One girl seriously wanted to be Sherry and wanted to know her chances of getting the part. I think we should let Kerry Butler do the job first.

We are doing a tweetup tonight for the fans of Rock of Ages at 5:30 at B. Smiths.

I wonder if the girl who wants to be Sherry will be there. I wonder if her dream will come true of being Sherry? Hey, Don’t Stop Believin’, right?

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are an extremely effective way to not only capture a fan base, but also to start a dialogue between your fans and the product associated with your fan page. For example, Rock of Ages (full disclosure: Art Meets Commerce runs the fan page) posts new status updates like  YouTube videos of old 80s commercials, and other similar articles to keep fans entertained and informed. Posting song lyrics, fun facts, etc. creates an instant conversation. That interaction not only occurs between fans and the show, but between fans themselves: some ask questions, others answer. The goal is to create a sense of community with the show and let people voice their thoughts and views. In addition to a lot of fun–and positive–comments about the show,  people also talk about things they didn’t like (an understudy played in the performance they saw, for instance). Although we have the opportunity to delete posts at will, we don’t. The point is to facilitate conversation, not control it.

I bring this up because I am a fan of  a lot of pages, many of them theater related. One, The Tony Awards, posts videos, links, articles, anything and everything relating to the awards and theatre. It really is a great resource. I noticed  something recently, though, that gave me pause.

The Tony Awards page posted an update announcing that the touring companies of Jersey Boys, Legally Blonde and Mamma Mia would be performing on this year’s show (along with the currently nominated musicals). Several people commented negatively, asking why Jersey Boys would be performing once again at the Tony Awards or saying that Mamma Mia is “stupid.” All negative comments were deleted.  In my opinion, unless a commenter makes a threat, engages in hate speech or posts spam, the post  should be allowed to stand. To use social media well, you must be authentic, open and transparent. Deleting negative (but not harmful) posts sends a message to users that they are partipating in a “canned” discussion, i.e. an extended advertisement, which not everyone wants to do. This kind of Pollyana editing will, in my view,  ultimately diminish the brand and will cause users to turn away.

Who could blame them? The number is prominently displayed, it’s understandably a bit of an ego boost when a new person signs on to receive your updates (let’s call it the “You Like Me, You Really Like Me” syndrome) and bigger numbers just look cooler (case in point: infinity+1). But if you’ve got something to market, it’s a big mistake to focus on this.

It’s about goals, really

If your goal is to get a ton of followers, well, that’s easy. There are dozens of services that create fake Twitter accounts to follow yours, and you can reach 10,000 followers in a couple of days without breaking a sweat. They’re reprehensible, and not worth linking to, but you can find them if that is truly your goal (and if it is, you can stop reading here).

But why the heck would that be your goal? Don’t you, uh, have something you want people to buy? Isn’t that the point? If it is, and your follower list looks remotely like this, you’re doing it wrong:

If you’ve got a show to market, a product to sell or a site to promote, millions of fake followers will be just as effective as never joining Twitter in the first place, and every minute you spend getting fake followers is a minute lost from focusing on the bigger picture. In Machiavellian terms, Twitter is not the end, it is the means. What you want is to cultivate a highly-interested, dedicated and engaged group of followers—real people who will interact with your brand, spread positive word of mouth, participate in contests, respond to requests to rate your stuff and vote for you in polls, and, more than anything, actually buy whatever it is you’re selling.

Lead, Don’t Follow

Rock of Ages (a Broadway client of ours) has seen incredible success from the Twitter account we created for the show. When we pose a question to our followers, we get dozens of responses. When we post a discount, we sell dozens of tickets. When we hold a contest, we get hundreds of entries. And yesterday, when we expressed (faux) outrage over being tied with Shrek The Musical on this NYTimes poll of Tony Award Nominees, the vote total in all five categories shot up dramatically (and ROA now actually leads several of the categories!). No hacking involved, simply motivating the most dedicated fans to spread the love on behalf of the show.

It’s a lot harder to build a community like that, which is why so few are doing it—especially in the marketing world where it’s relatively easy to impress clients with big numbers that mean nothing. But the payoff is real. Focus on leading, sharing, communicating, teaching and learning, and actual live people will find you and start to make your job easy.

