The Chichester Design team are strong advocates of the social media revolution, especially when it comes to using social networking as a means of marketing. But we’ve chatted enough about Twitter, Facebook and alike on our blog and are this time turning our attentions to Last.fm.
What’s Last.fm then?
The people at Last.fm describe it as, “a music service that learns what you love…” And this, to my mind, sums it up about right.
Once you’ve created a free profile, every track that you play will tell Last.fm something about your likes. It will then be able to connect you with other people who like what you like – and recommend songs from their music collections as well as yours.
When you recommend music, tag music, write about music, or listen to music you also alter the song’s importance on the site. It’ll be recommended to different people, because you’ve listened to it. It’ll move up the Last.fm music charts and maybe more people will hear it as a result of your listening to it.
So you see Last.fm is a free music sharing site that allows you to listen to those tunes that are most likely to appeal to you. “But how can this be used as a marketing tool?” we hear you cry.
Really? Last.fm as a marketing tool?
There are a number of ways that Last.fm can be used as a marketing tool. If, for example, you have a website that is based around music and entertainment then what better way is there than using Last.fm to publicise some of your acts? – which is precisely why we recommended it to the RAJF. We also recommended that a catering and events company could use Last.fm to publicise acts for hire or offer first-dance suggestions to clients of wedding events.
Other clients that may be interested is using Last.fm include those who provide locally based products or services. They can use Last.fm to publicise local bands and make people more aware of quality local produce and entertainment. Last.fm would also be ideal if you were a sponsor of a local music event, such as AtMarket who sponsored last year’s Rox in Bognor Regis. Likewise, we suggested that the new South-Coast arts and talents magazine Spindle, adds a Last.fm widget to their website to publicise new, up and coming musical acts from the local area.
Another way to use Last.fm is to publicise your own brand. When choosing to work with a company, one of the key things that people look for is team dynamics. By this we mean who is on the team, what their duties are, how they interact with others and what kind of people they are. You may be looking for a company that’s particularly down-to-earth or has a corporate approach, has an innovative edge or traditional values. And as much as these kinds of ideals can be pinpointed by the clothes that people wear, more often than not, these can be determined by the music that they listen to.
That’s the crux of it you see – communicating with others through a link to Last.fm from your website which reveals what you’ve recently played. This provides insight into you as a company and lets others see whether they can identify with you. We have even found that the “What we’re listening to” widget featuring in the right-hand side-bar of the Chichester Design blog page has acted as an ice-breaker at a networking meeting. One colleague commented on the tunes we had been listening to recently in the office and this lead to a discussion that ended in a contract for us to develop his website and thus another client.
Horses for Courses
Some may think that Last.fm is not for them. We have come across clients that have struggled to see the relevance of a music-sharing site to their own business. But what I would tend to say is that whilst chatting, sharing photos and playing games on social media sites isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, everyone listens to music. Whether you’re into classical, show-tunes, pop or heavy metal, there’s a musical style you can appreciate and why would you not want to share that with like-minded folk.
Wouldn’t it be easier to have clients that are on your wavelength and share your values? Let people know what you’re about, what you’re into and who you are through the music that you listen to and publicise your business. Let people know about local acts, acts that are playing at your venue or acts that are available for hire. Use Last.fm to your own advantage. And remember the Chichester Design team are here to help you with such things, get in contact with us today.
You can trackback from your own site.