I joined the social network blip.fm purely because I liked the idea of playing out my fantasy of being a DJ and listening to a radio station where I knew I would like every track – because I picked them!
As usual I tied blip.fm in with my other social networks in this case with ping.fm . What I had not appreciated at the time but now consciously try and do is adopt a matrix method to my social networking. There are sites such as Friendfeed, ping.fm, Plurk that can essentially update the statuses of your Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin and other social networks from one place.
I was busily adding tunes to my playlist in blip when the odd email would drop into Gmail saying I had been given a ‘prop’ by another DJ. This is like a nod of appreciation for the tune and the comment you microblog (similar to Twitter) as you add the tune. These comments and the link to the tune suitably shortened were appearing in Twitter and Facebook and it was only later I realised I was picking up Followers and Friends based on a mutual appreciation of my music taste.
This is a clear example of the viral nature of social media marketing and the attraction marketing principle. These people were not getting to know me because I was tweeting aimlessly about some product or service, it was simply that they liked my music choice at that time.
As with any discovery it’s crucial you do not manipulate this falsely – because you will be spotted. I add to my playlist either from my own searches or going to my favorite DJ’s in blip and adding tunes I like of theirs. But I don’t do it everyday I do it when I genuinely want to add to my playlist.
However as music is a universal language do not underestimate this simple tool for increasing you social media profile – it’s a good way for people to get to Know you and the ‘holy trinity’ of social media marketing is that people buy from people they:
Know
Like and
Trust
You can now add blip.fm to Twitter as ways of getting people to Know you. My radio station? Why it’s http://blip.fm/profile/apeel09/playlist
