a place for all things Capcom and a hang out for all of the fans of their games.

Anyone can put up a blog and a set of forums online, but what Capcom have done to make this unique is to give the community something no other website can, exclusive content and direct communication with the people behind the games. They do this with developer blogs, behind the scenes videos, the latest news, podcasts with their staff, involvement in their forums and so on. As a games publisher or developer you have better access to and information on your games than anyone else in the world. Nobody else can engage Capcom fans as well as Capcom can.

Social media is about more than corporate monologue. So as much as pushing out great content for your audience is really important, engaging them and getting them involved are even more important. The easiest place to start is with the user blogs and forums, see what your fans are talking about and get involved. If they have an issue, try and fix it. if they create interesting discussions, reward them. If they have a question, why not answer it? Just let them know you are there and that you can talk as well as listen.

This is about more than telling them where they can buy your latest game it is about creating loyalty and excitement. It is about creating a space for you and your fans to hold a conversation and not putting fingers in your ears and hoping they will follow you blindly. It means if there is a problem, a scandal, a mistake you have a place to explain what went wrong and why. The more open and honest you are with your fans the more they will want to be a part of your company, the more they will spread the word and in all honesty the more money they are likely to spend on your products.

Social media is about creating communities not new marketing channels.

Our favourite social media stories from the past week and  5 other random things that may or may not be interesting.

5 of the best

Sport driven

Sport driven is an online community for sport teams to find sponsorship and advertising and vice versa. Social media and online communities are a fantastic way of putting people together with similar interests or goals. Good luck to Sport Driven and we hope to see more from them soon. (Found via springwise)

On Feedback, Web Technology, Culture and the Individual

Are you thinking about “the impending age of feedback”? You probably should be, read this article to find out why and how drastically it could change everything.

What the F**k is social media: One Year Later

This is a really well put together presentation, full of great facts (and some good laughs to). Well worth checking out whether you are a social media marketer or new to the whole thing.

Playing Together: What Games Can Learn from Social Software

This talk explores how the games we play for fun can learn from the networks and tools we use to communicate. Since this talk Microsoft have announced that they will be adding Facebook and Twitter intergration into their Xbox 360 console and this may lead to game intergration. I will apologise in advance if I start tweeting video replays of my  “amazing” goals in Fifa.

Jam Legend

Jam Legend is a social network for jamming. The site revolves around a “Guitar Hero” style game where players can play on their own or against each other with a variety of songs. Users can even upload their own songs to play with. This is another great example of a platform that is pulling together users around a common interest and allowing them to interact with their music and each other.

5 of the rest

Emails from crazy people

Another great email exchange from the people that bought us “7 legged spider ”

Sandwich Design

You will never want to eat a normal triangle sandwich again!

Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes

If you read this blog you could read @mrtomasz‘s tweets in 0.0034 seconds. Probably.

DIY Kyoto

This amazing little device tells you how much energy you are using in your house. So not only could it save you money but it looks pretty stylish too. I want one!

Video Interview With Moon Director Duncan Jones

If you haven’t seen Moon go watch it now! I will wait…

…you seen it? Amazing wasnt it! Now watch the video interview with David Bowie’s very talented son