Latino Music Cafe

Latin Music use of Social Networking: Series Intro

Posted on 10. Sep, 2009 by Hector Aviles in Latino Music

In this series of blogs I want to provide you a view of how Social Networking is being used in the Latin music industry as well as in other industries, and explain how I believe fans and music industry professionals can get the most out of social networking sites.

A theme that is constantly debated these days is how businesses are using Social Networking sites to derive benefits. Businesses, including those in the music business, want to tap the audience using the internet as their medium to socialize, because of the growing numbers of people socializing online. Since you are reading this blog, you are part of this crowd, and therefore, may be part of the solution to the challenges Latin Music is facing.

What is Social Networking?

What do I mean by the term “social networking”? Social networking is the interaction of people which have a common interest. This can be done the old-fashion way of face-to-face interaction, or can be done by using the internet as the vehicle for interaction. I am obviously referring to the latter, where the proliferation of internet sites and tools has promoted socialization among people that navigate the internet but may live thousands of miles apart. A “social network service” is defined in the Wikipedia as one which “focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities.” These social networking sites and services are being used regularly by millions of people every day.

Today, we have a plethora of social networking sites, including, but not limited to, MySpace, Facebook,  LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as innumerable blogs, podcasts, and webinars, and other online socialization tools.

How does Social Networking relate to Latin Music?

Ok, so you may ask, “so what”? What does all this have to do with Latin music? Well, declining record sales partly due to an aging crowd and to the effects of piracy; a larger availability of competing entertaining options for the younger generations, and a declining print media business, are factors that impact the Latin music business. Latin music artists, promoters, and other industry professionals need to realize that the growing crowds interacting in social networking sites represent a hugely under-taped market. By “under-tap” I don’t mean that they don’t consume Latin music, but that they could consume much more than currently consuming.

Effectively using social networking will help Latin music attract more of the younger generations, provide alternative ways to acquire legitimate products (recordings), provide more and better targeted marketing for their work, and generate as much exposure as they want.  

What’ in it for me?

Everybody can win with the effective participation in social networks. This concept is not limited to online social networking. People that want to grow professionally have found that networking is the most effective way to find a better job, and not by searching the classified ads. Schools, both private and public, in my neighborhood here in the state of Washington, USA, are able to improve the quality of education and activities by the involvement of parents and their participation to help run school activities, including coaching sport teams. Communities benefit from the social interaction of neighbors to solve some of their problems, if the local government is not responding. In online communities there are also problems to be addressed and benefits to be obtained.

Fans of Latin music love to interact with their favorite artists first hand. Social networking sites give fans the opportunity to listen and/or see their favorite artists via podcasts or interact directly with them via blogs and online forums.

Musicians can use the online communities to keep their fans informed and engaged in their work, learn what the listeners tastes are, inquire what type of songs or project they prefer, market their new material, bounce ideas or assess the acceptance of a new concept or musical projects, and maintain the fan loyalty simply by dedicating a few minutes a day or a week to respond to blogs posts, forum questions or produce a podcast.

New musicians can use these forums to participate and get some name recognition, get to understand what the public interests are, locate the people of online communities that like what they have to offer, target their marketing to the right audience, and sell and distribute their material, with or without a record label, with a relatively small investment.

Promoters and other Music Industry professionals can assess where markets exists for concerts or launching products, understand taste trends, and attract and keep music fans interested in their material.

Current Practices vs.  Best Practices

rubenblades.com

During the “Latin Music use of Social Networking” blog series, I’ll be providing you with my findings on how Latin artists currently use social networks, and what are some best practices inside Latin music, in other music genres, and perhaps some best example of how it’s used effectively outside the music industry.

Lastly, I’ll end the series with my recommendations on how you can best use social netoworking sites, and how the Latin music industry should best leverage these.

 What do you think?

Do you have any comments so far from what I wrote above? Would you like me to touch on any particular theme regarding this topic? Have any good examples of the use of social networking in Latin music to share? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the “Comments” section below. I would love to hear what topics you want to discuss in this series.

Related blogs @ LatinoWebCafe:

Latin Jazz Needs the Younger Audience
Twitter: Fad of Social Networking Pandemic

Tags: facebook, MySpace, twitter, YouTube