Twitter is here to stay. It will probably evolve, but “micro-blogging” is the perfect communication tool for our A.D.D.-hyper-media-driven culture. Everybody—not just kids—uses Facebook, Twitter, imeem and the hundreds of other networks to communicate. Plus, how many teenagers actually email anymore? Way too old school! They’ll send you a Facebook message, then tweet about how you didn’t get back to them immediately.

I tweet for Rock of Ages and it’s pretty much the most addictive thing there is. Who knew it would be more habit-forming than Facebook . . .  or meth?!?!?

And I’m happy to announce that Rock of Ages Twitter has more followers than any other Broadway show. (And by “show” I mean production.  Actor/Celebs have it easier: Jane Fonda has more than 13,000 followers, Dolly Parton has about 5,000, but at 1,300 followers,  Rock of Ages has surpassed all the other current shows and it’s growing every day.

Three of us in the office run it, as well as Lauren Molina from the cast, and whenever we see a cool fact or awesome face-melting video about the show or the 80s, we post it. The more interesting the tidbit, the more likely it is that others will re-tweet it. If a user re-tweets your message, then it posts on their page, it attracts more “followers” for you, i.e. your updates go directly to their pages, right alongside Starbucks and Whole Foods. If you aren’t sure how it works yet, see the video below.

Bottom line: Twitter is great for your brand. It adds a level of transparency and authenticity and it allows the everyday person to engage in your show in a real and personal way. Check out the Rock of Ages website and see what all the tweeting is about.

Another reason I’m reluctant to jump onto this particular band wagon is a sort of vestigial suspicion I have about people knowing too much about me and my business. It all just seems a little big-brothery to me. I think it’s the pseudo-privacy of the medium: You know you’re communicating with your Twitter followers, however many they may be, but the experience is still solitary, like whispering into a microphone that is broadcasting to the world. You don’t really know how many people are tuning in, and probably more importantly, who they are. Just skeeves me out a little.

BUT! I am fascinated by the fact that Twitter is changing how business is done. Check out this NY Times article about the ways that companies are “listening” to customers to not only learn about their preferences, but also to tap into the nuances of the marketplace.

I’m just more than a little ambivalent about Starbucks, Whole Foods and Amazon sniffing around my virtual self to find out how I take my coffee, buy my groceries and read my books.

Skittles made a widget at the corner of the site, and built the navigation around that. This menu-overlay box allows the user to interface with their already existing social networks, thus allowing for the candy brand to spread through the normal daily actions of the user. It’s working, I love skittles, and I totally made it a fan on my facebook.

Instead of photos, it directs to their Flickr page. They hooked ‘Chatter’ to Twitter. Instead of the normal everyday about page, they hooked it to Wikipedia. It’s a social networking rainbow!

There are still some quirks to this campaign. The menu overlay blocks a lot of the content on my smaller laptop screen. Also, originally they used the homepage as their twitter search, but everyone was using it as a way to knock the brand (haters) so they switched it to their Facebook fan page. This comes with the territory when you allow anonymous users to run the content of your website.

Overall, it’s a lesson in how important the big sites (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Wikipedia) are to major brands and how they will continue to change the way we market.

I caught this article on TIME.com entitled “Congress’s New Love Affair with Twitter.” Pete Hoekstra (Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/PeteHoekstra) has almost 3,000 followers on Twitter. He is the representative for Michigan’s 2nd district in the US House of Representative’s. He  Twitter’s often to let his followers know what he is thinking and doing.

The article mentions, since Obama’s (amazing) social networking outreach during the election, many politicians have jumped on the bandwagon and signed up for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites. Some crtics of this worry about security issues. Hoeskra twitter constantly on his last trip to Iraq sparking concerns that he may be giving away location or any other sensitive information.

Politicians taking on activities normally reserved for their children or grandchildren brings up some interesting issue that national security officials have never had to deal with before. How do you stop politicians from twittering? Also, if 70 year old congressmen and senators are representing themselves (even though the pages, interns or secretaries are the one’s actually dealing with the networks) will it turn the younger generation off? I mean, how many high school students would want to be Facebook friends with their grandparents?