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Group Influence and Social Media

Social Media has become such a marketing help for the music industry, or any other form of entertainment (or company), honestly. In this viral world, we are starting to rely more on the opinions we see on our social media cites. Group influence helps artists and companies grow now more than ever. Now you can post up a new song on Facebook and/or Twitter and all of your friends and followers will be able to listen to it there.

The Power

First, it is very important to understand the power of the social media and group influence. On a poll by The Hollywood Reporter (THR), they found out that social media has become a form of entertainment, itself, with 88% of respondents. Interestingly, the most popular forms of internet usage are listening to music and visiting social media sites, (with both being visited for an average of 8 hours weekly each). Now, when it comes to social media impacting music directly, we see a very high correlation. 70% of respondents agreed they listen to an artist or a song because their friends suggested it on social media. For artists, this is an outstanding way for them to grow and be known.

The Company and the Artist

Then, it is important for the company to understand where their site stands in regards to being influential. They need to know whether their target market in relation to them are part of the Primary group (frequent contact), Secondary group (limited contact), or the Aspiration group (no contact, but individual wants to feel part of the group). By knowing where they stand, they can target them differently and use their groups to get their attention. For example, the aspiration group have no direct contact with them, but want to be part of them, so their purchases will be something that they believe they would recommend. Here is where groups like One Direction and Five Seconds of Summer promote each other and they grew to have about the same fan base.

Success

Here is where it gets tricky. We know of many celebrity friends, like mentioned above One Direction and 5SOS, who are close friends and tend to promote each other, which make people listen to them. But one of the biggest factors now are also a person’s friends and those influencers around them. Friends usually have the same taste in music or at least we will listen to a song to make our friends feel better, and there is where we decide whether we like them or not. Marketers know this and that is why we always see what our friends see. Facebook will tell you when your friend liked or commented on something, and this is where the “word of mouth” marketing is exponentially growing. To be successful, artist with similar genres sticking together is a great option as they will promote each other. On the other hand, it’s great to be a music fanatic and be able to listen to different kinds of music because it is exposed on your site and recommended by a friend or artist.

One Direction and 5SOS Retrieved from: http://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/ab303b73-58de-40e7-8ef5-570acfb22498/fc481cbd-99d4-45f8-8f43-611b13cca67d.jpg

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